Five free ways to increase direct bookings at your independent hotel

In fact, many independent hotels and B&Bs can unlock more direct bookings simply by using what they already have more effectively.

From OTAs and Google to your own website and past guests, there’s a surprising amount of untapped potential hiding in plain sight. Small improvements in how you show up online, how easy you are to book and how you follow up with guests can quickly add up to meaningful results.

In this blog, we’ll walk you through five practical, completely free ways to increase your direct bookings. No paid tools, no complex strategies, just clear actions you can apply step by step to get more value out of your existing setup.

Key takeaways

• Direct bookings don’t require extra spend. Optimising what you already have often delivers the biggest wins.

• Accurate listings and Google visibility matter. Consistency across OTAs and Google directly impacts trust, rankings, and bookings.

• Conversion beats visibility. Clear direct-booking benefits and a frictionless booking flow turn visitors into guests.

• Guests drive future bookings. Reviews, user-generated content, and simple loyalty perks build credibility and repeat business.

• Value beats discounts. Local partnerships, packages, and organic content increase appeal while protecting your ADR.

Tactic 1: Optimize what you’re already doing

You’re probably already doing a lot to bring in bookings and attract new guests, from OTA listings to marketing strategies, you’re trying to be as visible as possible. 

But do you often review those strategies to see what’s still working? Why not test out a different strategy? You likely have significant untapped potential sitting in the channels you’re already using. 

Clean up your OTA listings and Google profile

The foundation of any successful distribution strategy is the platforms it’s listed on. They’re the first impression your potential guests get of the property, so you need to make it count. An OTA listing or your Google Business Profile doesn’t work with a “set it and forget ” strategy, it needs to be regularly updated with more recent pictures, new amenities, updated packages and other basic information guests require during their search for an accommodation.

The best way to do this, is to take your best performing OTA listing and use that as a blueprint for all the other listings. Here’s what you can do:

• Make sure your information is consistent across different platforms (room names, descriptions, amenities, packages)

• Add clear policies for cancellations, pets, check-in times, and more

• Update your photos to high-quality images that reflect reality

Small inconsistencies not only reduce trust from guests, but also make your OTA ranking fall. Cleaning those OTA listings and your Google profile up once in a while can directly impact how your guests book. 

Use Google’s free booking features

If you already have a Google Business profile – which you absolutely should – you have the ability to directly compete with OTA listings to increase your direct booking rate. The best part? It’s completely free.

You can directly link your booking engine to your Google Profile through Google Hotel Search and add your direct rate, a free booking link and availability for the selected dates. In turn, your direct rate and booking link appear next to all other OTAs that sell your rooms. 

You can take this even one step further and add paid Google Hotel Ads to your marketing strategy. You can read all about that in our complete digital marketing guide.

Tighten your rate and availability strategy

Revenue management is a crucial part of your strategy, but it doesn’t have to be complicated to work efficiently. By using simple rules, you will start improving results. 

Static rates are one of the biggest conversion (and revenue) killers, because you’re not following demand and market changes. So you’re either underpricing or overpricing, both equally bad for your revenue.

Here’s what you can start off with:

• Raise rates when your occupancy is increasing 

• Adjust prices around local events or when you know demand will be high

• Be more proactive and avoid leaving the same price online for weeks on end

 This basic but effective use of revenue management l, is a really good starting point to price dynamically in line with the market and improve your competitiveness across all channels.

Tactic 2: Turn lookers into bookers

If your OTA listings and profiles are all optimized, up-to-date and consistent but you’re still not receiving a steady influx of bookings, there might be an issue with your conversion tactics. 

Visibility is great to be found, but you need something to convince them to book with you.

Make the direct booking advantages clear

It’s one thing for visitors to land on your website, but it’s another to get them to book there. You need to give them a good reason not to abandon your website and book either via an OTA or a different accommodation altogether. This doesn’t mean discounting, but a clear communication of value. 

Here’s some things that can make booking with you more interesting:

• Late checkout

• Breakfast included

• A welcome drink

• Flexible cancellation

If you feature these valued-ads(that OTAs don’t have) on your website and booking engine, you won’t be breaking rate parity agreements and you give potential guests extra incentive to book directly. 

Reduce friction in the booking process

Another way of making sure website visitors convert into guests, is to check if your booking process makes sense and isn’t too complicated to follow. It should be straightforward for any website visitor to find the booking engine, select the room type, select possible amenities and pay securely. 

Here’s what you can check:

• Are there unnecessary form fields?

• Are the best room options and their benefits highlighted?

• Is it clear why they’re getting more value when booking directly?

• Does the booking engine feel secure?

• Are there multiple, secure ways of paying?

You can even add banners or pop-ups to explain direct booking benefits, offer extras or show possible fitting packages to lift conversion without annoying guests with heaps of text or screens.

Create an honest sense of urgency

There’s a fine line between pushing to book and creating a small sense of urgency. Creating scarcity or a sense of urgency works best when it’s real. Inventing things or lying to your potential guests directly impacts your trustworthiness, reputation and eventually your profit margins. It’s wise to not push this too hard and keep it real and informative.

Here are some examples of how you can keep this honest:

• Letting the booker know when a type of room is almost sold-out

• Time-bound offers for high season

• Limited packages tied to specific dates

Honest scarcity builds trust and speeds up the decision-making process, whilst clickbaiting and fake countdowns only hurt your bottom line. 

Tactic 3: Use your guests as marketers

One of the most important drivers for conversion is your guest reviews. Travelers are far more likely to rely on the experiences of other travelers who already stayed at the accommodation they’re looking at rather than marketing material, as it is an unbiased account of the property. This is known as social proof and it is highly impactful. A good ranking and review score can significantly boost your room sales. .

