Online travel agents bring you guests, and that is genuinely useful. The problem is the price. On every booking they send, they take a commission of 15 to 20 percent, sometimes more. On a busy property that adds up to a serious amount of money leaving your business every month. This guide explains how Kenyan hotels, guesthouses, lodges, B&Bs and villas can keep the reach of the travel sites while shifting more bookings to their own direct channel, where the revenue stays with them.
What OTA commission actually costs you
Picture a room that sells for KES 10,000 a night. Book it through a travel site at 18 percent commission and you hand over KES 1,800 of that, every night, on every room they fill. Over a month of steady occupancy, that is a large sum that could have stayed in your business, paid your staff, or improved your property.
OTAs are not the enemy. They are a marketing channel, and for filling rooms you cannot fill yourself, the commission can be worth it. The mistake is letting them become your only channel, so that guests who would happily book with you directly are still routed through a site that charges you for the privilege.
The goal: keep the reach, move the bookings
You do not need to abandon the travel sites. You need to do two things at the same time:
- Keep using OTAs to reach travellers who do not know you yet.
- Give every other guest an easy, direct way to book, so you stop paying commission on bookings you would have won anyway.
Many of your guests already want to book with you directly. Repeat guests, referrals, people who found you on social media, and travellers who simply prefer to deal with the property. If you make that easy, a large share of your bookings can come commission-free.
How to win more direct bookings
1. Have your own booking website
This is the foundation. If a guest cannot book and pay on your own site in a couple of minutes, they will go back to the travel site. You need a fast, mobile-friendly booking page, branded as your property, where a guest sees live availability, picks a room and pays. InzuHub gives you exactly this, a booking engine branded as yours that accepts M-Pesa and card payments instantly.
2. Make it easy to pay, the local way
A direct booking only works if the guest can pay how they want. In Kenya that means M-Pesa first, cards as well. If your direct channel only offers a bank transfer, guests will not complete the booking. With payments built into the booking page, a guest pays by M-Pesa or card the moment they decide, and the booking is confirmed. See our guide on how to accept M-Pesa payments.
3. Make booking mobile-first
Most of your guests are on a phone. If your booking page is slow or awkward on mobile, you lose them. A mobile-first booking engine, the kind InzuHub provides, is not a nice-to-have in this market, it is the difference between a completed booking and a lost one.
4. Drive your own traffic
Once you can take direct bookings, send people to your own page. Put the booking link in your Instagram and Facebook bios, in your WhatsApp Business profile, on your Google Business Profile, in email signatures, and on printed materials at the property. Every guest who books through that link costs you nothing in commission.
5. Give guests a reason to book direct
A small perk for booking directly tips the decision. A slightly better rate than the OTA, a free airport pickup, a late checkout, or a welcome drink. Even a modest incentive is far cheaper than 18 percent commission, and it trains your guests to come straight to you next time.
6. Turn first-time OTA guests into direct repeat guests
When a guest arrives through a travel site, treat that as the start of a relationship, not the end of a transaction. Give them a great stay, capture their details, and make it effortless to book with you directly next time. A guest portal during the stay, like the one InzuHub offers, keeps you connected and makes the next direct booking natural.
Do the maths for your property
Work out roughly what share of your bookings currently come through OTAs and what you pay in commission each month. Then ask how many of those guests would have booked directly if it were easy. For most properties the answer is a lot. Shifting even a third of those bookings to your own channel can pay for your management software many times over, and the rest is money back in your business.
Summary
- OTA commission of 15 to 20 percent is one of the biggest costs a property carries.
- You do not have to leave the travel sites, you have to stop relying on them for bookings you could win directly.
- The tools you need are a fast branded booking website, M-Pesa and card payments built in, and a mobile-first experience.
- Drive your own traffic, give a small reason to book direct, and turn OTA guests into repeat direct guests.
Frequently asked questions
Should I stop using Booking.com and other OTAs? No. Keep them for reach, but give guests an easy direct option so you stop paying commission on bookings you would have won anyway.
What do I need to take direct bookings? A branded booking website with live availability and instant M-Pesa and card payment. InzuHub includes this on every plan.
How much can I save? It depends on your volume, but shifting bookings off a 15 to 20 percent commission to a small direct processing fee keeps most of that revenue in your business.
Is a direct booking website hard to set up? No. With InzuHub your booking engine comes ready, branded as your property, and works on any phone.
Ready to keep more of every booking? InzuHub gives you a branded booking website, M-Pesa and card payments, and one simple dashboard to run it all. Start your free trial or see pricing.