Distribution & Channel Mix

OTAs are not the enemy. They are extraordinary at reach, expensive at loyalty, and very good at becoming the default. Almost no property decides to reach eighty percent OTA share; it arrives one good summer at a time, and by then the commission is a fixed cost of existing.

The right share is a number you should be able to say out loud, defend, and revisit each season.

True cost

Commission, payment fees, cancellation behaviour and the cost of the guest who never comes back — set against acquisition cost on the direct side, so the comparison is real.

Guest quality

Length of stay, spend on property, review behaviour and repeat rate, read by channel. Some expensive channels are worth it; some cheap ones are not.

Wholesale & rate integrity

Where your rate is appearing that you did not authorise, and what to do about it. Loose wholesale contracts undercut the direct rate you are asking guests to trust.

Parity messaging is the weakest promise in hospitality: Best Rate Guaranteed tells a guest that booking with you is not worse, an argument that has never persuaded anyone of anything.

Direct wins when the direct experience is genuinely different — the room you cannot select on an OTA, the arrival time you can actually request, the person who answers the message within the hour. None of that is a technology problem, though technology is how it is delivered.

Every point of commission moved to direct is a point of margin that survives to the bottom line. We track it as a monthly line item so the shift is visible rather than asserted — and so the year it stops working, you know.