What Are the Best Hotel Booking Sites in 2024?

Whether you have a spare room in your home, want to fill an apartment, or own a new hotel — whatever the case may be, you’ll want to advertise your property on an Online Travel Agency (OTA), wholesaler, or a metasearch channel. Using a variety of booking channels provides your property with the best online visibility and raises brand awareness.

The good news is that there is no shortage of booking sites, but not every booking site is suitable for every property type. RoomRaccoon connects to over 300 different integrations for your convenience. There are many options to choose from – that’s why we’re breaking down the biggest and best hotel online booking sites.

This article answers your most frequently asked questions: What are the best hotel booking sites available? Which booking sites are suitable for my property? How much does it cost to list my property? Can I advertise on multiple booking sites at the same time? Let’s explore the best hotel booking sites, so you can find your perfect distribution mix.

What Are the Different Types of Hotel Booking Sites?

Metasearch: A metasearch channel enables travellers to compare hotel room rates from various online travel agencies (OTAs) and other booking sites. Google Hotel Ads is the most popular metasearch channel, directing travellers to the hotel’s website. You can read our hotel metasearch engine guide for a detailed breakdown on this channel and its benefits.

Global Distribution System: A GDS is an online network for companies within the travel industry. It takes information (inventory, price, and availability) from suppliers (airlines, hotels, cruise lines, car rentals) and makes it available to distributors (travel agents and tour operators.)

Online Travel Agency: OTAs, also known as Online Travel Agencies, are third-party websites consumers use to research and book travel-related products and services. On a B2B level, OTAs are used for online distribution and generating brand awareness.

Wholesaler: Wholesalers, or bedbanks, are middlemen between travel suppliers (hotels) and OTAs/travel agents. It sources the hotel room nights in bulk, packages them, negotiates rates, and then sells them to OTAs and travel agents.

What Are The Best Hotel Booking Sites?

When it comes to distribution, it’s essential to have an overview of your booking channels and their respective strengths and weaknesses. For instance, one channel may deliver many bookings, but cancellations are more common, whereas another channel may be geared towards young travellers with limited budgets and result in lower RevPAR. Take a look at our analysis of the best hotel booking websites in 2024 below. RoomRaccoon integrates with all of the best booking sites and hundreds more!

1. Hotelbeds

Hotelbeds is one of the most popular wholesalers in the hotel industry. By connecting to Hotelbeds, your property will gain unrivalled exposure to the world’s travel trade, including over 190 source markets, 71,000 travel distributors, 3000 local experts and 4 billion user searches per day. They also allow you to sell rooms and ancillary products and services.

It’s common for hotels to use wholesalers to reach high-value clients. Many hotels go with wholesalers because of the extensive opportunities they provide. For example, they can give you a chance to reach out to clients you’re unfamiliar with or unable to reach otherwise—and with their collective knowledge, they can get your products in front of buyers who may not have known about you otherwise.

2. VRBO

For nearly three decades, Vrbo has revolutionised group travel and bookings by connecting homeowners with families and friends seeking unique places to stay. Vrbo encourages travellers to escape distractions and spend quality time together in distinctive vacation rentals worldwide. Learn how to master vacation rental software with RoomRaccoon.

With Vrbo integration with RoomRaccoon, booking cabins, condos, beach houses, and everything in between is simple and easy. As a part of Expedia Group, Vrbo offers homeowners and property managers exposure to over 750 million monthly visits to Expedia Group sites.

​​RoomRaccoon has recently integrated with Vrbo, allowing you to enjoy automatic updates of your rates, availability, and bookings. Simply activate your RoomRaccoon connection with Vrbo to save time and effort, and the new direct connection will eliminate tedious manual tasks.

3. Google Hotel Ads

Google Hotel Ads are an excellent option for independent hotels and properties looking to compete more effectively with prominent players. Google hotel ads or campaigns are a type of advertising where you can bid for your hotel ads to appear when someone searches for a hotel on Search or Maps. These ads are shown in a hotel booking module that displays photos of the hotel, amenities, prices, and a link to book the hotel on Google platforms.

Commission costs are only calculated for confirmed bookings, meaning it’s pay-per-stay (not pay-per-click). The PPS model reduces the risk of your hotel’s advertising budget being spent on click-happy travellers on the hunt. It’s crucial to remember that bookings from GHA come with a significantly reduced commission rate and better hotel visibility, making it a financially savvy choice for your hotel in the long run.

Unlike OTAs, which don’t provide guest contact information with bookings, direct bookings enable you to collect contact information at the time of reservation. You can start building relationships with guests right away, by emailing a personalised confirmation and a pre-check-in message with add-ons to elevate their stay. RoomRaccoon’s cloud-based hotel software enables you to customise email templates with your branding and add your own unique content. We have a great resource on free hotel email templates guaranteed to optimise guest communication, to help you get started!

