What a booking actually costs
Base commission is the smallest part of what a marketplace booking costs. The full stack, the cancellation gap, and where rate parity is now unenforceable.
Direct is now the minority channel for independent hotels
Independent hotels booked 63 percent of their 2025 business through marketplaces. Why direct share keeps falling, and the order in which it can be recovered.
Your booking engine is on another domain, and that is where your marketing data disappears
The guest jumps from your site to the engine and the trail breaks. The five-step fix, in payback order, and the one setup that cannot be fixed.
Travellers now plan with AI before they search, and the shortlist is written from sources you do not own
More than half of travellers plan with AI tools. An answer names two or three properties, mostly from guides and reviews rather than hotel websites.
Island resorts hold the highest rates in the industry and the heaviest distribution costs
The five highest-rate hotel markets tracked are all islands. They are also the most channel-dependent, which makes every point of direct share worth hundreds per booking.
What 34 hotel owners and managers said they wanted, when asked directly
Our own study of 34 owners and general managers who requested an audit: who they are, what they run, and which growth problems they name first.
Answer first, evidence second, sources at the end
Each piece leads with its finding, gives the numbers with their source and date, says where the data is thin, and ends with what an owner or operator should do about it. Nothing here is investment advice, and none of it is specific to your property until we have looked at it. If you want a figure checked or a source sent, write to hello@stayntel.com.