OTAs Stopped Sharing Guest Phone Numbers. Now what?

First Expedia, now Booking.com: both have announced that they will no longer share guests' real phone numbers with accommodations.

For many hoteliers, that sounds like the end of reaching guests before arrival. No more quick WhatsApp to confirm arrival times, SMS with parking instructions, or personal welcome before check-in.

If you’ve been panicking - stop! This is not the end of pre-stay phone engagement with guests. But it does mark an important shift that hoteliers must prepare for. It’s time for hotels to take charge of their guest experiences.

What's changing?

OTAs are tightening control over how guests and properties communicate. Instead of passing on a phone number, they want conversations to happen inside their own messaging platforms. For hotels that built their pre-arrival communication around a phone number pulled from the booking, this will be a hurdle in the short term.

For hotels that were already working inside the OTA inbox, very little changes at all.

Runnr.ai customers are well-prepared

Runnr.ai is directly integrated with the inboxes of Booking.com, Expedia and Airbnb. That means we don't need a guest's phone number to start the conversation. We automate the chat right where the booking lives, so guests get fast, helpful answers from the moment they book.

Here's what that looks like in practice:

• Direct OTA integrations. Messages to and from Booking.com, Expedia and Airbnb flow into one unified inbox. Your team (and your AI assistant) never misses a question, whatever channel it came from.
• Messaging adjusted per channel. Every OTA has its own rules and its own tone. Runnr.ai adapts messages per channel so communication stays compliant and still feels personal.
• Add WhatApp/SMS messaging at any point. As soon as a phone number is added to the PMS, at any moment in the guest journey, we merge communication across every channel into a single inbox. No duplicate threads, no lost context.
• Proactive messaging on the guest's preferred channel. Once a guest completes online check-in, Runnr.ai can send a proactive message on the channel they prefer, including SMS and WhatsApp.

For our customers, the OTA announcements are an inconvenience but not a show-stopping issue. The conversation simply starts in the OTA inbox and moves to direct channels when the guest is ready.

It also replies in the guest's own language and matches the tone of voice you set for your property type and brand, whether that is casual, professional, or extra warm.

The bigger shift: own the guest relationship

This change isn't really about phone numbers. It's about who owns the relationship with the guest.

For years, many properties have leaned on OTAs not just for distribution, but for communication too. Every step OTAs take to keep conversations on their platforms is a reminder that relying on them for guest contact is a risk.

Future-ready hotels treat the OTA as the first touchpoint, not the whole journey. They use the OTA inbox to build trust early, then create a direct relationship through online check-in, where guests share their contact details and preferences by choice. From there, every message, upsell and review request happens on the hotel's own terms.

That's the real opportunity here. When you own the guest relationship, you can nurture it for years to come. Guests you know are far more likely to book direct next time.

Stay one step ahead of OTA policy changes

OTA policies will keep changing. Hotels who own their guest relationships won't need to scramble every time they do.

Want to see how Runnr.ai keeps you connected to every guest, on every channel? Get in touch and we'll show you how it works.