[MUSIC] Online travel agents initially developed in the 1990s, during the dawn of consumer adoption of the web as a search and shopping medium. As travel is essentially an information based product, it quickly became one of the most commonly sold products online. With initially, at least, the majority of sales flowing through one or other of the major OTAs. Most of these, in essence, act as one-stop travel shops, allowing consumers to book airline, hotel, car rental, and other travel services from a single, online source. Although, as we've seen in module two, several dedicated, hotel-focused systems also exist. From a consumer perspective, these add a lot of value, allowing them to access products from multiple suppliers on a single website, compare product features, and book easily. As a result, the percentage of hotel bookings flowing through OTAs continues to increase in most regions of the world, presenting hotels with an opportunity to drive and increase number of bookings by partnering with these systems. And while certain hotels feel that the commissions paid to OTAs mean that the distribution cost is too high, as we explored in module three, unless the hotel can drive a significant amount of traffic through its brand.com website, and also successfully convert a large proportion of this traffic. When all of the costs of building, maintaining, and marketing their direct presence are considered and divided by the number of net reservations, the customer acquisition cost of driving direct bookings is actually much higher than most hotels realize. Making OTA commissions, by comparison, relatively good value. And aside from the considerable cost, there are a variety of other reasons why hotels should work with OTAs.