Travel platforms take between 15 and 25 percent of every booking they bring you. For discovery, that is a fair trade. For a guest who has stayed with you three times, it is not.
The short answer
A direct booking app costs from £2,999. Every repeat guest you move onto it stops carrying a 15 to 25% commission. The question is not whether the app is cheaper than the platform; it is how many of your bookings are repeat guests you are paying to reach.
What actually goes wrong
Commission on guests you already had. Someone who stayed last year books through a platform because it is the route they know.
No direct relationship. The platform holds the email address, so you cannot reach your own past guests.
Front desk on the phone. Bookings, changes, and questions, one at a time.
Guest information in three systems. PMS, spreadsheet, inbox.
Upsells never happen. Late checkout, dinner, treatments. Nobody has time to ask.
What we build
- Direct bookingAvailability, rates, deposits, and confirmation, in your own app.
- Guest appsCheck-in details, information, requests, and upsells during the stay.
- Membership and loyaltyA reason for a repeat guest to book direct next time.
- Deposits and cancellation handlingThe practical lever on no-shows and late cancellations.
The constraints that matter here
Seasonality decides your timeline. Build out of season. A sprint needs four to six hours of your attention, and you do not have those hours in August.
PMS and channel manager integration. This is the deciding technical question in hospitality, and it should be answered before you book, not on day four.
Guests will not download an app to book once. So the app has to earn its install during or after a stay, not before it. A QR code in the room outperforms anything you put on the booking page.
Your team turns over. Anything requiring training will be untrained again in six months.
Common questions
Will guests download a hotel app?
Returning guests and members will. First-time bookers found through a travel platform mostly will not. Build for retention, not for discovery, and the numbers work.
Does it replace Booking.com?
No, and it should not try to on day one. Platforms are genuinely good at bringing you guests who have never heard of you. The win is moving repeat guests off them, where you are paying commission for a relationship you already have.
Will it work with our channel manager and PMS?
Modern property management systems and channel managers with open APIs integrate cleanly. Some older or closed systems do not, and that is worth establishing before you book rather than mid-build.
When is the best time to build?
Out of season. Nobody in hospitality has the attention for a project during peak, and a sprint needs four to six hours of your time across the fortnight.