Get More Direct Bookings: 9 Concrete Tactics

Shifting 10 percent of your bookings from a booking platform to your own website generates over €1,000 per year with just 60 bookings per month. No new guests needed, just the same guests through a different channel.

The problem

Say you have 6 rooms and run 72 percent of your bookings through Booking.com. Every booking there costs you 15 percent commission or more. You know your website is falling behind, but between cleaning, breakfast, and checking in guests, you never get to it. And if you do start, you're at your laptop for four hours in the evening and nothing has changed.

The real problem isn't that a booking platform (an OTA, online travel agency, a site like Booking.com or Expedia that sells rooms for you) exists. It brings guests and visibility, especially in your quiet months and for people who've never heard your name. The problem is that nearly all your bookings go through it, including guests you could just as easily get direct: couples returning for the third time, cyclists who recommended you, people who already googled your name before they clicked.

Those guests now cost you commission without the platform adding any value. A returning guest who already knows your name and still books through Booking, you pay a second time for something the platform already did the first time. That's the margin you're reclaiming. Not by ditching Booking.com, but by adding your own channel strong enough to catch those guests.

Good news: you don't need to tear anything down. You add a channel alongside what already works, and you shift the ratio step by step. An accommodation currently running 18 percent direct and climbing to 30 percent hasn't lost a single platform guest. It just steered the right guests to its cheapest channel. How you become less dependent on Booking.com in general is in the pillar article. This piece covers the concrete moves.

Calculation example

What does it deliver to shift 10 percent of your bookings from a platform to direct? Below is a bed and breakfast with 6 rooms, averaging 60 bookings per month.

That's at 15 percent commission and a modest average nightly rate. If you pay 18 percent and average €140, that same shift climbs to over €1,800 per year. And this counts only the direct savings. A direct guest also gives you the email address, the chance of a repeat booking, and a review on your channel instead of the platform's.

Calculate it with your own numbers in the savings calculator. Then you'll know what one extra percent direct is worth for your accommodation before you invest time.

Step-by-step plan

Nine tactics, ordered by impact and how quickly you can set them up. Start at the top. The first three are the foundation; the rest build on them.

1. Put a working booking button on your own website. This is the foundation everything else leans on. A guest must be able to pick a room 24 hours a day, choose a date, and pay directly, without calling or emailing. A booking system (also called a booking engine or reservation system) handles that. There are systems from around €30 per month for a handful of rooms. Without this step, the rest doesn't make sense. How you choose and install it is covered in setting up your own reservation system.

2. Set your direct price just below the platform price. Since rate parity clauses have been banned in Europe, you can charge a lower price on your own website than on Booking.com. Use that. Five euros per night cheaper direct is enough to sway a price-conscious guest, and you still keep more than after commission. Make sure the difference is visible.

3. Promise and display a price guarantee. Many guests check the platform first and book there out of habit, even if your site is cheaper. A clear "always the best price when you book direct" removes that doubt. Place it next to the booking button, not hidden in a footer. How to phrase this credibly and legally is in explaining a best price guarantee correctly.

4. Capture every platform guest for next time. A guest who comes through Booking.com is no stranger at checkout. Give them a postcard or send a short thank-you email with the message: booking directly next time is cheaper and you get something extra. That way you pay commission once and never again for that same guest. This is the tactic with the highest payback, because you don't need to change your website. You're using the guest who's already there. Keep it simple: a postcard on the nightstand with short text and your website address costs just a few cents and drives the next booking direct.

5. Collect the email address and use it. The platform keeps your guest's real email from you. Ask for it yourself at check-in or via a short card in the room, and build a list of people who've already stayed with you. A few emails per year with an early-booking discount or a quiet-month offer brings direct bookings without the platform watching. How to set that up without it eating your time is in setting up a hotel newsletter.

6. Make the booking buttons on your website clear and prominent. A guest already visiting your site is the easiest direct booking there is. Don't waste that with a button that disappears. One striking, repeated "Book direct" in your accent color, on every page, above the fold. Which buttons work and what mistakes to avoid is in booking buttons that actually work.

7. Make sure you show up on Google when people search your name. If someone googles "B&B Friesland weekend" or your name, your website should appear, not just the platform. A fully filled-out Google Business Profile (your profile page on Google Maps and search results) with photos, hours, and a direct link to your booking page captures that searcher before they click through to Booking. How to set that up is in setting up a Google Business Profile for hotels.

8. Collect reviews on your own channels. Guests book through a platform because the reviews are there. Build that trust on your own place too: systematically ask satisfied guests for a Google review instead of hoping they'll do it on their own. The more and better reviews on your Google profile, the less a guest needs the platform to dare book with you. How is in collecting reviews on Google.

9. Offer a small direct advantage the platform can't match. A free drink upon arrival, late checkout, or priority for the nicest room: small things you only give direct bookers. It doesn't have to cost much, it just needs to feel like booking direct is smarter. The platform can't match this advantage because it doesn't know your accommodation and has no key to your breakfast buffet or your late checkout. Name it specifically on your booking page, next to the price, so the guest sees it when choosing between your site and the platform.

Common mistakes

• Showing the same price as the platform. If your site asks the same price as Booking, the guest chooses the platform: more reviews, trusted payment, loyalty points. Without a price difference or something extra, you give no reason to switch.
• Just putting up a booking button and thinking you're done. The button is the foundation, not the roof. Without a reason to book direct and without capturing platform guests, the channel stays empty.
• Not asking for the guest's email. This is the most missed opportunity. A guest who already stayed with you and whose address you have is the cheapest repeat booking that exists. The platform deliberately keeps that address from you.
• Expecting it to change in a week. Direct bookings build through returning guests and word of mouth. Plan for a season, not a button that changes your revenue. Accommodations that stick with it only see the difference after months, and then consistently.
• Wanting to ditch Booking.com entirely. That's not the goal, and for most small accommodations not a smart move. The platform brings guests you'd otherwise never reach, and it fills your quiet months in particular. The goal is to shift the ratio, not demolish the channel.
• Promising a price guarantee but not delivering. If a guest sees a higher price on your site than on Booking.com while you promise "always the best price," you've lost them and your credibility is gone. Check your rates regularly on both channels, especially if you let seasonal prices or last-minute discounts run through the platform.

What you can do now

Start with the foundation. Check whether a guest can book and pay for a room on your own website today without calling. If not, that's your first step, because without a working booking button, the other eight tactics won't work.

Then calculate in the savings calculator what a shift to direct means for your numbers, so you know which investment is worth the effort. Next, read why direct booking is cheaper to sharpen the message you communicate to your guests, and tackle the bigger picture in becoming less dependent on Booking.com.

Prefer not to figure out which tactics pay off fastest for your accommodation? We'll map that out for you at marketing for hotels.