According to Lodging Econometrics, 2,371 new hotels opened in 2025.

2,617 more are expected in 2026.

And most of those are going to do one thing right before they open their doors: list themselves on OTAs

Which means…

You'll be seeing a flood of competitors right next to your property, fighting for the same customers.

And some of these hotels have bigger budgets and even institutional capital behind them.

But that's not the worst part.

It's this:

OTAs will keep charging you the same commission fees every month (and your guess is as good as mine how long until they raise that).

And depending on your property, that amount can be pretty expensive.

In fact, I was on a call last month with an operator running four properties.

And he told me he’s paying $50,000-$60,000 per month… just in OTA fees.

Absolute insanity.

So today I'm going to give you the same roadmap I showed him so you can build a direct booking engine that lets you…

• Control your demand
• Drive more direct bookings
• Get out of OTA dependency

And ultimately, allow you to keep a good chunk of revenue each year once you build your Demand Engine in the next 6-12 months like I did.

Every operator lists on OTAs then prays for bookings.

If it works don't fix it, right?

But the industry is changing.

Like I mentioned, 2,600 more properties are about to compete for the same search query that used to drive most of your OTA bookings.

Relying on them means you do all the work of…

• Positioning your property as the best choice
• Optimizing your thumbnail and your listing
• Calculating your pricing based on the market demand and your competitors

… While still paying them 15-25% of your revenue.

But why?

Most operators accept paying OTA commissions as the cost of doing business.

Because building email automations and sequences, figuring out funnels and pricing strategies – it seems more daunting than filling out a form and hitting “Publish” on Airbnb or VRBO.

Luckily, if you know how to build, develop, and design you property, then you can figure out how to own your demand engine, too.

Here it is, step by step:

How to build a Demand Engine (so you stop being dependent on OTAs).

Here's how to get started:

Step 1: Create content based on your unique positioning.

The first question to answer: who, specifically, is your guest?

From there, every listing, piece of content, and landing page should answer three things:

• Who is it for?
• Why is it worth the price?
• What does a stay look like?

Your positioning should be obvious in every step of the customer journey.

Take this century-old train car carriage with a king bed and clerestory windows for example:

It’s located on a property in rural America and owned by my good friend, Isaac French.

• Where the car came from
• What it took to move it
• What it's like to sleep in one

That thread would go on to net 17 million views.

The reel that followed would go on to get 20 million views… and roughly $20,000 in direct bookings:

Instead, he tested the story then positioned his property as a totally novel concept.

So, there was no way for others to compete, even if he's still on OTAs.

Step 2: Capture demand with a booking website

Here's what that looks like:

• To turn interest into bookings, you need a website and a booking engine.
  ​
• You'll also need attribution so you can actually tell what's working.
  ​
• Finally, you'll need an email nurture sequence for the 60 to 120 days between when someone discovers you and when they’re ready to book.
  ​

I know that all sounds complicated but here's what a well-oiled booking engine looks like…

One of our client’s reels got 1.6 millions views (but barely any bookings):

But again bookings didn't come as quickly as they hoped.

So, we built them a demand engine to drive consistent bookings every month.

More specifically, here’s what that looked like:

• The bio link went straight to a booking page, not a linktree or their homepage
  ​
• Every top-performing reel had a call to action (CTA) telling the viewer exactly what to do next
  ​
• Posts and stories walked a viewer from the content, to the profile, to the booking page
  ​

4 months after we launched, direct bookings went from 20% of their stays to 69%, and direct revenue went from $3,400 to $77,000+.

Step 3: Test your pricing based on real-time signals.

There are 3 core scenarios you should keep an eye on:

• For peak periods, push for higher rates until the night doesn't sell.
  ​
• For slow periods, know how much your competitor is pricing and price just a smidge below it.
  ​
• When a piece of content starts getting more views than normal, raise your rates before the surge of demand hits.
  ​

For example:

Spoon Mountain Glamping (a client we’re working with) nailed their positioning so well that this reel alone did 5.5 million views:

And they had a solid booking engine in the backend capturing all of that interest.

Here are the results from Year 1:

• 82,300+ new followers (a 372% increase)
• 82% average monthly direct booking rate.
• Revenue up 68%.

My own direct bookings A-ha moment came in 2022. An influencer collab pulled in $30,000 in direct bookings from two posts.

Today, we drive 80%+ from direct bookings and haven't looked back since.

— Ben Wolff

Founder, Oasi & Modern Hospitality Accelerator

P.S. If this still seems overwhelming to you, we run 1:1 direct booking audits for every member inside the Modern Hospitality Accelerator.

We show you exactly:

• Where your bookings are coming from today
• What each OTA is really costing you
• Which part of your demand engine you need to work on first

And more.

That way, you can break your OTA dependency, and put that revenue to better use.

Want our help for your property?

​Click here to fill out a 2-min survey and grab a 30-min chat with my team​