71% of bookings go through American OTAs

Booking, Expedia, Airbnb. Three American platforms capture more than seven out of ten bookings in French hospitality. This isn't a technology problem. It's a structural dependency problem.

The numbers

Data from the Banque de France and the UMIH converge: the share of direct bookings continues to decline, year after year. In 2019, it was 38%. In 2025, it fell to 29%. The trend is clear, and nothing in the current landscape is reversing it.

The cost isn't just financial (commissions range from 15% to 25% of the nightly rate). The cost is informational. Booking knows who travels, when, where, at what price, how often. The hotelier knows nothing about their own customer until they walk through the door.

When you don't own the customer relationship, you don't own your market. You rent it.

AI will accelerate the concentration

OTAs are investing massively in AI. Booking's assistant uses an LLM to suggest personalized itineraries. Expedia is testing conversational booking. Airbnb optimizes dynamic pricing with predictive models.

Facing these investments, French tourism institutions are still debating the "potential of AI." The gap isn't a catchable delay. It's a widening chasm.

What this changes

Digital sovereignty in tourism isn't a technical issue. It's a political and economic one. As long as destinations, tourism boards, and hoteliers view OTAs as "commercial partners" rather than value extractors, the situation won't change.

The first step is to name the problem. Here it is: 71% of bookings go through American OTAs. And that number is going up.