Why Guests Still Choose OTAs
Most operators focus on the booking moment, but trust is won or lost in the quiet that follows. When pre-arrival communication orients instead of sells, direct bookings feel as safe as the OTA—and guests stop defaulting to platforms.
Make Arrival Feel Safer Than the OTA
If guests hesitate after booking direct, it's not your price. It's your silence.
The confirmation email lands. Then… nothing. No follow-up. No reassurance. Just quiet.
Meanwhile, the guest is carrying questions they won't ask out loud: Where do I park? What's check-in like? What if something goes wrong?
Those questions don't disappear. They quietly erode confidence. And when confidence wobbles, guests default to whatever felt safest. Usually the OTA.
Trust isn't won at the moment of booking. It's won, or lost, in the quiet that follows—when no one's talking to the guest.
OTAs Don't Win Because They're Better
70% of travelers would book via an OTA instead of directly on a hotel website if the price was the same, due to security, convenience, and credible reviews.
Same price. They still pick the platform.
OTAs don't feel personal. They feel predictable. And predictable is comforting when you're about to spend money.
Four in five travelers visit an OTA before making a travel purchase, even when they book elsewhere. according to Expedia. 65% of direct bookings come from guests who found the property through an OTA first.
They discover you on the platform, click through to your site, and decide whether booking direct feels safe enough.
When it doesn't, they go back.
The Confidence Leak You Can't See
Most properties have a gap between confirmation and arrival. They fill it with nothing, or fill it with sales.
No one sets out to create a confusing experience. It just happens. The confirmation goes out, everyone moves on, and the guest is left wondering.
What belongs in that gap is orientation. Plain, useful information that removes uncertainty before the guest has to ask.
When pre-arrival communication is structured, satisfaction jumps 23%. When it's missing, it drops hard. One study found a 66-point swing in satisfaction scores based on whether guests received pre-stay outreach.
Targeted pre-arrival communication boosts conversion rates by 8.23%. But only when guests already feel oriented. Lead with upsells before you've answered the basics, and you're asking someone to add dessert before they've seen the menu.
This isn't a tech problem. It's a confidence leak. And most properties don't even know it's happening.
The Orientation Layer
There's a gap between "booking confirmed" and "welcome to the property." Most properties fill it with nothing useful. Or worse—a spa promo.
This is the orientation layer: the communication that answers the small questions guests won't voice but will hold against you if left unanswered.
Each question removes a specific kind of stress:
- Where do I go? → finding you
- What's parking like? → getting situated
- What does check-in look like? → knowing the steps
- Who do I contact? → having a lifeline
- What's normal here? → avoiding surprises
Upsells assume confidence. Orientation builds it.
98% of upsell revenue comes from pre-arrival emails. But that only works when the guest already feels oriented. Sequence matters: confirmation, then orientation, then offers. Most properties get this backwards.
What This Looks Like
Here's a sample orientation email. Steal it.
Subject: What to know before you arrive
Hi [First Name],
A few quick details before your stay:
Address: [Full address][Link to map or directions]
Parking: Free, in the lot behind the building. Enter from [Street Name]. Look for the blue sign.
Check-in: Opens at 3pm at the front desk. Takes about two minutes. If you're arriving earlier, you can store luggage with us.
Late arrival: If your flight is delayed or you're arriving after 9pm, just text us. We'll make sure you can get in.
Contact: Text or call us anytime at [number]. We're quick to respond, including evenings.
See you soon,[Your name]
No upsell. No promotional language. Just clarity.
One email that orients. A second, optional email that offers. Mix them and the orientation gets buried.
If you have a significant number of last-minute bookings, have multiple versions. One for guests booking a week out, another for 48 hours before. No guest should wonder what happens next for more than a day.
OTAs make the ordinary feel predictable. This is how you do the same—with more warmth.
The Cost of Not Fixing This
Without an orientation layer:
- You keep spending on acquisition that leaks value post-booking.
- You train guests to trust platforms more than you.
- You mistake conversion problems for traffic problems.
- You keep solving the wrong problem.
For a guest booking multiple properties, each with a different website and booking engine, the friction adds up. Despite best intentions, they end up on an OTA. It's fast, consistent, and they trust it.
You can't always control the booking experience. You can always control what comes after.
One Action: Audit Your Post-Booking Silence
Paste your current post-booking communication into Claude or another AI tool. Find out what's missing.
Prompt:
I operate a [hotel / inn / vacation rental]. Here's what a guest receives after booking direct:
[Paste your confirmation email and any pre-arrival emails.]
Tell me:
- Does the guest know what happens next within 24 hours of booking?
- Are the basic orientation questions answered: parking, check-in, contact info, what to expect?
- Is orientation separated from promotional offers, or mixed together?
- What's missing that might leave them uncertain before arrival?
- Rewrite the first post-booking email to prioritize orientation over promotion.
Run it once. You'll see the gaps in five minutes.
The goal: one email that makes a guest feel oriented within 24 hours of booking. Everything else is optional.
Implementation
You don't need perfection. You need clarity.
- Day 1: Write the orientation email.
- Day 2: Add it to your booking automation.
- Day 3: Test it like a guest, on mobile.
- Day 7: Count how many pre-arrival questions dropped.
The Bottom Line
You don't need a new booking engine. You need to stop making guests guess.
The properties that win direct bookings aren't louder. They're clearer.
Clarity compounds.
If this way of thinking is useful
I write more like this on Substack.
Short pieces. Real situations. Clear thinking about how guests actually decide once they arrive.
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