How To Attract More Direct Bookings [10 Expert Tips]

Online direct bookings are amazing. 

Customers book and pay on your website, making things easier for them. 

But also for you.

You spend less time on admin, less time on the phone, and less time answering emails. Bookings can keep coming while you do what you do best — serving your customers.

What’s great is that it’s easy to implement within your hotel.

In this guide we’ll show you how to get more direct bookings for your hotel online so you can automate reservations and save much time developing your service.

What is a Direct Booking?

Direct bookings are reservations guests make directly without using an online travel agency (OTA) or any other third-party service. 

Direct bookings are usually made on a hotel’s website or other direct channels like: 

• email, 
• social media, 
• via sales team or 
• messaging tools like WhatsApp or Messenger.

So, what’s the importance of direct bookings, and how can you benefit from it?

Why are direct bookings important?

While online travel agencies are easy to use and can boost visibility, their services come with costs. 

Hotels, retreats, and surf camps can all benefit from direct bookings. 

Here are some top benefits of direct hotel bookings:

1. Increase Revenue by Eliminating Commissions

Listing your property on an OTA is free, but the commission fees can add up quickly, ranging from 15% to over 30%. Focusing on direct bookings can significantly increase your hotel evenue by avoiding these fees.

2. Better Control Over the Guest Experience

When guests book directly, you have more control over their experience. 

They can contact your team directly for any adjustments, avoiding the large call centers of OTAs. 

You can also provide more detailed information to help them prepare for their stay.

3. Showcase Your Brand

Direct bookings allow you to highlight your brand. 

On your website, you can use your branding and property images to give guests a preview of their stay. 

When guests call or message your team, it’s a chance to show the quality of your service.

4. Offer a More Pleasant Booking Experience

Encouraging direct bookings lets you provide a better and more personalized booking experience. 

How?

With your customized booking engine, you can control the booking process, the details you collect during the booking process, and the choices guests can make about their stay, improving guest satisfaction from the start. 

This information can be used for personalized communication before the stay, follow-ups after the stay, and future marketing efforts.

Difference between direct bookings and 3rd party platform bookings

The differences between direct bookings and 3rd-party booking platforms are:

• They usually cost hotels less because with direct bookings you avoid commission fees.
• Direct bookings let hotels connect more personally with guests.
• Hotels can offer upsells to guests, boosting their revenue.
• It allows hotels to create personalized experiences like unique package deals, making guests happier.
• Direct bookings are more flexible because guests deal directly with the hotel.
• Direct bookings are more sustainable compared to booking through an online travel platform.

Now, let’s guide you through the steps to help you attract more direct bookings for your hotel.

10 Ways to Get Direct Bookings to Your Hotel

1. Build a Responsive and User-friendly Website

Your website is crucial for showing guests what makes your property unique and why they should choose it over others.

The easier your website is to access, the more likely you’ll get direct bookings.

So, how to make it more appealing and responsive?

To make it responsive and get more bookings through it, your website should be: 

• simple, 
• visually beautiful, 
• practical, and
• Mobile-friendly

Since most people nowadays use their smartphones to search and book, this type of website optimization is crucial.

Highlight the great content and personalized service you offer to your guests so they spend more time on your website. 

In addition, increase your presence by using social platforms and making them visible on the homepage, such as Facebook and Instagram. 

2. Keep the Booking Process Simple with Booking Engine

If you want guests to book directly with you instead of using a travel platform, you need a user-friendly booking system. 

The time of inquiries and reservation forms is long gone.
While guests are waiting for an answer or confirmation of the reservation, they are already on another website that has this function.

That’s the reason why the combination of Booking Engine with great website design is a winning combination for achieving a large number of direct reservations.

Here are some important features to look for when choosing the right booking engine for your property:

• Commissionable or Commission-Free: Decide between platforms that take a commission on bookings and ones that don’t.
• Language & Currency Converter: Make sure the booking engine works in different languages and currencies for international guests.
• Payment Method: Choose a booking engine that accepts different payment methods to suit different guest preferences(as OTA Sync does).
• Purchase Triggers: Look for features like rate comparison tools and integration with Google tools like WatchMyRate and Get Google to encourage direct bookings.
• Smart Pricing Features: Pick a booking engine with smart pricing features that adjust rates based on demand and market trends.

