If we cut out Booking.com today, many hotels would be scrambling for business tomorrow.
There’s a class action lawsuit underway in Europe, claiming Booking.com has abused its dominant position with unfair parity clauses and high commissions.
I get the frustration and I don’t support when OTA play dodgy. But we always go back to the same situation where the solution would be to play as partner with the OTA. And not one against each other. At the end, hoteliers should be the one in control and not the reverse.
But in my opinion, blaming Booking isn’t the long-term solution.
It might feel like a win, but it’s not a strategy.
Let’s be honest: we still need OTAs just as much as they need us.
Booking.com brings volume, global reach, and a customer experience guests trust. And most hotels, especially independents, aren’t set up (yet?) to fully replace that demand through direct channels.
So before we start celebrating legal action and commission ceiling (such as Switzerland), here’s what I would ask:
Are we actually ready to shift that business elsewhere?
• Do we have a diversified channel mix?
• Are we investing in direct marketing, SEO, loyalty, CRM and tech?
• Can we match Booking’s yearly marketing investment? (Spoiler: we can’t.)
Even more importantly, are we calculating our true distribution costs properly?
👉 If you’re not looking at NetRevPAR (Net Revenue Per Available Room) per channel, you’re not seeing the full picture.
Yes, OTA commissions hurt. But have you factored in:
• Cost of acquisition via direct channels (PPC, meta, brand ads,..)
• Abandoned bookings
• Website tech and maintenance
• Labour costs to manage direct demand? (yes even your sales/brand/marketing team 🙃)
Spoiler alert: OTAs often deliver higher NetRevPAR than direct, especially when you’re not operating at scale. So before you label Booking.com the villain, run the numbers.
In my view, the issue isn’t just unfair platform terms.
It’s that we’ve become too dependent, without building the systems to stand on our own, or at least strategically using the OTA when it makes the most sense for our business.
This case might result in some compensation. But if we don’t fix the fundamentals (such as channel and business mix diversification, pricing strategy, tech stack) we’ll be right back here in a year, wondering where the volume went.
So I’ll ask again:
If Booking disappeared tomorrow, what’s your Plan B?
Not in theory but in practice.
Would love to hear how others are calculating NetRevPAR across channels and planning for long-term distribution control.
#Hospitality #TravelTech #Hotels #Bookingcom #DirectBooking #DistributionStrategy #OTAs #HotelMarketing #NetRevPAR
