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
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.
GDS and Niche OTA Power b. Move Beyond Syncing, Start Scaling 1) The New Age of Hotel Distribution The hotel distribution landscape has changed. Pooled Inventory: Smart Inventory Distribution Forget manually allocating rooms to different OTAs. Your rates drop automatically to drive last-minute bookings, across all OTAs.
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.
With Booking leading in direct channel growth, Expedia testing AI tools on Instagram, Airbnb scaling localized expansion, and Trip.com targeting aging travelers with storytelling, the marketing arms race shows no signs of slowing. Key takeaways Marketing spend keeps rising OTAs spent $4.5B billion in 2024.
In this guide, we’ll take a closer look at hotel tech stacks, and find out how to build and scale yours. Do thorough research to ensure a solution does what you need it to, will integrate seamlessly, is capable of scaling with your business, and doesn’t lock you in. Table of contents How is a hotel tech stack interconnected?
And there’s no hiding that Online Travel Agents (OTAs) are a major source for optimizing their online booking flow. It is observed that OTAs control approximately 2/3rd of all online bookings. But hoteliers often get muddled among various OTA platforms and miss out on the best ones. Top 10 OTAs to Drive Maximum Bookings.
The battle for direct bookings has entered a new phase as online travel agents (OTAs) ramp up efforts to establish ownership of hotel guests and their booking journeys, a new report from hospitality technology specialist SHR Group reveals. A knock-on effect of this is that the revenues associated with organic search have fallen 15.3%
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.
The developer-friendly model offers a range of flexible monetisation options, allowing developers to scale and refine their innovations based on real-world use cases. With a single prompt, it provides instant guest insights, allowing hotels to generate guest briefings, track repeat OTA bookers and export data in seconds.
US: Cloud-based hospitality business intelligence platform OTA Insight has announced the appointment of Vivek Bhogaraju as its chief operating officer (COO). As COO, Bhogaraju will spearhead strategic planning, internal operations, M&A, partnerships, and help to scale the company’s acquired businesses.
US: Cloud-based hospitality business intelligence platform OTA Insight has announced the appointment of Vivek Bhogaraju as its chief operating officer (COO). As COO, Bhogaraju will spearhead strategic planning, internal operations, M&A, partnerships, and help to scale the company’s acquired businesses.
It can directly impact revenue, guest satisfaction, and your ability to scale. A channel manager connects your property management system to booking platforms such as OTAs, GDS (Global Distribution Systems), and direct booking engines. Prioritize Direct Bookings - While OTAs are valuable, direct bookings often mean higher profits.
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.
âhotels can now offer the speed, personalization, and polish of enterprise-scale operationsâon their own terms.â As guest expectations rise and staffing challenges persist, this collaboration empowers hotels using the Visual Matrix PMS, a premium, high-touch service without expanding their teams.
For small and mid-size hotels, having the right OTA ( Online Travel Agencies ) channel manager is critical. Choosing the right OTA channel manager can streamline your hotel’s online distribution strategy, prevent overbookings, and boost overall profitability. What is a Channel Manager?
Scale That Works for Hotel Owners In a competitive high-cost landscape, scale and attracting more and different customers are essential. From negotiating reduced OTA fees and leveraging Choice’s scale with suppliers, the company delivers tangible results for its franchise owners.
Its mobile-friendly interface and intuitive setup empower lean teams to automate pricing decisions and scale operations effectively. With more than 300,000 rooms in reach, the partnership sets a new standard for what boutique and mid-market properties can deliverâinstantly, intelligently, and at scale.
By leveraging AI-driven automation and hyper-personalized communication at scale across Email, SMS, WhatsApp, and OTAs, Bookboost empowers hotel groups and brands to increase direct revenue and guest loyalty. This investment is a game-changer. said Willem Rabsztyn, CEO of Bookboost.
Personalisation at scale with CDPs Personalisation is one of the most effective ways to stand out in today’s hospitality industry, but tailoring every guest experience manually can seem impossible. CDPs make personalisation at scale not only feasible but highly efficient. Download our free CDP whitepaper here.
Its a strategic asset for hotels seeking to scale personalized service and optimize commercial performance. Asksuites AI Reservation Agent: Real Impact at Scale With over 5,000 hotels worldwide, Asksuites AI Reservation Agent is helping hotels open more conversations and close more reservations. billion by 2026.
For 2025, the scale is even grander. Channel Manager : A robust channel manager like eZee Centrix ensures that all your hotels rooms are synchronized across multiple online travel agencies (OTAs) and booking platforms, minimizing overbookings and maximizing visibility.
Tip for Hoteliers: Look for a cloud-based PMS that allows real-time updates, offers mobile access, and can easily scale as your business grows. Channel Manager Managing multiple distribution channels, from Online Travel Agents (OTAs) to direct bookings, can be complex without the right tools.
However, there are other objectives for hotel marketers including competing with OTAs; retaining loyal guests; maintaining a consistent cross-channel brand identity that cultivates a strong branding and improves recognition; and developing a better understanding of guests to provide personalization.
