OTA (Online Travel Agency)
A third-party website that sells hotel rooms on behalf of properties. Booking.com, Expedia, Airbnb, Agoda and the like.
An Online Travel Agency (OTA) is a third-party platform that displays hotel inventory, takes the booking, and charges the property a commission, usually 15-25% of the room rate. The largest are Booking.com, Expedia, Airbnb, Agoda, Tripadvisor, Hotelbeds, Vrbo and HRS.
OTAs aggregate demand at a scale very few independent hotels can match on their own. The trade-off is commission and a degree of guest data abstraction: the OTA owns the relationship until check-in. The job of a modern distribution strategy is to let OTAs do what they do best, drive marginal demand, without letting them dominate the channel mix.
Where this term shows up in daily operations.
Channel mix planning, most independent hotels want OTA share between 30-50%; below that, you are leaving demand on the table, above it, you are over-paying in commission.
Rate parity decisions. OTAs typically require parity (same or better rate as your direct site); breaking it can mean delisting.
Net rate analysis, an OTA booking at €150 with a 17% commission nets €124.50, before payment fees. Direct bookings at €150 net much more.
Connection method. OTAs connect via channel manager (mapping inventory and rates), or directly via XML certifications. Most independents go via a channel manager.
What people get wrong.
Treating all OTAs the same. Booking.com and Expedia behave differently in commission, payment model and guest profile. Build a plan per-channel.
Letting OTAs sell rooms cheaper than your own website. A guest who finds a lower price on an OTA will stop trusting your direct channel.
Forgetting payment fees. "Virtual cards" from OTAs settle through your payment processor, often at higher rates than direct cards.
Over-discounting via OTA-specific deals (Genius, Mobile Rate, Last-Minute) without understanding the cumulative impact on net rate.
Connect 100+ OTAs with HotelBee in HotelBee.
HotelBee Channel Manager pushes one rate plan and one inventory bucket to every OTA in real time, with no overbookings and no spreadsheet middlemen.
How much commission do OTAs charge?
Most OTAs charge 15-20%. Booking.com starts at 15% and rises with optional programmes (Genius, Preferred Partner, Visibility Booster); Expedia is typically 18-25% depending on agreement. Airbnb charges hosts 3-5% but adds a guest-side service fee.
What is the difference between an OTA and a metasearch engine?
An OTA takes the booking on its own platform. A metasearch (Google Hotel Ads, Trivago, Kayak, Trivago) is a price-comparison engine that sends users back to OTAs or to your direct site. Metasearch costs are CPC or commission-on-conversion, not the standard OTA commission.
Should I list on every OTA?
No. Pick OTAs based on your guest geography. A hotel in Albania needs Booking.com (dominant in Europe) and probably Expedia and Airbnb; HRS is more useful for German corporate demand; Hotelbeds matters for B2B and tour-operator distribution. Adding marginal channels just to be present rarely pays for the operational overhead.