Book direct strategies: can you pursue one profitably, or are they nothing but wishful thinking? We’d like to argue strongly that not only are they profitable (managed properly), they are essential.

As distributors of rooms, hotels must control when, where and how that distribution happens. If you aren’t in control of your inventory strategy, your profitability exists at the whims of third parties.

It’s true that these third parties have their own incentives to sell rooms.

However, they don’t necessarily have the incentive to prioritize selling your rooms. They also don’t need to charge you reasonable commissions for doing so, unless you’re a big brand with the negotiating power that comes with that.

So what can you do? OTA’s have huge marketing budgets and resources that independents can’t compete with. So, independents must find ways around them.

Taylor Smariga is a Conversion Data Analyst & Distributor at Net Affinity. She graduated from Trinity College Dublin in May 2015, and studied Political Science, Philosophy, Economics and Sociology, all of which gave her a broad view of the social sciences and the way different disciplines approach a problem. She is passionate about writing, data, digital marketing, graphic design and dance, and does her best to apply the first four to her work at Net Affinity.

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