This site uses cookies to improve your experience. To help us insure we adhere to various privacy regulations, please select your country/region of residence. If you do not select a country, we will assume you are from the United States. Select your Cookie Settings or view our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Cookie Settings
Cookies and similar technologies are used on this website for proper function of the website, for tracking performance analytics and for marketing purposes. We and some of our third-party providers may use cookie data for various purposes. Please review the cookie settings below and choose your preference.
Used for the proper function of the website
Used for monitoring website traffic and interactions
Cookie Settings
Cookies and similar technologies are used on this website for proper function of the website, for tracking performance analytics and for marketing purposes. We and some of our third-party providers may use cookie data for various purposes. Please review the cookie settings below and choose your preference.
Strictly Necessary: Used for the proper function of the website
Performance/Analytics: Used for monitoring website traffic and interactions
Hotels rely on OTAs like Booking.com, Agoda, and Expedia to stay visible and fill rooms. Here are 5 overlooked online travel agent (OTA) mistakes — and how to fix them. The OTA adds a member discount on top. The OTA adds a member discount on top. Here’s what happens: You run a mobile rate or country discount.
Houston TX, January 15, 2025 Hotels that allow Online Travel Agents (OTAs) to undercut their rates pay nearly 50% more for PPC leads, new research has revealed. OTAs increase their bids on branded searches when they know they can offer travelers the best price. The increased cost is driven by competition.
Listing your property on online travel agency (OTA) channels increases visibility and revenue—but it comes at a cost. And if you’re managing OTA bookings manually, it can cost you even more. Manually consolidating data between your property management system (PMS) and OTA channels is inefficient and prone to error.
Skift Take: Will hotel websites become the dominant distribution channel for hotels by 2030, leaving online travel agencies behind? It could certainly happen. However, there are reasons that scenario might not take place. Let's discuss this again in five years. Dennis Schaal Read the Complete Story On Skift
Skift Take: The idea of hotels partnering with ex-Googlers and DirectBooking trying to undercut OTA-like Tripadvisor's relationships with LLMs is not without its ironies. Still, the concept of hotels working more closely with LLMs and bypassing OTAs is one that could gain traction. Read the Complete Story On Skift
At the 2025 HSMAI Commercial Strategic Conference, leaders from Crescent Hotels, Expedia Group, and Booking.com highlighted how OTAs offer not just distribution, but data-driven insights, technology tools, and strategic partnerships that can significantly enhance hotel performance and guest engagement in the age of AI.
Manual distribution management was not a sustainable proposition Before switching to STAAH, the Chalets 1066 team used its PMS, Planyo, to manage bookings, but syncing rates and availability across multiple OTAs was a manual and error-prone process. Overbookings were a concern, and ensuring rate parity across channels consumed valuable time.
Skift Take: Asia’s top travel markets are rewriting the rules of booking — with OTAs, loyalty programs, and social media now driving distinct, market-specific behaviors that global travel brands must strategically adapt to. Read the Complete Story On Skift
Hotels rely on OTAs like Booking.com, Agoda, and Expedia to stay visible and fill rooms. Here are 5 overlooked online travel agent (OTA) mistakes — and how to fix them. The OTA adds a member discount on top. The OTA adds a member discount on top. Here’s what happens: You run a mobile rate or country discount.
Let’s be blunt: you did the work; the OTA got the commission. What Hotels Miss: The OTA Dependency Trap Yes, OTAs provide visibility. Fix It Fast: 5 Moves to Seal the OTA Leak 1. Create Perceived Value That OTAs Can’t Match Position perks (e.g. Clicked your ad. Browsed your website. They booked on Booking.com.
Hospitality.today⢠Topics Subscribe Topics ⺠Hospitality ⺠Distribution How OTAs are shaping hotel distribution in 2025 Booking.com and Expedia dominate Google rankings, while regional players quietly chip away with lower prices Jun 24, 2025 The latest World Parity Monitor by 123Compare.me Get the full report at 123Compare.me
Key takeaways Secondary OTAs undercut rates: Small, non-major OTAs often list hotel rooms below official direct or OTA rates, leading to widespread rate disparities. OTA member rates undermine parity: Programs like Expediaâs âOne Keyâ offer member-exclusive rates that may undercut a hotelâs best available rate.
