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Major online travel agencies (OTAs) like Booking.com and Expedia help accommodations gain global visibility, increased bookings, and greater trust from customers. 
However relying completely on OTAs can have downsides, not just for local businesses but for the destination as a whole. 

In this article we’ll cover: 

  1. The two sides of the OTA coin: why balance is the best strategy 
  2. The benefits of reducing reliance on intermediaries—for both businesses and destinations 
  3. How to use data to measure OTA dependency in your destination 
  4. Practical strategies to reduce OTA dependency 

The two sides of the OTA coin: why balance is the best strategy

Gaining visibility is a challenge—especially without OTAs, as they play a crucial role in promoting all types of accommodations, from hotels and hostels to short-term rentals.

As early as 2009, a landmark study by Cornell University introduced the so-called “billboard effect,” showing that simply being listed on major booking platforms not only drives indirect bookings but also boosts direct reservations via email, phone, or the hotel’s own booking engine.

Being on these platforms provides accommodations with global visibility and boosts bookings. OTAs leverage strong user trust and effective advertising, allowing them to target travellers through ads, banners, and newsletters.

In short, OTAs have a marketing power that no individual hotel or hospitality group can compete with.

However, there’s no such thing as a free lunch, right? And hoteliers have learned the hard way about the downsides that come with OTAs:

  • High commissions: On average, hotels pay OTAs 15–30% per booking. Direct bookings, by contrast, mean higher profits.
  • Loss of control over customer data: Guests belong to the OTA, not the hotel. They opt into the OTA’s marketing, which means hoteliers initially miss out on opportunities to send emails, upsell, or encourage loyalty program sign-ups.
  • Weaker brand loyalty: Guests who book through OTAs are less likely to become repeat customers, as they associate their stay with the OTA rather than the hotel itself.
  • Rate parity and pricing pressure: While rate parity clauses are no longer mandatory, hotels still need to keep prices competitive across all channels, limiting their ability to offer exclusive incentives for direct bookings.
  • Risk of OTA dependency: Over-reliance on OTAs reduces a hotel’s control over its business, making it vulnerable to changes in OTA policies, commissions, or ranking algorithms.
  • Lower ancillary revenue: OTA guests are less likely to pre-book add-ons like spa treatments or dining, leading to lower revenue per booking compared to direct reservations.

A recent Skift study revealed that travellers today are more inclined to book directly through a hotel’s website rather than an OTA. By 2030, direct bookings are expected to surpass indirect ones, reaching $409 billion in hotel reservations, compared to $333 billion through OTAs.

 

According to Skift, the ideal share of indirect bookings for hoteliers should be 34%. This highlights the importance of a balanced mix of direct and indirect bookings, with a clear preference for direct reservations when possible.

The benefits of reducing reliance on intermediaries—for both businesses and destinations

We’ve already explored the benefits of a healthy level of disintermediation for hoteliers.

For a hotel, reducing OTA dependency means:

  • Higher profit margins
  • More control over personalised offers
  • Building a direct customer base

But what’s in it for the tourist destination itself?

Understanding the level of intermediation—how much a destination relies on OTAs—is essential.

If most local accommodations aren’t listed on major booking platforms, the destination risks losing both visibility and tourist flows to competitors.

Let’s take a concrete example: in some rural areas of Italy and Greece, accommodations tend to be small, independent, and few in number. Many of them lack the budget to build a website, integrate a booking engine, or invest in marketing. For these businesses, OTAs are often the only way to gain visibility and attract visitors to the destination.

This is because OTAs simplify the booking process and make travel planning easier.

However, heavy reliance on OTAs can have long-term downsides for a destination’s tourism strategy.

When local operators successfully balance OTAs with direct sales strategies, the entire tourism ecosystem benefits. A healthy level of disintermediation allows a destination to:

  • Showcase local identity and uniqueness: OTAs present accommodations in a standardised way, often sacrificing the storytelling that highlights a destination’s authenticity. As a result, hotels and areas start to look alike to travellers, with decisions driven solely by price and amenities. A less intermediated destination can craft a more compelling narrative, promote experiential travel that supports local communities, and shine a light on lesser-known areas, not just the usual hotspots.
  • Encourage more sustainable and high-quality tourism: OTA algorithms operate on a global scale, with no consideration for the specific needs of a destination. This can disrupt local tourism strategies, often driving overcrowding in peak seasons and popular areas, instead of spreading visitor flows more evenly across time and space. With less OTA dependency, destinations can promote tourism that aligns with their long-term sustainability goals.
  • Avoid the price war trap: On OTAs, the lowest price often wins. Ranking algorithms tend to favour accommodations with the most competitive rates, which reduces profit margins for operators and lowers the perceived value of the entire destination. By owning the booking process, operators can implement smarter pricing strategies, attracting higher-quality visitors and showcasing the true value of their offerings—rather than being forced into price-driven competition.