Manual processes in communication, especially at scale, introduce hidden costs: missed direct booking opportunities, staff overload, and fragmented service experiences. By delivering timely, contextual responses, hotels reduce dependence on OTAs and capture more direct bookings —with higher margins.
Lamrin Hotels also needed a suite of online travel agents (OTAs) to broaden its reach , including all major OTAs and some niche sites that are not connected to many channel managers. STAAH made it easy to connect to these OTAs. This resulted in incorrect updates and booking errors.
Expedia Group is the first OTA to offer attribute-based shopping (ABS) at scale – early results show improved traveller experience, along with a new shopping model for the entire hotel industry.
detect if a digital key is not working) AI will support hotels in delivering hyper-personalized services at scale , to enhance the guest experience and streamline operations. To keep travelers on your site and away from OTAs, hotels must seamlessly integrate their booking engin e to facilitate online bookings.
Unified reservations handling : The enhanced connection facilitates seamless booking updates between Cloudbeds and the Sabre CRS, ensuring that every reservation – whether from OTAs, direct bookings, or GDS – is immediately logged in the Cloudbeds PMS.
Market impact: Booking.com reportedly controlled around 70% of OTA hotel bookings in Europe last year, highlighting the platformâs market power and the potential scale of financial impact if the lawsuit succeeds. Overall, the class action aims to recover a portion of commissions paid from 2004 to 2024, plus interest.
In hospitality, brand acquisition and partnerships are driven by factors such as the hotels’ desire for rapid and significant growth or the capital markets’ rewards for delivering at scale. This prevents hotel chains from achieving efficiencies of scale, with a host of disparate revenue-management technologies and strategies under one roof.
In an unbranded environment, youre relying more heavily on OTA partners, which comes at a higher cost of distribution. We can negotiate large-scale contracts in the owners favour and save a lot of money as a result. Channel management partners have come a long way, and they do provide an interesting solution to distribution.
Direct bookings are reservations guests confirm directly with a property without using an online travel agency (OTA) or 3rd party intermediary. Direct bookings are beneficial because they connect lodging businesses directly with potential customers and increase hotel revenue through money saved from OTA commissions.
Whether it’s a well-crafted website, partnerships with OTAs, or engaging social media, creating a strong online footprint is how you turn searches into bookings. Online Travel Agencies: Expanding Your Reach When travelers search for a place to stay, they usually turn to Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) like Booking.com, Expedia, or Agoda.
What started as modest gaming spots eventually grew into full-scale resorts, especially after table games were introduced in the early 2000s. Online travel agencies (OTAs) or global distribution systems (GDS) were largely absent from their approach. We love that we don’t have to go through contract negotiations with every OTA.
Reservation Management eZee Absolute : Offers real-time booking engine integration with your website and OTAs. Hotelogix : Also provides an okayish reservation management system , but eZee takes the lead with more seamless integrations, including a two-way interface with OTAs like Agoda, Expedia, Booking.com, and channel managers.
Lighthouse (formerly OTA Insight) has appointed Laura McDonough as SVP, business operations. “As we scale to serve over 70,000 hotels worldwide, we’re excited to have Laura join our team,” said Sean Fitzpatrick, CEO, Lighthouse. Most recently, she was VP, cloud business operations at NetApp.
For instance, younger families often discover us through social media-driven booking channels, while our mature travelers prefer more traditional OTA platforms.” On top of this, a feature like SiteMinder Insights means Heather and the team can always ensure they are competitive in the market.
Not just for budget : Agoda performs well across mid-scale and luxury hotels, offering tools that adapt to different positioning and goals. Efficient OTA partner : Rather than flashy campaigns, Agoda focuses on being a high-performing, low-friction partner that quietly delivers results.
Available in 50+ languages, it delivers fast, personalized responses that drive higher conversions , reduce booking abandon rates, and capture direct bookings that may otherwise go to OTAs. helps them scale service, increase conversions, and operate more efficiently – without compromising the guest experience. SynXis Concierge.AI
These systems enable hotels to deliver personalized experiences at scale, ensuring every guest feels seen and valued without requiring additional work from employees. OTA Sync is one of the software solutions on the market that focuses on booking engine excellence. How Can Hotels Enhance Guest Experience with Innovative Marketing?
This seamless process is powered by sophisticated yet user-friendly online booking systems, hotel websites, and online travel agencies (OTAs). OTA booking : This is when a guest books through an online travel agent, such as Expedia or Booking.com. Hotels must be listed on the given OTA to appear as an option for that guest.
Additionally, SD-WAN enables centralized orchestration, so IT teams can manage networking policies across multiple properties from a single interface ideal for chains and franchises that need uniform performance at scale. Broadband supports lower-priority services like general browsing or OTA updates.
For hoteliers, this translates to more room-nights, improved occupancy during off-peak periods, and reduced reliance on OTAs. Instead of paying high OTA commissions , you’re able to bring guests back through low-cost direct channels like emails or your mobile app. Q2: What kind of rewards work best for hotels? A: Absolutely.
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