Service
Direct bookings: what OTA dependence costs, and how we move ten points a year
Independent hotels sent 63.4 per cent of their bookings through OTAs in 2025, up from 61.3 the year before, according to Cloudbeds' 2026 State of Independent Hotels report, built on 90 million bookings. At 15 to 25 per cent commission that is the largest marketing cost most properties have, and it is paid on the guests who already knew the name. This service is the work of moving that ratio, ten points a year, through the listing, the booking path, the direct-only offer and the guest list, from £399 a month, 3-month minimum.
Worked example
A twelve-room property, with made-up numbers
This is an illustration, not a client. The numbers are round so the sum is easy to follow; the calculator on the pricing page does it with yours. Direct costs are assumed at 3 per cent for the engine and the card.
Nights saved are commission avoided on nights already being sold. Extra nights from the specific searches are on top, and not in this table because we will not invent them.
| Rooms | 12 | |
|---|---|---|
| Occupancy over the year | 65% | 2,847 room nights sold |
| Average daily rate | £115 | £327,405 room revenue |
| Share of nights through OTAs | 60% | 1,708 nights, £196,420 |
| Commission rate | 15% | £29,463 a year, £2,455 a month |
| Ten points moved to direct | 285 nights | £3,931 a year saved after 3% direct costs |
| Thirty points moved over three years | 854 nights | £11,800 a year saved, every year after |
The four leaks
Where the OTA share comes from, and what we do about each
Most OTA nights are not guests the OTA found. They are guests who found you and were routed to the OTA by one of four gaps. Each has a fix, done in this order because the first is the cheapest.
01
The name search books elsewhere
A guest who knows your name searches it, sees the knowledge panel, and finds only OTA rates in the price list. The booking was yours and it now costs 15 to 25 per cent.
The fix: The listing complete and your rate in the price list through the engine or by hand. Weeks, not months.
02
No rate on the website
The room page says "check availability" and nothing else. The guest goes to Booking.com to find the price and books where they found it.
The fix: Live from-rates on every room page, the total shown first, the engine styled to the site.
03
No reason to book direct
The OTA rate looks the same or lower, thanks to the Genius discount you funded, and it comes with points.
The fix: Direct-only value inside parity: breakfast, parking, late checkout, a better cancellation window, member rates to a closed list.
04
The guest leaves and never hears from you
OTA guests arrive with masked emails; your own guests are never asked. Next year they search the OTA again.
The fix: A tick box on the booking form and at check-in, one email a season under PECR's soft opt-in.
Inside parity
What the OTA terms allow you to do
- Lower rates to a closed group. An email list, a members' code, a phone booking, a returning guest. Not on the public page.
- More in the direct rate. Breakfast, parking, late checkout, a longer free-cancellation window. Same headline price, better deal.
- Packages the OTA does not sell. Dinner, bed and breakfast midweek; the walking week; the Christmas three-nighter.
- Declining the programmes. Preferred Partner, the Visibility Booster and deep Genius levels are optional, and worth reconsidering once the name search books direct.
How we measure it
Three numbers, on the first of every month
- OTA share of room nights
- From your property management system, twelve months rolling, phone and email counted as direct. The first line of every report.
- The booking engine's source and funnel report
- Where direct bookings came from and where guests dropped out: the rates step means price or parity, the payment step means trust or fees.
- Search Console and the listing's own numbers
- Which searches showed the property, which pages were clicked, and what the knowledge panel sent: calls, directions, booking-link clicks.
The full argument, with the CMA's 2019 commitments and the cancellation figures, is in the OTA guide.
The honest limits
Where the ratio will not move much, and we say so
A remote property whose guests mostly come from abroad may sit at half and half for good reasons, because the OTA is doing the finding. A new property with no reviews and no past guests should expect the OTAs to bring most of its first year. A holiday let under an agency exclusivity clause cannot take a direct booking until the clause goes. In each case the audit says so before the quote.
Questions hotel owners ask us
What is a good direct booking share?
For a UK independent, over 40 per cent of room nights is good, over 50 is strong, under 25 means the OTAs own your guests. Cloudbeds' 2026 report put OTA share at 63.4 per cent for independents. The number to watch is the direction, measured in room nights over twelve months.
Can we undercut the OTAs on our own site?
Publicly, no, under the narrow parity clause in the UK terms. To a closed group, yes: an email list, a members' code, a phone booking, a returning guest. And the direct rate can carry breakfast, parking or a better cancellation policy at the same headline price.
Is a booking engine worth it for a small property?
For anything over two or three rooms, yes. A guest who cannot see availability and pay now goes to the OTA where they can. The engine's fee is a small percentage or a flat monthly amount, against 15 to 25 per cent on every OTA night.
Does more direct mean fewer bookings overall?
No. The OTAs stay live and keep bringing the guests who would never have found you. The change is that the guests who already knew your name, and the guests arriving from the specific searches, book with you.
Find out your OTA share and what each ten points is worth
Send us the property name and, if you have it, last year's split by source. You get the four leaks checked against your listing and your site, and a number for what moving them would save.