If you manage a hotel, holiday apartment or rural house in the Canary Islands, Booking.com is probably your main source of reservations. And it’s probably also your biggest headache: 15-20% commissions, total dependence on an algorithm you don’t control, and increasingly tight margins.

The question many Canary Islands hoteliers ask is: is there an alternative? The answer is yes, but it’s not as simple as dropping Booking tomorrow. In this article, we analyse the real landscape and explore how a custom channel manager can change the game.

The problem: the OTA trap

OTAs (Online Travel Agencies) like Booking, Expedia or Airbnb solved a real problem: giving visibility to accommodation that couldn’t compete in digital marketing on their own. But over time, the relationship has become unbalanced:

What OTAs take

Commissions: Between 15% and 25% per booking. For a hotel with annual revenue of €500,000, that’s €75,000 to €125,000 in commissions.
Customer control: The guest is “Booking’s customer”, not yours. You don’t have their real email for loyalty campaigns.
Algorithm dependence: Your visibility depends on factors you don’t control (score, availability, preferred commission).
Rate parity: OTAs demand you don’t offer lower prices on your own website (though this is changing legally in Spain).

The numbers in the Canary Islands

With over 15 million tourists per year, the Canary archipelago has enormous demand. But a disproportionate share of the value goes to intermediaries. An industry study estimates that Canary Islands accommodations collectively pay over €200 million annually in OTA commissions.

What is a channel manager and why do you need one?

A channel manager is software that connects your room inventory with multiple distribution channels simultaneously: Booking, Expedia, Airbnb, your own website, tour operators, local agencies, etc.

Its main function is to:

Synchronise availability in real time to avoid overbookings.
Manage rates from a single dashboard.
Centralise reservations regardless of where they originate.

Generic channel managers

Popular solutions exist like Cloudbeds, SiteMinder or Lodgify. They’re functional but have limitations:

Fixed or percentage fees that add to OTA commissions.
Standard features that don’t account for Canary Islands market particularities.
Limited integrations with local systems (regional PMS, Canarian tour operator software).
English-language support or hours that don’t match your time zone.

Custom channel manager

A channel manager developed specifically for your business offers advantages generic solutions can’t match:

Advantages of a custom channel manager for Canary Islands hotels

1. Boosting direct sales

The biggest advantage of your own channel manager is that it prioritises your direct channel. You can:

Show lower prices on your website than on Booking (with an integrated booking engine).
Offer exclusive extras for direct bookings (upgrade, late checkout, restaurant discount).
Capture the customer’s real email for loyalty campaigns.
Implement your own loyalty programme.

A 10% increase in direct bookings can mean savings of €10,000-50,000 annually in commissions, depending on the size of the establishment.

2. Integration with local tour operators

The Canary Islands have a unique tour operator ecosystem. Many Nordic, British and German operators work with proprietary systems that generic channel managers don’t integrate. Custom development can:

Connect directly with Canary Islands-specific tour operator systems.
Manage contracts with particular conditions (allotments, releases, seasonal rates).
Automate invoicing and reporting with each operator.

3. IGIC and Canarian tax management

Generic channel managers are designed for European VAT. Canarian taxation (7% IGIC, exemptions, REF regime) requires specific configurations that often need workarounds. A custom system handles this natively.

4. Adapted revenue management

The Canary Islands have very marked seasonality that differs by island and area. A custom channel manager can incorporate:

Dynamic pricing algorithms adapted to Canarian demand patterns.
Flight and airport occupancy data to anticipate peaks.
Integration with local events (Carnival, patron saint festivals, conferences).

5. Your own data and analytics

With a generic system, your data lives on the provider’s platform. With your own:

Data is 100% yours.
You can create custom dashboards.
Cross-reference booking data with other business indicators.
Comply with data protection regulations without depending on third parties.

The realistic approach: don’t abandon Booking, but reduce your dependency

Dropping Booking overnight would be a mistake for most accommodations. The smart strategy is:

Maintain OTA presence to capture visibility and new customers.
Invest in direct sales with an optimised website and your own booking engine.
Use a channel manager that balances all channels and prioritises direct.
Build customer loyalty so the second booking is direct.
Measure and optimise the channel mix constantly.

The goal isn’t to eliminate OTAs, but to have them represent 40-50% of your bookings instead of 80-90%.

How much does a custom channel manager cost?

It depends on complexity, but for reference:

Basic channel manager (3-4 channels, web booking engine): €15,000-25,000.
Complete system (multiple channels, revenue management, integrated CRM): €30,000-60,000.
Annual maintenance: 15-20% of development cost.

Compared with €75,000-125,000 annually in OTA commissions, the ROI is clear if you manage to migrate even 15% of bookings to the direct channel.

Conclusion

OTAs will continue to be part of the Canary Islands tourism ecosystem. But they don’t have to own your business. A custom channel manager gives you control: over your prices, your customers, your data and your margins.

The investment pays for itself quickly once you start seeing direct bookings increase and commissions decrease. And in a market as competitive as Canary Islands tourism, every percentage point of margin counts.

Want to explore how a custom channel manager could work for your accommodation? Contact us and we’ll analyse your specific case.