How OTA Online Travel Agencies Dominating Hospitality Industry

Today, every hotel professional knows what an OTA is. Online travel agencies have taken over a large part of the hospitality industry. Although it is possible for a hotel to exist without them, it is much easier to gain visibility among potential customers. However, not all OTAs operate on similar principles. So today, for ease of choice, let’s look at a cheat sheet on online travel agencies, focusing on hotel search engines, although an OTA can also be a provider of many other services of travel.

How OTA Started?

The Internet has changed everything, not only for the hospitality industry, but for most industries around the world. Its existence gave birth to countless inventions as people saw the niches to fill – one of the most important was found in remodeling the travel industry.

It started with the airlines. Booking trips became more difficult as the number of roads increased rapidly. Travel agents were the answer to these problems, but they needed more information to meet the needs of their customers. The airlines provided the travel agencies with the information they needed, realizing how profitable they would be for them, as more and more customers were asking for help with their bookings.

It quickly became clear that it was the right move. Customers loved the idea because the convenience of online shopping was an important factor for them. Over time, the availability, mobility and ease of navigation of online bookings have become the most important features of a successful online travel service.

Thus, after the first online travel agencies found their way to the market in 1996, dozens and ultimately hundreds of others followed in their footsteps.

Among others, Hotwire was launched in 2000, HomeAway in 2005, Hotelsclick.com in 2006 and even recently, in 2016, companies like Bidroom.com. The last few years have also seen an increase in companies dedicated to certain areas, such as Hotelgenio for the Spanish market or Wotif.com and Webjet for the Australian market. In 2011, Google also joined the race by creating the Google Hotel Finder.

In addition to the rise of many new OTAs, there has been the rise of meta-engines. In 2000, the now powerful TripAdvisor has been launched. A few years later, Kayak.com and Trivago were introduced to the public, creating a whole new sector of the travel market. With them, reviews began to play a major role in the booking process, and were included not only on reservation platforms, but also on hotel websites.