Actively generate reviews

Guests’ experiences play a major role in how future travelers decide where to book. But do you already actively try to generate more reviews? 

You can request your guests to leave reviews during check-out (and maybe even add a QR-code to your front desk) and remind them in a post-stay email with a direct link. Make it as easy as possible for them to leave a review, so it takes as little time as possible. Afterwards, you can incorporate the best reviews on your website, social media and even booking pages. 

Don’t forget about the constructive feedback and negative reviews, these are building blocks to improve your services and guest experience. Reacting to them, offering something to make up for the bad experience and resolving the issue, is important as well.

Encourage user-generated content (UGC)

Next to leaving reviews, encourage your guests to share their experience further on social media, tag your property and repost them. When resharing content like this regularly, you show potential bookers the value of a stay with you.

And if you want, you can take this even a step further by running simple, low-cost incentives like a room upgrade, free drink or a future perk

Build a simple loyalty loop

Most big chains have some kind of loyalty program, but that doesn’t work for every independent hotel. Instead, you can offer some loyalty perks, without making an entire program that needs to be managed. 

Here’s what you can do:

• Collect email addresses at check-in or during booking

• Send occasional “welcome back” offers

• Reward repeat stays with small perks or special offers

Repeat guests book faster, cancel less frequently and cost much less to acquire than a new guest.

Tactic 4: Leverage your local network

One of the reasons people book with you is because of the region you’re located in. So make sure you leverage your destination as part of the value your accommodation offers. This can mean incorporating relevant local highlights in your marketing, but also partnering with local businesses.

Create local partnerships

More and more guests want an authentic, personalized experience when traveling. This is the perfect opportunity to create mutually beneficial partnerships with local businesses and offer a full package. You can partner with restaurants, bars, tour operators, coworking spaces, event venues and workshop spaces for example. The possibilities are endless, and you can create unique experiences for each traveler segment you want to attract.

Think about it like this:

• You get lots of business travelers? Create a package with local coworking spaces

• Attracting a lot of hikers? Create a package with a guided tour in the mountains

This partnership works the other way as well, the businesses you partner with will refer their clients to you as well. Make sure these are only bookable on your own website, easy to find and highlight the value of your property.

Bundle experiences instead of discounting

As mentioned before, travelers must see the value of what you’re offering. Lowering rates doesn’t always do that, and it trains your guests to wait for deals. Instead, offer valuable packages to increase your conversion.

Here’s how you might increase your perceived value:

• Room + dinner

• Room + bike rental

• Room + museum tickets

Did you know that those packages protect your ADR (Average Daily Rate) while making your offer more attractive?

Align offers with seasons and events

Market changes are often influenced by local events increasing the demand for a certain period in your destination. Changing your offers with those events and even the seasons, makes sure you’re always offering something interesting. 

You can create small campaigns around festivals, concerts or seasonal activities to feature on your website, booking engine and social media. Staying relevant and offering what drives demand, makes sure you’re getting booked.

Tactic 5: Take your organic content to the next level

The last tactic on this list is often overlooked. Organic content is content you make yourself to promote or market your accommodation. That might seem complex, but it doesn’t have to be. A little can go a long way, as long as you’re doing it right.

Streamline your social presence

In this day and age, social media has unmistakably become an important part of marketing and online visibility. T These channels are, however, quite a lot to manage, so it’s important to focus on 1-2 platforms that are important to your traveler type. 

Here’s some ideas on what content you should share:

• Strong visuals of your hotel, showcasing amenities or packages

• Behind-the-scenes moments

• Local experiences and recommendations

• Reposting of guest experiences and UGC

On social media, consistency of what you post is more important than the frequency in which you post. As long as your content is relevant for your audience, you’ll get more visibility.

Make booking paths visible everywhere

Do you already have a link to your website or booking engine on your social media pages? If not, you might be missing out on bookings. You should make it as easy as possible to book, so you don’t lose potential guests in the booking process.

Here’s some options of where to add a booking link:

• Social media bios or descriptions

• Social media posts and stories

• Email signatures

• Partner websites

This way, every person who’s scrolling social media for travel or hotel inspiration, has the ability to directly book if they want. 

Use simple SEO basics

If you want more traction to your website, SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the way to go. Starting off with a simple strategy that doesn’t require any tools, might already increase your website traffic, ranking on search engines like Google and eventually your bookings.

You can even create a few evergreen pages with local information:

• Where to stay near X

• Things to do in X

• Best time to visit X

• How to prepare for a trip to X

If you want to take this further, you can follow our website marketing guide to optimize your website even more.

Conclusion

Increasing your direct bookings doesn’t require a complete overhaul of your marketing or a bigger budget. 

As you’ve seen, the biggest gains often come from tightening the basics, such as keeping your listings up-to-date, making it easier for travelers to book directly, and getting more value out of the guests and partners you already have.

The key is not to overwhelm yourself and try everything at once. Start with the areas where you know there is room for improvement. Maybe your OTA listings haven’t been reviewed in a while. Perhaps your booking process feels a bit clunky. Or maybe you’re not following up with past guests as consistently as you could. Fixing just one of these can move the needle.

Once you’ve secured these foundations, you can build from there with partnerships, content, and simple loyalty initiatives. Step by step, these incremental improvements compound, lead to more visibility, higher conversion, and more commission-free bookings. Proof that independent hotels can absolutely grow direct bookings by working smarter with what’s already in place.