Cutting OTA commission and building a smarter booking platform
Through MadeByAI, I helped a 140-property serviced apartment group reduce its dependence on online travel agents, grow direct bookings and build toward a unified hospitality platform.
At a glance
- Client
- Leading aparthotel operator
- Organisation
- MadeByAI
- Role
- AI strategy and solutions
- Sector
- Hospitality
The client is not named, to protect confidentiality.
The problem
The group operates more than 140 serviced apartments across 11 city-centre locations. Like many hospitality operators, it relied heavily on online travel agents for bookings, and every OTA reservation carried around 15% commission, reducing profitability and limiting ownership of the guest relationship. It also relied on disconnected systems and manual processes across the portfolio.
What I did
- Phase 1 (complete): found the fastest route to commercial value by increasing direct bookings, optimising the website, booking journey and direct channel proposition.
- Analysed booking channels across the full 140-property portfolio.
- Phase 2 (in progress): designing a unified platform built around the property management system’s API that consolidates systems, automates manual processes and gives the team a single operational view.
What changed
- Website and booking journey optimised to drive direct reservations.
- Direct booking rate increased, avoiding around 15% OTA commission on each direct sale.
- Unified platform strategy developed, with the Phase 2 implementation programme underway.
Why it’s relevant
The client wanted a partner that could find an immediate commercial opportunity, show a return quickly and then build a long-term technology roadmap.
