How much of the demand that fills your property originates from infrastructure you control, versus infrastructure controlled by someone else? The distinction matters more now than it did five years ago, and it will matter more in five years than it does today.
NB: This is an article from Americas Great Resorts
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AI-mediated travel discovery, the continued consolidation of OTA market power, and the erosion of rate parity protections are all compressing the margin available to properties that have not built owned demand positions. Properties that have built them are compounding. Properties that have not are paying for access to their own guests at rates that increase every cycle.
One distinction is worth establishing before you begin. A booking that closes on your website is not automatically owned demand. If the guest discovered your property through an OTA, a metasearch platform, a paid ad, or a travel advisor network, having simply completed the transaction on your booking engine, the discovery still happened inside infrastructure you do not control. Owned demand means the guest arrived at the consideration of your property through a channel you originated, from a relationship you hold, or through visibility you built independently. The booking channel is the last step. This diagnostic is concerned with everything that happened before it.
This diagnostic will not tell you what to do. It will tell you where you stand.
Work through the seven questions below. Assign yourself the score that honestly reflects your current operation, not the operation you intend to build. Add the scores. Then read the result section that corresponds to your total.
The Diagnostic
Question 1: OTA Booking Share
What percentage of your bookings in the last 12 months came through online travel agencies (Expedia, Booking.com, and similar platforms)?
- 70% or more: 1 point
- 40% to 69%: 2 points
- Under 40%: 3 points
Question 2: Guest Data Ownership
When a guest books through your most-used OTA and completes their stay, do you end up with a verified, direct contact record for that guest, one you own independent of the OTA, that you could use to reach them again without platform mediation?
