Expand Reach Without Losing Control
If you’re running Amadeus/TravelClick iHotelier, you already have a solid CRS foundation for web, voice, OTA and metasearch. Now the real upside is adding vacation-rental style channels, Airbnb and Vrbo, without breaking your rate strategy or reporting. Amadeus positions iHotelier as a distribution workhorse; our goal is to extend that muscle into new demand sources while keeping guardrails tight.
Why now? Alternative accommodation is growing fast (projected mid-teens CAGR globally), and Airbnb’s volume continued to climb through 2024. Hotels that show up where today’s guests browse win first.
In this guide, we’ll map how iHotelier + Jetstream works in practice, data flow, rate controls, and clean reporting, so you can expand confidently.
The Changing Distribution Landscape for Hotels
The game is shifting beneath your feet. Growth in the traditional OTA-channel mix has plateaued, and guests are increasingly looking for alternatives. According to the 2024 Hotel Distribution Report, only about 28.8 % of online revenue in Europe came through hotel websites in 2023—meaning nearly 72 % still came through indirect channels.
Meanwhile, the broader travel & hospitality trend is unmistakable: domestic and regional demand is surging, mobile bookings are overtaking desktop, and consumers want flexible, lifestyle-driven stays. (McKinsey & Company)
What this means for you: if you’re operating on a platform like iHotelier (via TravelClick) you already have smart distribution built for web, voice, metasearch, OTA and direct. But staying inside that box means you’re missing two critical vectors:
- Accessing vacation-rental style channels such as Airbnb and Vrbo, where guests prefer flexible stays and alternative formats.
- Protecting your brand and direct channel while doing so, because adding new channels without guardrails can erode pricing, scatter inventory and confuse your story.
In short: the environment demands agility. You must extend your distribution beyond “business as usual” to capture new guest segments, without handing control to channel chaos.
TravelClick / iHotelier + Jetstream Integration: How It Works
Here’s where the rubber hits the road. If you’re on iHotelier/TravelClick, you already have a winner platform for your core hotel distribution. But you can turn that into a growth engine by layering on a platform such as Jetstream (or similar) to activate multi-channel exposure.
Here’s the flow, broken down:
- Rates, availability and room types live in iHotelier. You maintain ARI (availability, rates, inventory) in your familiar system. (iHotelier allows centralised management of ARI across web, mobile, voice, OTA and metasearch.)
- Jetstream connects to your CRS and pushes selected inventory into Airbnb, Vrbo and other alternative channels, while keeping rules, restrictions and brand controls intact.
- Booking data and guest profiles flow back into your system so your PMS and revenue team are in sync.
- Control remains front-and-centre: you define min/max stay rules, rate fences, mark-up strategies, channel segmentation, all centrally, via Jetstream’s admin layer.
As one revenue director put it: “We managed to get our resort’s condo-style inventory live on Airbnb via Jetstream in under a month, without disrupting our existing OTA or direct strategy.”
The outcome: you keep your trusted iHotelier backbone, while activating new channels strategically, with full governance. Your tech stack stays lean. Your distribution mix becomes smarter. And your team doesn’t buckle under manual channel juggling.
Guardrails for Rate and Brand Management
When you expand into channels like Airbnb or Vrbo via platforms such as Jetstream, your core value proposition, your brand integrity, your rate strategy and your direct-book channel, must remain protected.
Here’s how to keep the guardrails solid:
- Maintain consistent public rates for the same room, same stay across all publicly visible channels. This is the essence of “rate parity”.
- Use channel-specific rate fences. For example: minimum length-of-stay on rental-style listings, dynamic mark-ups for high-commission channels, or room types that differentiate vacation-rental style inventory from core hotel inventory.
- Protect your direct channel. Consistent rates build trust. One study found that when guests spot lower rates on third-party sites, conversions through your booking engine drop by around 32 %. Hospitality Solutions
- Brand consistency is non-negotiable. The same room photo, description, guest standards across channels. If your brand tone diverges on a new channel, you risk dilution.
- Monitor and stop rate leakage. According to research, rate-parity monitoring is the top manual task for 83.6 % of hotels globally.
By putting these guardrails in place, you expand distribution but keep control. You’re not handing over pricing or brand voice to the highest-volume channel; you’re integrating a new channel on your terms.
Centralised Reporting & Performance Insights
Adding new channels isn’t just about more bookings; it’s about seeing everything clearly, so you know what’s working, what’s not, and where to optimise.
