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Hotels · Hospitality

Win the direct booking before the OTA commission eats your margin.

A traveller comparing hotels in a city almost always starts on an OTA such as MakeMyTrip or Booking.com, and books the property with the freshest photographs and reviews. A family booking a wedding follows a separate path. They ask you for a quote directly and compare two or three halls on price and space.

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Scope, fee, reporting and term are agreed in writing after we have read your brief and spoken to you.

Realistic editorial illustration of hotels at work in India

In one paragraph

Hotel sales and marketing fills rooms and banquet halls, whether the booking starts on MakeMyTrip, at the front desk or with a wedding family. GullySales gives a past guest a reason to book direct instead of through an OTA, and gets the banquet quote out before the family reaches the next venue.

Listing rooms on an OTA and waiting does not by itself fill a hotel. The sales manager who stayed with you three times this year booked through an OTA each time, and you paid commission on all three. Nobody offered them a direct rate or a late check-out for the fourth.

Last updated 5 Oct 2026.

How buyers decide

How hotels are chosen.

For a room booking, the OTA decides most of the shortlist. Photographs, the review score and the two or three most recent reviews decide which of the ranked properties gets clicked. A slow-loading or thin OTA listing loses the booking before the room rate is even compared.

For banquet and wedding bookings, the family visits two or three venues in person, compares photographs of past events, and asks for an itemised quote. Corporate bookings run through a travel desk or a procurement contact who compares negotiated rates and asks for a reference stay before signing a long-term rate agreement.

The problem

What usually goes wrong for hotels.

What owners tell us on the first call, in their words.

  • “Our OTA listing looks thin next to the competition”

    Few recent photographs and reviews on Booking.com or MakeMyTrip push our property below three competitors that look more current, even when our rooms are as good.

  • “We hardly get a direct booking”

    Almost every booking arrives through an OTA and its commission, because our own website is not built to be trusted or booked from directly.

  • “Our banquet enquiries wait too long for a reply”

    A wedding enquiry waits a day for a quote, and the family has already visited and booked a venue that replied the same afternoon.

  • “We do not know which corporate rate agreements have lapsed”

    A negotiated rate signed last year runs out quietly, and the account starts booking a competing hotel before anyone at the front desk notices.

  • “Our weekday rooms sit empty while weekends are full”

    Nobody markets a weekday or staycation package to fill the gap, so rooms that could earn something instead earn nothing.

  • “A guest who stayed three times is treated as a stranger”

    No record links a repeat guest's bookings, so the front desk misses the chance to offer a direct-booking benefit before the next trip.

  • “Our F&B outlets get no promotion of their own”

    The restaurant and banquet kitchen depend entirely on hotel guests walking in, with nothing telling a local diner they exist.

What we do

What we do for hotels.

Everything included for hotels, and the result each part is there to produce.

  1. OTA listing and review reply routine

    Photographs, descriptions and review replies kept current across every OTA you use, matched to the property guests actually see on arrival.

    Result: A guest comparing listings sees a hotel that looks current and cared for.

  2. Direct-booking website with a live rate path

    A site with room rates, banquet details and a booking form built to convert a visitor, instead of sending them back to an OTA.

    Result: A guest has a real reason to book on your own site.

  3. Banquet and corporate enquiry page

    A page stating banquet capacity, sample menus and corporate meeting space, aimed at a family or a travel desk asking for a quote.

    Result: A wedding family or corporate booker gets facts without waiting for a call back.

  4. Local and destination search visibility

    Pages built around your city, nearby landmarks and banquet searches, so the property is found beyond the OTA a traveller starts on.

    Result: A traveller planning a trip finds the property through search too.

  5. Fast reply routine for banquet and corporate quotes

    A standing routine so a wedding or corporate enquiry gets a quote back the same day, on WhatsApp, email or phone.

    Result: A family comparing venues gets your quote before they book elsewhere.

  6. Guest and enquiry record in one system

    Room, banquet and corporate enquiries logged together, with corporate rate expiries and repeat guests flagged instead of left to memory.

