Key Takeaways
- An OTA (Online Travel Agency) is an online booking platform such as Airbnb, Booking.com or Expedia, that connects property owners with travellers in exchange for a commission.
- OTA commissions range from 3% to 20% depending on the platform, directly impacting the profitability of each booking — understanding these differences is essential to optimise your distribution.
- A well-managed multi-OTA distribution strategy can increase your occupancy rate by 15 to 30% while keeping commission costs under control through revenue management.
If you manage a tourism property — whether it’s a short-term rental apartment or an independent hotel — you’re inevitably using at least one OTA. Airbnb, Booking.com, Expedia, Vrbo… these platforms have become essential for filling your calendar. Yet few owners truly understand how OTAs work, how much they cost, and above all how to use them intelligently without sacrificing their margins.
In the hospitality industry, over 70% of bookings now go through an OTA. Ignoring how they work means running your business blindly. This article explains everything you need to know about OTAs: their definition, their business model, commissions by platform, and practical strategies to maximise your revenue while controlling your distribution costs.
OTA: Definition and How It Works
OTA stands for Online Travel Agency. In practical terms, an OTA is a digital platform that acts as an intermediary between accommodation providers (hotels, property managers, owners) and travellers.
The principle is straightforward: you list your property on the platform, travellers find it through the OTA’s search engine, and the platform takes a commission on each booking in exchange for the exposure and matchmaking service provided.
The Main OTAs on the Market
- Airbnb: the leader in short-term rentals, with over 7 million listings worldwide
- Booking.com: the global number one across all categories, strong in both hotels and vacation rentals
- Expedia: an American group that includes Vrbo, Hotels.com and several other brands
- Vrbo: specialised in vacation rentals, with a strong presence in Europe and North America
- Hotels.com: focused on the hotel segment, a subsidiary of the Expedia Group
🔔 Worth noting: Google is increasingly becoming a player in distribution with Google Travel and direct booking links. While not an OTA in the strict sense, it captures a growing share of tourism search traffic.
How Much Do OTAs Cost? Commission Comparison
Each OTA applies a different commission model. Some charge only the host, others split the fees between host and guest. Understanding these differences is fundamental to choosing the right channels and setting the right prices.
✓ The key insight: for a property generating €30,000 in annual revenue, the difference between Airbnb (15.5%) and Booking (20%) represents €1,350 more or less in margin. Your choice of distribution channels directly impacts your profitability.
The Advantages and Disadvantages of OTAs
OTAs are neither the enemy nor the saviour of accommodation providers. They are a distribution lever that must be used wisely. Here is an objective look at their strengths and limitations.
📈 The Advantages of OTAs
- Massive visibility: Booking.com receives over 500 million visits per month — impossible to generate this traffic on your own
- Credibility: verified reviews reassure travellers and facilitate conversion
- Technical infrastructure: secure payment system, messaging, insurance, dispute management
- International reach: your property is visible to travellers worldwide, with no marketing effort required
📉 The Disadvantages of OTAs
- High commissions: between 15% and 25% of each booking, often the largest single expense for many accommodation providers
- Dependency: if 100% of your bookings come from a single OTA, you are vulnerable to any policy or algorithm change
- Loss of client relationship: the traveller is “the OTA’s client”, not yours — you often don’t have access to their email
- Price competition: travellers can easily compare, which pushes rates down if your strategy isn’t well managed
How to Optimise Your OTA Distribution Strategy
Being listed on OTAs isn’t enough. The real question is: how do you maximise your revenue while minimising your commission costs? Here are the practical levers to activate.
1. Diversify Your Distribution Channels
Concentrating all your bookings on a single platform is risky. By being present on 2 to 3 complementary OTAs, you maximise your visibility and reduce your dependency. For example, in Barcelona, a property manager combining Airbnb and Booking.com typically sees an average +22% occupancy rate increase compared to single-channel distribution.
2. Adjust Your Rates by Channel
Each OTA has its own commission level. It therefore makes sense to adjust your rates slightly to maintain a consistent net margin regardless of the channel. However, be careful not to create gaps that are too large (beyond 10%), as this would penalise your ranking on certain platforms.