What this looks like in practice:
- Aggregate ADR (Average Daily Rate), occupancy, length-of-stay (LOS) and channel contribution data across your core system (via iHotelier/TravelClick) and your new channel layer (via Jetstream).
- Dig into booking lead time and guest segmentation. Are listings on Airbnb driving longer stays? Are they primarily leisure travellers with different spend profiles?
- Connect this data into your broader revenue stack. Whether you use business intelligence tools from Amadeus or third-party dashboards, bring new-channel data into the loop so “multi-channel” doesn’t become “multi-blindspot”.
- Use a unified dashboard to compare performance: direct vs OTA vs rental-style channel. For instance, what is the net revenue after commissions and mark-ups? Are the new channels delivering incremental room nights or simply shifting existing bookings?
- Build decision-making feedback loops. If a new channel is driving high occupancy but low ADR or high cost of service (e.g., housekeeping, check-in burden), you can adjust rate fences, restrict access, or shift inventory accordingly.
In short: you don’t want to “dump inventory” into new channels and hope for the best. You want to manage them with visibility, just like your core CRS channels.
Real-World Impact: From Manual to Managed Distribution
Let’s bring this to life. Imagine a resort operating via iHotelier (under the TravelClick/Amadeus umbrella) with 220 rooms, strong brand equity, and a direct bookings strategy. They decide to launch selected inventory on Airbnb and Vrbo via Jetstream.
What happens next:
- Their team no longer needs to manually mirror rates, availability and restrictions across multiple platforms.
- Brand voice, room descriptions and guest expectations remain consistent across their core site and rental-style channels.
- Within 90 days they see a shoulder-season occupancy lift of ~12 %, a figure supported by broader studies showing digital channel share growing steadily. For example, digital channels now account for ~60% of global hotel distribution revenue. (D-EDGE)
- The revenue team gains detailed visibility into which nights, room types and channels are contributing incrementally, not just shifting demand.
Key takeaway: when new channels are neatly plugged into your existing CRS and revenue stack, you avoid chaos, maintain brand standards, and unlock real growth.
Compatibility Review: Is Your Tech Stack Ready?
You’ve got the foundation. Now let’s check the readiness so you avoid costly surprises.
Checklist for readiness:
- Are you currently using iHotelier (TravelClick/Amadeus) for core ARI, rate and room-type management? If yes, you’re already aligned with a globally recognised platform.
- Do you have a revenue-management system or BI dashboard that feeds from iHotelier data? If yes, you’re positioned to ingest the new channel data and maintain holistic insights.
- Are your rate-fences, rules, stay-restrictions and brand content standardised within iHotelier? If yes, you can extend those rules into new channels without rebuilding.
- Are you prepared to integrate a “new channel layer” (such as Jetstream) to push selected inventory into Airbnb/Vrbo while keeping your core channels intact? If yes, you’re ready to book a Tech-Stack Compatibility Review.
Why do this review?
- It ensures your data flows (rates, availability, bookings) are seamless and bidirectional, so your PMS sees everything.
- It confirms your rate-parity, guardrails and brand-control policies transfer to the new channel set-up.
- It quantifies the expected incremental revenue lift, cost of channel commissions, housekeeping or service cost per new channel, so decisions are fact-based not hopeful.
Reach out now to schedule your complimentary Tech-Stack Compatibility Review. Let us map your existing iHotelier/TravelClick architecture, test the Jetstream integration scenario, and deliver a clear roadmap to multi-channel distribution, without disruption to your direct or OTA channels.
A Smarter Way to Scale
The future of hotel distribution isn’t about chasing every new channel. It’s about connecting the right ones and doing it cleanly, with data integrity, brand control, and measurable ROI.
Hotels using Amadeus/TravelClick iHotelier are already ahead of the curve. You’ve built your distribution on a world-class CRS. Now, integrating Jetstream gives you a practical, low-friction path to reach guests booking on Airbnb and Vrbo without overhauling your tech stack.
You keep your rate rules, your reporting, and your reputation, and let Jetstream do the heavy lifting. The result? Broader reach, higher occupancy during shoulder seasons, and a channel mix built for resilience, not reaction.
“Hotels that treat Airbnb and Vrbo as structured, data-managed distribution channels, not side hustles, gain lasting revenue lift and better forecasting accuracy,”
— Peter Waters, Managing Director, Amadeus Hospitality Media Solutions
It’s time to future-proof your distribution.
