Benchmarking the loyalty programs of the five biggest OTAs

Two weeks ago, we introduced the Caravelo Loyalty Scorecard. It is our in-house built benchmarking methodology that maps any travel brand’s loyalty program against the three pillars of the Relational Anchor: Access, Control, and Convenience.

Scored across fifteen sub-dimensions on a simple 0–5 scale, the tool produces a structured profile that reveals how well a program performs today, and where its structural vulnerabilities lie.

If you missed that piece, you can find it here. 

Today, we apply it for the first time.

We are starting with Online Travel Agencies. 

• The choice is deliberate. 
• OTAs are not a peripheral part of the travel booking landscape. 
• They are the dominant interface through which the modern traveler plans, compares, and books.

Depending on the exact category (hotel, flight, car rental, or combination), nearly half of all global online travel bookings flow through OTA platforms today. This share has grown consistently for over a decade and shows no signs of reversing course, as the OTA market is projected to reach $107 billion this year, growing at a steady 7% rate. 

What makes OTAs so important?

They sit between airlines, hotels, and travelers at the most critical moment of the journey: the moment of choice. If any category should have cracked the loyalty code by now, it is this one.

However, without giving too much away, the data suggests otherwise.

The five programs we assessed

We selected the five largest OTAs by market capitalization: Booking.com, Airbnb, Trip.com, Expedia, and MakeMyTrip. Together, they represent the dominant share of the global OTA landscape and the broadest cross-section of loyalty approaches currently in market.

For each brand, we assessed the full ecosystem of initiatives designed to drive repeat engagement and brand preference. In the case of OTAs, this primarily means the flagship loyalty program, as no other engagement mechanic comes close to defining the traveler relationship at this scale. 

One thing worth flagging before we dive in: one of the five brands has no formal loyalty program in place as of this publication. That absence is not a footnote. It is one of the most telling findings in this entire assessment, and we will come back to it.

Here is what the scorecard revealed.

The OTA Loyalty Scorecard: Five Programs, One Revealing Picture

Before we go brand by brand, here is how all five programs look side by side.

The five triangles each tell a slightly different story, one more nuanced than a single headline can capture.

One immediate insight: not a single program forms a balanced triangle. 

That structural gap is the story of OTA loyalty in 2026.

Let’s go through each program one by one for a more thorough analysis.

Booking.com’s Genius: The Well-Built Commodity

Genius is the most mature loyalty program in this group and in many ways the most polished.

On Convenience, Genius earns its high scores. The app is genuinely consumer-grade, remembered preferences work reliably across devices, and the booking flow is among the cleanest in the industry, resulting in a 5 out of 5 for Digital UX and a 4 out of 5 for both Booking Simplicity and Remembered Preferences. 

On Control, the free cancellation filter, transparent pricing tools, a price alert feature that notifies members when rates drop on saved properties, and 24/7 priority support for Level 3 members all contribute to a program that gives travelers a meaningful degree of agency (scoring a solid 3 out of 5 across all five Control sub-dimensions).

But the Access deficit is structural and damaging. 

The result is a near-zero Access profile.

In summary, the program mostly rewards platform loyalty rather than traveler identity. 

One industry review describes Genius as “set it and forget it“, and that framing, intended as a compliment, reveals the program’s fundamental limitation. A loyalty program that works best when travelers stop thinking about it is not building a relationship. 

As AI agents become capable of surfacing equivalent options faster than any human, Booking.com might have little moat to defend.

Expedia’s One Key: The Commodity That Tried to Be More

Expedia launched One Key in 2023 with a genuine structural ambition: unifying three major platforms (Expedia, Hotels.com, and Vrbo) under a single currency, OneKeyCash, allowing members to earn on vacation rentals and redeem on flights, or vice versa. 

The cross-platform logic is genuinely novel among OTAs, and the four-tier structure (Blue, Silver, Gold, and Platinum) offers a clear progression, with VIP Access properties unlocking room upgrades and enhanced savings at higher tiers. The One Key and One Key+ credit cards extend the ecosystem further, allowing members to earn OneKeyCash on everyday spending across the full Expedia Group portfolio.

