Travel Platform Merchant Exclusivity
Travel platform merchant exclusivity is the OTA version of “二选一”: a lodging merchant receives traffic, display, or ranking benefits from a platform in exchange for limiting supply on rival channels. EP91 订房订票定江山，携程51亿为傲慢买单 describes Ctrip / Trip.com Group’s alleged “特牌” arrangement as this kind of exclusive cooperation.
The concept matters because it turns Online Travel Agency convenience into a supplier-control problem. A hotel may still be free in a formal sense, but when search ranking, exposure, and order flow depend on platform status, refusing exclusivity can carry practical commercial penalties.
Key Claims
- Exclusivity is most coercive when the platform controls a large share of demand.
- Merchant choice depends on ranking, search visibility, and booking conversion, not only on the written contract.
- Exclusivity can reinforce OTA Platform Concentration by making rival platforms less able to assemble comparable supply.
- Regulatory review needs Platform Data Regulation because traffic allocation and demotion may be invisible to outside observers.
Connections
- Ctrip / Trip.com Group, Fliggy, and Meituan — travel-platform context.
- Platform Antitrust, Hotel Platform Pricing Power, OTA Platform Concentration, Local-Life Platform Dependency, and Platform Dependency Risk — adjacent concepts.