Breaking free from the OTA trap: when the brand is strong enough, customers come to you.

Each time a guest books through Booking.com or Agoda, the owner pays 15 to 25% of revenue to that platform. For a room priced at 2 million VND per night, this commission amounts to 300 to 500 thousand VND disappearing before the guest even checks in. But this fee is not the essence of the hospitality business. It is the price paid when guests do not know your name well enough to find you themselves.

OTAs are not a distribution channel; OTAs are a penalty.

Booking platforms were created to solve a real problem: small accommodations do not have the budget to reach millions of potential guests, and platforms do that for them while charging a corresponding fee. That logic makes sense until the dependency rate exceeds a threshold where profits no longer cover operational costs. When 70 to 80% of bookings come from OTAs, the owner is essentially working for the platform on their own property.

The deeper issue is that platforms own customer data. They know who the guests are, how many times they have booked, and what they like. Hotel owners only know the name and check-in date. Each time a guest leaves, that relationship disappears with them. The next time the guest books, also on that platform, they pay the same commission as the first time. This is why many establishments that have been operating for years have not accumulated anything beyond room occupancy.

The brand operates as a private channel.

When customers remember the name of a business, they don’t need to search for it on a platform. They type that name directly into Google, Facebook, or message to ask directly. This behavior seems simple, but behind it is a series of perceptions that the brand must create beforehand: what makes this business different, what is the experience like there, and should I return?

According to Marty Neumeier's perspective in The Brand Gap, a brand is the internal perception of others about a business, not something the business says about itself. A homestay that claims to be "deeply local" but has all IKEA furniture and a breakfast menu of sandwiches does not have a local brand, no matter what the sign says.

Brands in the hospitality industry operate through four vectors described by Wally Olins: product (actual rooms and services), environment (space, scent, lighting), communication (photos, descriptions, social media), and behavior (how staff greet guests, how complaints are handled). All four must tell the same story. If communication conveys luxury but behavior in handling reviews is poor, guests will trust the behavior, not the communication.

Positioning is what you do in the minds of potential customers, not what you do with the product.

Al Ries and Jack Trout, Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind

Local storytelling: something that cannot be replicated.

OTAs can display room photos, prices, and ratings. What platforms cannot do is create the feeling that "this place is for someone like me." That’s why businesses with a genuine local story, consistently told across all touchpoints, often achieve higher rates of customer return and referrals than the industry average.

Local storytelling does not mean hanging a few folk paintings on the wall. It is a set of consistent design decisions: what the establishment's name evokes, which colors are drawn from the landscape, where the breakfast ingredients come from, and how that is narrated, as well as how local staff are trained to talk about the area. When all these elements are consistent, guests do not just book a room. They book a specific experience that they cannot find at any other establishment.

This is also why businesses with clear positioning can charge higher prices without competing on platforms. When customers compare prices, they see two businesses as equivalent. When they search for your specific name, the comparison no longer occurs.

Deciding touchpoints: images, reviews, and the gap between the two.

The most common complaint in 1 to 2 star reviews in the hospitality industry is not "dirty rooms" or "rude staff." The most common complaint is "not like the pictures" or "not as described." The gap between expectations and reality is the biggest brand risk in this industry, and it stems from overstated communication compared to the actual capabilities of the establishment.

A strong brand is not about having prettier pictures than reality. A strong brand is when the actual experience meets or exceeds the expectations set by communication. This requires honest decisions about who the business serves, what it promises, and what it refuses. A business targeting "everyone" often fails to serve anyone well.

Building direct channels: not to replace OTAs, but to balance.

Completely withdrawing from OTAs is not a feasible strategy for most small and medium establishments, at least in the early stages of building identity. OTAs are still a channel for reaching new guests from markets that are not familiar with the establishment. A more realistic goal is to change the ratio: from 70 to 80% of bookings coming from platforms, moving towards 40 to 50% direct bookings over time.

The direct channel is not just a website with a "book now" button. The direct channel is a list of emails from past guests, a social media page that tells stories enough for guests to want to follow long-term, and a loyalty program for returning guests to book directly. Each satisfied guest who leaves with their email recorded is a potential order that does not require commission next time.

Byron Sharp in How Brands Grow points out that brand growth comes from two factors: mental availability and physical availability. For accommodations, mental availability is why guests remember your name, while physical availability is why they can easily book directly. OTAs excel at the second part but cannot handle the first for you.