Expedia for hotels in Türkiye: joining, Partner Central and the payment models

Joining Expedia means creating a Partner Central account, proving the Ministry certificate number, loading content, rates and policies, and signing a contract that fixes which payment model applies: Hotel Collect, where the hotel takes the guest's money at checkout, or Expedia Collect, where the platform takes it at booking and pays the hotel after the stay.

The certificate is on the wall, the photos are ready, and the account is open. Then Partner Central asks who collects the money, and that one answer changes your invoices, your bank account and your front desk routine. This article walks the whole path: how a property in Türkiye joins, what Partner Central actually controls, how each payment model moves money, how virtual cards are charged, and what to test before the listing goes live.

How does a hotel in Türkiye join Expedia?#

You join by proving what the property legally is, then describing what it sells, then signing the commercial contract. The certificate number comes first, because a listing without it is a fine, not a shop window.

A communiqué published in the Resmî Gazete of 31 December 2025 (No. 33124) (opens in a new tab) bans the online promotion, marketing and sale of uncertified accommodation businesses. When a listing is placed, the business's certificate number must be verified through the Ministry's database and shown in the listing where it can be easily seen. An accommodation business that advertises without a valid certificate number is fined for each listing under Article 33 of Law No. 2634, and intermediaries that do not remove content within 24 hours of a Ministry warning are also fined per listing. If you want the wider picture, we cover what to prepare before listing a hotel on any booking site and certificate numbers on booking channels in separate articles.

Decide which legal entity signs. The contract, the tax number, the address and the bank account that will receive money must belong to the same business, because the payment model decides who pays whom and in whose name the invoice is issued.

Describe the property in the platform's own units: facility type, room types with bed configurations and maximum occupancy, amenities, check-in and check-out times, and the languages the team can actually answer in. Set the commercial facts once, carefully: rate plans, board types, cancellation windows, no-show rules, child and extra-bed policy. These become the terms the guest agrees to at booking, and they are read back to you during a dispute.

Treat the business model as a commercial decision taken before signature, not a checkbox afterwards. Expedia Group's developer documentation for lodging partners (4 November 2026) states that partners use one of three business models and that the model is specified in their contract. Confirm your own case with a legal adviser and your accountant before you publish: the rules above are described in general terms, and penalties depend on the file.

What to have ready before you open the account#

What does Partner Central actually control?#

Partner Central is the hotel's own workspace for the property on the platform: content, rates, availability, policies, reservations, messages and the financial reports behind your invoices and virtual cards. It holds what your team typed into it, and nothing your front desk system knows unless something pushes it there.

Content is what the traveler reads before deciding: the property description, photos, amenities and room types. It should be edited by someone who knows the building, not by whoever has the login. Rates and availability control which room types are open on which dates and at which price, organized by rate plan: the combination of price, board and conditions that the guest books.

Policies cover cancellation windows, deposit rules, children, pets and extra beds. The platform repeats these to the guest, so a policy written loosely becomes a refund argument later. Reservations and messages cover arrivals, modifications, cancellations and no-shows, plus the guest messaging thread: decide who answers within the hour and who answers after midnight. Reports and financial documents show what was booked, what is owed, and the statements behind an invoice or a virtual card charge; someone must reconcile these weekly, not at year end.

Give each person their own login and remove leavers the same day. The account belongs to the property, never to an employee's personal email address.

The gap to watch: Partner Central does not automatically know what your own property management system knows. If nothing pushes rates and availability across, two systems hold two truths, and the guest books the wrong one.

Expedia Collect or Hotel Collect: who takes the money?#

Either the hotel takes the guest's money and the platform later collects its commission, or the platform takes the money at booking and the hotel is paid after the stay. Which one applies to you is written in your contract, not chosen in a menu.

Hotel Collect, also called Pay Later, Agency or Property Collect: the hotel collects payment from the traveler. The reservation is confirmed but payment is not collected until the traveler checks out, and Expedia Group then collects commission from the property. Expedia Collect, also called Pay Now or Merchant: Expedia Group collects payment from the traveler at booking. After the stay the hotel sends Expedia Group an invoice, or charges a virtual card, to collect what it is owed. Both descriptions come from the Expedia Group developer documentation for lodging partners, "Business models" (4 November 2026) (opens in a new tab).

Expedia Traveler Preference (ETP) lets the traveler choose between paying online at booking and paying the property during the stay. If it is on, the hotel runs both flows at once, and the front desk must know which reservation is which before the guest arrives.

