Cutting OTA dependency: taking back control of acquisition

You pay 18% commission on a booking made by a guest who already slept at your hotel last year. That’s the absurdity of the OTA model: you keep paying to reach people who already know you. Booking and Expedia aren’t villains — they bring real volume — but when 60 or 70% of your room nights run through them, you’ve stopped being a hotelier and started being a subcontractor.

First: know what the OTA actually costs you

Commission is only the visible part. Add the fact that the OTA owns the guest data, often forbids you from contacting them directly, and pits you head-to-head against the hotel next door on price alone. The real cost of an OTA booking isn’t 18%, it’s 18% plus the loss of the relationship. Run the numbers across a full year and it’s usually the property’s single biggest marketing line — one nobody ever consciously chose.

The goal isn’t to leave, it’s to win the second stay

Nobody serious will tell you to quit Booking. The right objective is simpler: a guest who arrives via the OTA the first time should come back directly the second. That means capturing their email during the stay (legal and easy at check-in), giving them a genuine reason to book without a middleman, and above all reminding them you exist between stays.

The physical reminder the OTA can’t intercept

A post-stay email gets opened by a handful of people. A postcard in the hotel’s colours doesn’t. And the most profitable idea isn’t that the guest sends it to themselves — it’s that they send it to the people close to them. The recommendation then comes from a friend, not a banner, and it lands with people who resemble them: same budget, same taste for a weekend away. Those new guests arrive directly, commission-free. The card itself stays five years on the recipient’s fridge — a brand reminder no OTA will ever invoice. To gauge what that direct channel can weigh against your commissions, our ROI calculator gives an order of magnitude in thirty seconds.

Treat direct like a product, not an exception

If your site is slower, uglier and pricier than Booking, the guest is right to use Booking. Direct booking has to be earned: a better rate reserved for returning guests, a small named gesture, a clean booking flow on mobile. Direct isn’t a favour you wait for from the guest, it’s an experience you owe them.

Measure the direct share, month after month

You only steer what you measure. Track your direct-to-OTA ratio every month and set yourself one point of gain per quarter. Moving a mid-sized hotel from 30 to 40% direct often means tens of thousands of euros in commission recovered over the year — money that funds your renovations, not Booking’s margin.

Taking back control doesn’t mean burning bridges. It means refusing to pay full price for guests who are already yours.