Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) like Expedia and Booking.com play a major role in hotel bookings, but without active oversight, your OTA advertising can quietly chip away at your profitability. While these platforms offer strong exposure and booking volume, the cost of running unmanaged or poorly optimized OTA ads can add up quickly.
1. Wasting Budget on High-Occupancy Periods
Running ads when your hotel is already pacing well for occupancy may feel harmless—but it’s one of the most common (and expensive) mistakes. Unmonitored OTA campaigns can continue spending budget even when you don’t need the extra bookings. For high-demand dates like holidays, large events, or peak season weekends, guests will book anyway. Every ad click during those periods is essentially wasted spend.
Pause or reduce spend for dates when you’re already pacing ahead. Redirect those dollars to shoulder periods or need dates.
2. Paying Commissions for Guests You Could Have Booked Directly
When OTA ads are left unchecked, they often compete directly with your own direct booking channels. That means you’re paying commissions for bookings you might have otherwise captured on your brand site—at a far lower cost.
3. Rising Cost-Per-Click Drains Your Daily Budget
OTA platforms work on a bidding model, and if you’re not adjusting your strategy, you could be overpaying for clicks. High cost-per-click (CPC) rates can quickly burn through your daily budget, especially in competitive markets. This often leaves your campaigns inactive during key hours of the day—causing missed bookings during high-conversion periods.
4. Lack of Targeting Leads to Low-Quality Bookings
A one-size-fits-all campaign strategy doesn’t work in today’s market. Without actively managing your OTA ads, you’re likely wasting impressions on guests who aren’t your ideal fit—wrong market, wrong booking window, wrong traveler type.
This can lead to higher cancellation rates, lower ADR, and less profitable bookings overall.
Refine your OTA targeting to focus on your ideal guest segments—leisure vs. business, drive markets vs. fly-ins, early planners vs. last-minute bookers.
5. Missing Need Periods Where Ads Could Make a Difference
On the flip side, unmanaged ads may be inactive during timeframes where occupancy is soft and demand generation is needed. If you’re not aligning your ad pacing with forecast data, you’ll miss opportunities to drive bookings during slow periods—exactly when strategic advertising is most valuable.
6. No Visibility into Return on Ad Spend (ROAS)
Running OTA ads without tracking their performance is like flying blind. You might be spending thousands per month, but if you can’t tie those dollars to actual room nights and revenue, you can’t make informed decisions. A lack of reporting also makes it easy to overlook underperforming ads or channels.
You need: A clear understanding of what you’re spending, what you’re earning, and where to improve.
OTA ads aren’t “set it and forget it.” They require the same strategic oversight as your Google Ads or Meta campaigns. Without ongoing management, optimization, and reporting, you risk:
- Burning ad dollars unnecessarily
- Paying high commissions for bookings you could own directly
- Missing out on need-date strategies that actually drive incremental revenue
Want help managing your OTA campaigns more strategically?
Reach out to our team—we specialize in optimizing OTA ads for maximum ROI and smarter occupancy management.
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