Independent hotels and smaller chains are facing mounting pressure from a growing number of “secondary OTAs”—online travel agencies beyond industry giants like Booking.com and Expedia—that are undercutting official room rates, disrupting revenue management and brand integrity.

These non-major OTAs are increasingly sourcing hotel inventory through wholesale reselling networks or loosely managed affiliate programs. According to the May 2025 World Parity Report by 123Compare.me, this practice disproportionately affects independent hotels in competitive urban markets, exposing them to aggressive rate disparities.

“Many of these platforms pull inventory through wholesaler reselling or via loosely managed affiliate programs, then undercut on price, often without the hotel’s knowledge,” said Mohamed Al Kaddouri, Reservations and Revenue Support Manager at ReviseHub Hospitality Solutions.

As these unauthorized OTAs proliferate, often leveraging affiliate marketing tactics, hoteliers find themselves paying nearly 50% more for pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns, only to see customers redirected to lower prices elsewhere. This creates a paradox: the more a hotel invests in direct marketing strategies, the more likely it is to lose customers to rogue OTAs offering cheaper deals.

Joe Pettigrew, Group Chief Commercial Officer at L+R Hotels, stressed the importance of holding major OTA partners accountable for downstream distribution. “Some OTA partners will distribute your rates to small OTAs, and the onus falls on the hotel to address it,” he said.

The issue isn’t new. Last year, Expedia Group’s then-CEO Peter Kern raised alarms over similar unauthorized rate misuse at the Americas Lodging Investment Summit.

While affiliate marketing remains a powerful channel, experts warn that without tighter control, it can backfire—costing hotels valuable bookings and diminishing brand trust. With no sign of the trend slowing, hoteliers are being urged to strengthen channel management and invest in rate parity tools to regain control over their pricing and online distribution.

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