What's the difference between OTA bookings and direct corporate bookings?
OTAs like Expedia, Booking.com, and Hotels.com display inventory and process individual transactions. Many advanced direct corporate booking platforms can enforce policies before booking, provide consolidated invoicing with project cost allocation, and integrate with financial systems, but this is not yet standard across most platforms.
Do OTAs offer better rates than direct booking?
OTAs typically show retail rates and generally don't provide access to corporate negotiated discounts or volume pricing agreements available through direct booking platforms. Travelers using OTAs usually pay the same rates as leisure customers.
Corporate platforms access negotiated rates unavailable on public sites. Independent monitoring shows direct channels beat OTA pricing in 45% of comparisons, while OTAs undercut direct rates only 33% of the time. A Forrester study documented a 16% reduction in total travel spend through corporate booking programs.
Do I lose flexibility with OTA bookings?
You lose control, not flexibility. OTAs have hard limits on standard self-service group bookings: both Expedia and Hotels.com cap at 8 rooms per transaction through their standard service, and for larger groups they direct users to dedicated group booking channels; Booking.com does not specify an automatic, property-specific workflow trigger at a 10+ room threshold. For a 15-person crew, every OTA booking becomes a phone call, a separate portal, or multiple fragmented reservations with no coordination.
Corporate platforms handle group bookings of 10 or more rooms as unified reservations. You book multiple rooms, assign project codes and cost center identifiers, receive one consolidated invoice, and manage changes through centralized administration. SRP Companies saved $450,000 in hotel bookings through Engine by centralizing crew travel under one platform.
Do OTAs or corporate platforms have better cancellation policies?
OTA cancellation policies typically vary by property and rate type. Many offer free cancellation 24-48 hours before check-in, particularly for flexible rate bookings. However, non-refundable rates carry no cancellation option: you lose the money entirely with no refund and no credit issued.
Corporate platforms negotiate flexibility as a category. Engine's FlexPro provides cancellation protection for trips canceled up to noon on check-in day, with payment only required for nights actually used. The program costs $200/month or $2,000/year and offers unlimited changes regardless of individual hotel cancellation policies.
Why is expense tracking harder with OTAs?
OTA bookings create administrative complexity. Each transaction generates a separate receipt on a separate credit card with no project context. Finance teams chase down confirmations, manually assign cost codes during month-end close, and reconcile individual charges across dozens of employee statements. GBTA data shows manual expense reports can cost as much as $58 each to process.
Corporate booking platforms capture essential business metadata at booking, enabling real-time project cost allocation. Project codes, job numbers, and cost centers attach to every reservation before checkout through custom fields. Consolidated invoicing delivers a single monthly invoice with all line items pre-coded by project and cost center. Direct billing arrangements eliminate employee out-of-pocket expenses and reimbursement cycles entirely. SafeRide Health saved $191,000 in 8 months through consolidated invoicing with Engine.
Your finance team receives one invoice per billing period instead of matching dozens of separate receipts. Engine's free platform access, custom fields for job code tagging, and optional FlexPro protection deliver that control without added complexity.
