The acronym OTAs in the tourism sector stands for Online Travel Agencies, which in Spanish translates as Agencias de viajes online. These are companies whose business model is based on selling tickets for any means of transport (train, plane, bus, etc.), booking hotels or offering package holidays online, whether via websites, apps or social networks (it is very common for smaller OTAs to operate via WhatsApp or Telegram as well as through their own website).
Today, online channels have brought about a revolution in the travel agency sector, generating multiple benefits for both agencies and users.
Benefits for users:
Benefits for agencies:
Contenido
It is important to understand the difference between an OTA and a metasearch engine. For example, Airbnb, Booking and Expedia are OTAs because they directly offer a range of travel services on their platforms. Kayak, on the other hand, acts as a metasearch engine, showing different results from the OTAs mentioned above based on the dates and destination selected.
OTAs in tourism have a very simple operating model. They act as intermediaries between the supplier and the end user, earning a percentage for each travel service booked through them. This commission usually ranges between 10% and 25% of the sale price.
Commission is one of the main drawbacks of OTAs, but on the other hand, they offer both suppliers and end users a secure platform on which to transact.
In Europe, OTAs are key platforms for the tourism industry. Some of the most popular OTAs and holiday rental platforms are:
When you work with OTAs, there are no language or geographical barriers as there are in traditional markets, which makes it much easier to internationalise and scale your business without major investment. Through Check-in Scan’s integration with the most popular OTAs, you can streamline the check-in process by switching from traditional paper-based check-in to fully automated online check-in.
Including OTAs in your strategy or marketing plan can be a great way to increase bookings. OTAs invest heavily in advertising to attract traffic to their platforms, so service providers who advertise there indirectly increase their online visibility. If this is combined with a good-quality service that earns positive reviews from guests, OTAs will continue to give even greater visibility to that listing.
OTAs increase the visibility of the tourism services listed on them but, as mentioned above, they charge a commission on each booking. For this reason, many travellers, once they have discovered a company (hotel or apartment booking service, transport tickets, tour packages, etc.) through OTAs, prefer to make future bookings directly on the provider’s website so they can avoid OTA commissions and often find the same service at a lower price.
