When someone searches your hotel by name, they should land on you
For most independent hotels the booking sites outrank the hotel for its own name, so a guest who already chose you still books through a marketplace and you still pay commission. Fixing that is the highest value work on a hotel site.
Four places a hotel loses a direct booking
In roughly this order. Most properties have all four open at once.
- 01
Brand search goes to an OTA
Someone types your hotel name. The first three results are marketplaces. You pay commission on a guest who was already yours.
- 02
The site does not quote a price
No rate, no availability, no obvious way to book. The visitor leaves to check a site that will tell them.
- 03
Room pages do not exist
One gallery for the whole property. Nothing to rank for a room type, a view, or a suite with a private pool.
- 04
One language, or a bad second one
Your demand is international. A machine translated English page reads as untrustworthy at exactly the moment trust decides the booking.
The economics of a direct booking
You are not going to leave the marketplaces, and you should not. But every booking that arrives direct keeps its full margin and gives you the guest relationship for the next stay.
| Marketplace | Direct | |
|---|---|---|
| Commission per booking | Charged | None |
| Guest contact details | Limited | Yours |
| Repeat and loyalty | Platform owns it | You own it |
| Upsells and packages | Constrained | Unrestricted |
Marketplace commission on accommodation commonly runs in the mid-teens to low twenties percent range. Market context, not a claim about your contracts.
Built for the markets that actually book you
A Greek hotel taking German, British and French guests needs each of those to feel native, with the right currency, the right examples and correct hreflang so Google serves the right version.
| Pages | English | Greek | German | French |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Room and rate pages | ||||
| Location and area guide | ||||
| Booking flow | ||||
| Offers and packages |
A typical starting scope. Which languages you need depends on where your bookings come from.
Every room type earns its own page
A room type is a product. It has a price, a capacity, a view and a set of searches attached to it. Collapsing them all into one gallery throws that away.
- Rates, capacity, size and view as structured data
- Photography per room type, not one shared carousel
- Availability and booking entry on every room page
- Package and offer pages that can rank independently
Accommodation sites we have built
Live projects. Real screenshots.
Hotels Santorini
Hotels Santorini: Santorini hotels directory and bookings for Santorini, SEO for “hotels Santorini”, with technical SEO from day one.
- Santorini: pages aimed at “hotels Santorini” and “Santorini hotel booking”
- Differentiation: caldera and beach hotel discovery with direct booking calls to action
- Stack: website creation, SEO web design, content creation
Hotels Sifnos
Hotels Sifnos: Sifnos hotels and stays for Sifnos, SEO for “hotels Sifnos”, with technical SEO from day one.
- Sifnos: pages aimed at “hotels Sifnos” and “Sifnos accommodation”
- Differentiation: boutique island stay hubs for travelers researching lodging
- Stack: website creation, content creation
Onoma Hotel
Onoma Hotel: boutique hotel brand site for Greece, SEO for “Onoma Hotel”, with a clear path to booking.
- Greece: pages aimed at “Onoma Hotel” and “boutique hotel Greece”
- Differentiation: brand storytelling with room-type pages for direct bookings
- Stack: website creation, SEO web design
Kipos Hotel
Kipos Hotel: city-centre hotel near the Old Town for Rethymno, SEO for “Kipos Hotel Rethymno”, with a clear path to booking.
- Rethymno: pages aimed at “Kipos Hotel Rethymno” and “hotel Old Town Rethymno”
- Differentiation: city-centre location with easy access to shops, cafes and the Old Town
- Stack: website creation, local SEO
DailyHost
DailyHost: short-term rental hosting management for Greece, SEO for “DailyHost”, optimized for mobile and local search.
- Greece: pages aimed at “DailyHost” and “holiday hosting Greece”
- Differentiation: host onboarding and property listing conversion paths
- Stack: website creation, SEO web design
DailyHost EU
DailyHost EU: EU-facing vacation hosting brand website for European market, SEO for “DailyHost EU”, structured around “DailyHost EU”.
- European market: pages aimed at “DailyHost EU” and “Europe vacation hosting”
- Differentiation: multi-market English positioning for EU guests and owners
- Stack: website creation
Antiparos Rooms
Antiparos Rooms: seaside rooms and apartments website for Antiparos, SEO for “Antiparos rooms”, with trust signals and a clear booking path.
- Antiparos: pages aimed at “Antiparos rooms” and “Antiparos apartments”
- Differentiation: direct booking for Cycladic seaside apartments versus OTA dependence
- Stack: website creation, local SEO
What we apply to a hotel site
Common questions from hoteliers
- Can we outrank the booking sites for our own hotel name?
- Brand search is the one area where an independent property has a structural advantage, because you are the entity being searched for. It takes correct schema, a fast and complete site, and consistent brand signals. We will not promise a position, but this is usually the most winnable work on a hotel site.
- Do we need to replace our booking engine?
- No. We integrate with what you already use so rates and availability stay in one system. If your current engine is the reason people abandon, we will tell you, but replacing it is your commercial decision and not something we push.
- How many languages should the site be in?
- Start with the markets that already book you, which your booking data will show. Adding a language is not just translation, it is a full set of pages with correct hreflang, so it is better to do three properly than six badly.
- We are seasonal. When should the work happen?
- Before the booking window opens, which for most Greek properties means winter. Guests book months ahead, so a site that goes live in June has missed most of the decisions for that season. These are indicative phases, not guaranteed timelines.
Send us your property
Give us your site and the markets you sell to. We will tell you where the direct bookings are leaking.