Booking.com no longer applies parity clauses to partners in the EEA, and the DMA requires hotels to be able to offer better prices and conditions elsewhere. That still does not mean every hotel should automatically discount direct.
Separate platform rules and law from pricing strategy
The European Commission states that Booking.com must allow hotels to offer better prices and conditions on their own channels under the DMA. Booking.com also says it no longer uses parity clauses with partners in the EEA. Hotels should still check current contracts and local requirements.
In practice, it helps to separate the problem into acquisition, decision and final conversion. Only then can you see whether the loss comes from the offer, communication, technology or the sales process itself.
A lower direct rate is not the only possible advantage
A hotel can keep a similar rate and add parking, better conditions, late checkout, spa credit or returning-guest benefits. In many cases a value advantage protects ADR better than a permanent discount.
The best decision rarely comes from a single metric. Behavioural data should be read together with the business outcome: a booking, an enquiry, revenue or customer acquisition cost.
The difference must be visible before the guest returns to the OTA
If the direct benefit appears only at the end of checkout, many users will never discover it. The website should communicate the condition or benefit close to price and at the entry to the booking engine.
There is no universal setup that works for every property or company. The starting point should reflect seasonality, product, audience and the length of the customer decision cycle.
Compare a direct discount with the full distribution cost
A few percent discount may still be profitable compared with OTA commission, but media, technology, payment and service costs also matter. Commission alone is not a complete direct-vs-OTA calculation.
A small, measurable test is usually the safest way to start. Changing one important variable at a time makes it easier to understand what actually moved the result.
Test pricing decisions on selected products and dates
Instead of applying a permanent lower price everywhere, test specific packages, periods or segments. Track direct share, ADR, sales cost and impact on other channels.
The common mistake is optimising an intermediate metric instead of the outcome. Traffic, clicks and reach are useful diagnostics, but they do not replace bookings, leads or profit.
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Treat it as a business problem, not as a single marketing tactic
Hotel performance rarely depends on one channel. Offer design, price, availability, reputation, the website, the booking engine, campaigns and product presentation influence one another. Before changing anything, record the baseline: the direct and OTA share, where users drop out, which dates underperform and the real cost of acquiring a booking. Otherwise it is easy to improve a metric that never changes revenue.
A useful diagnosis separates three questions. Is the hotel reaching the right demand? Does the offer give the guest a convincing reason to choose the property? Can the technology complete the booking without unnecessary friction? The answers show whether the next move belongs in communication, media, sales policy, the website, the booking engine or revenue management.
A practical checklist before making changes
Before implementation, go through the points below and write down the answers. This helps separate symptoms from causes and sets a clear order of work.
- Check: Separate platform rules and law from pricing strategy. Record the current state, the problem you see and the signal that will prove the change worked.
- Check: A lower direct rate is not the only possible advantage. Record the current state, the problem you see and the signal that will prove the change worked.
- Check: The difference must be visible before the guest returns to the OTA. Record the current state, the problem you see and the signal that will prove the change worked.
- Check: Compare a direct discount with the full distribution cost. Record the current state, the problem you see and the signal that will prove the change worked.
- Check: Test pricing decisions on selected products and dates. Record the current state, the problem you see and the signal that will prove the change worked.
How to measure the result without confusing activity with impact
For a hotel, the core metrics should stay close to sales: bookings, revenue, booking acquisition cost, direct share, length of stay and booking value. Depending on the topic, add website and booking-engine conversion, new versus returning guests, cancellations and results for specific dates. CTR, reach and sessions help diagnose campaigns, but they are not the final business KPI.
A report should lead to a decision. If a metric rises but nobody knows what to do next, it is too far from the business outcome. Use one primary KPI, a small set of diagnostic metrics and a meaningful comparison period. The team can then decide whether to scale, improve or stop an activity.
Common mistakes that distort the picture
- changing several elements at once and later being unable to tell what caused the result
- judging campaigns without booking-engine or PMS data
- comparing different dates without considering seasonality, availability and price
- treating high ROAS or high traffic as proof of profitability
- splitting ownership between marketing, sales and revenue with nobody responsible for the full journey
A 30-day implementation plan
- Week 1. Collect baseline data, verify analytics and identify the biggest loss in the journey. Do not start by rebuilding everything.
- Week 2. Choose one change with the highest potential. Prepare the content, setting, landing page or process element needed for the test.
- Week 3. Launch the change and protect data quality. If measurement is inconsistent, fix tracking first because every later conclusion will otherwise be unreliable.
- Week 4. Compare the result with the baseline. Review volume, quality and economics, then decide whether to scale, iterate or reverse the change.
When should you increase budget or scope?
Scale only when the mechanism is repeatable. One strong day, one campaign or a handful of extra enquiries is not enough. You need a period in which the result holds under comparable conditions and you can explain what generated it.
Before adding budget, check the constraints later in the journey. More traffic will not help if the offer is unavailable, the team does not respond, the website is slow or the booking flow loses users. The cheapest improvement is often on the conversion side, not in buying more visits.
What should a short owner or manager report contain?
- sales result for the analysed period with a relevant comparison
- sales-channel share and booking acquisition cost
- the largest drop-off point in the guest journey
- changes in price, availability or demand that affect interpretation
- one recommendation for the next period with a clear success metric
The main takeaway
There is no single channel that fixes the whole hotel sales process. Better results come from finding a specific point of loss, improving it and measuring the impact on bookings and revenue. This is how marketing, revenue and technology stop being separate projects and start working toward the same commercial result.
Sources
Information current as of September 2026.
FAQ
Where should you start?
Start with the current customer journey and one clear business objective. Identify where value is being lost before choosing tools or channels.
How should the result be measured?
Use a metric close to the business outcome: bookings, enquiries, revenue, acquisition cost or another agreed KPI. Advertising metrics are supporting diagnostics.
Should everything be changed at once?
No. Set a priority, implement one meaningful change, measure the effect and then move to the next area.
When does outside help make sense?
When data is inconsistent, channels operate separately or nobody owns the full result. An external audit can shorten the diagnostic phase.