Field Notes · Book direct
Book direct
OTAs bring you guests you might never reach on your own. The goal isn’t to drop them. It’s to make booking direct easy for the guests who already want you. These notes use real numbers from Comal Inn, plus real bookings and audits from our trips.
The notes
Newest first.
- I booked the same cabin for $52 less by going directA real two-night booking near Jasper, Arkansas: $447.12 on Airbnb, $395.12 on the host’s own website. Why direct was cheaper, why the host likely kept more too, and the one thing that made it hard to find.Read the note
- A real website audit: what I found on a two-cabin rental near the Buffalo RiverA real audit of a cabin rental website near Jasper, Arkansas: broken Book Now buttons, a mobile PageSpeed score of 37, missing facts for Google and AI tools, and the order I’d fix it in.Read the note
- What a $200 night actually pays you after OTA commissionBooking.com and Expedia take their commission after the discounts you fund. See what you really keep on a $200 night, then run your own numbers.Read the note
- Where Comal Inn's summer 2026 bookings came fromReal numbers from a 5-unit property: 181 summer bookings across Booking.com, direct, Expedia and Google, how the mix shifted since winter, and what to watch.Read the note
Coming soon
- The direct booking audit
Questions
Is booking direct cheaper for guests?
It can be. In one real two-night booking near Jasper, Arkansas, the same cabin and dates cost $447.12 on Airbnb and $395.12 on the host’s own website.
How much does an OTA really take?
Booking.com and Expedia take their commission after the discounts you fund, like Genius and member rates. So you keep less of a $200 night than the rate suggests. The calculator lets you run your own numbers.
Should I stop listing on Booking.com, Expedia or Airbnb?
Not usually. At Comal Inn, 32% of summer bookings came direct, and Booking.com and Expedia still brought in most of the rest. The point is having more than one way to book, with direct as easy as it can be.
More topics on the Field Notes page, and every lodging website study on the series page.
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