The boss of discount hotels website Skoosh.com has published an open letter on his blog asking why Kayak suddenly terminated its contract after five years of co-operation.
Skoosh boss’ open letter after Kayak disconnection
The boss of discount hotels website Skoosh.com has published an open letter on his blog asking why Kayak suddenly terminated its contract after five years of co-operation.
Dorian Harris, director of Brighton-based Skoosh, said Kayak notified it that its contract would be terminated within 30 days on Thursday this week and that all the price comparison site has said was the decision was “for reasons for a commercial nature”.
Skoosh has been an outspoken critic of ‘rate parity’ in the industry and claimed it has had irate hoteliers complaining about its online discounts.
Harris claimed the contract with Kayak had been worth $1 million a year to Kayak and that no explanation had been given, despite attempts to get one, of why the arrangement is to be ended.
Harris said: “Skoosh was one of very few independent operators on Kayak and booked tens of thousands of customers via the price comparison site.”
He added that the notification that the contract would be terminated came shortly after Kayak launched Fairsearch with Expedia noting Skoosh had previously reported Expedia for price fixing.
In the open letter, addressed to Kayak chied executive Steve Kafner, Harris urged him to reconsider the decision adding:
“The business from Kayak was good for us which of course it means that it was good for a lot of Kayak visitors.
“Thousands of them have booked hotels on Skoosh via Kayak every month for years. Obviously, that’s because we had the best prices on there on those occasions.
“Indeed, there are endless posts online from customers sharing details of the amazing price they found on Skoosh via Kayak.
“I see that you’re planning to grow in Europe and yesterday I read about your forthcoming IPO. I realise your future doesn’t depend on Skoosh but I don’t see how you can compete effectively as a price comparison site when you only have a handful of companies listed on your site and they’re all enforcing price parity.
“What’s the point of a price comparison site if all the suppliers are offering the same rate?”
