The hotel group
paying commission
on its own guests.

The challenge

The hotel group operated four boutique properties. Nearly two-thirds of bookings came through Booking.com and Expedia, costing 18–22% in commissions per reservation. The properties had strong brand loyalty, but guests defaulted to OTAs out of convenience.

Previous attempts at direct-booking campaigns had failed. The landing pages were slow, the booking engine was clunky on mobile, and nobody was bidding on their own brand terms — so OTAs were buying that traffic instead.

What we did

• Built a direct-booking SEM program targeting brand, near-brand, and location-intent queries across all four properties.
• Launched retargeting campaigns for booking engine abandoners with rate-match messaging and best-price guarantees.
• Redesigned booking engine landing pages: faster load, mobile-first, urgency elements, and transparent pricing with no hidden fees.
• Implemented a loyalty-driven email program for past guests that bypassed OTAs entirely on repeat stays.

The outcome

OTA mix dropped from 64% to 40% within eight months. Direct booking revenue increased by $1.2M annualized, and the cost to acquire each direct booking was $18 — versus $45 average OTA commission per reservation.

The revenue director stopped treating OTAs as a necessary evil and started treating them as a discovery channel. The margin improvement funded a property renovation the group had been deferring for two years.