How to handle OTA reservations

OTA reservations don't behave like reservations you take at the front desk. They're already paid (or held on a virtual card), they carry an OTA-side commission, and date or room changes have to round-trip through the OTA. This article covers what's different and how to work with them day-to-day.

Where OTA bookings appear

Once Channex (or your channel manager) is connected, OTA bookings flow into HotelBee within a minute or two of the guest confirming on the OTA. They appear in three places:

• Reservations Calendar — as a normal booking block, with the OTA name (Booking.com, Expedia, Airbnb) shown as the booking source on the reservation.
• Reservations list — filterable by booking source so you can see only OTA bookings, only direct bookings, or one specific OTA.
• Channel Manager → Bookings — Channex's view of every booking it's received. Use this to verify a booking arrived if it's not showing in HotelBee yet.

Payment models — what's already paid

Different OTAs handle payment differently. Knowing which model applies tells you whether to charge the guest at check-out or not.

Booking.com

Two flavors: pay-at-the-property (most common) and Booking.com Payments / virtual card. Pay-at-the-property means you charge the card the guest gave at booking on arrival or check-out. Booking.com Payments means Booking.com collected the money; they pay you (minus commission) on a schedule and you charge a virtual card on check-out for the gross amount, which Booking.com later debits back.

Expedia

Mostly Expedia Collect (virtual card) — they collect from the guest, you charge the virtual card on check-out, settlement happens on a schedule. Some properties run Hotel Collect on Expedia, in which case it works like Booking.com pay-at-property.

Airbnb

Always Airbnb-collected — the guest paid Airbnb at booking, Airbnb pays you (minus their host fee) 24 hours after check-in. No card to charge at the property.

Wholesale (Hotelbeds, etc.)

Wholesalers usually pay you on monthly invoices for accumulated stays — no card on the reservation, no payment due from the guest.

Virtual cards (VCC)

When an OTA collects payment, the reservation arrives with a virtual card — a one-time card number that's only valid for the booking amount and a specific window (often check-in to a few days after check-out). Open the reservation, find the Payments panel, click Reveal Card to see the number; charge it through your card terminal as you would any guest card. The Reveal action is permission-gated and audit-logged.

What you can and can't change

Some fields are safe to change directly in HotelBee; others have to come from the OTA side because the OTA is the source of truth for those fields.

OK to change in HotelBee

• Internal notes (special requests, allergy alerts, VIP tags)
• ID/passport details on the guest profile
• Adding services or extras (breakfast upgrades, transfers, mini-bar) — these go on your folio, not on the OTA side
• Recording payments (charging the virtual card or accepting cash/card from the guest)
• Assigning the specific physical room (the OTA only knows about the room type)
• Check-in / check-out actions (status changes don't need to go back to the OTA)

Don't change in HotelBee — change at the OTA

• Check-in or check-out date — the guest must change this through the OTA so their email and refund work correctly
• Number of guests — affects the OTA price
• Room type — this is what the guest paid for; switching to a different room type means a re-booking on the OTA
• The base rate — the OTA is the source of truth for what the guest is paying
• Cancellation — see the next section

Cancellations

When a guest cancels on Booking.com or Expedia, the cancellation flows back to HotelBee automatically (usually within a minute) and the reservation status changes to Cancelled. You don't have to do anything; the room becomes available, the OTA's cancellation policy decides whether to charge the guest.

If the property needs to cancel an OTA booking (overbooking, force majeure, no-show that needs charging), do it from the OTA's side first — Booking.com Extranet or Expedia Partner Central. The cancellation then syncs back to HotelBee. Cancelling directly in HotelBee leaves the OTA thinking the room is still booked.

Commission tracking

Each OTA sends a commission percentage on the reservation (Booking.com 15%, Expedia 18%, etc.). HotelBee stores it on the booking and exposes it in:

• Reports → Booking Source — revenue, commission, ADR per OTA. Use this to compare channel value.
• Reports → Commission Report — accrued commission per period for accounting reconciliation against OTA invoices.
• Reservation view — commission shown next to the rate on each OTA reservation.

What goes on the OTA invoice vs the property folio

The OTA already invoiced the room rate to the guest (or will). Anything you sell at the property — restaurant, bar, spa, late check-out, parking — goes on the HotelBee folio and is charged at check-out separately. The folio for an OTA reservation typically only has the OTA-side total as a paid line plus the on-property extras.

Troubleshooting common issues

• Missing booking — Channel Manager → Bookings shows what arrived at Channex; if it's there but not in HotelBee, mapping is wrong.
• Wrong room type assigned — the OTA's room maps to a different HotelBee room type than expected. Fix the mapping in Backoffice → Room Types and resync.
• Wrong rate — the rate plan mapping is wrong, or the OTA is using a stale rate. Check Channex's logs to see what was sent and when.
• Double booking — two OTAs sold the same room before availability could refresh. Move one guest to a different room of the same type, or upgrade. Set a 1-room buffer in Channex to reduce repeat occurrences.
• Virtual card declined — usually charged outside the valid window or for the wrong amount. Re-check the card details and the activation date.