Lessons in rate parity from one of the world’s largest hotel brands

For that reason, rate parity – the consistency of your room prices across every distribution channel – remains one of the most important (and trickiest) parts of a hotel’s commercial strategy.

Kevin Roman, Senior Revenue Manager, Rate Integrity at BWH Hotels, knows this better than most.

“I kind of call myself the internet police on rates,” he says. “We want to make sure Best Western guests are getting the best rate they can find online.”

And while the goal sounds simple, the path to get there isn’t. Mobile-only deals, OTA undercutting, opaque B2B resellers, and rate-stacking promotions have made parity harder to spot, and harder to fix. 

Add to that the pressures of competitive pricing and a complex tech stack, and it’s no wonder parity often slips through the cracks.

But Best Western didn’t back away from the problem. Instead, they tackled it head-on, starting with member rates, property-level education, and a clear focus on hotel profitability. 

In this post, we’ll explore how they approached it, what worked, and what other hoteliers can learn from their journey.

The business case for rate parity

Rate parity isn’t just a technical issue. It affects guest confidence, hotel profitability, and your ability to build direct relationships with travelers.

When rates appear lower on OTAs or metasearch channels, guests often book there, even if they would have preferred booking directly. And if something goes wrong, it’s the hotel that’s left handling the fallout.

"If we offer the best rates and our customers come through us, we can offer the optimal guest experience,” Kevin explains. “If anything goes wrong – and things do go wrong in distribution – we’re there to make things right. We have all the information and can provide the support the guest needs.”

There’s also the cost side to consider. Reservations made through third parties often come with higher commission costs and lower margins for the hotel.

“Hotels end up paying more and netting less,” Kevin says. “That’s a tough place to be, especially when you’re the one delivering the experience.”

Further, when hotels try to fix slow demand by offering OTAs discounted rates, it rarely increases overall bookings, it just shifts demand to more expensive channels.

“It’s like tilting the table toward that channel,” Kevin adds. “It doesn’t increase demand. It just lowers your profitability.”

So while the case for parity is clear, keeping it in place is anything but. From tech gaps to last-minute discounts, there are plenty of ways parity breaks down, and some are harder to spot than others.

Why parity breaks down

Even when the intent is right, rate parity can unravel fast. The causes are often a mix of technical, operational, and strategic issues, and many of them slip by unnoticed until it’s too late.

“Distribution is a complex model,” Kevin says. “Rates get redistributed two, three, four, eight times.”

One of the most common problems is rate leakage – when discounted or wholesale rates end up in places they weren’t intended to be. In many cases, it starts with a hotel pushing a lower rate to one OTA or third party to boost short-term bookings. But that rate then gets passed around through B2B channels, repackaged, and resurfaced elsewhere, often without the hotel realizing.

Then there are the technical pitfalls: syncing between systems, delayed rate updates, or differences in how taxes and fees are displayed. Sometimes rates look cheaper simply because they’re being framed that way, even if the final cost is the same.

“Some sites manipulate the rate display,” Kevin explains. “They’ll show a lower price in metasearch, but by the time you get to checkout, with taxes and fees, it’s actually higher. It’s bait and switch.”

And when business is soft, hotels sometimes take matters into their own hands, dropping rates for one OTA in a bid to increase visibility or fill rooms. But it’s a narrow tactic that rarely works out long-term.

“It’s an easy fix to drop the rate on a site and get bookings there,” Kevin says. “But you’re not increasing demand, you’re just cannibalizing your other channels.”

Even with the best intentions, parity is hard to protect, especially when OTAs introduce tactics like mobile rates and hidden discounts that are difficult to monitor, let alone control.

Rethinking mobile-only rates: Are they worth it?

At a time when OTAs lean into mobile-exclusive promotions, Best Western has taken a different approach: they don’t offer them at all.

“We don’t feel that the size of your screen should determine what rate you get,” Kevin says. “If I’m shopping for travel on my phone or tablet, why should that mean I get a discount? It just doesn’t make sense.”

Mobile rates are often pitched as a way to drive conversion. But in practice, they introduce more complexity and often reduce profitability. A guest might see a lower rate on Google via mobile, click through to an OTA, and book there, taking the booking (and margin) away from the hotel’s direct channel.

“You’re still getting the booking, sure,” Kevin adds, “but it’s at a lower profit and with less guest control.”

