Online travel agencies remain the dominant booking force for hotels around the world - although some regional quirks illustrate the popularity of apparent old school methods.
A paper by Sabre and Phocuswright, giving hotels advice on how to position themselves in an increasingly multi-channel distribution landscape, is backed by primary research into the booking habits of consumers.
The survey of consumers in eight major markets found that OTAs is the preferred method in every market for the last booking made on a leisure trip.
Yet there are a number of interesting difference around the world and also by age, Phocuswright found in its collection of the results.
For example, in Brazil, more people called a hotel to make a booking that used its own website or mobile application.
Such a channel still lacked behind OTAs a booking method but the stat illustrates the lengths that hotels still need to make to secure supposed lower cost of customer acquisition through their direct web channels.
(All charts via the PCW report)
For specific desktop digital channels, Chinese were the most prolific in all three segments in terms of use (OTAs, metasearch and hotel websites) with, again, some interesting differences identified in other markets.
In terms of generational differences around the world, one in four over-55s will call a property to make a booking, compared to 14% of 18-34s.
The largest gap between the behaviour of different age groups came in the online travel agency segment, where 38% of 18-34s prefer making a booking in contrast with just 22% of over-55s.
Speaking at the ITB exhibition in Berlin last week, Sabre says the guest experience starts "long before" the guest ever enters the hotel and owners need to understand the differences in behaviour between consumer types.
"Hoteliers are meeting their guests across their journey, whether they’re starting their dreaming process online, booking via an OTA or calling the hotel directly.
"Being a part of that journey lets hoteliers earn not only the booking, but also a relationship with that guest."