The majority of travelers rely on online travel agencies to book a vacation. The reason why they gained such popularity is that they have the ability to reach a wider and more international audience than traditional travel agencies. Hotels can get bookings simply by signing up and keeping their listings up to date.
Whether you are managing a boutique hotel or chain hotels, being active on key sales channels serves as a great investment for the future. Since they are in high demand, it is up to you to keep up with the times and go where your guests are expecting to find you.
According to our data, we have gathered the top online travel agencies (ordered alphabetically). This blog will be your guide in deciding which of these top online travel agencies will be the most beneficial for your business.
What are Some of The Top Online Travel Agencies?
- Agoda
- Airbnb
- Booking.com
- Expedia
- Hotelbeds
Why You Should List Your Property On These Channels
1. Agoda
Rapidly growing in the Asian market since its establishment, Agoda’s inventory includes more than 2 million properties, including apartments, villas, houses, and hotels, which have ratings from 15 million unique guests. Agoda offers accommodation opportunities to suit all budgets and travel purposes, for both business and leisure travelers.
Every hotelier can benefit immensely from Agoda but since it is focused heavily on the Asian market, Agoda can be one of your choices for the guests from Asia.
You can market your property in minutes by making a direct contract with Agoda through HotelRunner, an Agoda Innovative Supplier.
Based in: Singapore
Founded in: 2005
Available in: 39 languages, 200+ countries
2. Airbnb
Airbnb, the world’s largest community-driven hospitality booking platform, is a reliable marketplace for people to discover, experience, and book unique accommodations worldwide. Airbnb has more than 150 million users who have booked 1 billion vacations.
You don’t need to own a hotel to host on Airbnb, you can rent a room or your home for a limited time. One of the biggest advantages of Airbnb is that it is inclusive.
With Airbnb’s diverse user base, your property gains heightened visibility, allowing you to allocate more resources to your operations and guest satisfaction. HotelRunner is Airbnb’s Preferred Software Partner. You can create your Airbnb listing, and manage your inventory and bookings via HotelRunner.
Based in: California, US
Founded in: 2008
Available in: 52 languages, 190+ countries
3. Booking.com
With over 28 million registered properties and millions of room bookings every week, Booking.com is one of the top online travel agencies. Its 28 million registered properties include villas, cabins, vacation rentals, bed and breakfasts, and world-renowned brands, as well as unusual accommodation properties ranging from Japanese-style riocans to Moroccan-style riads, boats, and campsites.
Booking.com has been around since 1996 and has become a trusted place for people to book their vacations. If you prefer to utilize Booking.com you will have a higher chance for guests to pick you without any questions in their minds.
You can make a direct contract with Booking.com via HotelRunner, a Booking.com Premier Connectivity Partner, and manage all your content, inventory, and promotions through HotelRunner.
Based in: Amsterdam, Netherlands
Founded in: 1996
Available in: 43 languages and 228 countries
4. Expedia
Operating under the Expedia Group, Expedia helps travelers easily plan and book travel from a wide range of services such as vacation packages, flights, hotels, rental cars, trains, cruises, events, and attractions. One of the world’s leading end-to-end online travel brands, Expedia offers its guests over 700.000 registered properties at more than 35,000 destinations.
Your potential guests have many reasons why they choose to book through Expedia, one of which is its great deals. The thought of affordable vacation would draw in anyone. They can provide all their vacation planning needs from one place making their travel much easier. Since these perks attract them to Expedia it would be best to consider listing your hotel there.
You can connect to Expedia via HotelRunner, an Expedia Preferred Connectivity Partner, and instantly reach a worldwide audience.
Based in: Seattle, US
Founded in: 1996
Available in: 35 languages, 190+ countries
5. Hotelbeds
Hotelbeds is a worldwide leading bedbank and has the influence to grow your occupancy even during the off-season. The company helps properties distribute their offers to travel sellers worldwide through its advanced technology platform. Hotelbeds brings together more than 64,000 travel vendors, 300,000 hotels, and 18.000 events for their users.
What is so great about Hotelbeds is that they don’t only sell rooms, they sell experiences. This alone could help guests pick your property as a part of their journey.
You can make a direct contract with Hotelbeds in minutes and access the hard-to-reach B2B travel buyers via HotelRunner, a Hotelbeds strategic partner.
Based in: Spain
Founded in: 2001
Available in: 50+ languages, 185+ countries
How Do Online Travel Agencies Benefit You?
The times have changed, and travelers want to be one click away from their perfect vacation spot. They want great experiences at great prices. Top online travel agencies have become highly beneficial to them but they have also become beneficial for the hospitality industry. They have changed the hospitality marketing game forever. Here is how OTA’s can be beneficial for your property:
Exposure to Bigger Markets: Just as it becomes easy for guests to reach the hotels it has become easy to reach your potential guests. The exposure they bring to properties can’t be replicated by any other because OTA’s are accessible worldwide. They also support many languages which helps remove the language barrier.
Cost-Effective Marketing: By only paying a commission fee you can take advantage of the big marketing budgets of these OTAs which will result in reaching a worldwide guest base.
A Database of Reviews: As we buy anything online the first thing we do is to check reviews, the same goes for the hotels as well. By listing your property on a reliable OTA, the reviews will build trust with your potential guests.
A Chance To Get More Bookings: The most important reason why you should choose to work with an OTA is to be able to get more bookings. OTAs are valuable sales channels with a big share of the reservation volume. By not utilizing it you would be missing a great opportunity.
Frequently Asked Questions About OTAs
What Does Online Travel Agency Mean?
An online travel agency also known as OTA is a platform where you can search and book travel-related services. This includes hotels, cars, activities, flights, cruises and many more. These services come from various vendors, and many online travel agencies (OTAs) can feature offerings from hundreds of different suppliers.
What Is The Difference Between A Travel Agent and Agency?
A travel agent is a person who helps their client book a vacation, flight, activity, etc. They can work for themselves or an agency. Travel agencies on the other hand have the resources and connections to help travel agents who work for them find customers. Another one of their duties is to give proper training to their travel agents so they can be more successful.
Online travel agencies cut out the middleman. Travelers can directly reach the vendors through the OTA website. Which results in better prices for the travelers.
How Many OTAs Should You Work With?
When it comes to OTAs the more the merrier. Limiting yourself to 2-3 OTAs is taking away from your revenue. They’re your ticket to reaching a global audience, boosting your visibility, and maximizing your booking potential. With HotelRunner, you gain access to an extensive list of 150+ OTAs to choose from, ensuring you can reach far and wide for valuable bookings.
How To Manage Multiple OTAs
If you decide to work with more than one online travel agency, managing them all at the same time can be very difficult. You will have to manually track reservations and update the availability on each extranet which can cause you to accidentally lose money or doublebook on the same room.
HotelRunner is an easy and cost-effective way of juggling all of them. It does it by being the most effective and versatile channel manager in the market. Updating your prices, room availability, and inventory is one click away. No more wasting time by trying to update every single one of them. All you need is HotelRunner’s channel manager.
Sign up for HotelRunner today for all these perks and to connect with more than 150 OTAs!
