July 16, 2020

The Second Series Is Here! The Secret Sauce of Large Online Travel Agents

by euroart | July 16, 2020

a red pepper with the words the secret sauce of large otts

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The short-term rental industry is going through a challenging time in its history, and that also includes large Online Travel Agents (OTA’s). Everyone has faced tough choices that have meant we have either learnt to adapt and be flexible or suffered the consequences.

To help you on your journey towards growth and recovery, we’ve started recording the second series of The Secret Sauce podcast. Consisting of interviews with four of the largest OTAs over the coming weeks, we will be deep diving to reveal their secret strategies as well as discussing how they have coped with the crisis.

Packed with expert advice, insider tips and upcoming trends, the Secret Sauce of Large OTA’s is the only resource you need if you want to emulate their secret recipe and optimise your properties on the largest OTA’s.

In our first episode, we spoke with David Salamon, the Director of Product at Agoda, the online booking platform with a global network of 2 million properties in more than 200 countries and territories worldwide. They provide travellers with access to luxury and budget hotels, apartments, homes and villas.

Watch our first episode – The Secret Sauce of Agoda here!

Next week we will be talking to Expedia, one of the world’s leading full-service online travel brands that help travellers easily plan and book travel from the widest selection of vacation packages, flights, hotels, rental cars, rail, cruises, activities, attractions, and services.

Following Expedia we will be interviewing Airbnb – one of the world’s largest marketplaces for unique, authentic places to stay, offering over 7 million listings – and Booking.com – the online travel marketplace that offers travellers an incredible range of places to stay and enables properties all over the world to reach a global audience and grow their businesses.

To subscribe to The Secret Sauce of Large OTA’s podcast you can find us on Spotify, Apple Podcast or Youtube.

What you’ll discover:

  • How the world’s largest OTAs have coped with the crisis and what they have learnt from it as a company
  • Where large OTAs are investing their marketing in terms of country and markets
  • How property managers can rank better on their large OTAs
  • What kind of travel trends and evolutions big OTAs are beginning to see
  • Any trends they are seeing with Booking windows
  • The best tips and advice OTAs have for property managers to help maximise their bookings
  • What cleaning and safety protocols big OTAs have or will be adding to their platforms
  • New features that property managers should know about

How will the Secret Sauce help you grow your vacation rental business?

The Secret Sauce of Large OTAs is a treasure trove of knowledge, containing invaluable information about the strategies that some of the world’s largest OTAs are using to increase their revenue and bounce back after the crisis.

It’s your chance to learn from their expertise and apply their optimisation tips and tricks to your own vacation rental business.

Who is the secret sauce for?

The Secret Sauce of Large OTAs is for professional vacation rental property managers around the world who want insider knowledge to take their business to the next level.

Whether you’re just starting to scale your business or have been operating dozens or even hundreds of properties for a while, you will learn something new.

If you’re curious about the behind-the-scenes of successful OTAs and are open to expert advice on how to optimise your listings, this podcast is for you.

Vacation rental expertise

At Rentals United, we strive to provide our partners with all the resources they need to be successful.

As experts in Channel Management, we think it’s fundamentally important to stay up-to-date on industry trends and learn from the biggest and best in the game.

We created the Secret Sauce of Large OTAs to give you a never-before-seen podcast packed with upcoming trends and insights so you can start bouncing back.

Rentals United is the Channel Manager for professional vacation rental property managers and we are a Premier Partner of the four biggest channels: Airbnb, Agoda, Booking.com and Expedia.

Are you ready to build a tech-based distribution strategy? Discover how our enterprise-level Channel Manager can get you more bookings.

Get insights into the workplace and the resources to help you thrive in

About the Author

euroart

Author

Preferred+ Software Partner 2026

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Frequently asked questions

Rentals United is a vacation rental channel manager built for short-term rental hosts and property managers. Rather than replacing your property management system, it plugs directly into it, syncing your listings in real time across 90+ booking channels, including Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com, and Expedia, Homes & Villas By Marriott Bonvoy, all from one dashboard. With AI-powered analytics, and guest communication tools built in, it automates distribution and helps you grow bookings without adding complexity to your existing workflow.

 

A vacation rental channel manager — sometimes called a short term rental channel manager — is software that connects your listings to multiple booking platforms like Airbnb, Vrbo, and Booking.com, keeping rates, availability, and reservations in sync so you never risk a double booking. If you’re updating calendars manually, missing promotion opportunities, or leaving bookings on the table because a listing isn’t optimized, this is exactly the problem it solves. A revenue-first channel manager like Rentals United goes further, using AI-driven insights and multi-rate pricing to help you win more bookings on the channels you already use — properties using multi-rate pricing have earned up to 3x more revenue

No minimum size required. As a channel manager for vacation rentals of every size, Rentals United works for hosts managing a single property up to enterprise portfolios — it’s part of a network of 403,000+ properties connected worldwide. Whether you connect directly through Rentals United, through your existing PMS, or via our channel manager API, the platform scales with you, so you can add channels, features, and properties as you grow without switching systems.

Getting started is straightforward, whether you connect directly, through your existing PMS, or via API. After signing up, Rentals United’s onboarding specialists personally import your listings, connect your booking channels, and recommend the right channel mix for your portfolio. You’ll get strategic setup guidance on pricing and promotion features from day one, plus ongoing support from a dedicated account manager to keep your distribution and revenue performing as you scale.

Every Rentals United account comes with a dedicated Account Manager and access to channel experts who know both the platform and the short-term rental industry — not just generic technical support. Beyond one-to-one guidance on optimizing your channel mix, pricing, and promotions, you’ll have access to Rentals United’s knowledge base, API documentation, and ongoing performance reviews, so you’re never troubleshooting alone. Enterprise clients are also backed by SOC II-compliant security and operational reliability.

Rentals United takes data security seriously, protecting both your business data and your guests’ personal information with encryption, strict access controls, and regular security audits. Enterprise accounts are backed by SOC II-compliant infrastructure, the same standard referenced for our operational reliability, and our systems are built to align with GDPR requirements for handling guest and property manager data across Europe and beyond. Every integration, whether direct, through your PMS, or via our channel manager API, follows the same security protocols, so your listings, rates, and reservations stay protected no matter how you connect. If you have specific compliance requirements, such as industry certifications or data residency needs, our account managers can walk you through Rentals United’s security documentation before you get started.