OTAs Don't Just Sell Your Rooms Anymore. They Hold the Money.
OTAs now hold the guest’s money on 73% of bookings. Here’s why direct bookings with upfront payment matter more than ever.
A guest books your hotel on an OTA.
They pay the OTA. The OTA holds the money. The OTA decides what discount to show. And weeks later, you get paid.
It's your room. Increasingly, it's not your transaction.
73% and Climbing
Booking Holdings now collects the guest's payment on 73% of its bookings, up from 69% a year ago. In 2019, it was about 25%.
In the second quarter of 2026 alone, bookings where the OTA collects payment grew 14.5% to $37 billion. Bookings where the guest pays the hotel directly fell 3.3%.
OTA market share barely moved last year. What moved was control.
Whoever Holds the Payment Shapes the Price
When the OTA takes the guest's money, it also gets more say over what the guest pays.
In a HOTREC survey of 1,882 hotels, 51% said OTAs sell their rooms below the hotel's own rate, frequently or occasionally. Two years ago, it was about four in ten. And 80% of the hotels that answered the follow-up said they never agreed to that lower price.
So the guest sees a cheaper rate on the OTA than on your own website. Next time, they book there again.
Direct Bookings Are Still the Biggest Channel
Here's the good news. Direct bookings grew from 50.9% to 51.3% of hotel bookings, according to the same study.
Guests still want to book with you. The question is whether your direct booking does what the OTA does: take payment the moment they click "Book."
A direct booking with no payment is a promise. A direct booking with payment is revenue.
What Upfront Payment Gets You
Cash on day one. The money lands with you, not in someone else's account for weeks.
Fewer no-shows. A guest who has paid shows up, or tells you they won't.
Your price, your call. No one else is discounting your room from your own checkout.
The guest relationship. Their details, their stay history, their next booking. All yours.
How Stayflexi Helps
Stayflexi's booking engine runs on your own website, under your own brand, with payments built in. The guest books and pays you in one step.
Because it runs on the same system as your PMS and channel manager, a rate saved once updates everywhere. Your direct price stays in line with your OTA price, and every payment sits in the same guest record as the booking.
Your rooms. Your rate. Your money.
Source: Markus Busch, "Hotel distribution in 2026: The OTAs still sell your rooms," Hospitality Net, October 21, 2026.