How can we help with this?

Pro tip:

With OTA Sync’s booking engine you can offer your guests option to see live availability and rates along with special offer to boost your direct bookings straight from your website.

Simply implement it and connect it with your website, set your offer and the information you want to provide your guests with, and you’re ready to go.

3. Make Bookings Rescheduling Easy

Everyone worries about getting stuck with something they can’t change. 

It’s normal. 

So, your potential guests might feel uneasy about booking a room and staying if they can’t reschedule.

Today, more Airbnb bookings, vacation rentals, and service appointments are being rescheduled because of illness, weather, or other unexpected problems. 

It’s no surprise that clients want an easy way to reschedule.

One of the best ways to address this is by adding a rescheduling option to your booking forms. This way, clients know they have flexibility and don’t have to worry about changes. 

If something comes up, they know they can count on you, which leads to more bookings coming for you.

Isn’t that great?!

Just make sure you communicate it clearly so they know the procedure if their reservation needs to be rescheduled.

Pro tip:

With OTA Sync’s property management system, you can easily find any reservation within your system and reschedule it easily.

Just enter to edit the specific reservation, change the date, and confirm the changes.

It will help you update your reservations in no time.

What’s great is that you can inform your guests that their reservation has been successfully rescheduled via email directly within the app.

4. Use Pictures and Videos That Stir Emotions

Today, everyone wants experiences that are “Instagram-worthy.” 

Your job is to show guests how your property can create those scenes that not only look good but also make them look good.

So, how to turn this into reality?

Show off enticing images and videos of your hotel’s special features, like: 

• the rooms, 
• stunning views, 
• Gyms and playrooms, 
• Spas and pools, or 
• Another great amenity.

Note: Captivating visuals aren’t just for looks—they’re crucial for sparking your potential guests’ imaginations and shaping their expectations for their trip. 

Everything, including making a booking, is about emotions. 

If you use visuals right, you’ll be stirring emotions and guiding them towards booking.

You can also use other formats that OTA websites don’t support. 

For instance, offer room tours with videos, infographics about the hotel map, and so on.

The goal is to give your website visitors something unique, so they’re more motivated to book with you.

5. Include Upsells and Cross-sells During the Booking Process

To make your guests come to you specifically,  besides all the other hotels, you need to give them something extra that will make them come.

To do this, you should let guests customize their stay with add-ons, upsells, and packages in your booking engine. 

You can offer options like: 

• parking, 
• transportation, 
• spa or gym passes, or 
• tours during checkout so travelers can choose what they need. 

These extras make your website stand out from OTAs and help you improve sales for your property.

6. Offer Exclusive Deals and Benefits to Recurring Guests

Offering special deals and perks to repeat guests is a great way to increase your direct bookings. 

Why? 

Because keeping existing customers is much cheaper than finding new ones. 

Big hotel chains have been doing this for years.

So why shouldn’t you?!

Here’s how you can benefit from this approach:

• Loyal customers become advocates, referring friends and family if you take care of them.
• Luxurious perks can include free room upgrades, massage and spa treatments, or custom minibar options.
• Exclusive deals keep your hotel in guests’ minds for future bookings.
• You can offer discounts, freebies, or extra services when guests book directly.
• Personalized incentives encourage repeat bookings. 

Remember, the perks don’t have to be complicated. 

Even a simple “Members Only” rate can make your guests feel special.

So, use your resources, offer impressive deals, and enjoy the benefits of them!

7. Leverage Social Media

Social media is a great way to promote your brand and build relationships with existing and potential guests. 

Apart from offering special deals to social media followers, you can attract attention and drive traffic to your hotel website by sharing interesting content on your social media platforms. 

So, what can you do about it?

Here are some suggestions you can implement in your case:

Suggestion 1. Choose the right channels based on your guests’ demographics, and create content that entertains them to drive more direct bookings.

