Notes from Otterly
Things we're seeing in the data, things we keep being asked by hotel owners, and the occasional opinion. Written by Nathan and Alex.
Booking.com and Expedia will undercut your direct rate with their own money. How to spot it in ten minutes, and the six fixes that close the gap.
Read the analysis →Earlier posts
Per room or per person, whether a third guest should cost more, and what to do about breakfast. Price the room, charge the food per head.
A single empty night between two bookings cannot be sold under a two-night minimum. How they pile up, how to open them, and what 49 of them were worth at two small UK hotels.
What a property management system really does for a small UK hotel, the features and integrations that matter, and the pitfalls to avoid when you switch.
What Booking.com really costs a small UK hotel once Preferred Partner, Genius and payment fees are counted, and how to protect your margin.
Revenue management for a small independent hotel: the four pillars, the numbers that matter, the myths to ignore, and three realistic ways to actually run it.
What channel management is for a small hotel, how a channel manager works, the pitfalls to avoid, and why it is the base layer for smarter pricing.
A plain-English guide to dynamic pricing for small UK hotels: what it is, how it works, the DIY versus managed choice, how to measure it, and how to start without a PMS integration.
What to expect in your first month with Otterly. Around 100 small recommendations, average move £1.28, a third of them cuts, work concentrated 1 to 12 weeks ahead of stay.
Six reasons most independent hotels aren't moving their rates for peak weekends, from PMS pain to algorithm fear, with a bit of inside view from years in chain pricing teams.
What the chains did, what the indies did, and a closer look at Hayle, where the Premier Inn just overtook two independent hotels next door.