How to Get More Hotel Bookings on OTAs (And Why You Might Not Need To)

If you're searching for how to get more bookings on Expedia, Booking.com, or Agoda, you're asking the right question. OTAs are one of the most powerful distribution channels in hospitality. They drive significant demand, they reach travelers early in the planning process, and for many hotels, they fill need dates that other channels can't.

But here's the question worth layering on top: are OTA bookings your most profitable bookings?

For a lot of hotels, the answer is no. Understanding that gap changes how you think about where to put your time and budget.

Take a Fresh Look at Your OTA Investment

Commission rates on major OTAs typically range from 15% to 25% of the booking value, and that's before accounting for promotional discounts or preferred program participation, which can push effective rates higher. By contrast, direct booking acquisition costs average around 4% to 5% when you account for digital marketing, booking engine fees, and payment processing.

Run the math on a $200-per-night booking. At a 20% OTA commission, you’re netting $160. At a 5% direct acquisition cost, you’re netting $190. That’s a $30 difference per reservation. Across hundreds of bookings, the impact adds up quickly—500 bookings at that rate represent up to $15,000 in additional revenue retained over a quarter.

Travelers who book through an OTA are, in many ways, the OTA's customer. The platform holds the guest data, controls pre-arrival communication, and captures the loyalty loop. Your hotel pays to acquire someone who may never associate their stay with your brand name. The next time they search, they search on Booking.com, not for you.

Cancellation rates tell a similar story. OTA cancellations in some markets run as high as 37%, compared to roughly 18% to 20% for direct bookings. Higher cancellation rates mean greater inventory risk and more staff time spent managing rebookings, not additional revenue.

None of this means OTAs are the wrong channel. They're reaching travelers you couldn't reach cost-effectively on your own. The issue isn't OTA volume. The issue is over-indexing on OTA volume without a parallel strategy to grow the lower-cost, higher-ownership channel alongside it.

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Three Ways to Drive More Direct Bookings

1. Put Budget Behind Direct Demand Generation

OTAs spend billions on advertising to drive travelers to their platforms. Your hotel marketing budget will never match Expedia's, but you don't need to compete with Expedia on scale. You need to intercept the travelers who are already looking for properties like yours.

Search advertising, display, social, and retargeting campaigns built around traveler intent data let you reach high-intent travelers before they default to an OTA. Someone researching hotels in Nashville in the weeks before a trip is a far better target than a general awareness audience. Campaigns built on that intent signal convert more efficiently and bring bookings to your own channel.

The key is reach combined with timing. Travelers in the active research window, typically four to ten weeks before a trip, are the most responsive to direct booking offers. Reaching them then, rather than after they've already committed to an OTA, is where digital marketing earns its margin advantage.

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2. Make Your Direct Channel Worth Booking

Traffic doesn't convert itself. If your website is slow, your booking flow requires too many steps, or your mobile experience is poor, you're paying to drive travelers to a dead end.

A friction-free booking experience covers a few core elements: a fast-loading, mobile-optimized site; a booking engine that surfaces rates, availability, and room type differences clearly; trust signals like guest reviews, secure payment badges, and a visible cancellation policy; and a direct-booking incentive, such as a complimentary upgrade, parking, or a best-rate guarantee. You don't need to discount to compete. You need to give travelers a reason to book with you rather than defaulting to the platform they already know.

Your Reputation Manager also plays a role here. Travelers who land on your site after finding you on an OTA are likely checking your direct reviews before they book. A strong review presence on your own site, not just on third-party platforms, closes that loop.

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3. Use a Commission Model That Eliminates Upfront Risk

If shifting budget toward direct channels feels like a risk, there's a structure worth knowing about. Sojern's Commission lets hotels run direct booking campaigns with no upfront cost. You only pay when a booking completes and the guest checks in.

It's the direct booking equivalent of the OTA payment model, without the commission rates or the guest relationship transfer. You're not paying for clicks, impressions, or cancellations. You're paying for completed stays — which means the model works regardless of how large or sophisticated your marketing team is.

The result is a path to growing your direct channel that doesn't require a large budget or tolerance for performance risk. Hotels using this model shift share from OTAs without disrupting their existing distribution mix.

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How to Improve Your Current OTA Performance

Now that we’ve covered strategies for driving direct bookings, let’s look at ways to move the needle on OTA visibility.

Complete your property content. OTA algorithms reward completeness. Every field, amenity tag, and room type description should be filled out accurately. Gaps in content create friction for travelers and reduce your listing's relevance score.

Invest in your photography. This is not the place to cut corners. High-resolution images that accurately represent room types, common areas, F&B spaces, and outdoor areas outperform low-quality alternatives. Many OTAs now use AI to evaluate photo quality and completeness, and they factor this into ranking.

Manage reviews actively. Response rate and recency both influence where your listing ranks. Responding to negative reviews professionally and quickly signals to algorithms and travelers alike that your property is attentive. A 4.7 rating with 400 reviews consistently outperforms a 4.9 with 40.

Keep rates competitive. OTA algorithms assess price competitiveness relative to comparable properties in your market. If you're consistently priced above comps with no clear differentiation, your ranking suffers. Dynamic pricing tools that integrate with your OTA channel manager help you stay in range without leaving ADR on the table.

Participate selectively in promotional programs. Early booker rates, last-minute deals, and preferred program tiers can generate meaningful visibility lifts. The tradeoff is a higher cost per booking. Treat these tools tactically rather than as a default.

These tactics work. If you're not executing on them, start there. But optimizing your OTA presence is a means to an end, and the end worth examining is margin.

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The Best Distribution Strategy Balances Volume and Margin

OTA optimization is worth doing. Stronger content, better photos, competitive pricing, and active review management all generate bookings you'd otherwise leave to competitors. That work pays off.

But it pays off more when it's part of a distribution strategy that includes direct demand investment alongside it. Hotels that grow their direct bookings percentage over time build a more durable business—lower acquisition costs, better guest data, stronger brand loyalty, and more room to hold rate when demand softens.

The goal isn't to rank first on Expedia. The goal is a channel mix that fills the hotel profitably, builds the guest relationship, and doesn't erode margin every time the market tightens.

Don’t just compete for OTA visibility—capture more demand on your own terms. Connect with a Sojern expert to see how a balanced distribution strategy can help you increase direct bookings, lower acquisition costs, and maximize revenue.

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