Weekly Insights. May 17, 2025

Should hoteliers forget about direct online distribution and use the OTAs as their exclusive distribution channel?

A recent heated discussion on LinkedIn was a clash between two schools of thought regarding direct online distribution in hospitality.

One school of thought representatives claim that they "really don't understand the whole thing about direct booking and loyalty… " They further claim that travelers are loyal to and trust OTA platforms like Booking..com, Expedia, Airbnb, etc. According to them there are an emerging number of hotel owners that are now linking their property websites' "Book Now" buttons directly to the OTAs since "It saves them the headache of managing it all themselves."

Experts from the other school of thought counter the above by declaring the use of OTAs as the booking engine on the property site is the most retrograde thing the industry has ever heard and doing so is definitely the lazy hotelier's way of dealing with online distribution.

The question is: should hoteliers forget about direct online distribution and use the OTAs as their exclusive distribution channel?


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