4. HyperGuest

HyperGuest allows hotels to sell their rooms directly to demand partners, shortening the booking supply chain and simplifying hotelier’s operations. HyperGuest’s distribution settings are highly customisable. You’re always in control of rates, policies, payment terms, and commissions. Another added bonus, you only pay a commission directly to the travel provider for confirmed reservations with no added fees or technology costs. You can also choose the commission level, which will be lower than that of major OTA, wholesalers or GDS systems.

The RoomRaccoon channel manager is equipped with a two-way API connection that enables the seamless communication of inventory and rates with HyperGuest across all channels in real-time. This feature benefits hoteliers by allowing them to capture more bookings from travel providers like agencies and consortia, specialised OTAs, and corporate travel services with low commissions. With HyperGuest, by cutting out wholesalers, you are minimising the path to purchase for your customers and saving on third-party fees.

5. Trip.com

If you’re an accommodation provider who wants to target the Asian market, particularly China, Trip.com is the right booking site. Trip.com, previously known as Ctrip has an established network of properties in Asia and over 5 million hotel listings worldwide with over 90 million reviews.

Trip.com has become a one-stop shop for worldwide travel, offering a wide range of properties. Travellers can easily filter their searches to reveal luxury accommodations or budget-friendly properties. The company has recently released a mobile application, making it easier than ever for travellers to search for and find affordable stays worldwide.

6. Hostelworld.com

Hostels generally appeal to a younger, mobile generation. Many young travellers seek out hostel accommodation for their travels due to the affordable price point and social aspect. Approximately 70% of hostel bookings are made online, which is higher than any other accommodation type like hotels.

Hostelworld is a leading global OTA focused on the hostel market. The company inspires passionate travellers to see the world, meet new people and come back with extraordinary stories to tell. Their slogan, ‘Meet the world’ is embodied by the social aspect of their platform, where travellers can meet and make lasting connections! The hotel booking site has over 13.7 million verified reviews from young travellers, typically between the ages of 18 and 39.

According to their latest report, the company discovered that more than half of their users (55%) are looking forward to a solo adventure in 2022 – how intrepid! Solo travel is not as uncommon as some may think. Surprisingly, 83% of Hostelworld customers have already travelled alone, and a quarter of them have gone on more than 10 solo trips.

7. Airbnb.com

Airbnb arrived on the market in 2008 and revolutionised the travel industry by making it possible for the everyday person to partake in accommodation distribution on a global scale. Today, the home-sharing giant is also famous in the hotel distribution space and is considered one of the most popular OTAs, with over 5 million hosts.

What sets Airbnb apart from other travel booking sites is that it gives hosts more power over the booking process. They can choose between “instant bookings” or “requested bookings” the latter allows the host to review the guest’s profile, read reviews from previous hosts, and use the provided information to confirm or deny the request.

The host can also choose between six different cancellation policies. Additionally, the company provides Host Protection Insurance and Host Guarantee for up to $1 million in damages. Airbnb helps connect short-term rental spaces and guests who are travelling and searching to experience the community in a more authentic way.

8. Agoda.com

Singapore-based Agoda, founded in Phuket in 2005, is one of the youngest and fastest-growing hotel booking websites, with over 4 million properties in more than worldwide. Agoda caters to a worldwide audience and is available in 39 different languages with 24/7 customer support.

As an Asia-focused OTA, Agoda’s most significant advantage over its rivals comes from its relationships with Asian hotels and its share of inventory from its parent company, Booking Holdings Inc. Agoda is positioned to be an affordable digital travel platform for guests and has over 28 million guest reviews, proving it as one of the best sites for hotel bookings.

Agoda is one of the best hotel booking sites in the USA, with the US as their top global market. Always on trend, Agoda recently introduced a new feature to help hotels meet new traveller demands. Agoda Special Offers (ASO), so hotels can offer value-added benefits like breakfast, massages, recreation activities, snacks, and other perks.

9. Expedia

Expedia.com is the leading OTA operated by Expedia Group, which has an extensive portfolio of brands to serve travellers’ needs, including Hotels.com, Vrbo, Egencia, Trivago, and CarRentals.com. As such, Expedia Group offers a service called Expedia Partner Central that lists your property on its extensive OTA marketplace.

The travel giant has partnerships with 500+ airlines around the globe and is known as the top choice for travellers who are looking for vacation package deals, i.e., to select and pay for flights, accommodation, and car rental in one go. Learn how to maximise your reach and revenue with Expedia here!