Suggestion 2. Share your blog posts, photos, and videos of your property, and link back to relevant pages on your website whenever you can. 

Suggestion 3. Make sure to include CTAs on your social profiles that link to your booking engine for a smooth experience.

Suggestion 4. Encourage guests to share content about your property by creating hashtags and setting up “Instagrammable” spots for them to post photos or create TikTok videos. You can then reshare their content. 

Suggestion 5. Engage with your online community and occasionally offer special deals or exclusive packages for your followers.

Note: Consider your customer segments and unique selling points when creating social media posts for the best engagement.

8. Invest In SEO(Search Engine Optimization)

Having a direct booking site isn’t helpful if potential guests can’t find it. 

But, how do you get those potential guests to visit your site and make bookings? 

To increase your direct bookings, you should optimize your website for search engines using SEO techniques. 

Here’s how:

• Implement the SEO basics: Make your hotel website attractive to search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing. This includes choosing the right keywords related to your hotel, creating quality content, and building good links.
• Emphasize On-site SEO: Use the right keywords on your website pages, focusing on your hotel and location. This helps search engines find your site more easily.
• Focus on Off-site SEO: Build your online presence outside of your website. This includes guest blogs, social media profiles, and other platforms. Think of it as digital word-of-mouth.
• Create optimized digital content: Aim for engaging, search-friendly, and shareable content. Videos, infographics, and interviews can all help make your brand memorable.

An easy way to increase your visibility in the search engine result pages is by using keywords that potential guests might search for. 

For example, travelers might look for “bed and breakfast Rome” or “surf and stay in Portugal.”

By creating content related to those keywords and connecting them with your offer can help you increase your direct bookings significantly if you do it right.

9. Use ads to encourage visitors to book directly

Your marketing plan should fit your target audience.

For instance, it should be designed to attract new bookings, visitors who’ve been to your site before, and those who often use OTAs to book.

And guess what marketing strategy lets you reach each of these groups separately?

Online Paid Ads.

You can run different ads on Google, Facebook, and other platforms to help you reach your potential guests and help them see your offers.

Create campaigns or strategies to boost hotel room sales and direct website bookings, and make sure to test it out until you find the strategy that works for you.

Try with different audiences, copies, visuals, videos, CTAs, etc, until you find the winning formula for your hotel.

10. Utilize Customer Reviews and Ratings

Did you know that about 80% of travelers rely on hotel reviews before booking, and a one-point increase in your rating can make guests 13.5% more likely to choose your hotel? 

Reviews build trust and help potential customers feel confident in their choices.

Here are the steps to do this effectively:

• Create a dedicated section on your site for customer testimonials, ratings, and awards.
• Make sure this section is easy to see throughout your site, especially during the booking process.
• Regularly update and highlight new positive feedback.
• Share great reviews on your social media to boost your reputation.
• Actively ask guests to leave reviews, possibly through an automated email after their stay.
• Respond to reviews promptly to show customers their feedback matters.

Collecting reviews is important for getting more direct bookings. Guests feel more confident to book when they see others had a good stay. 

However, only 22% of guests leave a review on their own, according to SalesCycle. 

So, you’ll need to ask for reviews.

The good news is that if you request a review, 80% of guests will leave one.

Make sure to do it right after your guests leave to get the review easier.

Boost Your Direct Bookings With OTA Sync

Reducing dependence on OTAs and boosting direct bookings can improve your property’s revenue and profits.

And with great tools supporting your operations, makes it easier to manage your business and drive bookings automatically.

Here, OTA Sync’s booking engine can help.

OTA Sync’s booking engine and property management software allows you to streamline all your bookings and manage listings, tasks, finances, and guest communications from one place.

Besides providing full-house booking engine, OTA SYNC provides you with robust guest management solutions so you can automate your complete hotel management process.

Also, our Booking Engine is fully adapted to the mobile version, with easy and fast integration, modern design, and for all types of accommodation.

Interested to give it a try?

Sign up for OTA Sync’s free trial to discover how it can help you attract more direct bookings to your hotel and boost your revenue.