otas

Many hotels invest in marketing but still struggle to grow direct bookings. The issue is rarely effort. It is usually strategy

While discovery has historically been about inspiration and branding, consideration is where OTAs, metasearch engines, and hotels compete aggressively

OTA market power and the erosion of rate parity protections are all compressing the margin available to properties that have not built owned demand

OTAs are not your marketing partners. They are competitors for the guest relationship. They capture email, own the loyalty data, and retarget your guests

Rate parity is framed as a pricing policy. It is enforced as a contractual obligation. What it actually functions as, in the luxury segment, is a structural brake

This comes down to commercial ownership. The strongest-performing hotels are not necessarily the ones with the widest OTA exposure

Guests have always compared options before booking. The difference is that technology has made the process dramatically easier

Performance Max for hotels can boost direct bookings and reduce reliance on OTAs, but it also lacks transparency and requires ongoing management

The question is not whether AI affects distribution; it already does. It is how deliberately hotels choose to compete in this new front line of visibility

When your website loses moment, it does not simply fail to close a transaction, it routes demand you created back into commission-bearing channels