The DMA currently identifies 24 core platform services as Gatekeepers, with Google a key player, alongside online travel agency (OTA), Booking.com, designated in May 2024. Optimizing search to compete with other brands and OTAs to drive more direct bookings will become harder and ultimately lead to increased acquisition costs.
Drawing on pricing activity data from 188 OTAs and metasearch engines in June, the report analyzes how often — and how aggressively — each intermediary undercuts the direct hotel booking channel. 123Compare has identified this group to include major OTAs like Booking.com or Expedia and high-risk resellers like Traveluro or Super.com.
While balanced distribution across OTA, GDS, metasearch, and direct channels is key to your property’s visibility and profitability, direct bookings are the most valuable. As of 2024, direct website bookings made an average of $519 per reservation compared with an OTA average of $320.
Wielding unmatched reach and budgets, these mega OTAs continue to influence every stage of trip planning and booking.Expedia and Airbnb continue to feature on the top 10 distribution channel list based on bookings via STAAHs expansive 500+ integrations.
Newly refurbished New South Wales property simplified OTA management and grew direct bookings using STAAH’s powerful platform. One login for all OTA and direct booking management. This clever feature encourages direct bookings by showing real-time OTA rate comparisons — nudging guests to book direct with confidence.
Major online travel agencies (OTAs) such as Booking.com and Expedia continue to dominate visibility in both paid and organic search spaces, while smaller OTAs focus on competitive pricing strategies.
Skift Take: A job-posts deep-dive shows how cruise lines, hotels, theme parks, and OTAs are staffing up for an AI future. Read the Complete Story On Skift
Reaffirming the value of having a diversified hotel distribution strategy, the list once again features a range of both B2B and household consumer channels from OTAs to hotel websites, wholesalers and global distribution systems. Expedia, Trip.com, local OTA MG Group and STAAH GDS also retained spots on the list.
What’s Going Wrong Marketing launches a direct booking campaign with spa credits and best-rate messaging Revenue pushes a flash sale on OTAs with lower rates than your brand.com Distribution lacks visibility into either, so parity is off and metasearch results are messy To the guest , this isn’t strategic nuance.
STAAH users benefit from tools that make showcasing and managing packages easy across OTAs and direct channels—ensuring consistency and visibility without manual hassle. Showcase It Well – Use visuals and simple, benefit-driven descriptions. Avoid overwhelming the guest with technical terms.
As guest expectations and booking trends evolved, Guy wanted a smarter, faster, and more responsive way to manage availability and rates across online travel agents (OTAs) — and something that didn’t make them feel stuck in the past. “The booking process felt slow, outdated and didn’t give us the flexibility we needed to grow.”
Article - The Triptease DMP: Integrated Hotel Marketing to Win More Valuable Guests - Introducing new features designed to help hotels work faster and smarter, beat OTAs, and grow their direct revenue.
A bed bank is a business-to-business (B2B) travel provider that connects hotels with travel distributors, such as online travel agencies (OTAs) and tour operators. These rooms are then resold to various travel distributors, such as OTAs, tour operators, and travel agents, who then offer them to end consumers. What is a bed bank?
If they see better rates on online travel agencies (OTAs) , they’ll lose trust and likely bounce. Here are the essentials: a) Rate Comparison Widget Build trust by showing guests how your direct rates compare with OTAs, all in one place. STAAH Tips: STAAH’s RateStalk allows you to display OTA rates alongside your direct price.
As you might expect, rate parity is highly beneficial to online travel agents (OTAs) that have access to a vast number of travellers and charge commission rates to property owners/operators. Wide rate parity With wide rate parity, a hotel or B&B agrees not to undercut the room prices that an OTA charges for their hotel.
Guests hop from your Instagram page to online travel agents (OTAs) , skim through Google reviews, and might finally land on your website to book. Channel manager – Keeps your availability and rates synced across OTAs and your direct channels, avoiding double bookings and inconsistencies. Sounds easy, right? Those days are long gone.
GDS and Niche OTA Power b. With consumer behaviours evolving, and the lines between tech platforms, marketing, and operations blurring, a modern strategy goes far beyond just listing rooms on online travel agents (OTAs). Pooled Inventory: Smart Inventory Distribution Forget manually allocating rooms to different OTAs.