⚠️ Common mistake: increasing your Booking rates by 20% to “offset the commission”. Result: your prices are out of market, your CTR drops, and the algorithm penalises you. The right approach is a fine-tuned adjustment of 5 to 10% maximum between channels.
3. Use a Channel Manager
A channel manager is a tool that automatically synchronises your availability and rates across all your OTAs simultaneously. Without it, you risk double bookings and waste considerable time manually updating each platform.
4. Manage Your Pricing with Revenue Management
The key to profitable OTA distribution is dynamic pricing. Rather than applying a fixed rate year-round, revenue management involves adjusting your prices daily based on demand, seasonality and booking pace.
In practice, this means:
- Increasing rates during high-demand periods (local events, holidays, weekends)
- Lowering rates in a controlled manner to fill occupancy gaps
- Adjusting minimum stay requirements by period
- Continuously monitoring key indicators: ADR (average daily rate), RevPAR (revenue per available room), occupancy rate
✓ Real-world result: a portfolio of 15 rentals in the South of France managed with a professional revenue management strategy recorded +28% RevPAR over 12 months, without adding a single property — solely by optimising pricing and OTA distribution.
OTA vs Direct Booking: Do You Have to Choose?
The question comes up often: should you leave OTAs to focus solely on direct bookings? The short answer: no. The right strategy is a balance between both.
OTAs serve to fill your calendar and attract new clients. Direct bookings (via your own website or word of mouth) serve to build loyalty and maximise margins on returning guests.
🔔 The right balance: for a high-performing tourism property, aim for 60-70% of bookings via OTAs and 30-40% direct. OTAs feed your pipeline of new clients; direct bookings maximise your margin on returning guests.
How a Revenue Management Expert Optimises Your OTAs
Managing 2 or 3 OTAs with differentiated pricing, a channel manager, and dynamic pricing takes time, expertise and data. In practice, it’s a daily task that few property owners or management companies can handle alone beyond 5 properties.
Professional outsourced revenue management support allows you to:
- Adjust rates daily on each OTA based on real demand
- Optimise stay restrictions (minimum stay, check-in/check-out) by period
- Monitor key KPIs (RevPAR, ADR, occupancy rate, pickup) week after week
- Arbitrate between channels to maximise overall net margin, not just booking volume
✓ Average result observed: portfolios managed with a professional revenue management strategy achieve +20 to +40% RevPAR compared to manual pricing or fully automated tool-based approaches.
Frequently Asked Questions
❓ What does OTA stand for?
OTA stands for Online Travel Agency. These are platforms like Airbnb, Booking.com or Expedia that allow travellers to search for and book accommodation online, in exchange for a commission taken from each reservation.
❓ What is Airbnb’s commission for hosts?
Since October 2025, Airbnb applies a flat 15.5% commission for hosts using management software (PMS/Channel Manager). The guest no longer pays any service fee. For hosts without software, a split-fee model remains available.
❓ Which is the best OTA for vacation rentals?
There is no single “best OTA”. Airbnb leads in short-term rentals, while Booking.com is essential for hotels and international markets. The best strategy is to combine 2 to 3 complementary platforms to maximise your visibility.
❓ How can I reduce OTA commissions?
You cannot negotiate standard commission rates. However, you can offset their impact in several ways: developing direct bookings for returning guests, optimising your pricing to absorb commissions during peak season, and managing your distribution with dynamic pricing tailored to each channel.
❓ Should I use a channel manager?
Yes, as soon as you are listed on more than one platform. A channel manager automatically synchronises your calendars, rates and availability to prevent double bookings and save considerable time in daily management.
❓ What is the difference between an OTA and a channel manager?
An OTA is a sales platform (Airbnb, Booking) where travellers book. A channel manager is a management tool that connects your calendar to multiple OTAs simultaneously. One distributes, the other synchronises — both are complementary.
📩 Want to optimise your OTA distribution?
Contact Rield for a free audit of your pricing strategy and find out how much you’re leaving on the table every month.
You may also be interested in our article: Rield Revenue Management Services