In European hotel distribution, the largest platform group holds 68.8% of bookings made through online travel agencies, and the two largest groups together hold 85.4%, according to HOTREC's study. Direct channels still lead with 51.3% of overnights, while tour operators and travel agencies bring 8.1%, down from 10.3% when the series began.
Key facts
- 68.8% of OTA bookings go to the largest platform group, and 85.4% to the two largest together — HOTREC, European Hotel Distribution Study.
- 51.3% of overnights through direct channels and 29.9% through OTAs, on HOTREC's weighted European estimate — HOTREC.
- 8.1% of overnights from tour operators and travel agencies, down from 10.3% when the series began — HOTREC.
- 51% of the hotels surveyed say the platforms undercut their prices frequently or occasionally — HOTREC.
- Ten conversations out of 426 carry 46.8% of all the paperwork on one desk — the author's operations archive.
The news. HOTREC, the European hotel association, has published its European Hotel Distribution Study, built on information from more than 2,700 hotels, most of it from individual survey responses and the rest from aggregated chain data. Direct channels brought in 51.3% of overnights and online travel agencies 29.9%, on HOTREC's weighted European estimate, which leaves the chain data out. HOTREC is using the results to press European regulators to enforce the Digital Markets Act.
What does the line under the headline show?
Direct still leads. That is PhocusWire's headline, and it is true. The share that matters to an agency sits further down HOTREC's table. Tour operators and travel agencies, which the study counts as a single line, account for 8.1% of overnights, down from 10.3% when the series began. Add wholesalers at 1.8% and the traditional trade brings in roughly one overnight in ten. Over the same run, the OTA share rose from 19.7% to 29.9%.
That is not a comfortable number for our side of the business, and there is no point dressing it up.
How concentrated is the OTA channel?
The largest platform group holds 68.8% of OTA bookings, and the two largest groups together hold 85.4%. Those are shares of OTA bookings only, not of all hotel bookings. And 51% of the hotels surveyed say the platforms undercut their prices frequently or occasionally, eight points more than in the previous edition. HOTREC's president, Alexandros Vassilikos, put the position plainly: "Hotels need digital platforms, but they also need genuine choice. Growing concentration must not translate into growing dependency."
Nobody wakes up dependent. It happens a point at a time, over years.
Does an agency desk show the same curve?
Concentration is the normal shape of a distribution business, and the desks I ran show it. On one of them, ten conversations out of 426 carry 46.8% of all the paperwork, and nine of those ten are trading partners. It grew that way because a desk answers the phone that rings and serves the partner who sends work, and after a few years the top of the list is doing nearly half the paperwork. A hotel watching one group take more than two-thirds of its OTA bookings is looking at the same curve from the other side.
You are concentrated. What matters is whether you chose it or inherited it. The two look identical on a revenue report and behave very differently the week one name at the top of the list stops calling.
Why it matters for the agency: know your ten. Know what each one is worth, why they stay, and what next month looks like if one of them goes. The hotels are now asking Brussels to fix what that arithmetic shows. An agency has no Brussels to ask.
Source: PhocusWire — European hotels maintain direct distribution lead over OTAs, by Linda Fox. Channel shares and OTA concentration: HOTREC, European Hotel Distribution Study.