Answer · A short answer
Is a direct booking worth more than an OTA booking?
Often, yes, but compare what each booking leaves, not the rate on the screen. An online travel agency takes a commission on every stay it sends you. A direct booking still has costs, such as payment fees and your own marketing, but usually far smaller ones. A direct booking at a lower rate can leave more money than an OTA booking at a higher one.
Compare net, not rate
Here is an example. A direct booking at $280 and an OTA booking at $300 for the same room. Take the OTA's commission off the second and it can end up below the first. The higher rate was the smaller number.
Work it out with your own commission, your own payment fees and what you spend to win direct bookings. The answer differs by property and by season.
Look at the whole stay
Rate is only part of what a booking is worth. Length of stay matters: a two-night stay costs less to turn than two one-night stays. So does what the guest spends at the bar, the restaurant or the spa, and whether they come back.
A guest who booked direct is also easier to reach again, because you have their details and a relationship that does not run through someone else's platform.
OTAs still have a job
Online travel agencies bring guests who would never have found you. On quiet dates, an OTA booking can be much better than an empty room. The point is not to leave them, but to know what each channel costs and use it where it pays.
Full is not the same as profitable. A night at very high occupancy, filled with high-commission bookings, can leave less than a slightly emptier night with more direct guests.
Make direct the easy choice
Guests book where it is easiest. Make your own site quick to book on a phone, show the same or better rate, and give a reason to book direct, such as a better cancellation policy or a small extra. Keep your listing on maps and search current, so people who search your name land on you, not on a platform.
Then track bookings and net revenue by channel every month, so you can see the mix moving.
Put in your own rates and commission and compare the two. Compare direct and OTA.
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