Expedia's business models
Expedia has 3 business models:
Expedia Traveller Preference (ETP)
Expedia Collect (EC)
Hotel Collect (HC)
Your business model affects when and how you receive payment from guests for Expedia reservations.'
Understand Expedia rate types
An example of the different rate types you could have with Expedia:
Main rate (Sell or Net) — Expedia Collect or Hotel Collect: The main rate which SiteMinder sends rates, availability, stop sell, CTA, CTD, minimum stay, and maximum stay to this rate on Expedia. Note: you may see "Net rate" instead of "Sell rate" if you're set up with this rate type on Expedia. Sell and Net are the main rate’s acquisition model (gross or after-commission), not a separate room rate type you map.
Hotel Collect and Expedia Collect: Hotel Collect and Expedia Collect identify the payment method associated with an Expedia reservation. For ETP properties, these payment methods may be available as separate derived-rate mapping options when the Use ETP derived rate mapping setting is enabled in channel settings.
Package rate (Expedia Collect): Packages on Expedia are a price-bundle deal consisting of products, services, and extras such as flights, car rentals, and insurance, to tours and other activities. Pricing and restrictions are derived from the main rate and are managed by Expedia directly.
Derived or linked rates (Expedia Collect): Rates that inherit their pricing and restrictions from the main rate. Expedia manages the pricing and restrictions directly.
How Expedia rate types appear in SiteMinder
Expedia’s extranet may display your rate types only as Standalone, Corporate, or Package. Depending on the business model you have agreed with Expedia, the integration with SiteMinder may see these as:
Standalone Hotel Collect
Standalone Expedia Collect
Corporate Hotel Collect
Corporate Expedia Collect
Package Expedia Collect
💡 An Expedia room rate ID ending in “A” indicates a Hotel Collect rate.
About mapping to Expedia with the ETP business model
With the Expedia Traveller Preference (ETP) business model, one room rate can be sold through multiple Expedia rate types.
Depending on your Expedia setup, you may have Hotel Collect and Expedia Collect rates, as well as sell, net, package, derived or linked rates for the same room. You don't need to create four separate room rates: instead just map all available Expedia rate types to this single room rate.
➕ For example: On Expedia, you have a standard double room rate sold in the following ways:
Standard double room - SellRate - Hotel Collect
Standard double room - Derived - Expedia Collect
Standard double room - Package - Expedia Collect
Standard double room - Linked - Expedia Collect
When ETP Program setting is enabled in Expedia channel settings, Hotel Collect and Expedia Collect derived rates appear as separate options for mapping. When disabled, only one ETP payment-method option needs to be mapped, and reservations for both payment methods are delivered through that mapping.
Collecting payment for Expedia reservations
With Expedia Traveller Preference (ETP), guests will be given the choice to “Pay now” (Expedia Collect), or “Pay later” / “Pay hotel” (Hotel Collect):
Expedia Collect reservations
For Expedia Collect reservations, the guest pays Expedia when they book.
You then receive that payment in one of two ways:
Expedia sends you a virtual credit card (VCC) also known as an "Expedia Virtual Card (EVC)" for the reservation amount, which you charge yourself, usually from the day of check-out
Expedia collects the payment and transfers the funds to your bank account
The reservation shows as unpaid in SiteMinder until the payment is taken or received by your property.
Hotel Collect reservations
Guests pay your property directly
Once a booking has been made, you can view it for 72 hours, along with the guest’s credit card details and Card Verification Value (CVV) number in Expedia Partner Central, and then again on the day of check-in.
Use the credit card details provided in the reservation summary to charge the guest for the full reservation cost
If the guest's card fails, contact the guest directly or contact Expedia‘s support team if you need assistance
If the guest is a No-Show, mark the reservation as No-Show in the Expedia extranet directly to avoid being charged commission. Contact Expedia ‘s support team if you need assistance
💡 Notes:
For Expedia reservations, you will not receive the payment card CVV number. You will need to retrieve this directly via Expedia’s extranet
Cancellation policies and any deposits will need to be set up directly via Expedia’s extranet
Mapping
With the Expedia Traveller Preference (ETP) and Expedia Collect business models, one room rate can be sold in several different ways on Expedia. You need to map all available rate types to your single SiteMinder room rate to ensure reservations and availability are delivered correctly. Unmapped rates can lead to overbookings and missed reservations.
This includes every package, derived, and linked rate. For the two payment rates (Hotel Collect and Expedia Collect), whether you map both separately depends on your Use ETP derived rate mapping setting.
Expedia's pricing models (PDP or OBP)
Expedia supports two pricing models:
Per-day pricing (PDP): The room is priced per day, based on a set number of guests included in the base rate. The number of persons included in the base rate must be set directly via Expedia. To add extra person charges on top of the base rate, you will also need to do so directly via Expedia (via their extranet or contact their support team for assistance).
Occupancy-based pricing (OBP): The price is set per occupant. The base rate will be set for 1 occupant, and prices will need to be applied for each extra occupant.
Your pricing model set in Expedia must match your setting in SiteMinder. If you need to change the pricing model on Expedia, contact your Expedia Market Manager.
If the pricing model changes on Expedia, your SiteMinder platform automatically detects the change and updates your SiteMinder pricing model to match. For Expedia, you do not need to contact our support team to update the change from PDP or OBP. Your SiteMinder platform checks for the update automatically when you go to Distribution > Channels > Expedia > Channel settings or Room rates mapping page.
⚠️ Updating your rate configuration after changing pricing model
After the pricing model changes, the channel rate configuration fields are updated to reflect the new model, but you must manually configure and review the channel rate configuration. For example, if changing to OBP, add Included occupancy and Extra adult rate, Max occupancy, Extra adult rates, Single guest discount. If these additional rate attributes are not set or do not match, the rate may become automatically disabled. These settings will all inherited from the room rate where values exist
The channel rate configuration must match what is set up in the channel extranet. If there are configuration conflicts, the rate may become automatically disabled