2026/05/12 by Jack (Peiyao) Ma, Andrea Mantovani, Carlo; id_orcid 0000-0002-5069-3592 Reggiani +2 · 1 voice
Business, Management and Accounting · Social Sciences · #Consumer Market Behavior and Pricing #Digital Marketing and Social Media #Sharing Economy and Platforms
paper · pdf · doi:10.1093/ej/ueag059
openalex publication_date 2026/05/12 · openalex created_date 2026/05/13 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
Abstract Dominant platforms like Booking.com have often imposed Price Parity Clauses to prevent lower prices on alternative sales channels. We provide quasi-experimental evidence on the removal of these price restrictions in France in 2015 for three major global hotel groups. Our analysis reveals limited and non-significant price effects for rooms sold through consumer-visible channels, such as hotels’ websites or online travel agencies. However, we document a significant price reduction on sales channels not visible to consumers, such as direct offline bookings. Additionally, we identify a significant shift in the share of bookings from online travel agencies to the hotels’ direct offline channels.