Hospitality · The booking you did not pay commission on
The booking site takes its cut on a guest who found you first.
Someone searches your motel by name, lands on a booking site, and books there. You pay commission on a guest who already knew who you were. The fix is answering direct enquiries faster than the platform does.
WhatsApp · Friday 11:48pm
- Hi, do you have a family room for the 14th and 15th? Two adults two kids. And is there parking?11:48 pm
- We do have a family room free on the 14th and 15th, and parking is free on site, one space per room. Two nights comes to $340 direct, which is under the rate on the booking sites.11:48 pm
- Oh nice. Can we get in late? Flight lands about 10pm.11:53 pm
- That's fine, we do self check-in after 8pm and you'll get a door code the morning of arrival. Want me to hold the room for you now?11:53 pm
- Yes please11:55 pm
Held · family room, 14–15th, direct booking
Payment link sent · hold expires in 2 hours
Where a venue's direct revenue goes
“I was on a job. By the time I called back they'd booked someone else.”
The phone rings while you are working
Work out what one job is worth to you, then count the calls you did not get to last week. That is the number. For most operators it is larger than anything else on this page.
How we fix it“We get back to everyone. Usually the next morning.”
Next morning is too late
You are paying to generate leads and then handing them to whoever answers faster. The ad spend is not wasted at the click, it is wasted in the gap after it.
How we fix it“The site looks alright. It just doesn't do much.”
A website that looks fine and converts nothing
Every visitor you paid to get who left without a next step. You are not short of traffic, you are short of a route through it.
How we fix itWhere the line sits
What runs itself, and what never will.
Half of buying this well is knowing what it must never do. Both columns below are the service. Anyone who only shows you the left one is selling you a risk you will carry, not them.
Runs itself
Without anyone remembering to make it.
- The late enquiry
- Answered at 11pm, which is when people actually plan trips, with real availability rather than a promise that someone will call back tomorrow.
- The direct booking
- Held and paid for in the same conversation, so the guest who found you by name books with you and not through a platform taking its percentage.
- The function enquiry
- Date, headcount, budget and what they actually want, captured before it reaches your functions manager, so the first call is a real conversation.
- The group and corporate enquiry
- Sorted from the one-night bookings automatically, because they are worth a person's time and a different answer.
- The stay itself
- Arrival instructions, door codes and check-out reminders send themselves on the day, instead of being explained on the phone one guest at a time.
Always reaches a person
By design, not by exception.
- Complaints and anything that went wrong
- A guest who is unhappy gets a person, immediately. An automated apology makes it worse.
- Rates you are bound to
- What it may say about price is your decision, written into the build, including anything your channel agreements restrict.
- Special requests and access needs
- It captures them accurately and passes them on. Whether you can meet them is a call your team makes.
- Anything involving safety or a person's wellbeing
- It stops. Duty of care is not a workflow.
How it lands in your venue
20 minutes
Step 1: Map the enquiries
One call. Where bookings come from now, what you pay in commission, what reception answers all night, and which enquiries you keep losing.
Weeks 1 to 3
Step 2: Build around your rates and rooms
Your room types, your rules, your rates and your channel setup, so it never offers something you cannot honour or undercuts a rate you are bound to.
From go-live
Step 3: Front desk keeps the guests
Availability questions, holds and arrival details run themselves. Complaints, special requests and anyone unhappy go straight to a person.
Before you commit
Add up last quarter's commission.
Then ask how many of those guests searched for you by name. Ali Ishtiaq will work out with you how much of that is winnable direct.
+61 469 759 353Ali Ishtiaq answers it himself. Monday to Friday, 9am to 6pm AEST.