Lift direct booking share from 14% to 42%. Save 18-25% on every OTA commission. Build a real guest list.
OTAs (Booking, Expedia, MakeMyTrip) take 18-25% of every booking. For an independent hotel doing ₹3Cr in OTA bookings, that's ₹54L+/year in commissions you'll never see again. Direct bookings save the commission AND build a real guest list — but most hotels have no infrastructure for direct conversation. They send pre-arrival info via email (40% open rate), beg for reviews on TripAdvisor (15% completion), and lose past guests forever after checkout. InboxChange's hotel workflow ships with past-guest reactivation sequences, seasonal direct-booking nudges, pre-arrival WhatsApp flows, and Razorpay-integrated payment links — turning your past guests into your best marketing channel.
THE PROBLEMS WE SEE EVERY WEEK
Booking.com 22%. MakeMyTrip 18%. Expedia 22%. Direct bookings keep that money in your business. Past guests are 10× more likely to rebook directly than new prospects — if you have a way to reach them.
Email open rates from past guests have dropped to 6-8%. Most have unsubscribed or marked as spam. WhatsApp opens at 90%+ on the same audience.
Guest arrives without their booking voucher. Front desk has to look it up manually. Painful for the guest, painful for the team. WhatsApp pre-arrival messages eliminate this.
A guest who stayed for Diwali last year is the most likely person to book for Diwali this year — but you have no way to reach them. WhatsApp lets you send a personalized 'last year you stayed for Diwali, here's an early-bird rate'.
WHAT WE DO ABOUT IT
Import past guest list. One-time opt-in WhatsApp ('we miss you, here's 20% off direct booking'). Builds your reachable list within 7 days.
60 days before each major Indian holiday weekend: targeted message to past guests who stayed in similar windows. 'Last year you were here for Diwali — early-bird rate available now.'
7 days before check-in: room photos, parking instructions, sunset spots, restaurant timings. 1 day before: 'we're ready for you, your driver pickup is confirmed for 3 PM'.
Razorpay payment links generated inside the chat. Guest taps, pays, gets confirmation in 4 taps. No website navigation, no OTA fees.
REAL EXAMPLE FROM THIS INDUSTRY
A Goa boutique hotel chain was losing 22% per booking to OTA commissions (Booking, Expedia, MakeMyTrip). They built a WhatsApp-first re-booking flow that converted past guests directly — saving ₹38L in OTA fees in 6 months while building a real direct-relationship list.
Read the full case study →FAQ
Yes — InboxChange integrates with Razorpay. Generate a payment link in 1 click, send via WhatsApp, guest pays in 4 taps. Auto-marks the booking confirmed when payment lands.
Both go into the same inbox. OTA-sourced guests can be tagged 'OTA' so you know not to compete with the OTA on rate. Direct-source guests get the full direct-channel treatment.
Yes — VIP guest tiers (3+ stays, 10+ stays) get tagged automatically and receive priority pre-arrival, room upgrades, founder thank-you notes. No app required.