{"id":57068,"date":"2023-11-26T19:00:33","date_gmt":"2023-11-26T19:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2023\/11\/26\/why-you-dont-earn-hotel-points-when-booking-through-an-ota-the-points-guy\/"},"modified":"2023-11-26T19:00:33","modified_gmt":"2023-11-26T19:00:33","slug":"why-you-dont-earn-hotel-points-when-booking-through-an-ota-the-points-guy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2023\/11\/26\/why-you-dont-earn-hotel-points-when-booking-through-an-ota-the-points-guy\/","title":{"rendered":"Why you don’t earn hotel points when booking through an OTA – The Points Guy"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Online travel agencies like Expedia, Kayak and Hotels.com are prevalent in the travel industry. While you might not be familiar with the term OTA, you have likely used one to make a reservation. These websites have user-friendly websites, offer competitive prices and allow you to compare multiple flight, hotel and rental car options in one place.<\/p>\n

However, a significant difference exists between booking a flight and reserving a hotel room through an OTA. When you book flights via these third-party sites, you typically earn points or miles with the airline loyalty program. But when you book a hotel through an OTA, you usually won’t earn points or enjoy elite perks with the hotel loyalty program.<\/p>\n

Many TPG readers have discovered this the hard way. They booked a hotel from a chain like Marriott or Hilton through an OTA only to find out upon arrival that they cannot earn points or use their elite status benefits.<\/p>\n

This discrepancy has raised the question: Why don’t you earn hotel points when booking through an OTA?<\/p>\n

I consulted Henry Harteveldt, a travel industry analyst and president of Atmosphere Research Group, a strategic market research and advisory firm. He provided insights into the history of OTAs, their current relationship with hotels and the reason behind the lack of point accrual when booking a hotel stay through them.<\/p>\n

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History of OTAs<\/h2>\n

OTAs originated from the need to improve the efficiency of flight reservations in the late 1950s. As air travel became more popular with the advent of jet engines, the existing card-based booking systems became inadequate to handle the increased number of passengers and routes. These systems were slow and required manual processing, resulting in flight reservations taking over an hour to complete.<\/p>\n

To address this issue, American Airlines collaborated with IBM in 1961 to develop a groundbreaking software called SABRE (Semi-Automatic Business Research Environment). SABRE revolutionized the booking process by automating flight reservations. It enabled approximately 7,000 flight bookings per hour and allowed American Airlines’ reservation agents to check flight availability in seconds. This innovation significantly improved the efficiency and speed of travel bookings.<\/p>\n

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