On Convenience, One Key delivers a functional experience. 

The booking flow is clean, the app is competent, and the cross-platform integration is genuinely useful, producing a 4 out of 5 on both Booking Simplicity and Digital UX.

On Control, the picture is more complicated. 

Automatic price drop protection on flights for Gold and Platinum members represents a meaningful step toward traveler empowerment (earning a 3 out of 5 on Price Predictability). 

But the program’s rollout has been troubled in ways that directly undermine the rest of the pillar. 

Where One Key falls furthest, however, is on Access, and this is where the triangle tells the most important story. 

Despite the structural ambition of unifying three platforms, there is nothing behind the One Key login wall that a non-member cannot access elsewhere. No exclusive inventory, no members-first booking window, and no identity or community signal that makes belonging to One Key feel meaningfully different from browsing as a well-informed guest. Exclusive Inventory, Guaranteed Availability, and Identity Signal all score 1 out of 5. Priority Access reaches just 2 out of 5.

One Key tried to be more than a commodity. The Access scores confirm it has not yet succeeded.

Trip.com’s Trip Membership: The Most Underrated Program in the Room

Trip.com operates the most underrated loyalty program in this comparison, and the one that comes closest to building genuine Access value. 

On Access, that ambition translates into the strongest scores of any program in this assessment outside MakeMyTrip (earning 3 out of 5 on both Exclusive Inventory and Priority and Early Access). The Identity and Community Signal dimension scores 3 out of 5 as well, modest in absolute terms, but the highest among any OTA assessed here, alongside MakeMyTrip.

On Control, the program is transparent and consistently structured. Trip Coins earn at clearly defined rates (25 coins per $100 spent on flights, 80 coins per $100 on hotels), with an 18-month expiry that is honestly communicated upfront, contributing to a 3 out of 5 on Pricing Clarity. 

The tangible benefits at higher tiers add further substance: Diamond+ and Black Diamond members receive dedicated VIP support in eight languages through a One-Stop VIP Service, complimentary airport lounge access through Priority Pass with up to 12 free visits per year at Black Diamond level, and free global eSIM data packages. These are all benefits with real daily-life value rather than marginal hotel discounts.

On Convenience, Trip.com’s breadth is its strongest card. 

The primary drag on Trip.com’s overall profile is not the booking flow itself (which is well-designed and functional) but the comprehension overhead required to grasp the full value of the program. 

The key takeaway: Trip.com’s triangle is the most balanced of the four non-Airbnb programs in this assessment. It is still a Well-Built Commodity, and the Access gap remains real. 

But it is the one program in this group that appears to be actively trying to close it.

MakeMyTrip’s MMTBLACK: The Closest Thing to a Log-In Loyalty Program in This Group

MMTBLACK is the most empowerment-focused program in this assessment and the one that comes closest to what we described in Season 1 as a genuine login-loyalty relationship. It is not the highest-scoring program overall, but it is the one most deliberately designed around the traveler rather than the platform.

On Access, MMTBLACK stands apart from every other program in this group in one fundamental way: it cannot be joined. 

On Control, MMTBLACK distinguishes itself most clearly, and this is where the program earns its archetype label. 

No wonder that no other OTA in this assessment scores higher on Control.

On Convenience, the MMTBLACK booking flow is clean and app-driven, with membership benefits automatically applied at the point of booking rather than requiring manual redemption. The earn-only qualification model also removes a layer of complexity that plagues points-based programs, as there is no currency to track, no points to convert, and no redemption window to manage. 

That simplicity scores a 3 out of 5 on both Booking Simplicity and Digital UX – functional and honest, if not yet consumer-grade in the Netflix sense.

The primary constraint is geographic. 

In summary: MMTBLACK’s triangle leans toward Control more than any other program assessed here. 