This is key to building a stronger positioning for the destination—one that prioritises quality over quantity and attracts a more conscious and sustainable type of tourism over time.

How to use data to measure OTA dependency in your destination

It’s not easy to gauge OTA dependency across a destination, particularly on a broader scale, such as an entire country.

This is where data steps in!

Tracking direct booking data for individual properties is difficult and often incomplete. In large destinations, it’s simply not feasible to maintain direct contact with every single accommodation provider.

The only viable approach is to through a destination marketing & management platform like D / AI Destinations, which integrates real-time data on pricing and bookings from major travel platforms.

Our platform features a dedicated module called OTA Focus, designed to analyse OTA rates and saturation levels in detail. This essential tool helps track key metrics related to hotel and private accommodation offerings on major online booking portals.

With OTA Focus, destinations can access daily, weekly, and monthly data, compare different time periods, and analyse trends across various tourism products and geographic areas.

OTA saturation — the percentage of listings on travel platforms that have been booked—reveals the extent to which online travel agencies dominate the accommodation booking market in a given destination.

A high OTA saturation rate indicates that most bookings are made through these platforms, whereas a low saturation rate suggests a more diversified booking landscape, including hotel websites, email, and phone reservations.

Meanwhile, data on average OTA-listed rates—showing minimum and maximum prices along with year-over-year percentage changes—provides a valuable overview of pricing dynamics within the destination.

Within D / AI Destinations, there is also an indicator that shows the destination’s level of disintermediation.

This is the proprietary KPI known as the OTA Intermediary Index.

This index reveals the level of intermediation by online travel agencies on a monthly basis and is a sub-index of the Destination Sustainability Index, which measures and analyses the sustainability of the destination.

As we’ve seen, intermediation also impacts tourism flows and the overall sustainability of the destination.

How a tourism destination can help operators reduce their reliance on OTAs: 4 practical strategies

With this data in hand, the DMO can take action to support its stakeholders, particularly accommodation providers, in managing their offerings more strategically and in alignment with the destination’s broader strategies.

The key is to engage local operators in a structured approach that includes training, marketing, and digital channel optimisation.

1 – SHARING MARKET TRENDS

Organising regular meetings to share reports or market trends gathered with internal tools provides a dual benefit:

  • Stakeholders gain a comprehensive view of the market, allowing them to anticipate trends and compare their data with national averages or competitors’ figures.
  • The destination has the opportunity to share its mission and long-term strategy with operators, encouraging them to align and collaborate towards shared goals.

For instance, the Veneto Region launched an Online Tourism Observatory accessible to everyone, where operators can find up-to-date information on occupancy rates, pricing, destination sentiment data collected with D / AI Destinations, and much more. Through the portal, stakeholders can access shared insights and market trends, including content from Data Appeal.

2 – PROFESSIONAL TRAINING

The destination can promote a culture of disintermediation by organising free webinars and courses to align hotel managers on industry trends and best practices. These sessions can cover topics such as optimizing a website and booking engine, improving reputation, and managing pricing effectively.

3 – PROVIDING INNOVATIVE TOOLS

Some tourism destinations allocate part of their budget to provide operators with tools that support digitalization, online presence management, and service improvement.

Among the destinations using D / AI Destinations, some have already chosen to equip local hotel groups with D / AI Coach, an AI-powered platform designed for managing online reputation.

As individual properties improve, the destination, as a whole, reaps the rewards.

4 – CREATE SHARED DESTINATION MARKETING CAMPAIGNS

The destination can support operators in disintermediation through collective campaigns that promote the area and direct bookings.

Consider well-organised tourism portals that connect properties directly with travellers, targeted advertising campaigns encouraging people to book on official websites, or collaborations with travel bloggers who can share their stories and drive traffic to the destination’s portal or individual properties.

Support operators in reducing OTA dependency with D / AI Destinations

The aim of disintermediation is to balance the influence of OTAs with more effective direct sales, not to remove them entirely.

By leveraging data, supporting local operators, and implementing an integrated marketing plan, a DMO can promote more sustainable tourism, build visitor loyalty, and enhance the destination’s competitiveness over the long term.

Want to discover how D / AI Destinations can help you implement these strategies?

Request a free demo.