At RMS, we know that growing revenue isn’t just about filling rooms—it’s about working smarter.

That’s why we’ve teamed up with Right Revenue to bring you an integration that makes forecasting more accurate, reporting more insightful, and revenue management effortless. With the right data at your fingertips, you can focus on what matters: winning back direct bookings and maximising profitability.

But don’t just take our word for it. Adrienne Hanna, Founder and CEO of Right Revenue, has been in the trenches of hotel revenue management for decades. She knows firsthand the challenges hoteliers face when competing with OTAs, and in this guest post, she shares practical, no-nonsense tips to help you take back control.

Ten tips to help win back business from OTAs

For almost twenty years, we hoteliers have first ‘spilled all of our sweeties in the lobby’ and given the OTAs our life and soul. Then, for the last fifteen years, we have been trying desperately to win that business back!

There have been hundreds, if not thousands, of articles posted over the last few years on how to drive direct business, but I guess the fundamentals remain the same:

• We need to reduce our cost of customer acquisition (commission)
• Reduce under-cutting and OTA price wars
• Own our customers
• Ensure that we are in control

With all of that great advice out there, the best advice remains the same:

1. Start with great website design – Make your navigation clear. Keep descriptive text to a minimum on your main pages (I promise no one wants to read paragraph after paragraph about how wonderful you are). Concentrate on fantastic imagery and what makes your hotel unique. Your guests want an experience – make it aspirational.
2. Ensure you have a great booking engine – And that may or may not be the one provided by your PMS. You decide, but remember that there are specialist companies out there who will grow your direct business. Don’t focus too much on commission (circa 4-7%), and remember that paying commission to acquire direct business is good! You only pay when customers convert; the costs are at least half (if not more) of what you pay for an OTA booking. Get the best-in-breed and watch your top-line revenue increase and your cost of acquisition reduce – trust me, then you will be happy to pay a commission!
3. Invest in digital – You can’t expect direct bookings if you are not ‘present’, which means bidding on your brand name and generic search terms. Engage with a specialist company and make sure you are asking the right questions! Here is a link to one of our blogs that might help, read it here.
4. Make sure you have the best rates online - Rate parity is a thing of the past. Add a supplement for your OTA’s or include an added incentive to book direct.
5. Know that you will be undercut. Empower your team so that if they get a call at Reception saying, “I have found a better rate online than on your brand website,” allow your team to match or undercut the rate. For example, take 10% off BAR—better that than losing the booking to an OTA at 18%!
6. Review your cancellation policy – Never, ever have a more flexible rate on an OTA than you do on your website. Another blog that might help, read it here
7. Come off Genuis—Trust me, it is making an idiot out of you!!! Make no mistake: Genuis was not invented to help you, the hotelier, nor is it there to support your customers. It is there to make Booking.com more money. Come off it, and I promise your business will not be affected.
8. OTA’s are not always evil - They help you reach markets that you could never possibly reach, so use them! Use them like you use other distribution channels, i.e., to get business when you need it. If you are driving strong business direct, then restrict or, even better, close them out. If you need help, then add some availability. You don’t need to give them every room type all of the time. You are in control.
9. Getting your first booking through an OTA can be a gift - and the commission paid contributes to the cost of customer acquisition - But if that same valued customer comes back to you a second time through an OTA, then shame on you… You have guest data after the first stay, and data is like gold dust. Use it! Segment it and communicate!
10. Remember that we do hospitality better than anyone – We know how to make our guests feel special. We know the experiences they will want. Design clever packages around these experiences. Turn every moment into a memory. An OTA cannot do that, so use that to your advantage.

My final thought is that if you decide that ‘Book Direct’ is a focus for this year, remember that it will require hard work and a strategy to back it up and understand that costs will be involved. These may be close to the commission you are already paying, but this financial hit will be short term, and you will win in the end. I promise…

Want to put these insights into action? Get in touch with Right Revenue to see how their tools can support your strategy, or reach out to RMS to learn how our integration can help you drive revenue, save time, and take control of your distribution.

By Jamie McBride
Head of Marketing - EMEA