You know something is up when six of the world's biggest hotel groups join forces to create their own booking website to directly compete with online travel agents.

Choice Hotels International, Hilton Worldwide, Hyatt Hotels Corporation, InterContinental Hotels Group, Marriott International and Wyndham Hotel Group all own a piece of the new site – Roomkey.com.

It's caused something of a stir in the tight-knit world of travel distribution though not the controversy it might generate in some other industries where suppliers would never set up shop to compete directly with retailers.

But the travel industry has seen it all before.

A recent example includes the oddly named Opodo, a European Online Travel Agent now owned by private equity, which was originally formed in 2000 as a joint venture between Aer Lingus, Air France, Alitalia, Austrian Airlines, British Airways, Finnair, Iberia, KLM and Lufthansa.

Their motivation, same as the Roomkey.com founders, was to cut travel agency distribution costs, which can be as high as 30 per cent.

The partner airlines figured they could sell their airfares at a reduced commission through their very own online co-operative, just like Roomkey.com

But it wasn't that simple.

Full story:

www.traveltrends.biz/ttn555key-to-the-online-future-not-likely