HUBS1 cries Ctrip monopoly unacceptable

• Source: Global TImes
• [09:46 April 15 2010]
• Comments

"If what Ctrip has done were to be proven in a court of law, the company could face a penalty of up to 10 percent of their annual revenues," she added.

Global financial services firm Morgan Stanley, headquartered in New York, estimates that revenues of Ctrip will reach 250 million yuan ($36.6 million) by the end of the 2010 year.

Meanwhile, Ctrip declined to answer questions on the matter from the Global Times Wednesday, saying it refused to play into the false sensationalism being fueled by HUS, according to Hua Li, manager of marketing at Ctrip.

Hua, however, maintained that Ctrip would continue to honor their previous promise made in March, when the company said that customers who found lower hotel rates than the ones offered

by Ctrip they would receive three times the price difference in compensation.

In recent years, similar comlaints against Ctrip were reported by Chinese online hotel booking websites Aoyou.com and eLong.com. Both companies were, after one week, left with little choice but to pull their lower-priced deals from their websites after Ctrip reportedly strong-armed them out of the arena.

"They have the lowest prices because they immediately kill the prices that are lower than theirs once they appear on the market," said HUS's Zhang. "The biggest victims are the customers themselves."

He added that HUS is only able to offer such competitive prices because it treats the price difference as an expense, hoping that increased business will make up for the added cost of providing the further discount.

Zhang said that by bargaining for the same rates, Ctrip has no need to adhere to the same practice, meaning it reaps the full rewards of offering the lower price to customers.

As of late Wednesday, HUS said that it had no plans to file a lawsuit against Ctrip.