Direct Bookings vs OTA Bookings: Getting the Mix Right
The platforms are not the enemy. Depending on them entirely is a different matter.
There are two ways to get this wrong. The first is running a business where 90% of bookings arrive through one platform, which is not a channel strategy but a dependency. The second is deciding platforms are parasites, pulling your listings, and discovering that a meaningful share of your direct bookings were coming from people who found you there.
The useful question is not which channel is better. It is what mix you should be aiming for, and how to move toward it deliberately.
The economics, briefly
On a €100 tour, a platform charging 25% leaves you €75. The same seat sold through your own website returns roughly €97.50 after card processing. Same guide, same vehicle, same experience — around €22.50 difference. Across a thousand bookings a year, shifting one in five to direct is worth about €4,500 on identical volume.
That is the whole economic argument, and the full commission breakdown covers where those rates come from. What it does not tell you is how much of your OTA volume would survive if you stopped paying for it — which is where most of this conversation actually lives.
The billboard effect: what the research shows
The term gets thrown around loosely, so it is worth knowing that it comes from an actual experiment rather than industry folklore.
The original study
In 2009, Chris Anderson at Cornell University's School of Hotel Administration ran a study in which a group of hotels was listed on Expedia and then removed in alternating weeks. When the properties were visible on the platform, reservations through the hotels' own channels rose — reported in the range of roughly 9% to 26%, over and above the bookings Expedia itself produced.
The mechanism is straightforward: travellers use platforms as search engines, find something they like, then look up the operator directly. A 2011 Cornell study reinforced it, finding that a large majority of people who booked direct had visited an OTA at some point first. Anderson revisited the question in 2017 in a report titled The Billboard Effect: Still Alive and Well, concluding the effect persists, somewhat reduced but real.
The caveat nobody mentions
All of this research is about hotels. It is routinely quoted at tour operators as though it were established for tours and activities, and it is not. The traveller behaviour behind it — discover on a platform, search the name, book direct — plainly happens in our category too, but the size of the effect for a day tour has not been measured with anything like the same rigour.
Treat the billboard effect as a well-evidenced reason not to abandon platforms, not as a number you can put in a forecast. The version that matters is your own: track how many direct bookers mention finding you on a platform, and you will have a figure that is actually about your business.
What mix should you aim for?
You will find confident benchmarks online — 50/50, 60/40, "aim for 30% direct." Almost all of them are borrowed from hotel data or invented, and none of them know anything about your destination, your product or your season. A more honest framing is that the right mix depends on where you are.
- Starting out. Platform-heavy is normal and correct. You have no audience, and buying reach through commission is cheaper than building it from nothing.
- Establishing. Reviews are accumulating and people search your name. This is when direct should start climbing, because the demand already exists and is simply being routed through a platform.
- Established. A recognised operator in the destination should expect a substantial direct share — and if it has not moved in three seasons, something is wrong with the direct path rather than with demand.
A better test than any percentage: if your largest platform dropped you tomorrow, would the business survive the season? If the honest answer is no, the mix is too concentrated whatever the ratio says. That question also captures a risk percentages miss — being spread across three platforms is a different position from having 60% of bookings on one.
Set your own target from where you are now: a realistic goal is usually a five to ten point shift over a season, not a reversal.
Building the direct channel
Most operators lose direct bookings to friction rather than to price. Someone found you, wanted to book with you, and could not do it easily enough. Four things carry most of the weight:
- A booking flow that works on a phone. If your site sends people to an email enquiry form while the platform offers instant confirmation, you have already lost. A booking widget on your own site is the single highest-return fix here.
- Being findable by name. Travellers who spot you on a platform will search for you. Ranking first for your own operator name is the cheapest acquisition available, and losing that search to a platform listing is an expensive own goal.
- Reviews and proof on your own site. The platform's advantage is trust. Bring the reviews across, show real photos, be specific about what happens on the day.
- A reason to book direct. Not necessarily a lower price — some agreements restrict that — but a more flexible cancellation window, something extra included, or first access to new departures.
None of this requires a marketing budget. It requires the direct path to be at least as easy as the platform path, which is a lower bar than most operators assume and one many are still failing.
