Considering the increasing Internet utilization as reservation medium, the Tourism and Hospitality Industry faces a new distribution scenario of its products and services. Hotels reach the clients directly through their own website, and also through new actors as the one known as online partner, also called Third Party Intermediary (TPI). These companies take advantage of their knowledge and long experience in information technology with the purpose of getting the maximum market share in the hospitality service distribution, becoming even a directly competitor of their own partners. Different from the hotels, TPIs offer multiple products such as airline and event tickets, and car rental that can be bought bundled, or separately, in order to attract guests seeking convenience of booking online everything they need for their trip. One of the conveniences sought by consumers is easy and fast comparison of prices, products and services offered even by different companies. Hence, the TPIs not only became direct competitors of the hotels, with whom they have distribution contracts, but they intensified the struggle among competing hotels as well. The objective of this thesis is to investigate how the main hotels in Rio de Janeiro position themselves in face of the electronic distribution channels. Therefore, starting from viewpoint of the hotels´ managers, this research seeks to contribute for a better understanding of the new aspects of the competition among the hotels, between them and their own distribution channels, as well as among these same distribution channels. To achieve this objective, interviews were conducted with managers of ten of the largest hotels in Rio de Janeiro City. The research revealed that the strategies adopted are directly linked to the marketing strength of the hotel. Therefore, a key factor for the strategic positioning of the hotel is whether it is independent or chain owned.