#United States #Chicago #hotel revenue #Evention #OTA Recon

Evention Introduces OTA Recon to Combat Booking Errors

Evention, a leader in automated financial reconciliation for the hospitality industry, recently launched its innovative OTA Recon module, designed to combat revenue loss due to booking errors associated with online travel agencies (OTAs). Hotels worldwide rely heavily on OTAs like Expedia and Booking.com, which can account for up to 50% of hotel bookings, yet many properties lack the necessary tools to effectively manage OTA billing.

The Underlying Issue

The OTA environment is littered with potential billing errors that can negatively impact a hotel’s revenue. Evention’s analysis outlines six primary categories of these mistakes, including virtual credit card underpayments, commission overpayments for no-shows, resort fee variances, rate discrepancies, guest double-charges, and cancellation errors. Each of these errors might seem minor when viewed separately, but collectively, they lead to a significant financial drain. For a typical 300-room hotel, these issues can result in an astonishing loss of over $130,000 per year.

Compounding the problem, virtual credit cards can expire, and dispute windows may close, often before many hotels even conduct their monthly reconciliations. When billing errors escalate to guest-related issues, hotels face the further risk of accumulating negative reviews that can suppress the average daily rate (ADR). This combined financial exposure can surpass $430,000 annually for one property and soar to $43 million across a portfolio of 100 properties.

Mike Baldinger, Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer at Evention, emphasizes the simplicity of overlooking smaller errors: “Nobody ignores a $10,000 problem. Everyone ignores a thousand $10 problems.” This highlights how the distributed nature of OTA billing errors often allows them to remain undetected for extended periods.

Revolutionizing Recovery with OTA Recon

To counter these challenges, the OTA Recon module offers a comprehensive automated solution that focuses on daily transaction-level reconciliation rather than just summary-level checks. This distinction is vital; whereas summary reconciliations may indicate overall balance, reservation-level insights can pinpoint specific discrepancies and provide actionable insights.

The OTA Recon module aggregates various data points, including OTA reservation information, virtual credit card payments, commission invoices, and payout records. By performing daily matches against a hotel’s property management system, it flags any exceptions that arise and categorizes them for easy action before recovery opportunities expire.

After integrating OTA Recon, hotels can expect a transformational change both operationally and financially. The early adopters of this technology report recovering 10 to 40 times their annual platform investment in previously uncollected revenue. Furthermore, operational efficiency is vastly improved as hotels can reduce manual reconciliation time by 96% and errors by 95%.

Finance teams that once spent days each month chasing discrepancies now benefit from a real-time exception queue, allowing them to act promptly on issues as they arise. By catching billing errors before they impact guests, hotels can mitigate the risk of poor reviews and ensure a positive customer experience.

A Major Debut at HITEC 2026

Evention will showcase the OTA Recon module at HITEC 2026 held from June 16–18. Attendees are encouraged to visit Booth 3631 to see firsthand how daily automated reconciliations can recover revenue for properties.

About Evention

Founded with the ambition of serving the hospitality, restaurant, retail, and entertainment sectors, Evention is a financial reconciliation platform that continuously matches financial data across various systems. It aims to provide finance teams with the assurance needed to protect margins and deliver an exceptional experience for guests. Their offerings include OTA Recon, Credit Card Recon, and Tips+Gratuities, among others.

As Baldinger succinctly puts it, “Checkout confirms payment. Evention confirms truth.” To discover more or to schedule a demonstration, visit eventionllc.com.