Ctrip Under Fire for Monopolistic Practices
Chengdu Commercial, 4/09/10
Chinese online hotel booking website HUBS1 has accused Chinese online travel platform Ctrip (Nasdaq: CTRP) of preventing competitors from offering discounts with partner hotels. Zhang Dian, chairman and CEO of HUBS1, said Ctrip is acting as a monopoly and manipulating hotel prices.
On April 1, HUBS1 and Tencent (0700.HK), along with 42 Shanghai hotels, launched a hotel promotional campaign offering 888 rooms priced at RMB 99, RMB 399, RMB 499 and RMB 599 per night. The same day, 28 participating hotels had their reservation listings for May removed from Ctrip, with April reservation listings removed the following day. Each participating hotel received a letter from Ctrip demanding they withdraw from the HUBS1 promotional campaign. As of April 6, seven hotels had contacted HUBS1 asking to be removed from the promotion, two of which have already been withdrawn.
HUBS1 has already alerted authorities and an investigation has been launched.
Editor's Note: The accusation follows similar complaints from eLong regarding Ctrip's alleged monopolistic practices last month; see "eLong Calls Ctrip a Monopoly," MD 3/23/10 issue.
Keywords: HUBS1 Zhang Dian hotel Internet Ctrip online travel Tencent 0700.HK CTRP
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