All guides

    Evidence-reviewed workflow

    How to Improve Hotel Listings Across OTAs

    A source-of-truth process for improving public listing accuracy without inventing ranking weights or promising a revenue result.

    Reviewed by Lotte · Editorial owner: MisMatchMaker AI · Evidence reviewed 18 August 2026

    Content parity, not rate parity

    This workflow covers factual listing content. It does not compare prices, availability, commission contracts, or cancellation terms.

    1. Establish the source of truth

    Assign an approved value and owner for each operational field before editing an OTA. MisMatchMaker currently supports breakfast, pet policy, parking, check-in, and check-out; descriptions, rates, cancellation rules, photos, and general amenity inventories are outside the comparison score.

    • Record when the value took effect.
    • Distinguish property, room, and rate-plan scope.
    • Keep fee, currency, restriction, and time-zone context with the value.

    2. Update structured fields before marketing copy

    Platforms use structured lodging fields for services, policies, food and drink, parking, pets, and arrival details. Update the applicable field in each partner interface, then make narrative descriptions compatible with the same facts.

    • Do not use a description to contradict a structured policy field.
    • Treat a missing public value as incomplete evidence, not as 'no'.
    • Check whether a field is inherited from a connectivity provider or controlled in the OTA extranet.

    3. Review photos and public presentation separately

    Photo coverage and order need a visual review; they are not evaluated by the MisMatchMaker scanner. Expedia publishes a dedicated photo toolkit, while Booking.com publicly lists content quality, including photos, among factors that can influence its ordering. Neither source supports a universal conversion or ranking percentage for every property.

    • Remove images that no longer represent the property.
    • Confirm that room-level images are attached to the correct room type.
    • Review the guest-facing page on mobile and desktop.

    4. Verify the published result

    After updating the source system or OTA extranet, wait for the platform to publish the change and inspect the public listing. A successful save is not evidence that every downstream page changed.

    • Compare at least two reliable public sources.
    • Keep original values visible beside normalised comparisons.
    • Record access failures and partial extraction rather than converting them into matches.
    • Confirm any correction against the hotel's own source of truth.

    Primary sources

    Frequently asked questions

    Should every OTA listing use identical wording?

    No. Marketing copy may be adapted, while factual operational details should remain accurate and compatible.

    Does this checklist guarantee a ranking improvement?

    No. Platform ordering uses multiple signals and varies by query, market, availability, commercial participation, and guest behaviour.

    Does MisMatchMaker check photos, rates, or cancellation policies?

    No. The current score covers breakfast, pet policy, parking, check-in, and check-out only.

    Verify the supported fields

    Compare public evidence for breakfast, pet policy, parking, check-in, and check-out.

    Run a free match check