HI·06.7 · How to · 7 min
Turn OTA guests into direct guests
Every OTA booking delivers a future direct guest to your door and lets them sleep in your bed. The commission only repeats if the next booking goes through the platform too. That part is up to you.
One ground rule first, because it protects the listings you still need: don’t pitch direct bookings inside OTA messaging. Their chat is monitored, it breaches their terms, and it can cost you the listing. The good news is you don’t need it. Once the guest walks through your door, the stay is yours, and everything below happens on your property, on your terms, entirely legitimately.
The check-in form: quietly the whole game
A simple form (paper by the kettle, or a free online form sent before arrival) asking for name, email and one consent checkbox is the highest-value thirty seconds in this entire programme. It legally opens the email channel that guide HI·06.3 turns into repeat bookings. If you set up only one thing from this page, make it this one.
Things that live in the property and work for years
- The welcome card. A postcard by the kettle: “Lovely having you. Next time, book direct at yourproperty.co.uk and save 10%.” Add a QR code straight to your booking page (free to generate, takes two minutes). Cost: pence. Lifespan: forever.
- The guidebook. Whether it’s a printed folder or a PDF, put your website and the direct discount on the cover and the back page. Guests photograph guidebook pages constantly; let every photo carry your address.
- The wi-fi moment. Everyone asks for the wi-fi. A little card with the password on one side and “book direct next time, 10% off” on the other gets read by literally every guest. If your router supports a custom landing page, even better; that’s a free advert shown to every device in the house.
- The fridge magnet. I know, I know. But a decent-looking magnet with your property name and website goes home in the wash bag, sits on their fridge, and outlives every algorithm change the OTAs will ever ship. About 60p each in bulk.
The human moments
None of the props matter as much as the conversation. When a guest says at checkout (or in a message after their stay, once the review has landed) that they’d love to come back, that is the moment: “we’d love that too, and if you book through our own site it’s 10% less, because there’s no platform fee”. Say it warmly and once. It converts because it’s true, it saves them money, and it comes from the person whose breakfast tips they’ve been enjoying all week.
Set your expectations honestly
Not every guest converts, and that’s fine. If a fifth of your returning guests come back direct in year one you’re doing well, and the share climbs every year because it compounds: each converted guest books direct every future visit, and their recommendation to friends starts at your website rather than the app. This guide costs almost nothing to implement, which makes it, pound for pound, the best value page on this site.
Converting the guests you already have is half of demand. The other half is being found by new ones without paying commission for the privilege, which is guide HI·06.8.