Moroccan Hotels Claim Unfair Practices by Expedia Amid Pandemic Struggles

While Olivier Pernoud, director of markets for Northern Europe at Expedia, said in TourMaG that the company had mobilized around 250 million euros "to help and support both our partners (hoteliers), destinations and the industry as a whole," unhealthy practices are strangely being developed.

"There have been unilateral rule changes, with no possibility of appeal, which is quite amusing. With the virus, they asked us to relax our booking rules," explains an anonymous Moroccan hotelier. "They told us it would be good to offer vouchers, except that we had to do all the commercial relationship, even for non-refundable tickets. But the story doesn’t end there, because Expedia took the liberty of issuing vouchers without asking us anything," denounces the professional.

According to this hotelier, the company is strangling "hotels, because we have an interest in implementing these vouchers only if and only if we have the cash flow, like airlines or travel agencies." But the reality is quite different. Hoteliers thus manage the customer relationship without having any liquidity, while the basic commission (20%) is applied to them. "They talk about us as partners, to lure us in, and then once in the machine, we have no more control over anything," he complains.

The other problem that annoys hoteliers is that they can’t reach any managers. "A local manager then gave me a number so I could explain my problem, except that I end up with a call center with automated and written responses," confides the professional.

"This kind of practice in France, I’m not saying it’s impossible, but it’s been a few years since we’ve heard about it. Knowing that they are under investigation by the competition authorities in Europe, I think it’s rather the Moroccan context," estimates Jean-Baptiste Pieri, the president of the association of hoteliers of the Gulf of Ajaccio.