Register your accommodation on Booking.com, Airbnb, and Expedia: step by step

Signing up with Booking.com costs nothing and takes about 30 minutes to fill out, but the real question is not if you do it, but on how many platforms and how you prevent yourself from becoming completely dependent on them.

The problem

Say you open a B&B with 6 rooms in Friesland. The first question everyone asks you: "Are you on Booking yet?" And that is right. Without a major platform, almost nobody finds you in the first months, because you have no reviews yet, no visibility on Google, and no established guest base.

An OTA (Online Travel Agency, an online booking platform like Booking.com or Expedia) solves that at once. Your profile appears to millions of travelers, you get bookings before anyone knows your name, and filling it out is free.

You notice the flip side later. Every booking through such a platform costs you 15 percent or more commission. At 60 bookings per month at 120 euros, that is over 1,000 euros a month that you give up. And as long as you don't build your own channel, you keep paying that, year after year. Most accommodations I speak to are still at 70 percent via Booking after a few years, simply because they never started building their own channel.

So yes, register. But do it consciously. Choose the right 2 platforms and start building your own booking route from day 1.

Calculation example

Registering with no platform costs money upfront. The costs sit entirely in the commission per booking. Below are the real differences for an accommodation with an average night price of 120 euros.

What this means in euros: at 60 bookings per month at 120 euros, you pay about 1,080 euros commission per month on Booking.com, so about 13,000 euros per year. Airbnb is cheapest for the host, because most of the costs are added to the guest. But Airbnb generates less volume for classic B&Bs and hotels.

The lesson is not "choose the cheapest." The lesson is: every euro of commission you pay, you pay again with every subsequent booking from the same guest. A guest who finds you via Booking and comes back five times costs you commission five times if they book via Booking each time. That is why your own channel is ultimately the cheapest booking you have. Calculate your own situation through in the savings calculator and read what Booking.com commission really costs you per night.

Action plan

For most small accommodations, 2 platforms are enough: Booking.com plus 1 second channel that fits your type. Here are the signup steps per platform.

Register a hotel or B&B with Booking.com

A hotel registration with Booking.com and a B&B registration with Booking.com go through the same process. You choose your type during signup.

1. Go to the business side of Booking.com (join.booking.com) and click register or sign up.
2. Choose your accommodation type: Hotel, Bed and breakfast, Apartment, Guest house, and so on. Choose what you actually are, because that determines which search results you appear in.
3. Enter your address, room types, and number of rooms. With a B&B you can enter each room separately or as a room type.
4. Set your rates, cancellation conditions, and house rules.
5. Upload photos. Expect at least 8 to 10 good photos, wide and bright. Photos are the biggest factor in whether someone clicks through.
6. Enter your payment and invoice information, including VAT number.
7. Submit for verification. Booking.com checks your information, sometimes your address, in 3 to 5 business days.

After that you are live. Expect the first bookings to take 1 to 4 weeks, because new accommodations without reviews rank lower.

Register as a host with Airbnb

Airbnb signup as a host works per listing, not per business. Each property or room is a separate listing.

1. Create an account and click Become a host (or Host).
2. Describe the space: entire home, private room, or shared room.
3. Add photos, a title, and a description.
4. Set your price, availability, and house rules.
5. Link a payment method.
6. Publish. Approval usually happens within a day.

Airbnb works best if you have vacation rentals or special accommodations and guests who stay longer. For a classic B&B with breakfast it is a great second channel, not a Booking replacement.

Register with Expedia as a hotel

Registering with Expedia as a hotel is done via Expedia Partner Central. Expedia serves multiple sites at once, including Expedia, Hotels.com, and Vrbo.

1. Go to Expedia Partner Central and click register or join.
2. Enter your accommodation information, room types, and rates.
3. Upload photos and fill in the description.
4. Set your payment model and cancellation conditions.
5. Submit. Verification usually takes a few business days.

Expedia is strong for foreign and American guests. If you mainly have domestic and European guests, it adds less than Booking.

Agoda and Hostelworld: only with a matching guest type

Registering with Agoda is done via Agoda YCS (Ycs.agoda.com). It is mainly worth it if you expect many guests from Asia, because Agoda is big there. For a Dutch B&B with domestic guests, it is rarely worth the effort.

Registering with Hostelworld is done via Hostelworld registration for properties. This only makes sense if you run a hostel or budget accommodation with shared rooms (dorms). For a regular B&B or small hotel, your guest type is not there.

Common mistakes

• Registering with too many platforms at once. Four or five OTAs serve mostly the same travelers. You double your work (rates, calendars, messages) without doubling your guests. Start with 2 and only expand if you have a concrete reason.

• Not synchronizing your calendars. If you are on multiple platforms, the same night can be booked twice. A double booking means a guest you have to disappoint and a review you don't want. You need a channel manager for this (software that updates your availability across all channels at once). Whether that is worth it, read in do you need a channel manager.

• Asking a higher price on platforms than on your own site. Many platforms have price parity clauses, but you can often be sharper on your own site than you think. A direct guest who sees your site asking the same price as Booking picks Booking. Give your direct guest a reason: a couple euros off, free cancellation, or a drink on arrival.

• Not building your own booking channel. This is the most expensive mistake. Whoever only relies on OTAs pays commission on every booking, also on returning guests. Start from day 1 with your own booking engine (reservation system on your own site). Read what a booking engine is and which fits you and how to set up your own reservation system.

• Uploading too few or bad photos. On every platform, the first photo is the biggest factor in whether someone clicks through. A dark or crooked phone photo costs you bookings, no matter how good your accommodation is.

What you can do now

Registering with Booking.com is free and happens in a half day of work. That is the easy part. The hard part is preventing yourself from doing 70 percent of your revenue through platforms that take commission per booking a year down the line.

So start in this order:

1. Register with Booking.com. Fill out your profile completely, upload good photos, and start your verification.
2. Choose 1 second platform that fits your guest type. Airbnb for vacation rentals, Expedia for international guests. Not more than that in the first months.
3. Set up your own channel starting the same week. A working booking button on your own site is what eventually frees you from the platforms.

Want to know from how many bookings your own site really makes a difference, read from how many bookings your own site pays off. And calculate in the savings calculator what a shift to direct brings you per year.

Would you rather have someone set up your accommodation for you, from registration to a working own channel? We discuss that at marketing for hotels.