    Result: A lapsing corporate account or a returning guest is never a surprise.

  7. Booking and occupancy report

    Direct bookings, OTA share, banquet pipeline and occupancy by season reported against the baseline recorded before work started.

    Result: You see which channel and season need attention next.

How the result is measured

  • OTA ranking and review score by property
  • Direct bookings as a share of total bookings
  • Banquet and corporate quote turnaround time
  • Occupancy by season
  • New reviews per month and reply rate

Recorded as a baseline before work starts, so every later report has an honest comparison.

Every service, written for hotels

Each has its own page: what it involves for hotels, what you get, and what it is measured on.

Worth a page and a campaign of their own

Direct room bookings · Banquet and wedding bookings · Corporate and MICE bookings · Weekend staycation packages · F&B outlet promotion · Repeat-guest loyalty programmes

Priority campaigns

Campaigns for what hotels most want to sell.

Each one planned around when your buyers decide, and measured against the baseline.

  • Wedding and banquet season campaign

    Photographs, a sample menu page and outreach to wedding planners prepared ahead of the local wedding season, when families start visiting venues.

    Result: The property is shortlisted while families are still comparing venues.

  • Corporate and MICE account campaign

    A page and outreach for meeting space and negotiated rates, aimed at travel desks and procurement contacts before their annual vendor review.

    Result: A corporate account picks your property when rates come up for renewal.

  • Weekend staycation campaign

    A package and local search push timed to a known quiet weekday or season, aimed at local residents rather than long-distance travellers.

    Result: Rooms that would sit empty get a chance to fill from nearby demand.

  • F&B outlet promotion campaign

    Social media and local search content built around the restaurant and banquet kitchen, aimed at diners who are not staying overnight.

    Result: The F&B outlet gets guests beyond whoever is already staying at the hotel.

  • Repeat-guest and corporate loyalty campaign

    A direct-booking benefit and a renewal reminder built for guests and corporate accounts who have already stayed, ahead of their next likely visit.

    Result: A guest or account has a real reason to book you again directly.

Beyond search

Where we reach buyers of hotels, beyond Google.

Search matters, but it is rarely the only way this industry's buyers find a supplier.

  • Wedding planners and banquet decorators

    A brochure and referral relationship built with local wedding planners and decorators, who often recommend a venue before a family visits one.

  • Corporate travel desks and procurement contacts

    Outreach material prepared for corporate travel managers, stating negotiated rates and meeting space ahead of their annual vendor review.

  • Tour operators and travel agents

    Rate sheets and property information prepared for tour operators who package a stay into a larger itinerary.

  • OTA and destination marketing partnerships

    Listings kept current on the OTAs and destination platforms your guests actually book through, alongside your own direct channel.

  • Local resident and community groups

    A staycation or F&B offer prepared for local resident groups and community pages, aimed at guests who live nearby rather than travel in.

Who it is for

This is written for these hotels.

  • Business and transit hotels
  • Boutique and heritage properties
  • Resort and destination hotels
  • Budget and mid-market chains
  • Banquet and wedding-focused properties
  • Serviced apartments and long-stay properties

Not for

It is not the right fit if.

  • You want a guaranteed Google ranking or a guaranteed number of leads. Nobody honest can promise either.
  • You need enquiries by next week and have nobody to answer them.
  • You want posts and reach reported, not enquiries and orders.

How it works

How the work runs for hotels

The work itself, in order. How an engagement starts, from your brief to a written scope, is set out on our method page.

  1. 1

    Assess

    We look at your OTA ranking and reviews, your direct-booking website, your reply time to banquet and corporate enquiries, and where last month's bookings actually came from.

  2. 2

    Fix the OTA presence

    Photographs, descriptions and review replies brought up to date across every OTA listing you use.

  3. 3

    Build the direct channel

    A booking-ready website and a reason for a past guest to book directly next time instead of paying an OTA commission on your behalf.

