Hotel giants face competition probe over ‘suspected sharing of sensitive data’

A probe into suspected sharing of competitively sensitive information among competing hotel chains has been instigated by the competition watchdog.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) confirmed an investigation into Hilton, IHG Hotels and Marriott.

The probe will examine whether they used a data services provider to share sensitive information via hotel data analytics tool STR, owned by CoStar.

All four businesses are under investigation, the CMA said.

Announcing the investigation, the authority said: “Companies use various types of data analytics tools and algorithms to help them make commercial decisions. 

“This can bring benefits including more intense competition, lower costs, and faster changes in prices to better match demand and supply in markets.

“However, when rival businesses share competitively sensitive information - including through a third-party data analytics provider - this reduces the uncertainty competing businesses normally have about how each other will act. 

“This can affect how strongly companies compete because it makes it easier for them to predict what each other will do and coordinate their behaviour.”

The CMA noted that at this stage “no assumptions should be made about whether the law has been broken”. 

The authority “may issue a statement of objections if it comes to the provisional view that competition law has been infringed following a period of investigation and information gathering”,