By the Unity Stays directors, Marcus Chong & Gadir Al-Khatib · Last updated 12 August 2026
In short: Start with repeat guests and companies booking on invoice — the direct channels that arrive quickly — not a website waiting for search traffic, which takes years. Put secure payment, calendar-synced availability, terms and guest screening in place first; the saving is roughly ten points of gross, since a 5% direct-booking commission replaces a typical 15% platform fee.
What a direct booking is actually worth
It avoids the platform's commission, which is typically somewhere around 15% depending on the platform and plan. It does not avoid ours: a booking taken through our own channels carries a 5% direct-booking commission instead.
So the real gap is roughly ten points of gross revenue, not fifteen. That is a substantial saving and it compounds across a year — and it is the honest size of the prize rather than the version this industry usually quotes.
The larger benefit is the relationship. A repeat guest who books direct costs nothing to acquire the second time, and over a few years that is worth more than the commission saved on any single booking.
Where direct bookings actually come from
Three routes, and only three, in descending order of realism.
Repeat guests. Someone who stayed, liked it, and comes back. Easily the most valuable and the most achievable, and it is decided by what happens at the end of a stay rather than the start.
Companies that book repeatedly. A firm placing contractors or relocating staff wants an invoice, a known property and a single contact rather than a platform receipt. This is the highest-value direct channel for work-travel properties.
Search. Someone finding the property directly. Real, but slow, and it is a marketing project rather than a switch — which is why it is third on this list rather than first.
What you need in place
Direct booking is an infrastructure question before it is a marketing one, and the missing pieces are where most attempts stall.
- A way to take payment securely, with a proper checkout rather than a bank transfer request
- Live availability synced from the same calendar as the platforms, or you will double-book
- Terms and conditions, a cancellation policy, and a deposit process — the platform was providing all of these
- ID verification and guest screening, which the platform was also doing
- A route to be found — a site, a booking page, or an operator who already has both
The risks the platform was absorbing
This is the part usually left out of the case for going direct. The commission was buying something.
You take on payment fraud and chargeback risk. You handle disputes yourself with no arbiter. You verify guests yourself. You have no platform damage protection behind you, which makes your own insurance and a deposit process matter considerably more.
None of that is a reason not to build direct bookings. It is a reason to build them with the infrastructure in place rather than by taking a bank transfer from a stranger.
The realistic strategy
Platforms for reach, direct for the relationships you already have. Almost nobody sensible runs direct-only, because the platforms are where the demand is and a property with no platform presence has to generate every booking itself.
The practical play is to be excellent on the platforms, then convert the guests you have earned into repeat direct bookings — and to build corporate accounts, which are direct by nature because companies want invoices.
That is how we run it: 15 platforms for distribution, direct bookings through our own channels, and company bookings on invoice. Our direct bookings guide covers the trade in more detail.