Contradictory to what most people think, the ways of ranking higher on OTAs are different on every platform. Every OTA uses its own unique ranking algorithm. Understanding how to climb OTA rankings is crucial for maximising your property’s visibility. That is why it is essential to tailor your approach to each platform. In this blog, we explain the similarities and differences between major OTAs and we offer strategies to boost your ranking on them.

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For a comprehensive overview of increasing the ranking on each of those OTAs, you can request an OTA Ranking Checklist through this form.

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1. What’s in this blog

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1. What's in this blog
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2. Understanding the Major OTAs and How To Climb OTA Rankings

2.1. Booking.com: A Global Leader in the OTA industry

2.2. Expedia: A Comprehensive Travel Marketplace

2.3. Airbnb: A Platform for Unique Travel Experiences

2.4. Disclaimer

3. The Similarities Between Different OTAs’ Ranking Algorithms

3.1. Maintain High-Quality Listings:

3.2. Leverage OTA Tools

3.3. Consistency Across Platforms

4. Why Is Ranking High on OTAs Important?

4.1. Can You Maximise Your Ranking on Every OTA Automatically?

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2. Understanding the Major OTAs and How To Climb OTA Rankings

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Before diving into specific strategies for improving your ranking on different major OTAs, or online travel agents, it’s essential to understand how each platform functions and what factors influence their ranking systems. Here’s a closer look at Booking.com, Expedia Group, and Airbnb, and how their unique algorithms determine listing rankings.

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2.1. Booking.com: A Global Leader in the OTA industry

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Overview: Booking.com is one of the world’s biggest and most popular online travel agents. The OTA is known for its enormous collection of accommodations ranging from luxury hotels to budget hostels. Booking.com’s main focus lies on offering as many options as possible to travellers and maximising user experience and convenience.

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How It Works: Booking.com uses a complex algorithm that considers numerous factors to determine how listings are ranked. These are the main ones:

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Conversions

Your listing’s conversion rate is the most important factor of how Booking.com determines your ranking. A higher conversion rate and higher ranking go hand in hand, focussing on factors below will increase both.‍

Quality and completeness

• Make sure that your property listings are accurate and up-to-date with high-resolution photos.
• Via Booking.com’s Extranet page you can check your Property page score This shows how you’re doing with your content and offers tips on how to improve it.
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Competitive pricing

• A competitive pricing strategy is crucial for your visibility. Most listings use a revenue management system to improve their rates for bookability. To get the most out of your RMS, you can also outsource the management of those systems to revenue experts. This will not only boost your ranking, but also help you get the most revenue from your listings.
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‍Guest reviews

• Reviews are a crucial part of your listing’s performance. However, it’s not only the average review score that counts, but just as well the amount of reviews and how quickly you answer them. You can find more information on how to increase your ranking through review interaction in this blog.‍

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Availability 

• Booking.com recommends adding availability for at least one year ahead. Don’t underestimate the amount of early birds out there who plan trips far in advance.
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2.2. Expedia: A Comprehensive Travel Marketplace

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Overview: Expedia is also one of the biggest players in the OTA industry. The biggest difference between Expedia and Booking.com is that Expedia offers a broad range of travel services, apart from hotel bookings it also offers vacation packages, and car rentals. The focus of Expedia lies more on Northern America, whereas Booking.com attracts more visitors from North-America.

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How It Works: Expedia’s ranking system looks mainly at the combination of content quality, guest feedback, and participation in promotional programs. The main factors you should look at to improve your ranking on this search engine are: 

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Property Quality and Amenities

• The quality of the property is determined by the amenities offered, the amount and quality of reviews and overall attractiveness. Higher-quality properties with desirable amenities like free Wi-Fi, pool, breakfast) often rank higher.

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Relevance to User Search Criteria 

• This factor entails how well a listing matches the specific criteria of a user’s search for example location, dates, number of guests, amenities. Listings that more closely align with what the user is looking for will rank higher in search results.To improve this relevance, you can use keywords in your description, to help the search engine connect your listing to the right target audience.
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Expedia's Revenue Considerations

• The commission or margin Expedia earns from booking a specific listing impacts your ranking position greatly. Listings that generate higher revenue for Expedia, rank higher.

