95% of direct booking « experts” have never opened a hotel P&L.
They act like they don’t need to.
Their incentives reward volume of ideas, not the cost of executing them.
They talk “RevPAR uplift” without knowing what payroll absorption feels like on a rainy Tuesday.
They quote “industry benchmarks” without seeing what ADR inflation does to real GOP.
They push “conversion optimization” like a hotel is a Shopify store with 80 percent gross margin.
Their world runs on slides, not margins.
It’s the zero-cost illusion. Their risk is zero. Yours isn’t.
The smartest independents know consultant theories don’t apply to hotels.
Because hotels only win when their systems speak the same language as their P&L.
A hotel’s GM life is where theory stops and reality begins:
• Distribution is a margin problem.
• Direct isn’t free. It’s cheaper only if you run it well.
• Upsell isn’t profit when housekeeping overtime wipes out half of it.
Hotels aren’t SaaS.
They’re operating businesses with blood pressure.
Until someone has stared at a monthly P&L at 11 pm wondering why the linen line exploded, they don’t understand the stakes.
You can’t preach “lower your OTA mix” if you’ve never worked a sold-out night with half the front desk missing.
The contradiction is clear: fragmented systems create expensive journeys even when they look perfect.
So, if your direct booking strategy doesn’t connect to the P&L, it’s not helping.
When you say “direct growth”, do you mean revenue or margin for your hotel?
And who pays when the theory is wrong, the expert or your hotel?
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