The annual World Parity Monitor by 123Compare.me reveals that hotel price parity is no longer a uniform, market-wide issue, but a context-driven challenge shaped by how, when, and from where travellers search.
Based on more than six million monthly price comparisons across 60 major global destinations, the 2025 Annual Edition shows that in 75.7% of global searches the hotel’s direct channel is not the lowest price available. However, the data confirms that this pressure intensifies sharply in specific booking environments rather than across all demand equally.
The 2025 Annual Edition highlights key touchpoints in the traveller journey where parity breaks most often. Strikingly, device parity remains an issue with mobile searches emerging as the highest-risk environment, with a Lose Rate of 37.1%, compared to 29.5% on desktop, underscoring the growing impact of mobile-first distribution strategies.
Target markets, solo travellers and couples especially faced the highest exposure to OTA undercutting, reflecting demand segments that are easier to package and distribute across third-party channels.
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In addition mid-scale hotels (3–4 stars) remained the most exposed category, which 123Compare noticed during 2025, reflecting their reliance on high-volume, price-sensitive demand. Further, high-competition search moments consistently trigger higher levels of price discrepancies, particularly when multiple OTAs were active simultaneously.
Rather than pointing to a single structural failure, the findings indicate that parity erosion is driven by specific combinations of device, traveller profile and booking context. Markets with strong mobile penetration and fragmented OTA ecosystems show structurally higher undercutting levels, while destinations with more balanced channel control perform more consistently.
“Parity is no longer a static benchmark, it’s a dynamic battlefield shaped by traveller behaviour,” said Jordi Serra, CEO of 123Compare.me. “Hotels are not losing parity everywhere, but they are losing it at very specific moments of the booking journey. Understanding those moments is now essential for protecting the direct channel.”
The World Parity Monitor – Annual Edition 2025 provides hoteliers with a detailed, data-driven view of global parity performance, combining regional, destination-level and behavioural insights into a single interactive experience. Users can explore parity risks by region, destination, hotel category, traveller type and booking scenario, allowing hotels to identify precisely where pressure concentrates and how it evolves over time.
Access the full interactive annual report and explore a year of global parity dynamics:
https://123compare.me/en/world-parity-monitor/annual-report-2025/
