How Hotels Manage Booking.com and Expedia Inventory

The Challenge of Managing Multiple OTAs

Booking.com and Expedia are the two largest OTAs globally, and most independent hotels list on both. Each platform has its own extranet — a web portal where hotels manage their listing, availability, rates and reservations.

Without a channel manager, a hotel must log into each extranet separately to update availability after every booking. If a room is booked on Booking.com, the hotel must immediately log into Expedia and reduce availability there too — and vice versa. Miss one update, and the same room gets booked twice.

A channel manager eliminates this problem by automating all updates across both platforms simultaneously.

How the Channel Manager Connects to Booking.com and Expedia

Both Booking.com and Expedia provide official APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) that allow channel managers to connect directly to their systems. These are certified, two-way connections:

• Booking.com uses the Connectivity API, which allows channel managers to push availability and rates and receive reservations in real time
• Expedia uses the Expedia Connectivity API (EQC), which provides the same two-way functionality

Channel managers that are certified by both platforms have tested and approved connections, which means data flows reliably and quickly.

What Data Is Synchronised

The channel manager synchronises three types of data between your hotel and each OTA:

Availability (ARI)

ARI stands for Availability, Rates and Inventory — the three data types that flow between the channel manager and OTAs. Availability tells each platform how many rooms of each type are available on each date.

Rates

Rate plans, prices and restrictions (minimum stay, non-refundable, advance purchase) are pushed to both platforms from the channel manager. A rate change in the channel manager updates both Booking.com and Expedia simultaneously.

Reservations

When a guest books on either platform, the reservation is sent to the channel manager, which forwards it to the PMS and reduces availability across all channels.

The Booking Flow Step by Step

Here is what happens when a guest books a room on Booking.com while your hotel is also listed on Expedia:

1. Guest completes booking on Booking.com
2. Booking.com sends reservation to the channel manager via API
3. Channel manager creates reservation in the PMS
4. PMS reduces available inventory by one room on those dates
5. Channel manager pushes updated availability to Expedia (and all other channels) immediately
6. Expedia now shows one fewer room available on those dates
7. Booking confirmation is sent to the guest

The entire process takes seconds. By the time the guest receives their confirmation email, Expedia has already been updated.

Managing Rates on Booking.com and Expedia

Both Booking.com and Expedia charge commission on each booking — typically 15–20% of the room rate. Hotels need to factor this commission into their pricing strategy.

A channel manager makes it easy to manage rates across both platforms:

• Set a base rate and automatically calculate OTA rates with a commission markup
• Apply different rates to different platforms if your strategy requires it
• Push seasonal rate changes to both platforms with one update
• Apply promotions and discounts to specific channels

For more on rate strategy, see: Managing Hotel Rates Across Multiple Channels and Rate Parity Explained.

Managing Cancellations and Modifications

When a guest cancels or modifies a booking on Booking.com or Expedia, the channel manager receives the update and adjusts the PMS reservation accordingly. Availability is restored on all channels automatically.

This means cancelled rooms are immediately available for rebooking on all platforms — maximising the chance of reselling the room.

Reducing OTA Dependency

While Booking.com and Expedia are valuable distribution channels, their commission rates mean that every booking through them costs the hotel 15–20% of revenue. Hotels that rely too heavily on OTAs are vulnerable to commission increases and algorithm changes.

The most effective way to reduce OTA dependency is to drive more direct bookings through your hotel website. See: How to Increase Hotel Direct Bookings and How Hotels Can Reduce OTA Dependency.

Frontdeskey Channel Manager

Frontdeskey's channel manager connects to Booking.com, Expedia and other major OTAs through certified API connections, keeping availability and rates synchronised automatically.

Learn more about the Frontdeskey Channel Manager or book a free demo.