How Europe’s Digital Marketing Act hurts hotels

Three months after implementation, Google Hotel Ads click-through data showed a 30% drop in traffic in EU markets affected by DMA implementation

The main result of the implementation of Europe’s Digital Marketing Act (DMA) for hotels is that they have lost visibility in the markets affected by the DMA, thus losing direct sales capacity, reducing their profitability and increasing their dependence on OTAs.

Key takeaways

• The EU is pushing gatekeepers to comply with DMA rules to create a fairer market. However, this hurts hotels by increasing intermediation costs, stifling direct sales, and limiting their profitability and independence;
• The user experience on Google's hotel search results page has become less clear and intuitive, requiring more clicks. This pushes users to buy through intermediaries rather than directly from producers, reducing clarity, ease, competitiveness and efficiency for all parties;
• OTAs like Booking.com, especially in Europe, are becoming more visible in Google search results with the introduction of DMA. It's hard to pin down exact numbers, but a significant portion, if not all, of the 30% drop in hotel clicks is likely going to intermediaries.

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