Updated Expedia Collect also collects at booking, but splits into two remittance types. With net remittance the hotel requests payment for unpaid reservations and receives the collected amount minus commission and, depending on the country, the tax on that commission. With gross remittance the hotel charges a virtual card for the gross booking amount, and Expedia invoices the hotel for commission and tax on commission; the gross charge is not the hotel's revenue, because the commission invoice arrives separately. Within net remittance there are two tax treatments: with dual, Expedia retains its commission and the tax on it; with single, the property is liable for all taxes and Expedia retains only its commission. Ask your accountant which one your contract describes.

The net rate shown in reservations is internal. The same documentation states it should not be disclosed to guests, so it must not appear on a confirmation printout or be read out at the desk.

What each model does to your invoice#

For how these models change a hotel's cash flow more broadly, see our guide to how hotel collect, OTA collect and virtual cards change a hotel's cash flow.

How do virtual cards work, and how much should I charge?#

A virtual card is a card number issued for one reservation so the hotel can take the money it is owed without waiting for a transfer. You charge the amount the card was issued for, at the point your model allows, and you keep the reference with the reservation.

The card is tied to a single booking, so the charge must match that booking's amount. Charging a round figure, or combining two reservations on one card, breaks the reconciliation between the reservation report, the invoice and the bank line. Timing follows the model: under Expedia Collect the hotel collects what it is owed after the stay; under gross remittance the charge is for the gross booking amount, with commission invoiced separately. A charge made before the permitted point is a dispute rather than a sale: it costs time, and it can cost the payment.

Record the card reference next to the reservation number in your own system, so that a query six weeks later can be answered in one look. A failed charge does not delete the debt; it becomes an item to chase, so someone must own the failed-charge list every week and know which reservations are still unpaid. And keep the net rate out of anything the guest sees: not on the registration card, not on a printout left at the desk, not in a conversation at check-in.

Channel manager or manual updates: which should feed Expedia?#

Manual entry is fine for one property with a few rate plans and one channel. Once the same room is sold in several places, a channel manager earns its place, but only if one system owns the rate and the mapping is correct.

A channel manager is software that pushes rates and availability from one system to several sales channels at once, so a price change is typed once. Without it, every change is repeated by hand in every extranet, and the last one to be updated is the one that sells the wrong room. Mapping is the whole job: each room type and rate plan in your system must be tied to the matching room type and rate plan on the platform. A wrong mapping sells a standard room at a suite price, or a suite that does not exist.

Decide which system is the source of truth for the rate, and make every other system follow it. Two places where a price can be edited is two places where it will eventually disagree. Ask what happens when the connection fails: does the platform keep the last rate it received, or close the room? Who is told, and how quickly? Ask who owns the mapping and who fixes it at 22:00 on a Saturday. Test a rate change and a stop sale end to end before you trust the connection with a peak weekend. Before signing with any vendor, work through the questions to ask a channel manager vendor.

For completeness: AI Otel's own booking-site connection is built and in pre-production testing. Availability and rates flow from the hotel's system to the major OTAs through our Channex integration, now in pre-production testing; no OTA is connected yet, and we say so.

What should you test before the listing goes live?#

Make one real booking on your own listing and follow it all the way to the front desk, the invoice and the bank line. A listing that has never been booked end to end is a guess.

Book a recognizable rate for a near date and watch it arrive: in Partner Central, in your own system, and in the message the guest receives. Change it: move the dates, change the room, add a guest, and check that the change appears in both systems and that the price recalculates as your policy says it should. Cancel it: check that the room returns to availability, that the refund path follows whoever holds the money at that moment, and that the cancellation appears in the reports.

Test a no-show and a same-day cancellation against your written policy, because that is where the policy text meets the front desk at midnight. Follow the money: the reservation report, the invoice or virtual card charge, and the bank line must all match for the same booking number. Check the guest view: certificate number visible where it can be easily seen, photos matching the room sold, policies readable, confirmation in a language the guest understands. Only then open full availability; a soft opening of a few rate plans is easier to unwind than a sold-out weekend that never existed.

What to do next#

Before you open the account, write down three things on one page: the certificate number, the legal entity that will sign, and which payment model fits your cash flow and your invoicing capacity. Then make one test booking and follow it to the bank line. Joining is a legal and content task, Partner Central is the surface you control every day, and the payment model quietly decides your invoices, your virtual cards and your front desk routine for as long as the contract runs. If you want to see how a single room inventory can feed booking sites from one system, request a briefing.