Expedia Partner Central: Getting started with OTA partnerships

Expedia is one of the major players when it comes to Online Travel Agents (OTAs). But have you ever wondered about the story behind this name?

Founded as a division of Microsoft in 1996 before being spun out into a public company three years later, the company has two parts to its name: the ‘ex’ is a nod to exploration, while ‘pedia’ refers to knowledge or information, drawing from the word ‘encyclopedia’. 

Read together it’s meant to symbolize making travel knowledge easily accessible and fast.

The travel industry has seen massive changes, but this early commitment to speed and exploration remains central to what Expedia.com offers travelers today, and, second only to Booking.com in the online travel agent (OTA) space, it must be working.

But here's the burning question for hoteliers: Is partnering with Expedia worth your time and resources? Enter Expedia Partner Central - a platform designed to tip the scales in your favor.

In this article, we'll unpack what Expedia Partner Central is, how it works, and why it might be just what your property needs. Plus, we'll explore how it fits into a broader OTA strategy to boost your online presence and bookings.

What is Expedia Partner Central?

An online platform developed by Expedia Group and launched in the early 2010s, Expedia Partner Central (EPC) is designed to help hospitality partners, such as hotels and vacation rental hosts, manage their properties and bookings on Expedia’s many travel websites.

EPC has a range of easy-to-use tools that hoteliers can use to control their listings, monitoring performance, and optimizing their presence across Expedia’s extensive travel marketplace.

Its primary goal is to empower you as an accommodation provider with insights and tools to attract more guests, increase bookings and optimize your visibility on Expedia’s suite of travel sites, while streamlining your property management efforts.

How the platform works

As a partner, the principal uses of the platform are:

• Managing room availability

• Managing and adjusting rates

• Managing and updating content, such as descriptions, photos and other media

• Viewing analytics that help you track bookings, customer reviews and overall business performance

Additionally, EPC offers tools for creating promotions, setting up deals, and responding to guest experience feedback.

Signing up to Expedia Partner Central is free, and it’s easy to log in on their portal (a.k.a. Expedia extranet) once you’ve done so. But there is a cost for getting listed on Expedia in the first place, as is there with any OTA. 

This comes in the form of commissions on sales, which are typically in the range of 10 to 30%. Cancellation and merchant fees also apply in some circumstances.

How to sign up for Expedia Partner Central

Access to EPC is provided on the Expedia Partner Central app, a portal you can access once you’ve created an Expedia account.

Once there, address the prompts that ask you about the basics of your property, such as:

• Name

• Location

• Property type

• Number of rooms

• Contact details

Once that preliminary information is in place, it’s time to go to town on enhancing your listing.

This is a process over which you have complete control (within EPC’s guidelines), both in terms of the words you use to describe your property, its amenities and room type information, and of the photographs you choose to display.

These can, of course, be edited whenever you like. 

See it as an extension of your own website. The impression you want to convey on your website is no different from the one you should aim for on EPC.

Why hoteliers use Expedia Partner Central

Successful hoteliers are always on the lookout for tools that give them an edge. Expedia Partner Central offers several key benefits for hoteliers, which we’d break down into increased reach, analytics, guest engagement and streamlining operations. Let's examine the four key benefits for hoteliers:

1. Increased visibility and reach

Expedia Partner Central connects hotels to the vast Expedia Group network, which includes popular travel brands like Hotels.com, Orbitz, and Vrbo. This global reach allows hotels to expand their audience by showcasing their properties to millions of potential travelers worldwide. 

Imagine your property being seen by millions of potential guests worldwide, 24/7. That's the power of EPC's reach. But it's not just about being seen - it's about standing out. Here's how EPC can help you in competitive markets:

• Targeted promotions: hoteliers can create and manage special deals, discounts and packages to attract specific customer segments or boost occupancy during slow periods.

• Loyalty programs: properties can participate in Expedia's Rewards Program, giving them extra exposure to loyal travelers who are more likely to book.

2. Analytics and insights

In the fast-paced world of hospitality you need solid data to stay ahead of the curve. EPC provides you with insights into your property’s performance, helping you make data-driven decisions. These insights include:

• Pricing recommendations: the platform offers pricing intelligence tools that allow hoteliers to compare their room rates with local competitors in real-time.

