OTA (Online Travel Agency)
An online travel agency (OTA) is a website that lists rental properties or hotel rooms from many different hosts and takes a booking commission on each reservation made through the site. Airbnb, VRBO, and Booking.com are the three OTAs most vacation rental hosts already use alongside their own website.
OTAs bring built-in search traffic and guest trust, which is why most hosts keep at least one OTA listing even after adding a direct booking channel. In exchange, the OTA charges a commission - typically a percentage of the booking total - and usually controls the guest relationship and payment flow.
Commission rates and rules vary by platform, listing type, and market, so hosts should check the current terms on each OTA directly rather than assume a fixed number.
Why it matters for hosts
Every booking that comes through a host's own website instead of an OTA avoids that platform's commission entirely. Most independent hosts run both at once - OTAs for reach, a direct booking widget for repeat guests and commission-free requests - rather than replacing one with the other.
Further reading
More detail on how this works with RentalBeam.
Related terms
Other glossary terms that come up alongside this one.
See this in the product.
See the direct booking widget