Hotels & Resorts
A hotel sells the same room through its own website, several online travel agencies, wholesalers, tour operators and the reservations desk, and each channel carries its own commission, cancellation terms and payment fees. The property management system records the stay but rarely what the booking cost to win. In our work with hotel and resort operators, most margin questions sit in that gap. We connect booking, channel and cost data, repair the tracking that should credit direct bookings, and report revenue net of distribution so the commercial team can decide where to sell.
Discuss this with usMarket context
Nights spent at tourist accommodation establishments in the EU reached an estimated 3.08 billion in 2025, of which hotels and similar accommodation recorded 1.9 billion (63%).
Source: Eurostat, EU tourism nights at record 3.08 billion in 2025 (16 January 2026)
From 14 November 2024 Booking.com has had to comply with the Digital Markets Act, which prohibits parity clauses. Hotels using Booking.com are free to offer different, including better, prices and conditions on their own website or other channels.
In 2025, 31.1% of all overnight stays in EU tourist accommodation took place in the two busiest months, August and July. August had 3.6 times as many overnight stays as January.
Source: Eurostat, Summer peak: 31% of tourism nights in August and July (7 July 2026)
Business challenges
01
Commission that nobody reviews by channel
Online travel agency commission, wholesaler margins and virtual card fees arrive as invoices and deductions, while revenue reports come from the property management system at gross value. The channel that fills the most rooms can be the one that earns the least per night, and nobody sees it until a distribution review rebuilds the figures by hand.
02
Direct bookings credited to the wrong source
Booking engines usually run on a separate domain or inside an embedded frame. If analytics and advertising tags do not follow the guest across that boundary, a completed direct booking is recorded as a drop-off, metasearch and brand-search campaigns are judged on partial evidence, and budget moves away from the channels that work.
03
Rates leaking below the direct price
A rate loaded for a wholesaler or tour operator can reappear on consumer sites below the hotel's own price. Since the Digital Markets Act, hotels in the EEA may price direct below Booking.com, yet in our work we still see platform rates mirrored out of habit. Both problems tend to be found by a guest or a rate-shopping report rather than by the contract terms.
04
Seasonal labor cost seen after the season
Agency staff, overtime and seasonal contracts are recorded in payroll, while occupancy sits in the reservation system. Labor cost per occupied room is then calculated at year end, too late to change rotas for the shoulder months.
05
Spend outside the room report
Restaurant, bar, spa, transfer and activity revenue is rung through point-of-sale systems that are not linked to the reservation. The hotel cannot tell which channel or market brings guests who spend beyond the room rate, so every booking is valued at room revenue alone.
Where the opportunity sits
Net revenue by channel and booking window
Joining reservations to commission invoices, payment fees and cancellations gives net revenue per channel, room type, source market and booking window. That is the figure a distribution or rate-parity decision needs.
Direct booking measured from search to stay
Cross-domain tracking from website to booking engine, with tracked conversions checked against reservations that actually arrived, lets direct-booking campaigns and metasearch be judged on stays rather than clicks.
Labor cost per occupied room, by week
A weekly report that joins the rota and payroll to the forward booking curve shows labor cost per occupied room before the week arrives, so staffing for the shoulder season is set from bookings on hand.
How we approach it
We start with a single reservation and trace it from search through the website, booking engine, channel manager and property management system to payment, commission and the accounts. Access stays read-only until the findings are agreed. That shows where tracking breaks, where commission is recorded, which rates leak below the direct price and which reports rely on gross figures. Findings become a prioritized task list, each item with an owner and an acceptance check: tracking repair, rate and availability reconciliation, net-revenue reporting, labor-cost reporting and, for independent properties, the website and local search work that brings direct enquiries. If the client wants us to build, the same team delivers the changes and closes a task only when it has been checked against live reservations. We do not set rates, act as revenue manager or operate properties. Pricing decisions stay with the client's revenue team, and employment, tax and contract matters stay with its own advisers.
How our experience is evidenced
THEFOCUS has worked with businesses in this sector. Client engagements are confidential, and no anonymised record has yet been approved for publication, so this page names no clients and claims no results. LocalBoostHQ, our live service brand for local businesses, covers the website and local search work an independent hotel depends on. FocusADS.ai is in development and FINMETRA is in design; neither is offered today.
Questions executives ask
Have you worked with hotels and resorts?
Yes. THEFOCUS has worked with businesses in this sector. Client engagements are confidential and no anonymised record has yet been approved for publication, so we do not name clients or publish results. In a first conversation we can describe the kind of work involved without identifying anyone.
Can you help us take more bookings direct?
We repair the tracking between your website and booking engine, report net revenue by channel and build the direct-booking campaigns and website changes that the figures support. We report what changes in the share and net value of direct bookings, and we make no promise about the size of that change before the data has been read.
Will you set our rates or act as our revenue manager?
No. We give the revenue team the figures it needs, such as net revenue per channel, rate leaks and pick-up by booking window. Rate setting and inventory decisions stay with your own team or your revenue management provider.
Will you replace our property management system or channel manager?
Not by default. Most of the problems on this page sit between systems, so we work with the ones you already run. If a replacement is justified, we write down the reasons and the checks that would show no reservations or guest records were lost in the move.
Discuss this with us
A few details help us route your enquiry to the right partner. Fields marked optional can be left blank.