Direct bookings: how your hotel website can depend less on OTAs

Online travel agencies such as Booking.com and Expedia bring guests, but charge a commission on every booking that, according to industry guides, usually sits between 15 and 20%. The goal isn’t to leave them: it’s for people who already know your hotel, or discover it there, to end up booking on your website. For that, your site has to make it just as easy and give them a reason.

Why people book on Booking even when they know the hotel

• Trust. They already have an account and a saved card, and they know someone answers if something goes wrong.
• Convenience. Booking on a phone is quick and always works the same way.
• Everything in one place. Photos, reviews and prices to compare without opening ten tabs.
• Discounts and points. Loyalty programmes make booking with the agency again feel like the obvious choice.

Your website doesn’t have to win at all of that. It has to match the basics and offer something the agency can’t: a direct line to the hotel.

What your website needs to win the booking

• Booking in two taps. Dates, room and payment, with no extra steps and without leaving the site’s style.
• A clear reason. Breakfast, late checkout, the transfer or more flexible cancellation for people who book here. Say it next to the button, not on a separate page.
• The best price, in plain sight. If your site has better terms, make it obvious. In the European Union, since 2 December 2024 Booking.com can no longer stop your website from being cheaper than Booking: the Digital Markets Act bans those clauses.
• Trust. Real reviews, secure payment, a clear cancellation policy and a phone number or WhatsApp at hand.

And above all, speed on phones: every second of waiting loses visitors before they see anything. I go through the numbers in Why a slow website costs you bookings.

Agencies are also a shop window

A Cornell University study (Chris Anderson, 2009) found that when a hotel was listed on Expedia, bookings through the hotel’s own channels rose too: many people discover it on the agency and then search for it by name. So the strategy isn’t to disappear from agencies, but to make sure that search by name ends on your website and not back on Booking.

Being found by name

• Your website first on Google. When someone searches for the hotel’s name, your site should come up before the agencies, with your Google Business Profile complete and linked.
• Your price next to the agencies’. In Google’s hotel search, your website can appear for free beside the agencies, through your booking engine or a connectivity partner.
• Social media that leads to your site. The bio link and stories should go to your website, to the specific room or offer, not to an agency. Running social media for a resort, I see it often: people discover the place in a video and want to book without going round in circles.

What scares off a direct booking

• A booking engine that looks like another site. A different typeface, colours and domain create doubt right before payment.
• Prices that don’t match. If the site shows one price and the engine another, the guest goes back to the agency.
• Discount pop-ups after two seconds. They interrupt before the guest has seen anything.

In short

Every booking that moves from an agency to your website saves the whole commission. To get there, your site has to be fast, booking has to be easy and there has to be a clear reason to do it there. Agencies are still useful as a shop window: what matters is that people searching for your name end up on your site.

If you’d like your website to win more direct bookings, tell me about your hotel and I’ll reply within one working day.