[RichardDHH]

You are quite correct on some points. If I book a cheap hotel for a few nights in a city even I use booking.com. If I book a weeks holiday for my family in a villa rental in far flung destination I want something else and I want to speak to the people with knowledge. Sad maybe but a lot of us like this!

[Kalium]

The prevalence of aggregators suggests that a great many people prefer a system that lets them compare many options at once. That may be followed up by researching a handful of likely-seeming options more deeply, but few people with total ignorance are going to want to go directly to that. It's too time-consuming to start there.

[schucks]

Well perhaps there's a bit of that, but perhaps the value add of a well researched and more personable site fits far better, but people are too often expecting choice as the number one driving force in their decision making process instead of being asked to make appropriate decisions on their own wishes.

For those people I suggest they consider their fundamental reason for taking a vacation in the first place.

I think the prevalence of aggregation on holiday sites is simply causality of these companies not having a clear direction for their business. After all, it's easy to aggregate everything with the money and time to do so. But where is the value add?

[Kalium]

Being able to compare a lot of options and filter down to just a handful that interest you is very valuable. It handles discovery and filtering steps in one go. There's your value-add.

You're asking for consumers to make significant decisions in what to them will feel like a position of ignorance. And you're asking for it because you think it will be profitable for you. Do you understand why I'm skeptical of this?

[AJ007]

I don't think anyone is saying aggregators should not show up.

Do a search for a local hotel. I just did one. I counted 3 aggregator ads above organic results. 6 aggregator ads on the side, 2 other hotel ads on the side.

Organic listing #1 is the hotel, that is good. 7 other results are aggregators. 1 is the hotel parent company, 1 is an unrelated hotel.

What happens if you are a niche travel site, or a local blog? Your not going to rank. Your business model is now more or less dead.

[Kalium]

I don't see the problem with that. Not all niche business models should be assumed to be indefinitely viable.