Hotel Direct Booking Statistics 2026

Key takeaways

• OTAs took 63.4% of independent hotel bookings in 2025, up year on year (Cloudbeds).
• A booking on a hotel's own website was worth $516 on average in 2025, against $312 through an OTA (SiteMinder).
• OTA bookings were cancelled 21.8% of the time, more than double the 10.6% for direct bookings (Cloudbeds).
• In 75.7% of hotel searches worldwide, the hotel's own website was not the cheapest place to book (World Parity Monitor).
• 68% of travelers prefer to book with a trusted travel brand rather than an AI chatbot, even when AI booking is available (Expedia Group).

OTA market share

Online travel agencies are growing faster than travel overall in the U.S., and hotels are the main reason. For independent hotels, OTAs now handle almost two in three bookings.

1. U.S. online travel agency gross bookings rose 4% to $100.3 billion in 2025 (Phocuswright).
2. OTAs account for about one fifth (20%) of all U.S. travel gross bookings, and Phocuswright projects 21% by 2028.
3. 63% of U.S. OTA gross bookings are hotel bookings, making hotels the largest category OTAs sell (Phocuswright).
4. OTAs' share of independent hotel bookings rose to 63.4% in 2025 (Cloudbeds, 90 million bookings).
5. In some markets, OTAs' share of independent hotel bookings is approaching 80% (Cloudbeds).
6. 26% of travelers say they will start their hotel research on an OTA in 2026, overtaking search engines (21%) for the first time (SiteMinder, Changing Traveller Report 2026, 12,000 travelers in 14 countries).
7. OTA commissions typically run 15–25% of booking value, higher for hotels in paid visibility programmes (e.g. Booking.com Preferred Partner); exact rates depend on country, property type and contract (SiteMinder industry estimate; Booking.com Partner Hub). (See OTA commission rates.)

Sources: Phocuswright (2026); Cloudbeds (2026); SiteMinder (2026).

How big the major OTAs are

Two companies dominate online hotel distribution. Their scale, and how much they spend on marketing, explains why direct booking is hard to win on price or reach alone.

8. Booking Holdings processed $186.1 billion in gross bookings in 2025, and Expedia Group $119.6 billion (Booking Holdings Q4 2025 results; Expedia Group FY2025 results).
9. Expedia Group booked 415.4 million room nights in 2025, up 8% (Expedia Group FY2025 results).
10. Booking Holdings' room nights grew 9% year on year in Q4 2025 (Booking Holdings Q4 2025 results).
11. Booking Holdings spent the equivalent of 4.5% of gross bookings on marketing in Q4 2025, up from 4.2% in Q4 2024 (Booking Holdings Q4 2025 results).
12. "Over the trailing four quarters, the mix of our total room nights booked through the direct channel was a mid-fifties percentage" (Booking Holdings Q4 2025 results). The OTAs are building direct relationships with travelers too.

Sources: Booking Holdings (2026); Expedia Group (2026).

Direct booking share: benchmarks

Hotel-website bookings are holding steady rather than growing. The website is still a top-three revenue channel almost everywhere, but independents are losing ground to OTAs.

13. Direct bookings' revenue share stayed within 1.5 percentage points of the previous year in 95% of the 20 markets SiteMinder analysed (SiteMinder, 2025 data).
14. The hotel's own website finished among the top three revenue-generating channels in 90% of markets (SiteMinder).
15. Hotel websites generated 60%-plus more revenue per booking than OTAs in 2025 (SiteMinder; see next section).

Source: SiteMinder, Hotel Booking Trends 2026.

Value per booking: direct vs OTA

Direct bookings are worth substantially more than OTA bookings, before commission is even counted, because direct guests book higher-value rooms, stay longer and add extras.

16. Bookings on hotel websites averaged US$516 in 2025: the highest of any channel (SiteMinder).
17. Wholesaler bookings averaged US$445, GDS bookings US$392, and OTA bookings US$312 (SiteMinder).
18. A direct booking is worth about 65% more than an OTA booking on average, before commission ($516 vs $312; DestinationCommerce calculation from SiteMinder data).
19. SiteMinder attributes the gap to higher-value rooms, longer stays and extras booked through the hotel's own site.

Source: SiteMinder, Hotel Booking Trends 2026.

Cancellations

OTA bookings cancel at roughly twice the rate of direct bookings, which makes OTA demand less reliable as well as more expensive.

20. OTA bookings at independent hotels were cancelled 21.8% of the time in 2025 (Cloudbeds).
21. Direct bookings at independent hotels were cancelled 10.6% of the time, less than half the OTA rate (Cloudbeds).

Source: Cloudbeds, 2026 State of Independent Hotels Report.

Booking windows and length of stay

Travelers are booking further ahead, and most stays are short. Those are more chances for a hotel to reach a guest before arrival, and fewer nights to sell extras within.

22. Travelers booked independent hotels an average of 40 days in advance in 2025, up from 38 days in 2023 (Cloudbeds).
23. Booking windows were longest in North America (48 days) and EMEA (47 days) (Cloudbeds).
24. More than two-thirds of independent hotel bookings were for one or two nights (Cloudbeds).
25. Seven-night bookings rose 25% year on year, a sign of growing extended-stay demand (Cloudbeds).
26. Independent hotels' RevPAR fell 5.4% globally in 2025 and 4.4% in the U.S., with ADR down 5.8% (Cloudbeds).

