Travel Agents Are Growing Faster Than OTAs: Why Bali Villa Owners Should Pay Attention

For many Bali villa owners, Airbnb and Booking.com have become the primary channels for generating bookings. However, recent developments in the hospitality industry show that travel agents still play an important role in accommodation distribution, and their growth is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore. In the first half of the year, commissionable room nights generated through travel agencies grew by around 11.8%, while commission per night increased by only 0.8%. This points to stronger booking volume coming through travel agency networks and signals that this channel still has significant potential for accommodation businesses.

Why Are Travel Agents Still Relevant?

Not every traveler wants to plan their entire trip through an OTA. For more complex journeys, many travelers still rely on travel agents to help select accommodation, build itineraries, arrange transportation, and coordinate different parts of their trip. This is particularly relevant for family trips, honeymoons, group travel, luxury travel, and international travelers who need more detailed arrangements. For villa owners, this creates an opportunity to attract guests through a channel that may not have received much attention in the past. When a travel agent has a client looking for a villa in Bali, properties they already know and trust are more likely to be included in the recommendations they provide. Your villa therefore needs to be easy for travel agents to sell, not just easy for guests to find on an OTA.

One Travel Agent Can Generate Repeat Bookings

Imagine a travel agent has a family from Australia looking for a villa in Bali for a week. They need several bedrooms, a private pool, a convenient location, and additional services such as airport transfers or breakfast. The travel agent needs accurate and complete information to determine whether your villa matches the client’s requirements and whether it is worth recommending. If the guest has a positive experience, that relationship can potentially generate repeat bookings. Once a travel agent understands the villa’s quality, response time, pricing, facilities, and booking process, they do not need to search for a new property every time they receive a similar request. The right travel partner can potentially generate multiple bookings throughout the year, especially when your villa fits the type of travelers they serve.

What Should Villa Owners Prepare?

If you want to start working with travel agents, one of the first things to prepare is complete and professional sales material. Travel agents need practical information that allows them to quickly understand whether your villa is suitable for their clients. Make sure you have high-quality property photos, the number of bedrooms, maximum occupancy, facilities, location, bed configuration, villa policies, additional services, and other important information in a format that is easy to share. Clear information allows travel agents to present your property to potential guests without having to repeatedly contact your team for basic details.

Availability and Pricing Need to Be Clear

Travel agents also need accurate availability so they do not sell dates that are already booked. If availability information is frequently delayed or changes without clear coordination, the booking process becomes more difficult and can reduce the partner’s confidence in your property. Pricing also needs careful consideration. Travel agents need room for a commission or margin from the booking they generate, so the rate structure should allow them to earn while keeping the villa competitive in the market. This means owners should not only look at the number of bookings generated, but also calculate the net revenue after commissions and distribution costs.

Service Is Part of Your Distribution Strategy

Travel agents put their own relationship with their clients on the line when recommending a villa. If the guest receives an experience that matches what was promised, from cleanliness and facilities to check-in and communication during the stay, the travel agent is more likely to use the property again. On the other hand, inconsistent guest experiences can quickly reduce a travel agent’s confidence in a property. Building relationships with travel agents is therefore not simply about offering a special rate or commission. It also requires ensuring that the actual product and service consistently match what the agent is selling to the guest.

Don’t Depend on a Single Channel

The growth of travel agents does not mean villa owners should move away from Airbnb or Booking.com. OTAs remain an important part of distribution, particularly for travelers who prefer to search and book accommodation independently. However, relying on a single channel also makes a business more exposed to changes in algorithms, commission costs, pricing competition, and platform policies. Having several sources of demand, such as OTAs, direct bookings, travel agents, corporate bookings, repeat guests, and referrals, gives owners more ways to generate revenue. Each channel has different costs, guest profiles, and booking patterns, so performance should be evaluated based on occupancy, ADR, distribution costs, net revenue, and the quality of guests generated.

Time to Expand Your Villa’s Distribution Strategy

The growth of travel agency bookings is a reminder that travelers still use different ways to purchase accommodation. OTAs make searching and booking convenient, while travel agents continue to add value when travelers need help planning more complex trips. For Bali villa owners, the opportunity is to build a more diversified distribution strategy while maintaining control over profitability. Start by reviewing where your bookings have come from over the past few months, then identify which channels generate the best combination of guest quality and net revenue.