Our Purpose
About the Alliance
Together, we’re building the future of direct booking.
The Team
People Behind the Alliance
Meet the people helping to build the direct booking ecosystem.
Mission
To connect and strengthen the direct booking ecosystem.
Vision
A future where booking direct is the default.
Why It Matters
The direct channel has always lacked a shared layer.
The Problem
Without coordination, the OTAs fill the gap.
The direct booking world is full of good operators, good tools, and good intentions — but too much of that effort happens in isolation. Operators solve the same problems in parallel. Good work rarely carries forward. And when the ecosystem doesn’t have its own coordination layer, the OTAs fill that role by default — and charge accordingly.
The Alliance Answer
Cooperative strength changes the equation.
The Alliance is the community and coordination layer the direct booking ecosystem has always needed. We help operators, technology partners, platforms, and industry allies find each other, work together, and build shared momentum — so that the direct channel can grow in ways no individual business can accomplish alone.
A note from our Executive Director
Today, Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) extract $60–$80 billion in commissions per year from the travel industry.
These commissions mostly enrich Big Travel and Big Tech, at the expense of everyone else — operators, travelers, and the local economies around them.
In and of itself, commissions are not the problem. However, the scale of extraction and concentration of profits is simply not healthy for the travel industry.
I know this issue well because for more than 15 years, I helped the OTAs do it.
As an e-commerce super-affiliate, I sent more than $100 million in hotel bookings to OTAs like Travelocity, Expedia, and Booking.com. We generated $10 million in commissions as a result. Since the OTAs made about an equal amount, the cost to the hotels was likely double that, $20 million.
At the time, there was no easy way for me to book travelers directly with hotels, and so the OTAs earned a similar amount mostly for being in the middle. I always wondered if there was a better way, for me and the hotels I was booking.
To be fair, OTAs can and do add real value.
For many travelers, especially those seeking trust and an easy shopping experience, OTAs are the default way to book travel. Their recognizable brands bring customers in, and their rewards programs keep them coming back.
And for hotels, short-term rentals, and experience operators, OTAs serve as a convenient source of bookings without upfront marketing investment.
Being platforms also gives OTAs structural advantages in traveler acquisition and retention that independent operators do not have.
One of the most significant is their ability to serve travelers across geographies and time in a way independent operators cannot. For travelers seeking novelty and new experiences, getting them to rebook the same properties and activities over and over again is a hard sell.
When a past guest wants to book elsewhere in the world, an OTA can do that for them. An independent operator cannot. For the OTA that’s a repeat booking. For the independent operator, the value they spent acquiring that guest is lost.
If it feels like the deck is stacked against direct booking, that is because it is.
Until now, these platform advantages have not been available to the direct channel. That is why we created the Direct Booking Alliance:
- to bring platform advantages to the direct booking channel,
- to give independent operators a way to compete on equal terms with larger chains and OTAs, and
- to give everyone else in the travel industry a way to profit more by supporting direct.
If you support direct bookings, you belong in the Alliance. I hope you’ll join us.
Free Membership
Be part of building
the new world.
Membership is free. Join the operators, tech companies, and industry allies building the direct booking future.