We are 2 engineers working full-time on a hotel booking solution with no commission, instead of 18% practiced by sites such as Booking.com / Expedia. Hotels hate this commission, but they keep paying since Booking / Expedia bring customers.
Tourists know about these brands and go there to book hotels, even though there are hundreds of other booking & meta-search solutions. Note that they won't find better prices, since hotels aren't allowed by Booking/Expedia to post better prices online. So a site with a smaller commission can't post cheaper prices. Booking/Expedia also 'price match', just in case a tourist manages to find a better price. There's an exception with https://bidroom.com/ , which shows better prices after registration, so not 'publicly'.
Tourists also prefer Booking / Expedia since their booking is guaranteed and payment is safe with these known brands.
Would you have any out-of-the-box ideas on how one could disrupt these booking sites? Obviously, if there would be any straightforward steps, you'd do it yourself. However, if you don't have the time to work on it, but have interesting suggestions, would you please share for others to consider?
Thanks!