  4. 4

    Bring bookings in

    Local and destination search, reviews from real guests, and quotes for banquets and corporate stays that go out the same day.

  5. 5

    Keep guests coming back

    A loyalty offer for repeat guests and corporate accounts, and a staycation push for weekends when local demand exists.

Proof

What happened when hotels fixed this.

Real clients, the work we did, and the result as it was recorded. Where no number was recorded, none is claimed.

All case studies

  • Hotel Felicity Inn

    Situation
    A traveller compares three hotels on a phone and books one. The website was not built for that.
    What we did
    • The site rebuilt around booking
    • Photography and one look
    • Search work for destination searches
    • Content a traveller reads
    Result
    • Online bookings increased 35%
    • Organic traffic increased 50% within six months
    • Positive reviews on Google and TripAdvisor increased 30%
    Read the case study

Also worked with

Chord Road Hospital · Curtain Label · Difesa Security Services · Hands On CSR · Implevista · Kambar Group · Kalessi · Kerur Pain Clinic · LL Trust · Lucky Deals · Natural Gases · NavaShakthi Souhardha · NewCom Logistics · Proton Technical Services · SB Engineering · Shakthi Foundation · Shakthi Group · Urbanest · Insyde Studio · Venkateshwara Laser Tech · Vivara Studios

Where this fits

Three pieces of sales work, in this order.

GullySales builds every engagement from three pieces of sales work. This page is not one of them, but the same three steps apply to the business behind it.

  1. Step 1

    Sales audit

    Find where deals are being lost and what to fix first.

    Start here if you cannot say where orders are lost.

  2. Step 2

    Sales process design

    One written way to sell, from first enquiry to repeat order.

    Start here if every salesperson sells differently.

  3. Step 3

    Sales management

    A target, a review routine and someone who owns the number.

    Start here if the team has targets and no routine.

Tell us what you need Your brief is read before we call. Scope, fee and term in writing.

FAQ

Questions hotels ask before they call.

Not here? More answers, or ask on WhatsApp.

Tell us what you need
How soon would we see more direct bookings?
Fixing the OTA listing and review replies moves first, since the searches are already happening there. Building a direct-booking habit among repeat guests is slower, usually a season or two.
Do we need to advertise?
Most properties benefit first from a stronger OTA listing and reviews, which cost nothing extra in media. Advertising helps fill a known quiet season or push a specific banquet or staycation offer.
Should our website match our OTA rates exactly?
Check your OTA contracts first, since parity terms vary between platforms. Either way, your own site usually wins a booking on extras such as breakfast or a late check-out, not on a lower room rate.
How do we get corporate travel managers to book us directly?
With a clear page on room types, meeting space and billing terms, and a quote that reaches the travel desk the same day it is asked for.
Can we run a quiet-season offer without breaking OTA rules?
Often, if the offer is structured as an added extra such as breakfast or a late check-out rather than a rate change on the OTA-listed price. We check this against your specific OTA agreements.
Does a bad review on one OTA affect our other listings?
Not directly, since each platform ranks on its own reviews. A pattern of unanswered complaints on any one platform still shapes what a guest decides, though.
How much does it cost?
There is no price list, because the work differs by business. The fee is scoped after we have read your brief and spoken to you, and put in writing before anything starts, split into our time, your media spend and production.
How long is the contract?
The term is agreed in writing after we have spoken, along with the fee and the reporting. It is never a default twelve months, and renewal is decided on the numbers against the baseline recorded at the start.
Who will actually do the work?
The person you speak to before anything starts. We work from one office in Nagarbhavi, Bengaluru, with no account managers in between.
What do you need from us?
To start, last month's enquiries in any format and time with whoever handles them. After that, access to the accounts the work touches, such as the website, Google Business Profile or CRM.

Notes for owners

Read more about hotels.

Part of Hospitality. See the other industries in the sector.

Your next practical step

Tell us what you are trying to grow, and we will read it before we call.

Eight short steps, mostly taps. Skip anything you would rather answer on the call.

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