What if we’ve been looking at OTAs all wrong? | Mohamed Al Kaddouri

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What if we’ve been looking at OTAs all wrong?

Most hotels see them as the middleman. Necessary, but annoying. A cost of doing business.
But what if they’re something else entirely?

Not just distribution channels.
Not just a place to dump inventory.

But behavioral labs.
Every search. Every scroll. Every filter. Every abandoned cart.
It’s all guest psychology, just sitting there, waiting to be decoded.

What are they looking for but not finding?
Where do they pause?
What dates do they flirt with but never commit to?

That’s not just noise. That’s a signal.

We could treat OTAs like an early warning system. A predictive demand engine. A messy, brilliant window into how travelers think, feel, decide.

Not to become more dependent on them.
But to get smarter everywhere else.

Smarter pricing. Smarter packaging. Smarter timing.
And most of all, smarter direct booking strategies that speak to what guests are already telling us with their behavior.

The future isn’t OTA vs direct. That fight is tired.

The future is OTA as insight. OTA as intelligence.

And the luxury hotels that get this?
They won’t just fill rooms.
They’ll build something guests never saw coming; because the hotel saw it first.