The Direct Booking Playbook Behind 80%+ Direct Bookings
Pulling back the curtain on our content-first direct booking strategy...
Every hotel knows they need more direct bookings. The value is obvious–higher margins, guest ownership, better control over the experience.
But actually driving those bookings? That's where most properties hit a wall.
It becomes a black box. They know they "need more direct bookings" but keep doing more of the same because they have no clue where to start. More Google Ads. More email campaigns. More of what's always been done.
Meanwhile, social media sits right there as the greatest guest acquisition channel we've ever seen.
Better than OTAs. Better than loyalty programs. Better than anything before it.
Today, we're pulling back the curtain on the social media strategy that has helped drive 80%+ direct bookings at Onera to help you get started.
The Biggest Challenges Holding Hotels Back
Most hotels struggle to drive direct bookings through social because they're making three critical mistakes:
1. Treating social media as a "branding exercise"
They focus on a "branding-first" approach that treats social media like traditional advertising, missing the fact that it could be a booking engine that replaces their OTAs.
Labeling it a branding exercise automatically pushes it down the list of priorities. This causes an underinvestment in the time and money that social requires, so it's passed off as a platform to post pretty pictures.
2. Creating content that feels like ads
Most hotels fill their feeds with slow panning shots, single b-roll shots, and cinematic content that offers nothing to help the viewers connect with their property.
Nobody goes to social media hoping to binge scroll a ton of ads.
When your content looks like it belongs in a commercial break, you've already lost the audience.
3. Thinking one person can do it all
Most hotels hire one person to post a few times a week, take some photos, and answer comments. Here's the reality: you don't need a "social media manager."
You need a media company embedded inside your hotel brand.
It wasn’t until we built a in-house social team that we saw the full power of driving direct bookings through social media…
Strategists, videographers, editors, community managers–every role a proper media agency would have, in-house for our Onera properties.
We weren't just posting content anymore. We were creating a social media machine to drive direct bookings.
The results at Onera Fredericksburg:
37,000,000+ views
13 reels with 1M+ views
5,000-10,000 link taps per month
80%+ direct bookings
$2,600,000+ in direct bookings
When we opened Onera Wimberley, we leveraged the same team and strategy:
8,800,000+ views
80%+ direct bookings
30%+ higher direct ADR vs OTAs
$822,000+ direct bookings in the first 5 months
If social media unlocks the “black box” of driving direct bookings, why aren’t more hotels leveraging it?
The attribution problem.
Most hotels are slaves to their Google Analytics dashboard, missing out on this massive opportunity because organic social is notoriously under-attributed.
They stick with traditional marketing channels despite the clear shift to social-first travelers because they expect perfect attribution. But Google Analytics and other revenue attribution models are wildly inaccurate when it comes to organic social media.
At Onera, our analytics showed organic social was less than 2% of our direct bookings, yet we were driving 80% direct bookings with social media as our only marketing channel.
So we implemented a simple post-booking survey asking "How did you hear about us?"
Over 60% said social media.
The data gap between what actually drives bookings and what gets credited is massive. This causes hotels to treat social media as strictly a branding play rather than recognizing it as the strongest guest acquisition channel available today.
This creates your opportunity to win market share.
Our 6-Step Framework for Direct Bookings
Here's the system we built after years of figuring out how to turn social media into a direct booking machine:
1. Optimized booking funnels - Make it easy for guests to actually book. Avoid landing pages with excessive text, hard-to-find "book now" buttons, link trees with multiple links in your social media bio and anything that adds friction.
2. High-quality, engaging content - Create high-quality content that encourages connection and builds relationships. Focus on content styles that have viral potential, not just pretty pictures.
3. Strategic boosting - Amplify your top-performing organic content to get in front of more potential guests after the algorithm stops pushing your post.
4. High-quality ads from proven content - Repurpose your best organic content into targeted ads with clear booking CTAs.
An important note for ads… most agencies try two pieces of creative and let them run for weeks without changing them. We test dozens of creative pieces every month and double down on the winners.
Testing more creative gives you more shots at finding winning ads that drive real bookings.
5. Strategic influencer partnerships - Work with influencers who have real authority in your niche and high engagement rates, not just large follower counts.
6. Re-targeting - Stay top of mind for existing followers and email subscribers who are already familiar with your brand through consistent and engaging content.
Bonus Tip: Pair Virality with Revenue Management
Here's something most properties miss: when a post gains traction faster than normal (5,000 views vs 500 in the first couple hours), this gives you insight into increased demand.
More people will likely click your booking link.
This gives you a window to raise rates and capture these inspired bookings at a higher ADR.
The beauty of attracting guests through social media is that you're attracting significantly less price-sensitive guests compared to OTAs. They're inspired by your posts and want to recreate the experience, not hunt for the best deal.
The Future of Hospitality is Direct
We've found no strategy more effective for driving direct bookings than social media.
Social media gives guests a way to connect with your property on a personal level, visualize their actual experience through videos and stories, and most importantly–it attracts inspired guests who are booking based on emotion and experience.
The properties that understand this shift and build their social media strategies accordingly will capture the highest percentage of direct bookings.
