How does AI improve direct hotel bookings and reduce OTA dependency?

The majority of direct booking opportunities are lost when potential guests cannot get a fast answer to a simple question. A guest wondering whether a room is available for specific dates, whether the hotel is pet-friendly, or what the cancellation policy is will check an OTA if the hotel phone goes to voicemail or the website has no live support.

AI agents close this gap by answering instantly on both phone and chat, providing accurate availability information from your PMS, and confirming a direct booking before the guest has time to look elsewhere. Direct bookings carry no OTA commission, making the ROI of AI straightforward to calculate.

For example, a city-centre hotel calculates that every direct booking it captures instead of through its primary OTA saves an average of 18 percent in commission. After deploying Televanta on its phone and website chat, the hotel captures 34 additional direct bookings per month from enquiries that previously went unanswered.

The monthly commission saving more than covers the Televanta cost.

A boutique hotel with 30 rooms deploys Televanta's AI chatbot on its website with proactive triggers that activate when a visitor spends 45 seconds on the rooms page without clicking "book." The chatbot asks if they need help finding availability or have questions about the property. 22 percent of visitors who engage with the proactive trigger complete a direct booking, compared to a 4 percent conversion rate for visitors who see the rooms page without engaging.