Hotel Experiences vs. OTA Extras: What Actually Wins the Booking
Online travel agencies (OTAs) no longer just sell the room - they're selling what used to be the concierge desk's job, and winning that booking too.
A guest doesn't have to look far to find something to do on their vacation. Booking.com already has an Attractions tab built in. Airbnb has Experiences. Viator and GetYourGuide often reach the guest before they've even left home - offering local tours, boat trips and various experiences just a few steps from wherever the guest is staying. They end up deciding where to book something the hotel could have offered first.
What the Hotel Loses
OTAs like these typically take a cut of up to 40% of whatever guests spend on tours, classes or even transfers. None of that touches the hotel - because the guest booked it through someone else's platform instead of the hotel's own. The same booking, made directly with the hotel, either earns the full price for one of its own activities or its own cut of anything run by a partner. Either way, it's money that was always going to be spent during the stay - it just never showed up as ancillary revenue for the hotel.
What the Guest Is Really Choosing Between
None of this makes OTAs the villain. They're good at what they do, and for a lot of travelers they're the only local option available. The problem is a hotel losing a booking it was always in the better position to win.
Why Hotels Lose This Booking Anyway
It's rarely because the OTA did a better job. Usually it's simpler than that:
- The guest never saw what the hotel offered before check-in - no pre-arrival email, no QR code, nothing beyond a laminated card waiting at the front desk.
- Booking with the hotel means a phone call or a walk to the concierge desk, while the OTA app was already open and one tap away.
- Whatever the hotel does offer usually isn't bookable outside staffed hours, so a guest planning at 9pm just books through the app instead.
- Even where the hotel does have something bookable online, it's usually a partial list - a spa page here, a boat trip there - so the guest still opens the OTA app just to see everything in one place.
How a Hotel Wins It Back
It means giving guests the same thing an OTA does - a way to see and book everything in one place, on the hotel's own website, before they think to look anywhere else. Not just the hotel's own activities, but the local boat trips and cooking classes it already works with too.
- Show the guest what's available before they open anything else - a pre-arrival email, a QR code in the room, even the booking confirmation.
- Make it bookable in one click, the same way the OTA is - not a phone call, not a walk to the concierge desk while the guest already has an app open in their hand.
- Put it on the room bill, so paying for a boat trip feels like ordering room service, not opening a separate app and typing in a card number a second time.
There is no need for new hardware or a bigger team - just a system that already knows the guest is on the property and makes it easy to say yes.
Three Things a Hotel Can Do This Week
Before any of this needs new software, it's worth finding out where the gaps actually are.
- Pull up the hotel's own website on a phone, the way a guest would. Can a boat trip actually be booked there, in a couple of clicks - or does it just list a phone number?
- Look at the last pre-arrival email that went out. Does it mention a single activity, tour or spa slot - or does it stop at a nice welcome message and check-in time?
- Ask the front desk how many guests asked about local activities this week, and how many of those actually got booked on the spot. The gap between those two numbers is the booking a hotel is currently handing to an OTA.
The guest was always going to book something. The only real question was who they'd book it with.