Every OTA should include in it´s marketing and customer acquisition strategy a few channels: SEO, social media, collaborations, affiliate marketing and metasearch traffic. Metasearch accounts for 45% of global unique visitors in the online travel industry! While metasearch engines are popular, I was surprised at how complicated it was to find information on how to list your OTA with metasearch engines. The purpose of this post is to save you time by concentrating all the available information on how to list your OTA with metasearch engines.
The popular metasearch engine Trivago, part of Expedia Group (and famed for their endless TV commercials worldwide) needs no introduction. Currently there are 180 OTAs and 230 hotel chains advertising their rates on Trivago. In order to register OTA on Trivago, you need to head over to this URL :
You will then be directed to an online form which you will need to fill out:
Here is the information you will be required to fill out:
Kayak is part of the Booking Holdings group and is very popular, especially within the USA. On Kayak there is very limited information regarding how to list your OTA with Kayak. If you enter this link you will find a contact email (bdcontact@kayak.com) in order to get in touch with their team.
Though no clear information is available on Wego´s website, we reached out to them and it seems that they are accepting partnerships with OTAs. In order to obtain more information regarding getting your OTA listed with Wego, reach out to this email address: hoteliers@wego.com
FindHotel is a relatively new metasearch engine that has quickly grown to 2.5 million nights sold. They do not offer any information regarding how to list an OTA on FindHotel, but their contact form does have "run a hotel website" as one of the reasons to contact them about. You can access their contact form directly from here.
When we reached out to FindHotel, they clarified to us that they do not work with the classic advertisement model that other metasearch engines do, but they are focused on contracting OTA with unique prices & direct contracts. Sounds like a true win-win situation for OTAs looking to increase their high intent traffic.
Skyscanner is a metasearch that grew it´s fame due to it´s flight search features, but have strengthened their positioning in the hotel market as well. Their site has an extensive reach due to being available in 30 languages with over 100M app downloads. In order to obtain more information regarding how to list your OTA with Skyscanner´s metasearch, head over to this URL and fill out the following form.
Since we couldn´t find any information on Hotelscombined´s website regarding listing an OTA with them as a supplier, we reached out to their customer service department and received this response:
So for now, OTAs will need to wait since Hotelscombined is not integrating new partners.
Costs for listing an OTA on a metasearch engine
There is no initial cost in order to list an OTA with a metasearch engine. Depending on the metasearch engine, there are multiple business models used with their partners:
Pay Per Click (PPC) - This means that you are only charged when a user clicks on your advertised rate for a hotel. They are then referred directly to your website, where they can complete their booking.
Success fee (commission based) - Instead of paying per click, you will only pay for a completed booking (once the guest completed their stay). Though this is a risk free approach, you risk a lack of visibility since the metasearch algorithm could give priority to a site that pays per click.
Mixed model - This is a combination between the two previous models. This model may help you avoid lack of visibility potentially associated to commission based plans.
CPM (Cost per 1000 impressions) - In this model, your OTA will pay a fee for 1,000 ad impressions, regardless of how many clicks or how much revenue was driven.
Conclusion
While metasearch engines is a popular customer acquisition channel for OTAs, surprisingly it is quite difficult to find public information on how to list your OTA with metasearch engines. We hope this article saves you time in locating the most suitable metasearch engine for your business!