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Cancellation Policies

• Make sure your property's cancellation policies are flexible. Listings with more flexible or traveller-friendly cancellation policies may rank higher because they are more attractive to customers.
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Conversion Rate

• Also Expedia’s ranking algorithm attaches a lot of weight to the booking conversion rate of your listing. Listings with higher conversion rates are seen as more desirable to customers, so they tend to rank higher.
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Staying active with these tools and maintaining a high level of guest satisfaction are crucial for achieving a high ranking. 

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2.3. Airbnb: A Platform for Unique Travel Experiences

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Airbnb is known as an OTA (online travel agent) that focuses on unique and personalised travel experiences. They offer a range of accommodations from traditional vacation rentals to special stays like tree houses and castles. The platform values host-guest interactions and community-driven reviews.

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Therefore, the algorithm of this unique OTA is different from the rest. Let’s break down their most important parameters for a high ranking:

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Content

• To rank higher on Airbnb, make sure your property description is thorough, implement sought-after keywords and details about amenities and location. The Airbnb ranking algorithms’ main focus is your description, so take your time to craft the perfect description. Apart from that, using high-quality pictures is also paramount for pleasing the ranking algorithm of Airbnb. 
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‍Responsiveness

• Reacting to messages from guests and potential guests is crucial to rank higher. Not only answering, but also answering fast, will improve your visibility and often also your reviews. 
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Guest reviews

• Your positive reviews signal to Airbnb that you are a great host, with a good listing. Airbnb will promote these hosts' listings to the top of the search results as a reward. 
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Superhost Status 

• Apart from positive reviews, there are a couple of other parameters Airbnb uses to label you as a superhost. You must complete at least ten trips or three reservations totaling 100 nights, maintain a response rate of at least 90%, have a cancellation rate below 1% (excluding extenuating circumstances), and maintain an overall rating of 4.8. Invest in reaching this status, because it will gain you a lot of visibility. 
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Pricing Strategies:

• Just like the other OTAs, Airbnb values dynamic pricing and competitiveness a lot. The rule of thumb is that OTAs want to earn as much as possible, so if your listing is profitable, Airbnb will boost its visibility to earn even more. 

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For more information on how to increase your ranking on Airbnb, you can check our blog: Airbnb Tips and Tricks: Increase Your Listing's Visibility. 

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2.4. Disclaimer 
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Focusing on improving these factors will help your property’s ranking and performance. However there are hundreds of data points the algorithm uses to rank their listings, and these change on a daily basis. A ranking management solution specialises in understanding this algorithm and implements its own algorithm to improve every factor that impacts ranking, to make sure the listings of their clients are always ranked on top. 

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For a comprehensive overview of increasing the ranking on each of those OTAs, you can request an OTA Ranking Checklist through this form.

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3. The Similarities Between Different OTAs’ Ranking Algorithms

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3.1. Maintain High-Quality Listings

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Every OTA or online travel agency values the quality of your listing a lot. The first thing you need to do is make sure that your property listings are accurate and updated with high-resolution photos and detailed descriptions.

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3.2. Leverage OTA Tools 

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Understanding how to climb OTA rankings involves using the tools and analytics provided by each OTA. Regularly checking these tools to adjust pricing, monitor competition, and analyse market trends can significantly boost your listing’s visibility. 

Booking.com’s Extranet is a great example of a tool offered by the OTA to help you enhance your performance. In one of our previous blogs, you can find out how to use this tool. 

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3.3. Consistency Across Platforms 

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Maintaining consistent pricing and availability across all OTAs is critical. Inconsistencies can lead to penalties and negatively impact your ranking. Ensure that your rates and availability are synchronised to enhance your property’s performance on every OTA platform. Source: Despegar Partner Portal

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4. Why Is Ranking High on OTAs Important?

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Otamiser’s research found that being listed on top of the OTAs, in combination with smart revenue management can boost your revenue by on average 24%, occupancy by 11% and visibility by 150%. This can be explained by the fact that 75% of people book their stays within the first 15 listings they see. 

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4.1. Can You Maximise Your Ranking on Every OTA Automatically?

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As mentioned in the disclaimer, it is hard to know how and when algorithms of OTAs change. Making sure your listings are always ranked on top, is time consuming and difficult. We notice a lot of hoteliers struggle with this frustrating process. That is why we created a system that automatically analyses the algorithms of the OTAs on a daily basis and based on that, improves the ranking of the listings it is connected to. This solution not only helps you save a lot of time, it also improves the success of your accommodations.

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For more information on how to enhance your OTA rankings automatically, you can chek out Otamiser’s solutions here.