Virtual Credit Cards: Why OTAs Make Payment Accuracy So Complicated

Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) frequently use Virtual Credit Cards (VCCs) to process prepaid bookings. On the surface, it looks simple: a reservation is prepaid, the OTA issues a card, and the hotel collects payment. In reality, OTAs have made this process unnecessarily complicated—and hotels are the ones left at risk of losing revenue.

When guests make changes on-property—like extending their stay, checking out early, upgrading rooms, or shifting dates—the rate needs to be adjusted. If the OTA doesn’t properly push the update through, the hotel may only receive the original amount, not the corrected one. Over time, these small errors add up to major revenue loss.

Why These Missed Payments Go Unnoticed

It’s not that your team is doing anything wrong—it’s that OTAs have created a system where:

• Front desk priorities compete: During busy season, staff are focused on delivering excellent guest experiences—handling check-ins, check-outs, special requests, and service recovery. Reviewing VCCs for accuracy isn’t at the top of the list (and understandably so).

• Manual processes are tedious: The only way to verify accuracy is to manually compare OTA reservations against what was actually delivered on-property. This can take hours of administrative time.

• The more OTA business, the greater the risk: If your hotel receives a high volume of OTA bookings, every guest modification represents another opportunity for misalignment between what was booked and what was delivered.

• Tight deadlines work against you: If uncollected funds aren’t claimed within 150–365 days, the money automatically goes back to the OTA—often before anyone notices a discrepancy.

  
  

The Result

Your hotel can be doing everything right operationally and still lose out on revenue—sometimes thousands per year—simply because OTA systems weren’t designed with hotels’ best interests in mind.

This isn’t a staffing issue. It isn’t a training issue. It’s a structural issue created by the way OTAs handle payments.

Why This Matters

Without an intentional process to review OTA payments, properties risk leaving money on the table month after month. The burden falls unfairly on your team, who are forced to balance guest service with tedious back-office auditing.

Meanwhile, the OTAs benefit quietly from every missed or unclaimed dollar.

Curious how much this could be costing your property? Book a quick call with us