Source: Cloudbeds, 2026 State of Independent Hotels Report.

Rate parity: is the hotel website the cheapest?

Usually not. In three out of four searches, at least one third-party site shows a lower price than the hotel's own website, and independents are hit hardest.

27. In 75.7% of hotel searches worldwide in 2025, the hotel's own website was not the lowest price available (World Parity Monitor 2025, more than 6 million monthly searches on Google Hotels across 60+ destinations).
28. In the first half of 2025, OTAs undercut the hotel's own website in 33% of individual price comparisons (World Parity Monitor H1 2025).
29. The hotel's website was cheapest in 45% of comparisons and matched in 22% (World Parity Monitor H1 2025).
30. Major hotel groups achieved rate parity (direct and OTA prices matching) 28% of the time, against 9% for independent hotels (World Parity Monitor H1 2025).
31. Mid-scale (3–4 star) hotels were the category most exposed to OTA undercutting in 2025 (World Parity Monitor 2025).

Source: 123Compare.me, World Parity Monitor 2025 (Annual and H1 editions).

Repeat guests and loyalty

Guests who book direct come back far more often, and the gap is set before the guest arrives.

32. Guests who book direct return at 5.1%, against 1.3% for guests who book through an OTA: about four times the return rate (Bookboost analysis of 2.2 million guests at European hotel groups, 2024–2026).
33. Direct bookings account for 35% of first stays but 68% of return stays (Bookboost).
34. A first stay booked direct generates €379 in revenue per guest on average, against €280 through an OTA (Bookboost).
35. 77% of travelers are likely to book multiple parts of a trip on the same platform (Expedia Group partner research, 2026). Whoever takes the first booking is well placed to sell the rest of the trip.

Sources: Bookboost (2026); Expedia Group (2026).

AI and the future of direct booking

Travelers use AI to plan, but most still book with brands they trust. Whether that brand is the hotel or the OTA is what's being decided now.

36. 53% of travelers are comfortable letting AI suggest travel options (Expedia Group, The AI Trust Gap, 5,700+ travelers, 2026).
37. Only 8% of U.S. and UK travelers rely on AI chatbots such as ChatGPT or Gemini when planning a trip, against 59% using search engines and 49% using OTAs (Expedia Group, 2026).
38. 68% prefer to book with a trusted travel brand over an AI chatbot or agent, even when AI booking is available (Expedia Group, 2026).
39. 66% say they would not trust an AI assistant to buy or book anything on their behalf (Expedia Group, 2026).
40. Booking Holdings CEO Glenn Fogel told Skift that AI referrals currently drive fewer than 1% of Booking.com's room nights (Skift, Sep 2026).
41. 52% of UK travelers now use AI tools for travel planning, up from 40% in 2025 (MMGY Travel Intelligence, 2026 Portrait of European Travellers).
42. 43% of high-income U.S. millennials use generative AI in their trip planning (Deloitte 2026 Summer Travel Survey).
43. In August 2026, Google launched hotel booking inside AI Mode (U.S., English only), with partners including Booking.com, Expedia, Hilton, Marriott, Choice and Wyndham rolling out "over the coming weeks"; independent hotels aren't direct partners (Google, Aug 2026).

Sources: Expedia Group (2026); Skift (2026); MMGY (2026); Deloitte (2026); Google (2026).

Beyond the room: the direct booking OTAs don't sell

OTAs sell rooms. Most of a hotel's other inventory (spa slots, cabanas, day passes, meeting rooms, local experiences) is either not online at all or sold by separate third-party marketplaces.

44. In the U.S., "resort pass" is searched about 67,000 times a month, "hotel day pass" about 2,200 and "hotel pool day pass" about 1,000 (Ahrefs, Oct 2026). See our Hotel Day Pass Report.

• For the size of guest spending beyond the room ($106 off-property per $100 of lodging), see Hotel Industry Statistics 2026.

FAQ

What percentage of hotel bookings are direct?

It depends on the type of hotel. For independent hotels, OTAs took 63.4% of bookings in 2025 (Cloudbeds), so roughly a third came through direct and other channels. Across all U.S. travel, OTAs account for about 20% of gross bookings (Phocuswright).

Are direct bookings worth more than OTA bookings?

Yes. Hotel-website bookings averaged $516 in 2025, against $312 through OTAs (SiteMinder): about 65% more, before the OTA's commission.

Do OTA bookings cancel more than direct bookings?

Yes. At independent hotels in 2025, OTA bookings were cancelled 21.8% of the time, against 10.6% for direct bookings (Cloudbeds).

Is the hotel's website usually the cheapest place to book?

Usually not. In 75.7% of searches worldwide, at least one third-party site showed a lower price (World Parity Monitor 2025). Independents achieve rate parity only 9% of the time, against 28% for large groups.

Do direct-booking guests come back more often?

Yes. Direct bookers return at 5.1%, against 1.3% for OTA bookers (Bookboost, 2.2M guests).

Will AI replace OTAs for hotel bookings?

Not yet. Only 8% of U.S. and UK travelers rely on AI chatbots to plan a trip, and 68% prefer to book with a trusted brand over an AI agent (Expedia Group, 2026).

How much commission do OTAs charge hotels?

Typically 15–25% of the booking value, higher in paid visibility programmes; exact rates depend on country, property type and contract (SiteMinder; Booking.com). See OTA commission.

Methodology & sources