Direct booking share is the percentage of reservations guests make through channels your hotel owns. Divide direct reservations by all reservations in the same reporting period and multiply by 100. Use the same rules for channels, cancellations, and dates each time you compare.
Which bookings count as direct?
Start with the hotel’s reservation or property management system. Direct usually includes the hotel website, phone and email. A booking completed on your booking provider’s domain can still be direct if it came through your own booking channel. A reservation paid at reception can still be an OTA booking if it originated through an online travel agency.
Use a channel column or export instead of classifying bookings from payment method. Keep unknown sources separate and report how many records are unclassified rather than guessing.
A worked example
Say your hotel recorded 200 completed reservations for stays in a month. Of those, 45 were website bookings, 15 were by phone and five were by email. That’s 65 direct reservations, or 32.5% direct share. These numbers are illustrative.
If the next comparison period shows 38%, direct share rose by 5.5 percentage points. Check the counts too: if that second period had 150 reservations, 38% represents 57 direct reservations. A higher share can coexist with fewer direct bookings.
How should you compare before and after a rebuild?
Agree on the definition before launch. Decide whether the report uses stay dates or booking creation dates, which booking statuses count, and how group or corporate bookings are treated. Use the same approach in both periods. Where possible, compare similar seasonal windows and note changes in rates, room availability or promotions.
Track website booking-button clicks separately. A click tells you someone entered the next step; a completed reservation comes from the booking system. If you report direct revenue share alongside reservation share, label it separately because longer stays or higher room rates can change the result.
Does a higher direct share mean you saved commission?
It doesn’t tell you how many guests would otherwise have booked through an OTA. To estimate savings, agree a defensible assumption and account for actual commission, direct-offer costs and booking fees. Show it as an estimate, not a measured outcome.
Start with the channel export you already have. If you’re reviewing the website as well, use BookInnDirect’s direct-booking website checklist to identify changes worth measuring.