Reliance by independent hotels on online travel agencies (OTA) increased in 2025 according to research.
The State of Independent Hotels study by Cloudbeds, which analyzed 90 million bookings, revealed OTA share of 63.4%, up from 61.3% in 2024.
The report showed OTA share of bookings increased across all regions but that North America recorded the largest change year over year, rising 3.3 percentage points to 52.7% in 2025.
And while OTAs are recognized as a good demand source for independent properties, overreliance on the distribution channel pushes up acquisition costs and reduces control over demand, the report said.
While revenue per available room increased 19% between 2019 and 2025, the rise was outpaced by cost of acquisition, which increased 25%.
The study also urged hotels to pay attention to evolving traveler behavior, with research revealing a decline in the share of U.S. travelers using traditional search engines. Cloudbeds pointed to recent Phocuswright research showing that while search engine usage fell from 51% to 36%, use of artificial intelligence platforms more than doubled.
Despite consumer usage of the AI platforms, wider research has revealed mixed usage of the technology among hotels. An H2c report, published in October 2025, revealed that only 41% of independent hotels said they are using AI in some capacity versus almost 80% of hotel chains.
And research from Canary Technologies, also published this week, revealed the areas where hotels believe AI will have the most impact. Guest communications was cited by 58% of respondents, hotel search visibility, 52%, personalization, 51% and direct bookings, 48%.
The Canary study, which gauged opinions from 400 hospitality IT decision makers, also revealed half of hotels are adopting AI now while 82% plan to ramp up usage in the next 12 months. It should be noted that more than half of respondents to the Canary study were from branded properties.
The Cloudbeds study also revealed almost 22% of OTA bookings were cancelled compared to just 10.6% of independent hotel bookings. Spain and Brazil generated the highest volume of OTA cancellations at 26.6% and 25.6%, respectively.
The U.K. and Indonesia recorded the lowest levels of OTA cancellations at 18.3% and 17.1%, respectively. The study also revealed cancellation lead times rose to 39 days in 2025 from a global average of 35 days in 2023.