osvi aiRequest demo

How to Cut OTA Commissions: 7 Ways Hotels Win Direct Bookings

Keep the OTAs for discovery and shrink the share of bookings that pay them. These seven steps move guests to your own channels, with the numbers behind each.

To cut OTA commissions, move a bigger share of your bookings to channels you own and keep the OTAs for discovery. Give guests a reason to book direct, make your own booking path quicker than the OTA's, and reply to every WhatsApp message, call and email fast enough that the guest doesn't go back to the OTA to finish. Repeat and group guests are the easiest to move, so start with them.

Most independent hotels can't drop the OTAs. In HOTREC's 2024 survey of 3,089 European hotels, OTAs' share of overnight stays rose from 19.7% in 2013 to 29.6% in 2023, while direct bookings fell from 57.6% to 50.9%. Among hotels with fewer than 20 rooms, 27% got more than half their bookings through OTAs.

You also can't look up a standard rate, because each OTA sets commission contract by contract. In 2019, a vice president of the Federation of Hotel and Restaurant Associations of India (FHRAI) said MakeMyTrip and Goibibo were charging 20 to 40%, against the typical OTA rate of 12 to 15%. Visibility programs can raise what you pay. Spain's competition authority, the CNMC, described Booking.com's Preferred, Preferred Plus and Genius programs as better ranking in exchange for a higher commission or discounts. In May 2025, Switzerland's Price Supervisor ruled that Booking.com's commissions for Swiss hotels were too high and ordered a cut of almost a quarter. Booking.com can appeal the ruling.

You keep the commission on every booking you move direct.

1. Treat the OTA listing as a billboard

An OTA listing also sends guests to your own channels. Cornell's Chris Anderson found that an Expedia listing raised reservations at four test hotels by 7.5 to 26%, not counting bookings made on Expedia itself. His 2011 follow-up found that for each reservation an InterContinental Hotels Group property got through Expedia, the brand's website got three to nine more. A 2017 Cornell study, run when more travelers were booking direct, found the effect still held.

Keep the listing and make the step from it to your own channels short. Use the exact property name on every channel. Keep your Google Business Profile current, with your website, phone number and WhatsApp number. A guest who searches your name after seeing you on an OTA should find your own page first.

2. Check your parity clause, then give guests a reason to book direct

The parity clause in your OTA contract limits how far you can go on price. A wide parity clause stops you from selling cheaper on any other channel. A narrow one stops you from selling cheaper on your own website. The rules depend on where your hotel is:

Everywhere else, the terms of your contract apply. Read the parity section before you change a rate, and check what it says about rates behind a login and packages.

Then give the guest a reason to book with you. If your contract allows it, offer a members' rate a little below the OTA price. If it doesn't, add value the OTA can't show: breakfast, a late checkout, an airport pickup or a more flexible cancellation policy.

Watch the OTA's price as well. In the HOTREC survey, four in ten hotels said an OTA had undercut their rate by giving up part of its own commission, and three in four of those hotels hadn't agreed to it. Check your rate on each OTA every week, logged out, the way a guest sees it.

3. Make your booking engine quicker than the OTA's

Your website competes with an OTA app the guest already has on their phone. In SiteMinder's 2024 survey, 65% of Indian travelers said they had abandoned an online booking. They blamed slow load times (30%), complicated payment (26%) and worries about security (25%).

Fix those first:

  • Test your booking engine on a mid-range Android phone over mobile data. Count the taps to a price and cut the ones you don't need.
  • Show the full price, taxes included, before the payment page.
  • Offer the payment methods your guests use. For Indian guests, that means UPI.
  • Put the booking button and your direct-booking perk on every page.

Guests will use a booking engine that works. In Europe, real-time bookings on hotels' own websites grew from 7.4% of overnight stays in 2013 to 12.3% in 2023.

4. Put your direct rate on Google

Metasearch shows your own rate next to the OTA rates on one screen. Since March 2021, Google has let hotels appear in its hotel booking links for free through a Hotel Center account. Most booking engines and channel managers can send your rates there.

Plenty of hotels still skip it. In the HOTREC survey, 46% of hotels had a live connection to a metasearch engine, and Google was the most used, at 80% of those. Once you're listed, metasearch also shows you when an OTA is selling your room below your own rate.

5. Answer WhatsApp messages and calls within minutes, at any hour

Many direct bookings skip your website. In Europe, phone (15.4%) and email (13.2%) each brought in more overnight stays than hotel booking engines did (12.3%). In SiteMinder's survey of US travelers, 13% planned to book their 2025 stays by phoning or emailing the property.

A guest who messages or calls you is already trying to book direct. If nobody answers for an hour, they open the OTA app, and you pay commission on a guest who came to you first.

Fast replies at all hours are hard for a small front desk. Zostel, India's largest backpacker hostel brand with 111+ properties, sees more than a quarter of guest messages arrive before 9am or after 9pm, and about 1 in 5 property calls come in during those hours. Zostel runs Osvi agents on those channels: Zobu on WhatsApp and a voice agent on property phone lines. The agents connect to Zostel's booking systems, so they check live availability, apply rates and policy, create the booking and send a payment link. Zobu sends its first reply in about 5 seconds and a booking link in about 3 minutes, and agents fully resolve 69% of Zobu chats. Guests complete 81% of payments through the booking links the agents generate.

You can set up the basics with or without software:

  • Put a WhatsApp Business number on your website and Google profile.
  • Set a reply-time target and staff or automate for it at night.
  • Send a payment link inside the chat, so the guest pays without leaving it.
  • Call back every missed call the same hour.

For the agent version, see how a WhatsApp booking agent handles enquiries end to end and how missed call and reservation recovery answers every property call and follows up on unpaid bookings. We walk through the WhatsApp setup in how hotels automate WhatsApp bookings.

6. Take group bookings direct

A group of twelve needs a quote, a room split, a deposit and time to collect money from friends. That back-and-forth already happens over chat and phone, so group demand starts on your channels. You lose it when the quote is slow or expires unpaid.

Reply with a quote the same day, hold rooms for a fixed window and follow up before the hold ends. Zostel's group booking agent works across chat and voice, and agents fully resolve 77% of group chats. If a group has an unpaid quote, a voice agent calls before the link expires, and about 1 in 3 groups reached confirm on the call.

7. Turn OTA guests into direct repeat guests

The OTA brought the guest once, and you can win the next stay. HOTREC says Booking.com withholds guest data from hotel partners, so collect what you need at the property, with consent: a phone number for WhatsApp and an email for the receipt.

Then talk to the guest on your own channels. Pre-arrival offers like an upgrade or early check-in give you a reason to message them before they arrive, and each reply shows them they can reach you without the OTA. At checkout, give them a direct-rebooking offer for their next stay.

Track your direct share by channel every month: website, WhatsApp, phone, email and walk-in. If a channel's share drops, check its reply times first.

If you want every WhatsApp message and call answered in seconds, with bookings created in your own systems, talk to us.

How to Cut OTA Commissions and Book Direct | Osvi AI