Questions and answers: revenue management and distribution for hotels

What does revenue management involve for a small hotel?

Revenue management is deciding, every day, what to charge for each room on each night, on which channel and on what terms, so that total revenue ends up as high as it can be. A small hotel does not need a department for it. It needs someone who watches the bookings as they come in and acts quickly when they drift from what was expected.

In practice the work has four parts:

• A demand calendar for the year: seasons, holidays and events that move demand.
• Tracking how bookings are building for each date, against the same point last year.
• Prices and terms by channel and by audience: flexible rate, non-refundable rate, minimum stay.
• Looking back at what worked before pricing the next season.

Source: my work with hotels and vacation rentals since 2016.

Does a 20 to 40 room hotel need a revenue manager?

A hotel this size needs the work done, not necessarily a full-time hire. At this size, prices are usually set by the owner or the general manager, on top of many other jobs. What matters is whether someone checks bookings and prices on a regular schedule.

Signs it is time to get help:

• Prices are set once a season and then left alone.
• Nobody can say how next month's bookings compare with the same point last year.
• The hotel sells on several channels and the prices on them differ without anyone having decided it.
• Occupancy is high in season, but revenue does not rise with it.

There are three ways to get the work done, often combined: a full-time employee, a pricing system, or an outside consultant who works with the existing team.

Source: my work with hotels and vacation rentals since 2016.

Should a small hotel use a revenue management system or a consultant?

You do not have to choose. A revenue management system (RMS) updates prices quickly and consistently, following rules and data. A consultant recommends, with the hotel, which rules are right, and handles what a system usually does not weigh: contracts, cancellation terms, and the programmes Booking.com and Expedia run.

A system nobody checks can keep pricing on assumptions that stopped being true. A consultant without tools works slowly, by hand. A small hotel with a clear seasonal pattern can start without a system, using a demand calendar and a weekly review. With many room types, several channels and daily changes, a system saves time, and even then a person checks what it does.

I work with tools I built myself. I set the rules they recommend by, and I check what they produce.

Source: my work with hotels and vacation rentals since 2016.

What is the difference between a PMS, a channel manager and an RMS?

The property management system (PMS) is where bookings, rooms and guests are recorded. The channel manager sends prices and availability from the hotel to Booking.com, Expedia, Airbnb and the other channels, and brings their bookings back. The revenue management system (RMS) recommends the prices themselves, or sets them.

Sometimes two of them, or all three, come in one product. What matters is a single source for inventory and prices. A price changed by hand on one channel, instead of through the channel manager, falls out of line with the others, which in countries with parity terms can breach the contract. Availability changed by hand on one channel can lead to two bookings for the same room.

Source: my work with hotels and vacation rentals since 2016.

How can a hotel reduce its dependence on Booking.com without losing bookings?

You do not leave Booking.com. You add channels that bring different guests. A discount on your own website is not the answer: it often just makes bookings cheaper for guests who would have booked with you anyway, and in most countries outside the European Economic Area, Israel among them, it also breaks Booking.com's terms.

What works instead:

• Be visible when people search for the hotel's name, through Google Hotel Ads and other metasearch, so that your own website is among the first results a guest can book.
• Make a private offer to past guests who agreed to hear from you (see a private offer to a returning guest).
• Add channels with a different audience, such as Expedia, Airbnb, travel agents and groups, depending on the type of hotel.
• Judge the direct channel by what it earns after its own costs (marketing, booking-engine fees), not by its number of bookings.

Source: Your direct guest is not your OTA guest, Rate parity did not end. It split. and my work with hotels and vacation rentals since 2016.

Can a hotel in Israel sell cheaper on its own website than on Booking.com?

No. Under Booking.com's terms for Israel, the hotel cannot sell on its own website for less than on Booking.com, and cannot offer better terms there either, such as breakfast or a softer cancellation policy. That also covers the hotel's app. In the European Economic Area (the EU plus Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein) this requirement was removed; in Israel it was not.

Israel is in the group of countries where Booking.com compares only with the hotel's own channels, together with the UK, Australia, Japan, Turkey and seven more countries and regions. Under the terms, a lower price on a booking site the hotel does not control does not break Booking.com's parity clause. A hotel in Booking.com's Preferred programme, which lifts it in the ranking for a higher commission, must keep its Booking.com price competitive with its own website in these countries.

What is still possible: the contracts apply to the price and terms the public can see. A private relationship you build with a guest yourself, they generally do not reach (see a private offer to a returning guest).

Source: Booking.com's terms for Israel and the Preferred programme page, read on 14 October 2026. More: Rate parity did not end. It split.

Is rate parity with Booking.com still required in Europe?

In the European Economic Area (the EU plus Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein) and Switzerland, no. In the UK and Turkey, Booking.com still compares its price with the price on your own website, and in European countries on neither of its lists, such as Serbia and Ukraine, its terms require parity with every channel. With Expedia, in most versions of the contract I read, the requirement still applies in the European Economic Area too, unless the law of your own country says otherwise.