The issues don’t stop there. Once mobile rates are out in the wild, they can easily be redistributed or combined with other promotions, particularly through B2B pathways or opaque packaging. That makes it even harder for hotels to track where rates are appearing, and whether they’re being used as intended.

“We’ve seen rates end up in places we didn’t even know existed,” Kevin explains. “You think it’s a mobile offer, but suddenly it’s bundled or sold somewhere else entirely.”

For Kevin, the decision is clear: he’d rather reward loyalty than chase conversion through device-based discounts. His focus is on protecting rate integrity, not chasing short-term wins.

Using loyalty rates as a smarter alternative

When demand is soft, it’s tempting to discount just to stay visible. But blanket discounts, especially through third parties, often do more harm than good, which is why loyalty rates are a healthier alternative.

“Loyalty rates, through Best Western Rewards^®, provides our hotels with an opportunity to offer a discount, but in a controlled way,” Kevin explains. “It’s not just giving money away, it’s rewarding someone who’s more likely to come back.”

At Best Western, loyalty  rates are used to balance promotional needs with long-term strategy. Rather than offering OTAs a lower price to compete in crowded markets, the brand encourages properties to strengthen their direct offers. That includes making sure Best Western Rewards^® members get a rate that’s as good, or better, than what they’d find anywhere else plus their points never expire which is a unique feature members only get when booking direct.

It wasn’t always that way.

“To be honest, we were doing a bad job at member rate parity,” Kevin admits. “Hotels were offering rates on OTA platforms but not matching them on brand.com. That had to change.”

So they did something simple but effective: they educated hotels on how to fix it. Property by property, they identified rate mismatches using Lighthouse data, gave revenue managers the right talking points, and rolled out a clear strategy.

“We started with a spreadsheet and went to 10 hotels at a time,” Kevin says. “It felt overwhelming at first, but once we got going, the progress was fast.”

The result? A meaningful shift toward parity across direct and OTA member rates and a stronger foundation for loyalty.

“Most guests end up joining a loyalty program when they book,” Kevin says. “So it makes more sense to reward that behavior, on our terms, than to give away value to third parties.”

Fixing parity one property at a time

Rolling out a new parity strategy across hundreds of properties is no small task. But Best Western approached it with a simple principle: start small, stay consistent, and focus on education.

“We didn’t need to reinvent everything,” Kevin says. “We just needed to help hotels understand what the issue was, and how to fix it.”

The team began by identifying out-of-parity rates using Lighthouse reports. Then they created a straightforward communication plan for revenue managers: explain the problem, offer the options, and provide clear steps. No mass webinars. No blanket policies. Just focused, one-on-one conversations.

Instead of blaming or penalizing properties, the goal was clarity. Most of the time, parity issues weren’t intentional. Hotels wanted to match rates, but didn’t know how, or didn’t realize they’d fallen out of sync.

“At first, it looked like one of those projects that’s too big to get your arms around,” Kevin says. “But once we got going, the momentum kicked in. The response was better than we expected.”

It became a straightforward process: identify mismatches, educate the property, correct the issue, and move to the next. No tech overhaul. No punitive measures. And behind it all,  simple goals: give hotels the tools and support to keep their rates where they should be, stop problems before they grow and make sure guests see the right rate, no matter where they’re looking.

Staying ahead of shifting threats

Rate parity isn’t a one-time fix. It’s an ongoing process because the threats don’t stay the same for long.

“What I’d define as a parity challenge today might look totally different in a month or two,” Kevin says. “The landscape keeps changing, so we have to keep watching.”

That means tracking new OTA tactics, keeping an eye on tax and fee discrepancies, and staying alert to how rates are being packaged or displayed, especially across mobile, metasearch, and B2B platforms.

To handle that, Best Western has built a dedicated effort around staying proactive. Not just identifying issues, but understanding how they happen and fixing them before they grow.

“We’ve come a long way in being more proactive than reactive,” Kevin says. “If there’s a system issue or something else off, we can spot it early and get ahead of it.”

That shift, from reactive to proactive, wasn’t just about mindset. It was also about having the right tools.

“Lighthouse gives us the reporting we need to take action,” Kevin says. “Even if it’s a system issue, we can catch it early and resolve it before it grows.”

That responsiveness is part of what makes their approach work, not just at HQ, but at the property level too. Everyone understands the goal: consistent pricing that supports the guest, the brand, and the bottom line.

“In the end, it’s about hotel profitability,” Kevin says. “That’s what helps us all.”