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FAQs
Getting started
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For each property, rOTA needs basic property identification details, extranet/portal access, and financial information for payments and payouts. A client who has all the information and is able to provide the correct access can complete the guided sign up for a property in only a few minutes. And within a few business days, rOTA can review the details and activate the property for services.
Note that rOTA recommends informing staff once a property is activated so they can offboard OTA reconciliation duties if they were performing them. Also, it decreases the chance of confusion when rOTA adds new users to extranets or when OTAs make inquiries to the property on rare occasion.
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As soon as properties are activated, they are hands off. rOTA will first attempt a lookback as far back as permitted by OTAs for VCR services and begin to recover amounts. If a property has elected for HCR services, rOTA will also attempt a lookback to cover the current month if data is available and begin to save commissions. Going forward, rOTA will continue VCR services on a rolling basis two months after check-outs and HCR services on a monthly basis. All properties, regardless of when they become active, are invoiced at the same time.
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rOTA invoices clients monthly with transaction detail of completed work, and either automatically charges a payment or initiates a payout on a per property basis. The determinant is the net of both HCR and VCR services. HCR services result in payments due to rOTA, which are fees based on commissions saved. VCR services result in payouts due to properties, which are amounts recovered less rOTA fees.
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Several factors influence how much commissions can be saved and amounts recovered for each property including revenue, ADR, reservation channel mix, OTA mix, seasonality, brand syncs, existing processes, adherence to said processes, staff availability, staff aptitude, staff training, etc.
Note that rOTA has produced benefits even for properties who have reconciliation teams or processes in place which includes use of other third party vendors.
General
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Services address reservation activity from Booking.com, Expedia, and Agoda. Though those three make up the majority of OTA traffic, adding the capabilities to handle other OTAs is on the product roadmap.
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rOTA is an international platform, operated by a globally distributed team to maximize coverage and support.
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The platform uses multi-stage automated algorithms to parse reservation data for various types of discrepancies. The logic used to flag records has been curated by experts with a deep understanding of OTA reservations and continues to be fine-tuned every time a rare, pattern-breaking case is discovered.
Additionally, the use of APIs enables processing to happen at a more fundamental level, which means the platform can find things that a front-end user would miss/never see. And processing can happen at a faster pace, increasing scale as well as leaving time for investigations and disputes, than if a user were operating manually without APIs.
Last, as a full-service operation, rOTA ensures that reconciliation happens from start to finish. Identifying reconciliation opportunities is only part of the equation. For example, a re-issued virtual card is still lost revenue if someone doesn’t take the last step of processing the card.
Hotel Collect Reconciliation
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Properties must use a cloud-based PMS that is accessible remotely by rOTA or operate a brand for which rOTA has an existing API integration to property-level activity. Properties must also be receiving OTA reservations under the “agency”, sometimes referred to as “retail”, model.
Note that rOTA does not perform HCR services on specific combinations of brands and OTAs due to the existence of syncs where discrepancies are handled by centralized systems and processes: Hilton/Booking.com, Hilton/Expedia, Marriott/Expedia, IHG/Expedia, Hyatt/Expedia, and Best Western/Expedia.
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No, rOTA’s full-service, end-to-end, pay-for-performance operations are based around eliminating dependencies on on-site personnel and maximizing returns for each property. Access to PMS data enables rOTA to efficiently identify, investigate, and reconcile discrepancies without the execution risks associated with alternative approaches (e.g., limited datasets, non-conducive report formats, delivery consistency, staff promptness).
Note that access requirements are comparable to those of a third-party management company or revenue manager.
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No, rOTA requires its own access to establish an audit trail, critical for traceability and accountability. Creating a new user for rOTA also eliminates the need for a property to transmit passwords. And last, the approach minimizes the risk of service interruptions (e.g., from password resets, employee turnover).
Virtual Card Recovery
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Properties must use virtual cards as a method of receiving payment from an OTA for “virtual collect” reservations, under the “merchant” model which is typically “net”. rOTA cannot perform services if a property has selected electronic funds transfer as the method for receiving payment.
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rOTA allows for a settling period to confirm that any activity on a virtual card is finished. This settling period minimizes the chance of an additional transaction (e.g., update, refund, chargeback) creating an administrative complication of burdensome backtracking and correspondence.
Note that because the window to charge a virtual card extends well past two months after check-outs, in most cases up to a full year, there is no risk of missing funds by waiting the settling period.
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rOTA reviews “virtual collect” reservations as far back as OTAs permit taking into consideration any brand-specific agreements. In most cases, the lookback period is one year. On occasion, such as for the IHG/Expedia combination, the period is capped at six months.
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In the rare event that an OTA claims an overcharge from rOTA’s activities, rOTA recommends being notified so that the situation can be rectified efficiently.
Note that between the settling period which minimizes the likelihood of a refund or chargeback and the processing logic used by rOTA which protects against OTAs leaving too much on virtual cards (and in the case of disputes, against incorrectly issuing or overloading them), overcharges are uncommon.
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rOTA processes virtual cards via its payments service platform, and does not deposit payouts due from amounts recovered into any bank accounts except for client-provided ones tied to each property. This method enables rOTA to maintain audit trails, eliminate dependencies on property terminals (which is good in both directions), and operate with much more speed than any other set up which requires use of multiple and external systems.
Note that if rOTA simply provided a list of what to charge, not only would rOTA no longer be an end-to-end full-service solution but also it would expose the property to execution risk as there would be no mechanism to ensure staff accurately completes remaining steps.