Most independent hotels treat OTA reclaim as a fire drill on the 3rd of the month. They open Partner Central, realise there are eleven no-shows they forgot to mark, panic through the queue, and miss the deadline on two of them. The missed ones are commission dollars they never recover.
The fix is boring: a cadence. Two planned blocks of time per month, 30–60 minutes each, run the same way every time. Here's the checklist.
Phase 1 — the Reconcilable Bookings sweep (Expedia)
Partner Central → Accounting → Reconcilable Bookings. Filter to the previous calendar month. You'll see every reservation eligible for no-show, early departure, or waived cancellation — roughly 8–15% of your Expedia volume on a typical indie.
- Sort by check-in date, oldest first. Older events are closer to the cliff.
- For each row, open the folio in your PMS in a second tab. Verify what actually happened: did the guest arrive, stay the full term, pay?
- Click the action button that matches reality: Mark as no-show, Modify reservation, or Waive cancellation fee.
- Upload evidence if prompted — folio PDF, guest communication, camera log. Partner Central denies claims with thin evidence.
Phase 2 — the rolling 48-hour close (Booking.com)
Booking.com Extranet's window is continuous, not monthly. Every cancelled or no-show reservation has a 48-hour countdown from the scheduled check-out. After that, the commission is locked in. This phase lives in your daily rhythm, not your monthly one — but once a month you do a final sweep to catch anything missed.
- Extranet → Reservations → filter by status 'Cancelled' and 'No-show' for the last 7 days.
- Open each reservation. If the guest truly didn't show up and the 48-hour window is still open, click Mark as no-show.
- For waived cancellation fees, the Extranet won't refund the commission automatically — open a Partner Message referencing the reservation ID and the waiver rationale. Booking.com typically responds within 3–5 business days.
Phase 3 — invoice reconciliation against the PMS
This is where most reclaim opportunities hide. The monthly Expedia invoice CSV (Partner Central → Accounting → Invoices) lists every commission charge. Your PMS has the ground truth for what each reservation actually produced.
- Export the Expedia invoice CSV and your PMS reservations CSV for the same calendar month.
- Join on itinerary ID (Expedia calls it the HCOM ID). Compute the delta: invoiced commission minus expected commission.
- Flag any row with a delta above $5. Usual causes: rate change after booking, waived fee not yet refunded, virtual card discrepancy, tax-on-commission miscalculation.
Phase 4 — dispute filing
Everything flagged in Phase 3 that isn't already in the Reconcilable Bookings queue needs a dispute message. For Expedia, that's Partner Central → Accounting → Contact Us (messaging module). For Booking.com, it's the Partner Messages thread on the affected reservation.
The message format that consistently works follows four elements: name the claim category (no-show / early departure / waiver / virtual-card gap), reference the OTA booking ID and your PMS folio number, cite the specific policy that applies, and attach the evidence. A post with the full templates is coming next.
The 30-day cadence template
| Day of month | Duration | Phase | What you do |
|---|---|---|---|
| Daily | 5 min | Phase 2 | Check Booking.com Extranet for any no-shows within the rolling 48-hour window |
| 1st | 45 min | Phase 1 + 2 | First Reconcilable Bookings sweep for last month |
| 3rd | 45 min | Phase 1 + 2 | Final sweep. Close by end of day. |
| 5th | 60 min | Phase 3 | Invoice vs PMS reconciliation |
| 6th–10th | 30 min | Phase 4 | File disputes for anything flagged in Phase 3 |
Monthly OTA reclaim cadence
- Partner Central documentation — Reconcilable BookingsExpedia Group · 2026
- Booking.com Partner Help — cancellation and no-show policyBooking.com · 2026
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