Direct bookings grow when three things are true. Guests can find your own booking route, they have a good reason to use it, and you stay in touch after they leave. The steps below work through each, starting with the numbers.

Know what each booking really costs

In 2020, Which? Travel reported that online travel agents typically charged hotels 15% to 25% commission on each room booked. Rates vary by site and contract and may have changed since, so pull out your own agreements and note the figure for each site. Add any extra visibility, marketing or payment programme fees you have signed up to.

A worked example

Take a hypothetical hotel, with illustrative figures, that sells 4,000 room nights a year at an average of £110. If 60% come through booking sites at 15% commission, that is 2,400 nights, £264,000 of revenue and about £39,600 in commission.

Move one in ten of those nights to direct and the hotel saves roughly £3,960 a year in commission, before its own booking engine and payment fees. Spend part of that on a direct booking perk and the tools below, and it still gains the guest's details for next time. Run the same sum with your own numbers before deciding how much to invest.

Use booking sites for discovery, not dependency

Booking sites put your hotel in front of people who have never heard of you, and that has real value. Many of those guests look you up before they book. Keep your listings accurate and attractive, but treat them as shop windows that lead people back to you.

Use the same photos, room names and descriptions on your listings and your own site, so guests recognise you instantly. Inconsistent names or older photos make people wonder whether they have found the right hotel, and they retreat to the booking site they trust.

Win the searches for your own name

When guests search your hotel's name, Google can show a booking module with prices from several sites. Free booking links let your own booking engine appear there with no cost per click, ranked by usefulness rather than payment. Ask your booking engine provider whether it sends your rates to Google.

Then complete your Business Profile and point its website link at your own site. Our hotel SEO guide covers the full set of steps.

Price fairly, and check your contracts

Guests compare prices in seconds, so your direct rate should never look worse than a booking site's. Since June 2022, the UK's Vertical Agreements Block Exemption Order has treated wide retail parity clauses, which stop you offering better terms on other booking sites and channels, as a hardcore restriction. Narrow parity clauses, which only stop you undercutting a booking site on your own website, are different: the CMA's guidance says they can still be covered by the block exemption, subject to market share limits, so read your contracts and take advice before you publish a lower public rate than a booking site.

Value-adds are often simpler: breakfast, parking, a late checkout or flexible cancellation for direct guests. Whatever you offer, show the full price including mandatory fees from the start. The CMA secured commitments from major booking sites in 2019 to show compulsory charges upfront, and since 6 April 2025 drip pricing has been banned by law for businesses selling to consumers.

Make the website the easiest place to book

Direct booking only works if the site converts. That means a booking button on every page, room pages with real detail, fast mobile pages and a short checkout. Our hotel website design guide goes through each feature in turn.

Answer every enquiry quickly

Phone calls, emails and chat messages are direct bookings waiting to happen. Answer them fast, quote your direct rate and benefit clearly, and offer to take the booking there and then.

Wedding, group and meeting enquiries deserve a named contact and a reply within one working day. A slow answer sends planners to the next venue on their list.

Turn first-time guests into direct repeat guests

A guest who booked through a booking site is still your guest once they arrive. Welcome them well, then invite them to join your mailing list at check-in or checkout with a clear reason, such as a returning-guest rate.

Follow the rules when you do. The ICO explains that the soft opt-in lets you email existing customers about similar products and services only if you collected their details during a sale, or negotiations for one, and offered a simple opt-out then and in every message since. It does not cover bought-in or new contacts, so if you are unsure whether it covers details passed on by a booking site, ask for consent directly.

Build a brand people remember

Guests can only book direct if they remember your name. A distinctive identity, a clear point of view and consistent photography make you easier to recall and recommend. See our approach to hotel branding.

Where to start

Most hotels cannot do everything at once. Use your biggest gap to choose the first job:

• Your name search shows only booking sites: start with free booking links and your Business Profile

• Guests visit your site but do not book: fix the booking flow, pricing display and room pages

• Plenty of past guests, little repeat business: start a consented email programme

• Nobody finds you unless they know your name: invest in content and SEO

Measure direct share every month

Track three numbers monthly: the share of room nights booked direct, total commission paid and your website's booking conversion rate. Set up analytics so bookings in your engine are credited to the right page and campaign. Review them alongside occupancy, because a cheaper channel only helps if rooms still fill.

Look at trends over a season rather than week to week, and note what changed when a number moved. Over time this shows which of the steps above earns its keep for your hotel.

How The Think helps

We combine branding, Framer websites and SEO, so the brand, the site and the search work are planned together. We work to fixed quotes, with brand identity from £4,000 and websites from £7,500. See our hotel marketing and hospitality marketing pages.