Independent travel booking is a multi-channel process. In Expedia Group’s 2023 study, 80% of travelers used an online travel agency (OTA) during the 45 days before a travel purchase, while 61% used a search engine and 58% used social media. The figures describe survey behavior across a purchase journey, not market share, and they show why travelers often compare several sources before booking.
Table of contents
- How widely travelers use booking channels
- Where trip inspiration starts
- Research and planning channel mix
- OTAs, direct sites, and cross-shopping
- Mobile booking and loyalty behavior
- Regional patterns and emerging channels
How widely travelers use booking channels
Expedia Group’s source, Understanding The Traveler Path to Purchase, reports how frequently travelers encountered different channels in the 45 days before purchasing travel. In the 2023 study, 80% used an OTA, 61% used a search engine, 58% used social media, and 54% used an airline website. These percentages are not additive: one traveler could use every channel listed.
The U.S. results in Expedia Group’s companion report were similarly broad, but the channel order differed. During the 2023 path to purchase, 79% of U.S. travelers used an OTA, 75% used social media, 65% used a search engine, 64% used a hotel website, and 63% used a meta travel website.
| Channel used before purchase | All travelers, 2023 | U.S. travelers, 2023 |
|---|---|---|
| Online travel agency | 80% | 79% |
| Search engine | 61% | 65% |
| Social media | 58% | 75% |
| Airline website | 54% | Not reported in this comparison |
| Hotel website | Not reported in this comparison | 64% |
| Meta travel website | Not reported in this comparison | 63% |
Source: Understanding The Traveler Path to Purchase and The Path to Purchase: Key insights: United States. The study used online survey and digital-panel data across seven markets; the U.S. subset should not be treated as additive with the broader result.
For an independent traveler, the practical pattern is a sequence rather than a single preferred storefront. An OTA can provide a broad inventory check, a search engine can surface destinations and providers, and an airline or hotel website can provide a direct point of purchase. The research measures whether a channel was used, not whether it supplied the final reservation.
Where trip inspiration starts
In the same 2023 study, 59% of travelers either had no specific destination in mind or were considering multiple destinations when they began thinking about a trip. That open-ended starting point helps explain the role of discovery channels in independent travel: travelers may be comparing places before they compare rooms, flights, or packages.
Among travelers using online travel resources during the inspiration phase, destination websites were used by 45%, meta travel websites by 36%, and OTAs by 35%. Social media also played a continuing role: 77% of travelers who used social media during the purchase path used it during inspiration.
Expedia Group’s 2023 Americas analysis adds detail about what social users were looking for. Among Americas travelers using social media, 65% looked for destination inspiration, 50% looked for lodging recommendations or inspiration, 45% viewed travel content from influencers or celebrities, and 32% looked for trip deals. These are channel-use percentages for the reported population, not shares of all travelers in the Americas.
The distinction between destination discovery and booking matters. A destination website may help an independent traveler decide where to go, while a meta travel site may help compare options. An OTA may appear at inspiration, research, planning, and booking stages. Treating all of those appearances as completed bookings would overstate what the data says.
Research and planning channel mix
Channel use changes as travelers move from broad inspiration toward a more specific itinerary. During the research phase of Expedia Group’s 2023 study, 72% of travelers using resources used search engines. Meta travel websites and social media each reached 69%, destination websites reached 68%, and OTAs reached 59%.
During the planning phase, OTAs were used by 44% of travelers using resources, while meta travel websites were used by 38%. The lower planning percentages do not mean that OTAs disappeared. They indicate a narrower phase and a different reported denominator than the broader 45-day path-to-purchase figures.
The phase-by-phase results can be read as a division of labor:
- Search engines were prominent in research, at 72% among travelers using resources in that phase.
- Meta travel websites were used by 69% in research and 38% in planning.
- Social media was used by 69% in research, while 77% of social-media users in the full journey used it during inspiration.
- Destination websites reached 68% in research and 45% during inspiration among travelers using online travel resources.
- OTAs reached 59% in research and 44% in planning, while 35% of online-resource users used them for inspiration.
These figures support a cautious interpretation of “booking channel.” Many channels influence a decision without processing the transaction. For independent travelers, comparing the channel used for discovery with the channel used for payment gives a more accurate view of the journey.