If you’re targeting North America and Asia travellers, you’ll benefit from knowing that Expedia.com is particularly popular in these markets. Expedia.com offers a wide network for your property to connect with as one of the biggest and best third-party hotel booking sites.

10. Booking.com

Booking.com is one of the best hotel online booking sites with over 100 million monthly active users. Since 2010, the business has facilitated over 4.5 billion guest arrivals. With listings in over 174,000 destinations globally, connecting your hotel to Booking.com offers a world of opportunity for your property.

RoomRaccoon offers a two-way connection to Booking.com. Our channel manager connects directly with Booking.com, allowing live syncs of rates and availability. We also offer an exclusive tool called the Opportunity Centre, which is an API that identifies how to boost your property’s performance based on rankings, conversions and cancellations.

Booking.com continues to grow as an OTA giant. This was reflected in the recent quarterly figures published by Booking.com. Booking Holdings’ gross travel bookings for the year of 2023 was over $150 billion with a year on year increase of 24%. Room nights booked also increased by 17% from 2022 to 2023. The net income of Booking Holdings had an astounding 40% increase in the year 2023. Despite new options of hotel booking sites appearing online, Booking.com reigns supreme as the most popular OTA in the world.

How to Use OTAs?

Now that you’ve learned about the best online travel agency for your hotel, you should know everything there is to know about selling on the booking site!

1. Rate parity

Rate parity is a legal agreement between a hotel and the OTA to provide the same rates for the same room on all distribution channels. Rate parity supports effective revenue management by providing control over your pricing strategy. With consistent rates, businesses can avoid revenue losses that may occur from price undercutting or conflicts between channels. This enables them to optimise revenue generation across all channels and make informed decisions about pricing adjustments based on market demand and other factors. Ultimately, rate parity helps businesses maximise their revenue potential while maintaining a consistent brand image.

2. Competitive Pricing

We offer RaccoonRev as an upgrade, a sophisticated tool that is specifically designed to track competitor rates on Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) and then adjust pricing autonomously based on your custom pricing scenarios. This innovative technology enables businesses to remain competitive in the ever-changing landscape of online booking platforms. By automating the pricing adjustment process, RaccoonRev empowers businesses to optimise their revenue strategies in real time, ultimately enhancing their market presence and profitability in the hospitality industry.

3. Billboard effect

Direct bookings are still the best kind of bookings because you get to keep 100% of the profit and have more control over the guest experience.

So, how can you use OTAs to drive more direct bookings?

The OTA billboard effect is a natural phenomenon when travellers use an OTA for ‘window shopping’ but then divert to the hotel’s website for a better deal or find out more information and book directly with the property.

4. Offer VCCs

When conducting transactions on online travel agencies (OTAs), Virtual Credit Cards (VCCs) provide a safe and efficient payment solution for businesses. VCCs offer an extra layer of security by generating unique card numbers for each transaction, which reduces the risk of fraud and unauthorised charges.

VCCs also provide a convenient way to manage expenses and track transactions. RoomRaccoon takes this process a step further by allowing businesses to track imported VCCs from booking channels and facilitating automatic charges after card activation. This feature ensures that businesses never miss out on revenue opportunities, as payments are processed promptly and efficiently.

5. Channel manager

We’ve mentioned that OTAs like Airbnb offer hosts the option to accept ‘instant bookings’ or ‘requested bookings/quotes.’ The latter works well if you’re selling limited inventory, like an apartment or a bedroom in your house and have the time to accept or decline bookings manually.

On the other hand, the instant booking module is preferred by most accommodation providers as bookings are confirmed automatically, which means you no longer have to accept them manually or worry about expiring booking requests. However, to handle real-time bookings, you will need to manage your room availability with a channel manager that syncs your availability across multiple OTAs.

For instance, your distribution mix includes Airbnb, Booking.com, Google Hotel Ads, and your website. When you receive a booking from Airbnb, the channel manager will instantly update your availability on Booking.com, Google Hotel Ads, and your booking engine to ensure there are no overbookings.

Connect Your PMS to the Best Hotel Booking Sites

Whether you’re looking for the best US hotel booking site or a global solution – you’re sure to find the right booking site for your property. Every business needs a diverse revenue stream, including direct and indirect sales. By tracking your bookings from an online travel agency with a channel manager, you’ll be able to pull reports and see which are working and which aren’t so that you can optimise your distribution mix accordingly.

RoomRaccoon’s PMS is fully integrated with the biggest and best third-party OTAs. Even better? We offer a hotel booking engine, to ensure you profit from direct bookings. To complete our holistic offering, we also offer secure hotel payment processing, to ensure your revenue is handled safely and accurately online. If you want to elevate your property’s performance with hotel management software, please check out our pricing options.

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