Vacation rentals used to only be managed on a single booking platform, and this was more than enough for its owners. These days, this is no longer applicable. This is because travelers these days compare properties across multiple OTAs before they make a booking. Those operators who depend only on one channel lose occupancy because their listings are absent from where the search starts. It’s not always because the properties are not in good condition or don’t look appealing enough.

Expedia, Starwood Hotel & Resorts and Marriott International are among online travel sites and major hotel groups accused of conspiring to fix prices for hotel rooms and limiting competition.

In the past few years, U.S. travelers have increasingly begun to treat airline tickets as a commodity. Shoppers scour the Internet with the ultimate goal of finding the lowest price, often checking a myriad of Web sites including supplier sites, online travel agencies (OTAs), metasearch sites and deal sites.