๐๐จ๐ฎ๐ญ๐ข๐ช๐ฎ๐ ๐ก๐จ๐ญ๐๐ฅ๐ฌ: ๐๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ ๐๐ข๐ ๐ ๐๐ฌ๐ญ ๐๐จ๐ฆ๐ฉ๐๐ญ๐ข๐ญ๐จ๐ซ ๐ข๐ฌ๐ง’๐ญ ๐๐จ๐จ๐ค๐ข๐ง๐ .๐๐จ๐ฆ.
Had a GM call me last week, frustrated about Booking. com taking 23% commission on every reservation.
“Eduard, these OTAs are killing us. They’re the real problem.”
I get why he thinks that. The commissions hurt. Watching guests book through third parties when they could book direct… it stings.
But here’s what I told him: OTAs aren’t your biggest enemy.
Your biggest enemy is being invisible when guests search for you directly.
Think about it. When someone types “boutique hotel in [your city]” they see paid ads first (yeah, those are mostly OTAs). But most people scroll right past ads anyway.
Then comes the Google Hotel Pack. And here’s the thing – Booking. com and Expedia CAN’T appear there. It’s reserved for actual hotels. Independent ones like yours.
But this GM’s hotel wasn’t showing up there either. His Google Business Profile had 3 photos and a description that said “comfortable accommodation.” His website looked like it was built in 2015.
So of course guests went to Booking. It was the only place they could actually find him.
I walked him through what he needs to do: optimize his Google profile with proper photos and real descriptions, get his NAP data consistent across all platforms, start managing reviews properly, fix his website’s local signals, build citations, add schema markup. The whole thing.
But I was honest with him – depending on his competition and how consistently he executes, this could take anywhere from 6 to 18 months to see real results in the Hotel Pack and dominate the local SEO.
At least now he knows what fight he’s actually in instead of just complaining about the OTAs.
