Direct bookings and OTAs: comparing costs for your hotel
Booking platforms can help you reach travellers who do not know your hotel. Your website lets you explain offers and manage a direct booking journey. To plan distribution for 2027, compare each channel’s contribution and the cost of the work needed to operate it.
1. Compare total channel costs
For an OTA, examine your property’s contract: commission calculation, additional programmes, payments and cancellation handling. Check payment charges and discounts in programmes you join, along with differences between the price shown to travellers and revenue received by the hotel. Rates and conditions can vary. Do not estimate your invoice from a general percentage found online.
For direct bookings, count advertising, management fees, the booking engine, payment, maintenance and internal work. Allocate fixed costs using an explicit method. The 2024 D-EDGE report distinguishes direct distribution costs within its customer sample. Its historical figures do not represent a price applicable to your hotel.
2. Compare equivalent stays
Compare the same period, equivalent room categories and similar stay conditions. Account for cancellations, refunds and completed stays. For a forecast, use cancellation rates specific to your property and each channel rather than an industry average. A long booking or a returning guest needs adjustments before comparison with a first night acquired through a campaign.
Calculate revenue retained after distribution costs. To assess stay profitability, include other relevant costs: operations, included benefits and discounts. Revenue attributed to a campaign does not prove that the campaign created all that demand.
3. Read an example without treating it as a price
Entirely fictional example: a stay generates CHF 1,000 before distribution costs. An assumed 15% OTA commission costs CHF 150. Direct booking costs CHF 80 in advertising, CHF 20 in payment and CHF 30 in allocated technology and internal work, totalling CHF 130.
In this example, direct distribution costs CHF 20 less. The calculation assumes no other OTA cost beyond CHF 150; include fees applicable to your contract for an actual comparison. The calculation excludes other common stay expenses and does not establish general profitability. If advertising costs CHF 120 instead of CHF 80, direct costs reach CHF 170 and the difference reverses. Use your own contracts, spending and completed stays.
4. Make direct booking usable
Explain rooms, included services, prices and conditions before requesting payment. Test date selection, error messages and confirmation on a phone. Check the transition between website and booking engine, including differences in domains and languages.
Give travellers a way to ask a question and staff a process for responding. A direct booking benefit should match a real offer that the property can deliver.
5. Organise data and responsibilities
Specify who updates an offer, handles a cancellation and resolves availability errors. Check CRM access and providers receiving data. Separate communication needed for a stay from marketing, and check applicable rules, permissions and unsubscribe options.
Respecting these choices may reduce the data available to measure journeys. Document those limits rather than treating attribution as a complete record of customer behaviour.
6. Plan 2027 using your results
Set a review period appropriate to the property’s volume. Compare costs, completed stays and enquiry quality. Keep channels that make a useful contribution and adjust investment that does not meet your objectives.
The HOTREC study published in 2026 describes distribution within a European sample. It offers industry context rather than a forecast for your property in 2027. Organise your plan using our ten hotel marketing priorities.