What is a direct booking for a hotel?

A reservation made straight with the hotel (website, phone, email, messaging) rather than through a platform such as Booking.com or Expedia. The hotel pays no distribution commission on it.

What is the fastest way to get more direct bookings?

Responsiveness. Replying within minutes, evenings and weekends included, and following up enquiries that went quiet recovers guests who already chose to contact you.

Should a hotel stop working with OTAs?

No. OTAs bring visibility and new guests. The goal is to convert guests who already know you into direct bookings, not to leave the platforms.

Direct bookings: where your hotel is losing enquiries

An enquiry comes in at 10 pm for a June weekend. Nobody answers until the next morning, and the guest has already written to two other hotels. They will book with whoever replied first, or on the platform where everything is already laid out. That is not a pricing problem. It is a delay problem.

What a booking through an OTA really costs

Every booking through an online travel agency (OTA) carries a commission, and the guest's contact stays with the intermediary. A direct booking keeps the margin and the relationship: you can talk to that guest again, offer an extra, ask for a review.

I am not telling you to leave the OTAs. They bring guests who have never heard of you. The issue is the guests who do know you, and whom you lose on the way.

The 5 places where enquiries get lost

Evenings and weekends. That is when travellers plan trips, and when the front desk cannot answer.
The phone. A call missed during the check-in rush is rarely returned the same day.
The vague reply. “We will get back to you” is not an availability and a price.
The quote nobody chased. The guest hesitates, nobody follows up, the platform does it for you.
The booking form. Every unnecessary field and every slow mobile screen sends someone away.

The maths, on paper, tonight

Take a typical week. Write down enquiries received, the share left unanswered within the hour, and what a night is worth at your property. Multiply. The result is not flattering, but it is yours, and it tells you where to invest. Then track three numbers: enquiries received, time to first reply, and conversion rate by channel.

What I would do first

Reply within the hour on every channel, including WhatsApp, which more and more travellers use to ask their questions.
Show the direct advantage on the booking page: breakfast, late check-out, upgrade on availability. A specific promise beats a generic “best price guaranteed”.
Follow up every enquiry that went quiet with a short, personal message.
Look after social proof: replying to reviews reassures people who are comparing.

What I would not do

Launch an ad campaign before fixing reply time: you would pay for enquiries you then let slip.
Pile up tools without naming who answers.
Promise a rate the team cannot honour.

When automation starts to pay

Points 1, 2 and 4 are about availability, not talent. That is where an AI agent for hotels changes things: it answers 24/7, checks availability and can create the booking directly in the PMS. That is the job of Romy’s Booking agent, with no commission, while your team follows every conversation and takes over whenever it wants.