Los angeles, Jan 22: US hotel operators want to break the dependence on Web sites like Expedia and Travelocity that many developed during the three-year slump in travel, executives said this week.
Expecting the rush to the Internet to increase, lodging companies are looking for ways to limit the appeal of such third-party sites and to improve their own offerings.
"We created this monster," Best Western President and Chief Executive Thomas Higgins said during a panel at the American Lodging Investment Summit, an industry conference, in Los Angeles.
"There has got to be room for both of us."
Almost every major hotel brand now guarantees the best room prices on their own Web sites. They also have quit offering loyalty program bonuses for rooms booked through the independent Web sites.

During the three-year downturn which many in the industry believe is coming to an end, InterActiveCorp's (IACI.O: Quote, Profile, Research) hotels.com and its rivals offered a lifeline to hotels desperate to fill beds.
Web surfers proved to have huge appetites for hotel deals, allowing companies to fill rooms at the last minute, if they offered low prices.

But hotels also had to offer hefty commissions and control of some rooms to the Web sites, and as business has picked up, hoteliers began to chafe at those conditions.
Wyndham International Inc.(WBR.A: Quote, Profile, Research) Chief Executive and Chairman Fred Kleisner said that hotels had become overly dependent on using the Web to drum up business and were only now coming to grips with the problems that entailed.
"I think the entire lodging industry has been going through a 12-step program on substance abuse since the middle of last year," Kleisner said.
Bureau Report