A few decades ago, hotels were supreme. They had strong relationships with their customers, who were deeply loyal to particular hotels they trusted.
But that has changed with the rise of online travel agencies (OTAs) like Booking.com and Expedia. Since the late 1990s, these OTAs have dramatically reshaped the travel industry. By offering travelers the ability to compare prices and book accommodations from thousands of options, OTAs brought convenience, transparency, and lower costs. These benefits came at a steep cost to hotels. OTAs eroded brand identity and loyalty, forcing hotels to compete on price while ceding direct relationships with customers to platforms. Today, over half of hotel bookings flow through OTAs, leaving hotels with slimmer margins and less control over their customer relationships.
This dynamic may now be playing out in health care. Epic Systems, the dominant electronic health record (EHR) provider in the U.S., has been quietly positioning itself as a gatekeeper to the health care system through its patient-facing portal, MyChart.
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