It matters on your OTA listing and it definitely matters on your vouchers and linked promotion materials. For instance you can offer exclusive experiences unavailable through standard bookings, such as private dining or VIP amenities. Limited time offers create a sense of urgency, prompting immediate purchases. 3) Content quality.
The Changing Traveler Behavior Gone are the days when travelers relied solely on OTAs (Online Travel Agencies) or word of mouth to plan their trips. Increased Direct Bookings: By showcasing your property directly on Google, you can drive bookings straight to your website, reducing dependency on OTAs and cutting commission costs.
Boosting OTA performance and efficiency, RatiLanna Riverside Spa Resort thrives with STAAH’s powerful channel management solution. Manual updates to availability and rates across OTAs were taking up too much time — and the risk of errors or overbookings loomed large. “We The old system just wasn’t efficient anymore.”
STAAH’s tools helped standardise booking operations, enhance OTA performance and establish a tech-forward approach to revenue management. The STAAH channel manager with its 200+ OTA connections helped improve reach and allows multiple channels to be managed through one single dashboard.
BWH Hotels GB is launching a faster, simpler website as part of a push to help its partners minimise reliance on OTAs. BWH Hotels GB is forecasting improvements in conversion rates and organic traffic as a result of the rebuild, as well as a reduction in OTA dependency.
From chat-based trip planners like ChatGPT and Google Bard to AI-powered recommendations on online travel agents (OTAs) and search engines, today’s guest journey is very different from even two years ago. Instead, they draw data from: OTA listings and booking platforms. Your own brand website. Google Business and TripAdvisor.
Guests hop from your Instagram page to online travel agents (OTAs) , skim through Google reviews, and might finally land on your website to book. Channel manager – Keeps your availability and rates synced across OTAs and your direct channels, avoiding double bookings and inconsistencies. Sounds easy, right? Those days are long gone.
Fewer cancellations due to delayed replies OTAs like Expedia value fast response times — and so do travelers. More productivity, less manual work Templates, smart tags, and automated translations help your team respond faster and more accurately. Quick replies help prevent frustration and booking abandonment.
For OTAs, however, they negotiate a commission on bookings. Additionally, short-term focus drives hotels to rely more on OTAs when there’s an immediate need, as direct channels cannot drive demand as quickly. It is also worth noting that commission isn’t the only cost associated with OTAs. But is this really the case?
They knew they would need a presence on both traditional OTAs and channels specialising in snow tourism, and that manually managing this diversity would be unsustainable for a growing chain. Distribution optimisation While the sector average maintains a 70-80% dependency on traditional OTAs, Snö Hotels has managed to reduce it to 50%.
Decision intelligence unifies the full range of pricing decision-making through both OTAs and direct bookings. While this strategy often boosts revenue, an analysis that considers a wider range of demand signals and predicts the outcomes of different actions can yield even better results.
With multiple online travel agencies (OTAs) and booking engines in play, keeping track of room availability and pricing manually can lead to errors, double bookings, and missed opportunities. The Channel Manager simplifies the process of connecting to a wide range of online booking platforms, including OTAs, GDS, and direct booking channels.
The seamless experience, particularly on mobile, was essential to remain competitive with online travel agents (OTAs). STAAH was a game changer STAAH SwiftBook was a simple plug and use booking engine that helped the property significantly cut down the steps and time taken to book direct.
Those details back up the promise and set the property apart from the sea of generic listings on OTAs. Brand clarity saves money: With one look and feel across your website, OTAs and confirmation emails, you spend less time fixing mismatched photos, outdated rate descriptions or review complaints that stem from mixed messages.
Behind the scenes, however, the team faced a growing challenge: keeping up with OTA management without sacrificing valuable staff time or accuracy. With stylish rooms, modern amenities, and close proximity to the BTS and MRT, the hotel offers both comfort and unbeatable convenience.
We organize all of the trending information in your field so you don't have to. Join 19,000+ users and stay up to date on the latest articles your peers are reading.
You know about us, now we want to get to know you!
Let's personalize your content
Let's get even more personalized
We recognize your account from another site in our network, please click 'Send Email' below to continue with verifying your account and setting a password.
Let's personalize your content