It might sound a bit counterintuitive at first, but listing your property on major booking sites like Booking.com or Expedia is actually one of the best ways to get more direct, commission-free bookings on your own website.
In the hospitality industry, this is known as the Billboard Effect, and it is a powerful tool for your business.
What is the Billboard Effect?
Think of online travel agencies (OTAs) not just as booking platforms, but as giant digital signposts pointing directly to your property.
When travellers start planning a trip, they usually go straight to these major platforms to compare their options, check reviews, and see what is available in the area. But once they find a property they love, something interesting happens: they will often search for that property's official website.
Why do they do this? Usually, guests are looking to see if they can get a better deal, find more personal details about your rooms, or check if you offer any special direct booking perks.
If they land on your website and find an easy-to-use booking button, they will often book directly with you—meaning you secure a booking without paying any platform commission. If you aren't listed on those major platforms to begin with, your chances of being discovered by these travellers in the first place are significantly reduced.
The proof is in the numbers
This isn't just a theory. A famous study by Cornell University looked closely at how guests book their stays. They discovered that 65% of guests who ended up booking directly on a property's website had actually visited an OTA first to research the property.
Simply put: more than half of those direct guests would never have found those properties if they hadn't seen them on a booking platform first.
Getting the balance right
To make this work beautifully, you want to be listed on multiple platforms to get maximum exposure. But managing rates and calendars across five or six different websites manually is a recipe for double bookings and endless admin stress.
This is exactly where NightsBridge steps in to help.
As your calendar partner, NightsBridge links all of your chosen booking sites together. The moment a guest books on one channel, or when you adjust your rates, our system quietly updates every single platform in real time. You get all the visibility of the world's biggest travel websites, while we take care of the administrative heavy lifting in the background.
Additional reading on the Billboard effect
Here are some links with extra info on the billboard effect: