The OTAs have been trying to enter the leisure group booking market for decades now. Traditionally, hoteliers have been reluctant to allow the OTAs to enter the lucrative group market, limiting their OTA exposure to the transient leisure and unmanaged business market.
Lately, more and more hoteliers are receiving group bookings from the OTAs that are disguised as individual reservations under the same guest name and with the typical OTA 24h cancellation policy. Some hotels end up getting 10 and more rooms for the same stay period and for the same booker.
Obviously, these reservations constitute a group booking, split into separate reservations, without adhering to all the hotel group policies, such as deposits, restrictions and cancellations.
The question is, should hoteliers allow OTA customers to "trick the system" or should demand that the OTAs disallow multiple reservations for the same stay period by the same customer. Should hoteliers demand the OTAs insert in the booking path a policy that "For group reservations of xx and more rooms, different group policies, deposits and restrictions apply?"
According to Statista, a website like booking.com has an average of around 500 million visits/month. Can you attract the same number of visits on your website? If the answer is a likely no, then why would you stop yourself from reaching a much wider audience?
Large hotel chains have a deep market penetration, brand awareness, marketing spending power…but when it comes to small companies, independent hotels, etc… that extra visibility that an OTA can provide, it's completely necessary.
Having said that, it's the hotel decision whether they apply stricter or flexible conditions to OTAs, wholesalers, etc… but that should not get into the way to make sure as many potential customers as possible learn about you and what you have to offer.
Having achieved that, it's all about earning their loyalty, so that subsequent bookings are made directly.
