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Predatory OTAs are quietly hijacking hotel brand searches, inflating ad costs, and tricking guests into booking through sites that look official but aren’t.
Tim Major, CEO of Operto, breaks down how this works, why so many hoteliers still miss it, and what you can do right now to fight back.
Mauricio Schuler sits down with Tim Major, CEO of Operto, to unpack one of the most eye-opening problems in hotel distribution today. What starts as a simple search for your hotel name can turn into a costly game of impersonation, hidden fees, and lost direct bookings. Tim explains how these predatory OTAs show up in search results, why they’re so hard to spot, and how they can push hotels below fake listings while charging guests more than they expect.
You’ll discover:
- The difference between mainstream OTAs like Expedia and Booking.com and predatory OTAs that impersonate your brand
- Why many hotels do not realize they’re being affected, even when the listings are right in front of them
- How hidden fees, fake cancellation policies, and misleading checkout pages damage guest trust
- Why these listings can also increase your brand keyword CPC and hurt direct booking performance
- The real scale of the problem, including Tim’s research on millions of ads and hundreds of thousands of affected hotels
Tim also shares practical steps hotels can take immediately, from checking brand search results to reporting impersonation through Google Ads Help Center.
He explains how AI and agentic systems can help hotels monitor search results in real time, outbid predatory ads when it makes sense, and automate the reporting process without wasting staff time.
Beyond the predatory OTA issue, this conversation goes deeper into the role of AI in hospitality. Tim and Mauricio explore why many hotel AI projects fail without strong business fundamentals, why “AI slop” is becoming a real problem, and why the best use of AI is often not replacing people but freeing teams to focus on human hospitality and higher-value work.
Tim Major is the CEO of Operto, a hospitality technology company focused on automation, contactless entry, and AI-powered operational tools. With 17 years in hospitality tech, he brings a sharp perspective on where the industry is headed and how hotels can use technology more intelligently.
Essential listening if you work in hotel operations, distribution, revenue, marketing, or ownership and want to protect your brand, improve direct bookings, and make AI actually useful.
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