At 9:40 on a Friday night, a couple walks up to your desk with a booking on an OTA app. They made it ten minutes ago, sitting in your car park, because the app showed a price and a Book button. They were already at your door, and you will still pay the OTA for finding them. This post shows what that costs, where your direct guests already come from, and what your website needs to take the booking itself.
Every OTA booking hands over a slice of the room
OTA commission is a percentage of the booking value. Each OTA agreement sets its own rate, and your commission invoices show what you really paid. If you are not sure of your rate, our guide to OTA commission rates shows where to find it for each channel.
The math for one booking fits on a single line.
Worked example
One night, two ways in
In this example, a guest books one night at ₹4,000, and the OTA's commission is 18%.
| Booked on an OTA | Booked on your website | |
|---|---|---|
| Booking value | ₹4,000 | ₹4,000 |
| Commission at 18% | ₹720 | ₹0 |
| What reaches you | ₹3,280 | ₹4,000 |
Now take a 20-room hotel that sells 200 room nights a month through OTAs, all at ₹4,000. That is ₹8,00,000 of bookings, and ₹1,44,000 of it goes out as commission. If one room night in four moves to the hotel's own website, ₹36,000 a month stays with the hotel, or ₹4,32,000 over a year.
These are round numbers, and yours will differ. The OTA commission calculator runs the same sum with your own rate, room count and OTA share.
OTAs are the shop window, your website should be the till
A shop window shows people what you sell, and the till is where the sale happens. OTAs make a very good window. A family who has never heard of your town can find you there, read your reviews and compare you with the hotel next door.
Many of those guests search your hotel's name before they book. Some come back next year, and some send your name to a friend. By then they know you, and they don't need an OTA to find you a second time.
That second booking is the one to win. Keep the OTAs for the new guests they find you, and stop paying them again for guests they have already found once.
Pay an OTA to find a guest once, not every time that guest comes back.
The guests most likely to book direct are the ones who already know your name:
- Repeat guests who booked through an OTA last time.
- Guests who found you on an OTA, then searched for your website.
- Walk-ins and callers who ask for tonight's price.
- Families booking three rooms for a wedding in town.
- Companies that send staff to your town every month.
Send every guest you already reach to one booking page
You already talk to guests in six or seven places, from a Google listing to a WhatsApp chat. Each of those places should point to the same booking page, with live rates on it.
- Google Business Profile. Put your booking page in the website field. Google can also show your own price beside the OTAs through free booking links.
- Instagram. Put the booking link in your bio, and send every post about your rooms to it.
- WhatsApp. Save a quick reply with the link, so whoever answers can send it in one tap.
- A QR card at the desk. Print a small card that opens your booking page. In ZimmerStack, you can download the QR code for your booking page from the admin app.
- The checkout line. Hand over the card with one sentence: "Next time, book on our website." Add "it's never more than the apps" only when that is true.
- Past guests. Before the busy season, send one short message to past guests who agreed to hear from you.
- Email and invoices. Add the link to your email signature and to the footer of every invoice.
A word of care about past guests. OTA terms often limit how you may use the guest contact details they pass on to you. Message the guests who gave you their number themselves, at check-in or when they booked direct.
Your website has to be the easiest place to book
Sending guests to your site only works if the site can take the booking. A guest who finds "call us for rates" at midnight goes straight back to the app. Check your own site against this table.
| What the guest needs | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Live rates and real availability | The guest sees tonight's price, not "call for rates". |
| Instant confirmation | An enquiry form makes the guest wait. The OTA app does not. |
| A page that loads fast on a phone | Many guests book from a phone, often on mobile data. |
| The total with taxes | No surprise at the last step. |
| Room photos and cancellation terms | The guest knows exactly what they are buying. |
| A price no OTA beats | Guests compare, and they book where it is cheaper. |
The last line matters most. If the same room costs ₹300 less on an OTA, a careful guest books there. You then pay commission on a guest who visited your own site first. We explain why prices drift apart, and how to fix them, in why your website must never cost more.
A small website discount gives guests who compare a reason to stay on your page. A direct booking carries no commission, so part of that saving can go back to the guest.
Everything in the table depends on a real booking engine behind the site, which what a hotel booking engine does covers in detail. With ZimmerStack, the hotel website itself is free. The booking engine comes with every paid plan, from ₹199 per room per month, at 0% commission. A hotel on the free website can also switch booking on for a small share of each direct booking (5% today), which the hotel sees and accepts before booking is switched on.
Measure your direct share on the first of every month
You can't grow a number you never look at. Direct share tells you how much of your business reached you without an OTA in between.
- Pull last month's room nights by source. Your PMS or booking register should show where every booking came from.
- Add up the direct ones. Count your website, phone, WhatsApp, walk-ins and repeat guests who booked with you.
- Divide by all room nights. Multiply by 100 to get the share: for example, 105 direct room nights out of 420 is 25%.
- Write down the commission you paid. Take the total from your OTA invoices for the same month.
- Compare with last month and with the same month last year. A single month can mislead you, so watch the trend.
Track revenue as well as room nights. A direct share that grows only on your cheapest rooms is worth less than it looks. In ZimmerStack, the Direct performance report in the admin app shows both numbers beside the same period last year.
See your hotel on a website that takes bookingsType your hotel's name and watch a real template wear it. The website is free, and you sign up only when you want to keep it.Design my websiteWhat to do this week
- Find your commission rate. Open last month's OTA invoices and write down the total you paid.
- Book your own hotel on your phone. Time it from your home page to a confirmed booking, then cancel it.
- Compare prices like a guest. Check your site against two OTAs for next Saturday, with the same room, plan and guests.
- Put one link everywhere. Update your Google profile, Instagram bio and WhatsApp quick reply today.
- Write down this month's direct share. Next month, you will have a number to beat.