THE OTA SELLS
YOUR ROOM.
ONLY YOU CAN SELL THE STAY.
I ran SEO at Expedia ANZ, the OTA taking your commission. In one 30 day sprint I pick the open dates worth the most, build the named package an OTA can't list, and sell it direct: one offer, one page, one follow up path. You stop paying 18% for guests who already know your name.
I helped build the machine that sends your guests to Booking.com. I know exactly how to get them back.
One booking a week kept direct ≈ $9K+ a year in your pocket. Illustrative math, your rate and commission set the real number.
"online travel agencies charge around 20% commissions on bookings, which I thought was unbelievably high." Hotelier · r/askhotels · 2023
"It feels like agencies always have the upper hand because they know everything and we know nothing." Revenue manager · r/RevenueManagement · 2024
"I got my direct books from low teens to 30-34%." Independent property · r/askhotels · 2022
The commission pain is real, and so is the upside. The last one is the goal: more of every booking kept, instead of handed to a platform.
Own your demand, then reactivate it. Search just shows me the leak.
Search shows me which booking searches leak to the OTAs. The real play is downstream: win the booking direct, capture the guest as your own contact, then reactivate them and their referrals. Repeat guests are why you never depend on search volume.
- WK 1 Find the revenue wedge A search at position 8 to 30, an empty room type, a shoulder week, old enquiries. Pick the one worth the most.
- WK 2 Build the offer Not a discount. A named stay with direct only extras: a reason to book direct now.
- WK 3 Own the guest, wire the follow up One page into your own engine. The guest becomes your contact, not the OTA's.
- WK 4 Launch, reactivate, measure Push it through your traffic, list and past guests. Report X enquiries, Y bookings, Z revenue.
Ranks page two for the destination, guests browse then book on an OTA. The Sprint: a named stay with direct only extras, on a page that wins the search into their own engine.
Traffic for "wellness retreat" terms, but the site sells vague rooms. The Sprint: a named multi night reset, a WhatsApp follow up, and "new dates just opened" to old enquiries. Retreat led property? There's a dedicated version.
Premium cabins empty on a valuable shoulder week. The Sprint packages the experience, not a cheaper room, and sends it to past guests and abandoned bookings.
Illustrative examples of the mechanism, not results claims. The specifics come from your property and your own search picture.
I made organic the number one channel at the biggest OTA in the southern hemisphere.
At Expedia ANZ: recovered 40%+ of organic traffic, then grew another 25%, and coordinated hotel partners, PR, and tourism boards into one SEO machine until organic out-earned every paid channel.
The same playbook, minus the corporate layers, aimed at your direct bookings instead of the platform's margin. See how AI citations work.
Who this is for
- + Independent and boutique hotels with strong reviews, bleeding margin to Booking.com and Expedia on guests who already know the property.
- + Owners and GMs who can make a decision, watching travellers get sent to an OTA when they ask AI where to stay.
- + Properties that want direct relationships with guests, not just heads in beds via a platform.
Not for
- × Big flagged chains where a corporate marketing department runs search centrally.
- × Brand new properties with no reviews and no demand to capture yet.
- × Teams that need head office to approve a page change.
Why me and not another hotel marketing agency?
The Direct Booking Revenue Sprint.
Hotel variant: open dates & packages.
One 30 day project with one job: turn the open dates worth the most into a named package that books direct. I find the opportunity already hiding in your search traffic, OTA dependence, empty high value dates or old enquiries, then build the offer, page, messaging and booking path around it. You get:
One direct booking a week kept direct is $9K+ a year, so one recovered booking usually covers the Sprint on its own. If your numbers don't clear that bar, I'll tell you on the first call and we won't run it. Keep going month to month as a Direct Booking Partner only if you want to keep shipping.
Not ready to build? The map only version is a $750 audit: where bookings leak, what AI tells travellers, and the 30 day plan, yours to keep either way.
The hotel version of the Revenue Sprint. See the full model$1,500 to $3,500 one time, implementation included. Not ready to build? The map only version is a $750 audit: where bookings leak, what AI tells travellers, and the 30 day plan, yours to keep either way.
No. The OTAs stay as the billboard. The Sprint wins the guests who already know your name, and the high value dates and packages you'd rather not pay 18% on.
No, and nobody honest can. The Sprint is measured in what it creates: enquiries, bookings and revenue, reported in plain numbers you can check.
A decision maker, your rate and availability calendar, and your past guest and enquiry list. Most owners spend under two hours total across the 30 days.
Send me your hotel URL. I'll show you where you're invisible.
A quick video: what travellers see when they ask AI where to stay in your city, where your direct site leaks bookings to OTAs, and the first fix. If it's useful, we talk.