OTAs, direct sites, and cross-shopping
The final booking channel is more concentrated than the wider research path. Expedia Group’s 2023 study found that 51% of travelers booked their most recent trip on an OTA. Airline websites or apps accounted for 37% of most recent-trip bookings, and hotel websites or apps accounted for 23%.
Those percentages describe separate booking outcomes as reported in the source and should not be summed into a market total. They also do not eliminate overlap in the earlier journey. Travelers often visit an OTA even when they ultimately book directly.
Among travelers who purchased on a hotel website or app, 61% also visited an OTA during the journey. The corresponding cross-shopping rate was 58% for travelers who purchased on a car-rental website or app and 52% for travelers who purchased on an airline website or app.
The hotel-specific Expedia Group report gives a closely related result: 59% of hotel guests visited an OTA before making a purchase on a hotel website. It also found that 56% of hotel guests said OTAs were a helpful resource in planning and booking their trip. The small difference between 61% and 59% belongs to the different reported populations or measures; it should not be treated as a contradiction or combined into a new estimate.
For independent booking decisions, the numbers point to a common comparison pattern: use an OTA to scan availability or prices, then inspect a direct airline, hotel, or rental-car site before deciding where to pay. The data establishes that cross-shopping is widespread; it does not establish why an individual traveler chooses one final channel.
Mobile booking and loyalty behavior
Mobile access is a major part of the hotel channel. In Expedia Group’s 2023 hotel-guest study, 59% of hotel guests booked on a mobile website or app. Airbnb separately reported that 55% of nights booked in the second quarter of 2024 were booked through its app. Airbnb’s figure is company-reported and refers to Airbnb nights, not the whole travel market.
Loyalty can pull travelers toward a direct brand channel even when they use OTAs for comparison. The hotel study found that 44% of hotel guests were members of a travel rewards program. Among those members, 81% said it was important to book with a brand where they were a loyalty member, and 61% said they would pay more to do so.
The U.S. Expedia Group results were close but not identical. In the 2023 U.S. study, 66% of travelers were members of a loyalty program. Among U.S. loyalty-program members, 83% said it was important to book with a loyalty brand, 60% said they would pay more, and 10% said they would pay significantly more. Separately, 80% of air bookers said it was important to book with a brand where they were a loyalty member.
Expedia Group’s 2025 Traveler Value Index adds a newer survey measure: 83% of respondents considered travel their top category for redeeming loyalty points. The study surveyed 11,000 adults aged 18 and over across 11 markets. These findings are survey results, not a forecast of booking volumes.
Regional patterns and emerging channels
The Americas results show strong OTA reach. In Expedia Group’s 2023 Americas analysis, 80% of travelers visited an OTA at some point in their path to purchase, rising to 83% among travelers in Mexico. OTAs accounted for 40% of total travel-content page views among Americas travelers during the 45 days before booking. Page views are an engagement measure, not a share of reservations.
Social discovery also appears to be expanding in newer survey data. In Expedia Group’s 2025 survey, 61% of consumers used social media for trip ideas, compared with 35% in the July 2022 fieldwork. The same 2025 survey found that 73% said influencer recommendations had influenced their decision to book a trip or travel component, including 84% of travelers under 40.
AI-assisted planning was still less established in the latest supplied results. Expedia Group’s survey conducted from March 10–25, 2026 found that 8% of travelers in the U.S. and U.K. relied on AI chatbots or agents when planning a trip. In that same survey, 59% used search engines and 49% used OTAs when planning.
The 2026 survey also measured trust at the booking stage. When AI booking was available, 68% of travelers preferred booking with a trusted travel brand over an AI chatbot or agent. That result suggests a distinction between using an emerging tool for ideas and trusting a recognized provider with the transaction. It is a survey preference, not a projection of future channel share.
Taken together, the statistics describe independent travel booking as a layered process: social media and destination content can shape the idea, search and meta sites can narrow the options, OTAs can support comparison, and direct brands can remain important for loyalty, mobile booking, and final purchase. The most useful channel metric therefore depends on the question being asked—discovery, research, planning, comparison, or completed booking.