That is a deliberate design choice that prioritizes traveler empowerment over platform stickiness. It is a program that gets more right than any of its OTA peers, and one that most of the travel industry outside India has never heard of.

Airbnb: The Elephant in the Room

Airbnb stands out with the most significant loyalty gap in global travel – for obvious reasons.

The world’s second-most valuable OTA by market cap, with over 8 million active listings across 220 countries, has operated for more than fifteen years without a formal loyalty or membership program of any kind. There are no tiers, no points, no loyalty currency, no member pricing, and no exclusive inventory behind a login wall. 

A traveler who has booked 100 nights through Airbnb receives the same treatment as someone booking their first. On Exclusive Inventory, Priority and Early Access, and Guaranteed Availability, Airbnb scores 0 out of 5 across the board.

And yet Airbnb does not score zero overall, and that is the most interesting part of this assessment. 

How is that possible? 

For more than a decade, Airbnb has built something that most loyalty programs and engagement initiatives spend enormous resources trying to manufacture and rarely achieve: a genuine brand relationship. The “belong anywhere” identity, the lifestyle resonance, the sense that booking through Airbnb is a statement about how you want to travel rather than just where you want to sleep are all building blocks of loyalty in its truest sense. It’s not a points balance or a tier status mechanic. 

The brand naturally gives a reason to come back that lives in the traveler’s identity rather than their wallet. 

In the language of our framework, Airbnb has stumbled into a partial Relational Anchor without ever intending to build one. 

And that makes it the most fascinating loyalty story in this entire assessment.

Here is how that plays out across the different pillars and sub-dimensions:

On Access, Airbnb’s proprietary peer-to-peer supply of over 8 million listings exists nowhere else. This offers a natural inventory moat that no AI agent can fully scrape or replicate, and it underpins the latent Access advantage that sits entirely unlocked within the current program. 

What reinforces that supply moat further is how Airbnb manages its host community. 

The result is an Access score near zero on the formal program side, partially rescued by a 3 out of 5 on Identity and Community Signal, the most consequential 3 in this entire assessment.

On Control, Airbnb scores modestly. The universal 24-hour free cancellation grace period introduced in October 2025 and the Reserve Now Pay Later feature, expanded globally in February 2026, represent genuine steps toward traveler empowerment, earning a 3 out of 5 for Flexibility and Cancellation. 

But without a price-freeze tool, no loyalty currency, and host-set dynamic pricing that can shift dramatically between search and checkout, Spend Transparency scores just 2 out of 5. Travelers remain largely at the mercy of host pricing decisions rather than in control of their relationship with the platform.

On Convenience, the app is genuinely strong, clearly tech-native, and consistently rated among the best in travel, scoring a 4 out of 5 for Digital and App Experience. But without remembered loyalty preferences, a dedicated membership booking flow, or proactive communication tied to a loyalty relationship, the Convenience scores reflect a platform rather than a program.

What makes Airbnb’s position uniquely fascinating is the speed at which this is potentially changing. 

So, if executed well, Airbnb has the brand identity, supply exclusivity, and lifestyle resonance to score significantly higher on Access than any competitor in this group. 

The gap between its current and potential scores is the largest of any brand we have assessed. 

For a brand of Airbnb’s scale and identity, this gap is a strategic opportunity that, if seized correctly, could entirely redefine what OTA loyalty looks like.

What the OTA Diagnostic Tells Us

The shared pattern across all five OTAs is pretty striking in its consistency. Convenience is table stakes. Control is improving. But Access, which is the only pillar that creates genuine relational gravity (and the only one AI cannot replicate), remains almost entirely absent across the board. 

The world’s most-visited travel booking platforms have mostly been built for today’s traveler, leaving themselves structurally exposed to tomorrow’s distribution reality.

Next up, we turn the same tool on the industry that invented travel loyalty and arguably did the most to break it. 

Three of Europe’s LCCs are next on the scorecard. 

Do airlines score better or worse than the OTAs? The answer may surprise you.