According to the European Commission, Booking.com removed the equal-price requirement from its contracts in the European Economic Area in July 2024. Its terms for these countries say the hotel does not have to give it the same or a better price. The only limit is fair play: the prices loaded on Booking.com must not be inflated, and nothing may be designed to ride on its investment for free. And according to the Commission, since September 2026 the discount Booking.com pays out of its own pocket no longer depends on the hotel's prices elsewhere either.

In 11 of the 13 versions of Expedia's contract I read, the clause is still there. Some countries' laws limit these clauses. Switzerland, for one, has treated platform terms with equal-price clauses as unfair competition since 1 December 2022. Before you change a price, read your own contract and check your country's law.

Source: European Commission, 28 September 2026; Booking.com's terms for the EEA and for Israel, which carry the country lists; Expedia's contract versions, read in October 2026.

Are Expedia's rate parity rules different from Booking.com's?

Yes. Booking.com removed the equal-price requirement from its contracts in the European Economic Area, and most versions of Expedia's contract still carry it. Expedia has many numbered versions of its contract. I read 13 of them, and in 11 the price on Expedia must be equal to or better than the price shown to everyone on the hotel's own website. In two of those 11, the comparison is with every other channel too.

In the versions that sort the world into groups, Israel sits with the European Economic Area and the UK, and in most versions only Australia is exempt from the requirement. In those same versions, a hotel in the rest of the world is compared with every channel. So a hotel in Athens can sell cheaper on its own website than on Booking.com, but in most versions not cheaper than on Expedia, and not on better terms such as a softer cancellation policy, unless the law of its own country says otherwise.

Expedia's visibility guide lists rate competitiveness among the signals it ranks hotels by, without saying what your rate is compared with. Only your own contract shows which version you signed.

Source: Expedia's contract versions and Expedia's visibility guide, read in October 2026.

What is the difference between wide and narrow rate parity?

Under wide parity, the price on the platform must be equal to or better than the price on every other channel, competing booking sites included. Under narrow parity, the comparison is only with the price shown to everyone on the hotel's own channels, such as its website. Either way, what counts is the clause in your contract, not the headlines.

What I found in the contracts in October 2026:

• Booking.com: no equal-price requirement at all in the European Economic Area and Switzerland, and also in Chile, Indonesia, Russia and South Africa. In 12 countries and regions, among them Israel, the UK, Australia, Japan and Turkey, it is narrow parity: the comparison is with the price on the hotel's own website and app. In the rest of the world it is wide parity.
• Expedia: for a hotel in Israel, the European Economic Area or the UK, most versions compare with the price shown to everyone on the hotel's own website, and two compare with every channel. In the versions that sort the world into groups, a hotel in the rest of the world is compared with every channel.

Source: Booking.com's terms, read on 14 October 2026, and Expedia's contract versions, read in October 2026.

Can I send a returning guest a private offer by email or WhatsApp?

In Israel, the UK and the European Economic Area, usually yes, on conditions. There, Booking.com's and Expedia's contracts apply to the price and terms the public can see, and generally not to a private relationship you built with a guest yourself. In most other countries, Booking.com's terms usually cover rates you give directly too.

The conditions for such an offer:

• The guest gave you their own contact details and agreed to hear from you.
• They book by phone or by email, not on your website.
• The discount is on the room price only, not a free upgrade or late check-out: several Expedia versions compare extras like those with every channel.
• The offer is not advertised anywhere public.
• Contact details that came through Booking.com or Expedia are not used for this: both forbid marketing to their guests without consent.

The two Expedia versions that compare every channel leave no room for this, so it is worth knowing which version you signed.

Source: Rate parity did not end. It split., based on Booking.com's terms and Expedia's contract versions read in October 2026.

What does a revenue management and distribution consultant do, and how is that different from a management company?

A management company runs the hotel: staff, front desk, operations, and sometimes the finances. A revenue management and distribution consultant works with the existing team on two things: the prices, and the channels the hotel sells through. The decisions stay with the owner.

What the work covers with me, at D Consulting:

• Setting up and connecting channels: Booking.com, Expedia, Airbnb, and the sync with the PMS and the channel manager.
• A pricing strategy per channel and per audience.
• Direct bookings and the booking engine on the website.
• Metasearch: Google Hotel Ads, Trivago, Tripadvisor.
• Weekly reporting, team training and ongoing support.

I work with hotels and vacation rentals in Israel and across Europe.

Source: D Consulting and About Itai Gal.

What data should I prepare before working with a consultant?

An export of your bookings from the property management system (PMS), with the booking date, the stay dates, the channel, the room type, the price and the cancellations. That one file shows where guests come from, how far ahead they book and how many of them cancel.

Several years of history is better than one, so each period can be compared with the same period a year earlier. Also worth preparing:

• The number of rooms of each type, and any period when rooms were closed, out of order or added.
• The prices and terms shown on each channel today.
• The contracts with Booking.com, Expedia and the other channels.
• Access to each channel's extranet.

Guests' personal details are not needed. Names, phone numbers and email addresses play no part in the analysis, and it is better to remove them from the file before you send it.

Source: my work with hotels and vacation rentals since 2016.