Turning OTA guests into repeat customers
This is where the commission earns its keep. A platform booking is expensive as a transaction and reasonable as customer acquisition — if you actually acquire the customer.
What you can and cannot do
Be clear on the line. Diverting a traveller mid-booking — messaging someone who has booked through a platform to suggest they cancel and book direct — generally breaches platform terms and risks your listing. Contact details are frequently masked precisely to prevent it. But once a guest has actually travelled with you, you have a relationship of your own, and there is nothing improper about staying in touch.
The window that matters
The best moment is the end of the tour, in person, when the experience is fresh. A guide mentioning that guests can book directly next time — and handing over something with the website on it — outperforms any email. Collecting an address on the day, with consent, gives you a route that does not depend on a platform's masked contact details at all.
After that, keep it light: a thank-you, a review request, and later an occasional note about new departures. Guests who return through your own site cost you nothing to reach and are the most profitable bookings you will take all year.
Tracking the mix
None of this can be managed if the numbers live in three separate dashboards that each report only their own share. Four things worth measuring:
- Net revenue by channel, not booking counts. Thirty bookings at 30% commission can contribute less than twenty-two at 20%, and direct beats both per seat.
- The trend, not the snapshot. A direct share that is flat across two seasons is the signal, not the absolute number.
- Repeat rate by original source. This is the one almost nobody tracks, and it tells you which platforms deliver travellers who come back rather than one-time transactions.
- How direct bookers found you. One optional question at checkout, and within a season you have your own billboard-effect number instead of a borrowed one.
Review it once a season and set the next target from what you find. Growing with OTAs without losing control covers the platform side of that balance.
How Travelity helps
Travelity runs both sides of the mix from one system: a channel manager keeping your platform listings in sync, and a booking widget that gives your own website the instant confirmation travellers expect. Because every booking lands in the same place, the channel mix is something you can read rather than estimate.
Guest records from every source build into a single customer view, which is what makes the post-tour follow-up — the part that turns a platform booking into a direct one next season — practical rather than theoretical.
Frequently asked questions
What is a healthy ratio of direct to OTA bookings?
There is no credible universal benchmark for tours and activities, and any specific figure you see quoted is usually borrowed from hotel research. A more useful test is whether losing your largest platform tomorrow would be survivable. If it would end the business, the mix is too concentrated regardless of the percentage.
What is the billboard effect?
The finding that being listed on a large travel platform increases bookings through your own channels, because travellers discover you there and then search for you directly. It was identified by Chris Anderson at Cornell in 2009, in an experiment that listed and removed hotels from Expedia in alternating weeks, and confirmed again in a 2017 follow-up.
Can I ask OTA customers to book direct next time?
Not while the platform booking is in progress — diverting a traveller mid-booking generally breaches platform terms, and contact details are often masked in any case. Once someone has actually travelled with you, you have a legitimate relationship of your own, and following up then is both permitted and where most repeat direct business comes from.
Should I offer a lower price for direct bookings?
Check your agreements first, since some include rate parity clauses limiting how far you may undercut the platform. In practice a better offer often works better than a lower price anyway: a more flexible cancellation window, something extra included, or first access to new departures.
How do I track which channel my bookings come from?
Record the source on every booking and compare channels on net revenue after commission rather than on booking counts. Also track repeat rate by original source, which reveals which platforms deliver travellers who come back and which deliver one-time transactions.
Is it worth leaving OTAs entirely?
Rarely. Platforms reach travellers who will never find you otherwise, and the research suggests some of your direct bookings exist because of that visibility rather than despite it. The goal is a mix you control, not the removal of a channel that is also feeding your direct business.
Bottom line
Platforms are an acquisition channel that happens to also take bookings. Priced as acquisition, 25% is defensible; priced as your entire route to market, it is a dependency with no leverage attached. The research says some of your direct bookings exist because you are visible on those platforms — which is a good reason to stay listed and a poor reason to stop building the direct path.
Make booking direct as easy as booking through a platform, follow up with guests after they travel, measure net revenue by channel, and aim to move the mix a few points each season. That is a strategy. Pulling your listings is not.
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