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How do OTAs work? - Vacation Rental Guide
Online Travel Agencies, or OTAs, have become a go-to tool for travelers and a powerful booking channel for accommodation providers. They act as a middleman, connecting guests with hotels, vacation rentals, and other travel services through one easy-to-use platform.
But there’s more to them than just listing properties, OTAs handle everything from payment processing to marketing, making it easier for hosts and property managers to reach a global audience. Here, we’ll break down exactly how OTAs work and why they play such a big role in the travel industry.
How to list your rental on an OTA?
Each OTA has its own guidelines and is designed to make the sign-up process as easy as possible. The basic process involves:
- Creating a user account for yourself
- Coming up with a title for your property
- Writing a description about your property
- Posting photographs
- Checking off from a list of amenities
- Setting a per night price
Note: the processes mentioned above do not follow any order, and while these sub-processes are part of most sign-up processes some may require you to include other details and omit some of those mentioned above.
How does the booking process work?
From the property managers perspective:
Once the sign-up process is completed and your listing is published you can now accept bookings. If you have enabled instant bookings as you can with most OTAs guests will be able to book your property without you having to individually approve every request.
As far as communication between guests and hosts goes, any communication before booking mostly happens via a chat box from the OTA. Once the booking is done guests might in the case of some OTAs be able to access the contact information you’ve provided and can then reach out to you personally, either via phone, email, or SMS.
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