European Digital Markets Act law should be rethought, says Mirai

Hoteliers in Europe face challenges with decreased visibility, reduced direct sales and more

European Digital Markets Act law should be rethought says Mirai, confirming irony of hit on hoteliers and big OTAs benefiting

• Mirai observes a substantial decline in Google Hotel Ads clicks (30%) and direct bookings (up to 36%) due to recent EU Digital Markets Act implementation.
• Designation of Google as ‘gatekeeper’ by the legislation prevents it from including its vertical services like Google Hotel Ads in search results, necessitating platform changes.
• Hoteliers in Europe face challenges with decreased visibility, reduced direct sales, increased dependence on intermediaries, and compromised user experience on Google.
• “We urge hoteliers to express their concerns by reaching out to the EU and HOTREC, and lodging complaints” says Mirai EMEA CEO Javier Delgado Muerza.

Hotel distribution and direct sales solutions provider Mirai has announced it can confirm the impact the European DMA (Digital Markets Act) has had on hotel direct sales. 

According to Mirai's data, clicks on Google Hotel Ads have dropped by 30% in traffic, while direct bookings have dropped by up to 36% in EU markets affected by the DMA implementation.

The DMA, which was implemented between January 19 and March 7 this year, has brought about transformations in the digital landscape across Europe, affecting hotels around the world. 

As part of this in July 2023, the European Union designated six digital companies as 'gatekeepers' including Amazon, Apple, ByteDance (TikTok), Alphabet (Google), Meta (Facebook), and Microsoft (Windows). 

This month, Booking.com has also been designated by the European Commission as a gatekeeper.

In the case of Google, the gatekeeper designation means that it cannot include its own vertical services (Google Maps, Google Flights, or Google Hotel Ads) in its search results pages (known as SERPs). 

As a result Google, among the main organisations impacted, had to make changes to its platform, such as Google Hotel Ads.

These results raise significant concerns for European hoteliers, which have lost visibility and have regressed in their ability to sell directly, whilst dependence on intermediaries is increasing, negatively affecting their profitability.

A less clear and organised presentation of the hotel offer on Google, has compromised the user experience, making it more difficult to make purchasing decisions.

Javier Delgado Muerza, CEO EMEA of Mirai, said: "Since 2022, Mirai has been actively involved with this subject, working directly with the EU, Google, and the European hotel industry to ensure that the implementation of DMA is beneficial for the entire European hotel ecosystem and to find solutions that mitigate these negative impacts and promote a more balanced and competitive ecosystem. 

"Therefore we are very disappointed that  introduction of the DMA recently rather ironically and unfairly favours large US companies  such as Booking Holdings or Expedia, whilst disadvantaging hotels. This contradicts the very principles of the anti-competitive laws they were hoping to bring in."

Mirai is now urging concerned hoteliers to file a formal complaint with the European Union's Cabinet of Commissioner Thierry Breton, Internal Market (cab-breton-contact@ec.europa.eu) and HOTREC, the umbrella association of hotels, restaurants, bars, and cafes in Europe (hotrec@hotrec.eu).