Why you pay commission on guests who were already yours
There's a specific moment between someone discovering your hotel and booking it where you decide whether you collect a hundred per cent or eighty-five. Almost nobody works on it.
What actually happens before a booking
A traveller finds your hotel on a portal, in a list of twenty options. Nothing you can control so far. Then they do what nearly everybody does: open another tab and search your hotel's name on Google to see the official site, the uncropped photos and the real rate. That's the moment. If what they find is better than the portal listing, they book with you. If it's worse, they go back and you pay commission.
What most people find
A site taking six seconds to load on a mediocre mobile connection. Photos from eight years ago. No visible price until you've fed dates into a booking engine that shows nothing first. And a book button that opens a pop-up styled like a different company. Next to the portal listing, which loads instantly and shows price, availability and free cancellation, the decision is easy and it isn't in your favour.
The three things that move this
First, that a search for your name returns you in first place, with a complete Google Business Profile linking to the right sections. Second, that the page receiving that visit loads fast and shows a price without friction. Third, that there's an honest reason to book direct: best rate guaranteed, breakfast, late checkout, whatever you can actually sustain. You don't need a price war, you need a reason.
What to expect
A small hotel sitting at 10-15% direct can reach 30-35% within a year of sustained work. It isn't magic and it isn't leaving the portals: it's recovering the people who had already chosen you and got lost at the final step. In a thirty-room property that difference is usually well into five figures a year.
Common questions
Does this mean leaving Booking.com?
No. The portals remain the best discovery shopfront there is. The goal is to stop them charging commission on people who already knew you.
Can I offer a better price than the portal?
It depends on your parity agreement. If you can't go lower on price, add value instead: breakfast, late checkout, parking. It works nearly as well and breaks nothing.
Keep reading
- Hotels and guesthousesEvery booking that arrives through Booking.com costs you 15-20%. The work is getting some of those people to find you and book direct instead.
- Search engine optimisationRanking first on Google isn't luck and it isn't a bigger budget. It's architecture, content and patience, applied in the language each customer is actually searching in.
- Google Business Profile and local searchIf your customers come to a physical door, the map pack above the search results matters more than everything below it, and it's decided by three things most businesses ignore.