 This helps ensure that pricing is competitive, dynamically adjusted and reflective of market trends, increasing the chances of securing more bookings – but more comprehensive tools are available elsewhere.

• Performance metrics: you can track key performance indicators (KPIs), such as occupancy rates, revenue and customer review scores. These metrics allow you to evaluate how well you’re performing compared to competitors and previous periods.

• Market demand forecasting: EPC includes demand forecasts based on booking trends, helping hotels anticipate peak periods and optimize pricing and availability to maximize revenue.

3. Guest engagement and review management

Nowadays your online reputation can make or break your business.  Expedia Partner Central (EPC) puts the power of guest engagement at your fingertips, helping you build a stellar online presence and foster customer loyalty.Positive responses to reviews can improve a property’s ranking, while addressing negative feedback promptly can build trust with future guests.

Used well, these tools can foster reputation management and encourage repeat business.

4. Streamlined operations: Simplify your day-to-day management tasks

 Time is your most precious resource. Through EPC, hoteliers can efficiently manage room availability, update content and adjust room rates across all Expedia Group platforms from a single dashboard. This centralized system reduces the time and effort needed to manually manage listings on different sites, helping your hotel streamline its operations.

Don’t just join Expedia’s partner network

This section’s heading says it all, so we won’t labor what should be an obvious point: however important Expedia is – and it is important – you must promote across OTA sites.

Expedia.com is second on the podium but Booking.com currently has the top spot. And they each have a number of sister OTAs.

Expedia’s, which include the aforementioned Orbitz, and Vrbo, as well as Hotels.com, Travelocity, Hotwire.com, Ebookers, CheapTickets and Wotif, and metasearch engine, Trivago. Your presence on all of these can be managed through Expedia Partner Central.

Booking.com partner sites include Priceline.com, Agoda, Kayak.

Beyond these groups of companies, don’t forget Trip.com, Hotelbeds and Traveloka. The list goes on, with estimates suggesting there may be as many as 400. And you should of course be aware of the likes of Airbnb and Hostelworld, even if it’s not appropriate to partner with them.

Who to work with?

So much in business comes down to spreading your risk; essentially, not putting all your eggs in one basket. But how many baskets should you have to drive the right level of bookings?

This is a judgment call, and when choosing which OTAs to partner with, consider factors such as:

• Geography, either in terms of where the hotels they market are or where they draw guests from

• Reach

• Reputation

• Their commission structure and whether you can negotiate

• Whether they have platforms akin to Expedia Partner Central, which can make working with them easier

Remember: OTAs are used in 80% of travel searches. A strategic presence on multiple platforms can significantly boost your visibility and bookings.

Make the most of OTA partnerships

The best OTA partnerships are those that supplement your direct sales, particularly during periods of low demand,  and bring you business for a fair commission that you otherwise wouldn’t have won.

How you achieve that means:

• Choosing the right OTAs

• Deciding when to emphasize your partnership through shared promotions and the like, depending on demand

• Getting a handle on their fee structure

• Monitoring them for rate parity issues

• Reviewing the cancellation policy and local tax situation of each OTA

• Not doing anything that’s detrimental to your direct sales activity

Learn how to manage listings across OTA sites

Successfully steering your property through the online distribution landscape without tech by your side isn’t easy. In reality it's nigh on impossible. 

That's where Lighthouse Channel Manager comes in, your all-in-one solution for channel management and distribution optimization, it helps you:

• Optimize pricing across all of your distribution channels, with AI-driven dynamic pricing recommendations when connected with Pricing Manager

• Maximize visibility and revenue by connecting to 200+ channels

• Easily maintain parity across all of your OTAs

• Effortlessly avoid overbookings

• Save time with a centralized dashboard where you can automate pricing, promotions, and syncing of availability

• Get more commission-free bookings directly through your homepage

Don't let the complexities of multi-channel management hold you back. With Lighthouse Channel Manager, you can optimize your visibility, streamline your operations, and boost your revenue - all while saving you valuable time.