"Drive direct" is the easiest strategy to say and the easiest to get wrong. Push too hard and you discount away the very margin you were trying to protect. The goal isn't more direct — it's more profitable direct.
Start from contribution, not volume
Before you touch a campaign, rank your channels by net contribution per booking. Direct usually wins — but not always, and not by the margin people assume once you load in payment fees, discounts and the cost of the loyalty perk.
The sequence that works
- Protect rate parity where it matters. Find the segments where OTAs undercut you and fix the leak before you spend on acquisition.
- Shift the easy wins first. Repeat guests and corporate accounts are the cheapest direct demand you already have — make booking direct effortless for them.
- Spend against contribution, not clicks. Cap acquisition cost at a fraction of the contribution the booking actually returns, by segment.
- Measure the swing, not the vanity metric. Track direct contribution month over month — not just direct share.
Make the trade-offs visible
Every direct push is a bet that the saved commission outweighs the demand you might lose. Profit Intelligence puts both sides of that bet on one screen — channel cost, displacement and net contribution — so you can steer the mix instead of guessing at it.
Steer your channel mix on profit, not guesswork.
A 30-minute walkthrough with a hotelier — not a sales deck.
Book a demo Run your hotel on
profit, not just topline.
Profit Intelligence centralises revenue, costs and distribution into one 360° view — so you can cut commissions, grow direct bookings and steer every property by true GOP, not guesswork.
Run your hotel on
profit, not just topline.
Profit Intelligence centralises revenue, costs and distribution into one 360° view — so you can cut commissions, grow direct bookings and steer every property by true GOP, not guesswork.