10 Online Travel Agencies you Should Connect to Today

It might come as a surprise, and it is indeed a little cheeky, but we're very serious: Your website should be considered your first and most important channel!

Thanks to the Billboard Effect, being listed on OTAs will bring bookers back to your website.

Make sure that you have a good, responsive website and an efficient, user friendly Booking Engine that will entice guests to book directly. You can motivate them with special offers and rates tailored only if they book using your website direct

Commission: 0%!

For all hotels, small and big: A good website & Booking Engine is the only way to increase Direct Bookings and pay less commission to OTAs.

The world’s largest accommodation website, Booking.com has now expanded their reach into the small accommodation market too, now including family operated Bed and Breakfasts, Vacation Rentals and Self-Catering Apartments.

Quick facts:

• Booking.com have 135 offices in over 50 countries worldwide.
• Booking.com is now available in over 40 different languages and offers over half a million properties across 207 countries. That’s some reach!
• There are over 700,000 room nights reserved on Booking.com every day.
• In Europe, Booking.com drives 50% of all European online hotel bookings (Source Tnooz).
• Booking.com currently has 83 million verified reviews.
• The great benefit for hoteliers and accommodation providers is that you only pay Booking.com when a booking is made. No monthly fees are necessary.

Commission based: from 15% and more, depending on your market.

For everyone: Big and Small Hotels, Bed & Breakfasts, Hostels and Vacation Rentals.

Expedia Group - which owns CarRentals.com, Expedia.com, HomeAway, Hotels.com, Hotwire.com, Orbitz, Travelocity, trivago and Vrbo among many other brands - is the biggest Travel Agency is the world.

Expedia.com is particularly popular when targeting the North American and Asian markets.

Since the early 2000s, the group performed many mergers and acquisitions, culminating in 2015 with the purchase of Travelocity from the tech firm Sabre Corporation.

Quick facts:

• Expedia owns over 200 travel booking sites, over 150 mobile apps and websites.
• Expedia operates in nearly 70 countries and in over 35 different languages.
• They currently reach 25 million guests per year.

Commission based: from 15% to 18%, depending on the payment model.

For everyone: Big and Small Hotels, Bed & Breakfasts, Hostels and Vacation Rentals.

Airbnb has changed the travel accommodation industry, as the home sharing giant embarks on entering the online hotel distribution space.

This travel website is diverse in listings and can be accessed by almost anyone from air beds in apartments to enchanted castles, according to Airbnb’s website. There is an element of safety with Airbnb, as you can be sure of your guest’s identity. Moreover, reviews from previous hosts tell you what your guest is like as a guest.

quick facts:

• Number of total guests: 200,000,000+
• Number of listings: 3,000,000+
• Number of countries: 192
• Countries/Regions where most prominent: Global

Commission based: Commission 3% host fee and 6-12% guest fee.

For smaller and unique Hotels, Bed & Breakfasts and Vacation Rental.

HostelWorld is currently the world’s leading, hostel-focused OTA and advertising hostels through its website and thousands distribution partners, including Lonely Planet.

Hostelworld acquired Hostelbookers in 2013 to expand its online power further.

Quick facts:

• HostelWorld attracts young, independent travellers across 170 different countries.
• It has a reach of over 11 million guests!

Commission based: 15%

For hostels only!

Part of the Priceline Group, Agoda is one of the fastest growing platforms in the world. It is currently popular in Asia, particularly Malaysia, Taiwan, Indonesia, Thailand and Philippines.

Quick facts:

• Agoda operates in 38 different languages and offers a 24-hour, multilingual customer support service.
• Agoda employs dedicated Market Managers, able to create special promotions and marketing initiatives, which in turn allow Agoda to offer some of the best deals online. These can be specific to each location.
• Agoda are well known for the millions of authentic hotel reviews they display.

Commission based: 15%

For Big and Small Hotels, especially in Asia.

LateRooms allows access to its website users and also its sister site AsiaRooms.com. They also put your hotel into extensive ad campaigns, which in turn drives additional traffic to your own website.

Quick facts:

• Laterooms currently offers over 200,000 hotels worldwide.
• Laterooms has a reach of 20,000 and sister site Asiarooms has 60,000.

Commission based: 15%

For everyone: Big and Small Hotels, Bed & Breakfasts, etc.

E-dreams (E-Dreams ODIGEO Group) focuses on contracting with Bed and Breakfasts, Hostels, Self-Catering Apartments and 1-3 star Hotels.

Quick facts:

• E-dreams currently produces 90,000 room nights per night.
• There are no setup fees, maintenance costs, end-of-month bills or binding contracts, making it easy to try out.

Commission based: 20%

For everyone: Big and Small Hotels, Bed & Breakfasts, etc.

formerly Ctrip.com, Trip.com is the fastest growing OTA and is coming from China, partially thanks to Booking Holdings (formerly The Priceline Group) several rounds of investments since 2014.

With the largest population in the world and a rapidly growing middle class willing to travel abroad, China is quickly becoming the world’s largest source of outbound tourism therefore you might want to consider listing your property on China’s leading travel website - Trip.com.

Ctrip / Trip.com is a strong brand within China and dominates the local market but has little influence within other parts of the world so far.

Quick facts:

• Number of active users: 90 million+ registered
• Number of listings: about 1,000,000
• Number of countries: 200

Commission based: 20%

For everyone: Big and Small Hotels, Bed & Breakfasts, etc. particularily in Asia