Why guests visit your hotel's website, then book on Booking.com, and what to fix this week

The owner of a family-run hotel told me, quite calmly, that a 17 per cent commission is simply the cost of doing business. Guests often find a lower price on Booking.com than on the hotel's own website, so matching it directly feels pointless. 

In recent weeks I have had long, candid conversations with owners and general managers of independent and boutique properties across Asia and Australia. They ranged from a small residence to a full-service city hotel. Their direct share of bookings ran from roughly one in ten to about half. Their commissions to online travel agents (OTAs) such as Booking.com ran from 12 to 25 per cent. In nearly every conversation the same story sat underneath: guests were finding the hotel, and a large share of them were completing the booking somewhere else. 

That is rarely a pricing problem alone. It is a problem at the last step, and you can find out what it is in five minutes. 

Start with a five-minute test 

Before you change anything, see what your guest sees. You know your own site too well to see it fresh, so ask a friend or colleague who has never used it to do this while you watch, without helping. Use their phone, on mobile data rather than the office Wi-Fi. 

1. Pick a stay two or three weeks away, say a Friday and Saturday night for two adults. 

2. Search for your hotel the way a guest would, by name and by "hotel in" plus your area. Note where your own website appears and what sits above it. 

3. Start a direct booking on your website and go as far as the payment page. Stop before you pay. Count the screens and the taps, and ask them to say out loud what they are thinking. 

4. Repeat the same stay on Booking.com. 

5. Write down three things: the total price including taxes and fees, the number of steps, and the moment they hesitated or got lost. 

The last note is the useful one. Everyone hesitates somewhere. Where they hesitated is where your guests leave. Resist the urge to explain it away. 

Three common reasons guests leave 

1. Doubt about the price 

The guest cannot tell whether your direct rate is the best one. If the OTA looks cheaper, or even the same, they take the option that feels safer. Booking platforms run member prices and promotions that a small hotel cannot always match. One owner told me exactly that. Another was frustrated that the website price was no lower than the OTA price, which gave the guest no reason to use the hotel's own site. 

Cutting your website rate is not always the answer. One small property I spoke with had tried a lower website rate, a long-stay discount and a rebate aimed at one guest market. Most of its bookings still came through OTAs. Price creates doubt, but a discount on its own did not remove it. 

2. A slow or confusing booking step 

Most hotels spend their time on the rate. Far fewer check the steps between "Book now" and the confirmation email. Every extra screen, surprise fee or unnecessary form field is a chance for the guest to give up and go to Booking.com. 

Questions are part of the path too. A guest wants to know if you have parking, or whether they can check in early. If the answer is not on your page, or nobody replies for hours, they go back to Booking.com, where the answers are already laid out. A guest who reaches out is at their most interested, and that interest cools. Reply quickly, and make the reply complete: availability, total price and a link to book. 

At a small city hotel, the front office may be one or two people per shift. As direct bookings grow, so do the calls and messages from guests with questions, and a small team cannot answer every one quickly. So the page has to answer the common questions before the guest has to ask. 

3. A lack of trust 

A guest on an OTA has a well-known name, easy cancellation and thousands of reviews between them and their money. A guest on your site has you. If they have never heard of you, the site has to do the work. 

A general manager of an independent city hotel put it to me this way: guests will pay a little more at a chain to earn loyalty points, and an independent hotel has no points programme to point to. So an independent has to give another reason to book direct, and it has to be obvious at the point of decision. 

Fix the simple things first 

None of this needs a new website or extra spend. If you only do one thing this week, do number 1. 

1. Name the perk in plain words, next to the button. Many hotels already show a line like "Book direct for more perks". It is the right instinct, but "perks" is vague. If the guest has to click a pop-up or find a perks page to learn what they are, that is one more step where they can leave. Write the actual perk where they can see it without clicking, for example "Book direct: free breakfast and late check-out". Choose something the OTA does not give: a free breakfast, a late check-out, a free date change, the same free cancellation the OTA shows, an early check-in when you can. Repeat the same words next to the booking button, in the booking widget and in the confirmation email. Only promise what you can deliver every time.

   If you cannot beat the OTA on price, add value instead of discount. Check your OTA contract too, or ask your channel manager, as some rate parity terms limit how far you can undercut them in public. Illustration only: on a stay worth 200, a 15 per cent commission is 30. A perk that costs you less than that still leaves you ahead. 

2. Shorten the booking path. Go back to your test notes. Remove any field you do not need to confirm a stay. Make sure the price on the first screen is the price at the end. Check every step on a phone. Give guests one easy way to ask a question without leaving the page, using whichever app your guests already use, such as WhatsApp or a phone number that works when tapped. Say who answers and how fast. 

3. Put proof from past guests next to the button. Place three recent guest comments beside the booking button, not on a separate reviews page. Add a first name and trip type, plus your review score and where it comes from. Choose specific comments, such as a staff member remembering a child's name, over "lovely stay". 

4. Give returning guests a reason to rebook direct. A small hotel told me that 30 to 40 per cent of its guests are returning guests, yet it felt too small for a loyalty programme. A programme does not need points, tiers or an app like the big chains. One simple reason is enough: a returning-guest rate, a free breakfast or late check-out on the next stay, or a code on the check-out note. Tell guests at check-out and in the thank-you email. 

5. Email guests personally. A general manager I spoke with emails guests in their own name around the stay. The email asks guests to say if anything did not work, and mentions that booking direct is appreciated if they plan to stay again. I was told it has worked far better than expected. The same team now handles in-house extensions directly rather than through the OTA. 

Check whether it worked 

Give it two weeks, and change one or two things rather than everything, so you know what moved. Then look at: 

• Direct share. Direct bookings as a share of all bookings for the two weeks, compared with the same two weeks last year and the two weeks before you started. 

• Drop-off. If you have website analytics, how many visitors start a booking and how many finish. A rising finish rate is the clearest signal. 

• Calls and messages. Fewer "is this your best price?" questions, more specific ones, and faster replies. 

• The test again. Same stay, same tester if you can. Did they hesitate in the same place? 

Treat two weeks as a first reading, not a verdict. Seasonality, events and a single group booking can move the numbers. If direct share has risen and nothing unusual happened, keep going. If not, go back to your hesitation note and fix the next thing on it. 

The owner I mentioned at the start is right that a family hotel cannot always match an OTA on price. But guests weigh price against trust, ease and what they get. So the hotel's job is to give

them a reason to book direct, and to make it easy. Start by watching someone else try to book your hotel, and note where they hesitate.