Discovery Hospitality Hits 60% Direct Bookings, Doubling Down Against OTAs

Direct bookings now account for 60% of Discovery Hospitality's groupwide revenue share, up from below 30% before the Philippine hotel group built its in-house digital marketing operation. That figure sits double the industry average, where roughly 30% of bookings come direct and 70% flow through online travel agencies (OTAs, platforms like Expedia and Booking.com).

The numbers come from Blessy Townes, who has led digital marketing at Discovery Hospitality since 2014 and spearheaded its direct booking partnership with travel marketing platform Sojern. She laid out the economics in an interview with TTG Asia.

What does the commission gap look like?

OTA commissions run 18 to 30% on materialised bookings. Discovery's average cost per acquisition (what it pays to win each booking) across Sojern and its in-house team is 3%. Direct bookings now outpace OTA bookings groupwide by a ratio of 3:2.

The flagship property skews further. At Discovery Boracay, direct bookings reach 83% versus 17% from OTAs, against published averages of 31% across Southeast Asia and 32.5% in the Philippines.

Sojern drove 20% of Discovery's total booking revenue in 2025 — more than double its 2023 contribution. The platform's model charges no upfront fee; Discovery pays only when a booking lands.

Why build in-house rather than outsource?

Townes came to hospitality after 25 years in digital marketing across retail, e-learning and pay-per-click advertising. She said she initially assumed the reluctance to fund marketing was a Philippine quirk, then found it industry-wide. Hoteliers treat marketing as an expense — PR and blogger hosting with no guaranteed conversion — and prefer paying OTA commission only on materialised bookings.

Her answer was to build direct booking expertise internally, cutting out agency retainers and keeping performance metrics in-house. Discovery tracks expenses, share of revenue and ROI monthly. As she put it: "Our ROI is too high. That's because over the years we're able to optimise our campaigns."

The goal for next year, she said, is not to push ROI higher but to hold it at an agreeable level while growing absolute revenue from direct booking investment.

What does direct booking buy beyond margin?

Guest data, mainly. Direct bookers hand over email addresses that let hotels upsell before arrival and re-market after departure. "Data is king. Owning the guest data is something that you are not getting when you partner with OTAs," Townes said.

She framed direct booking as a mindset rather than a discount programme. Most brands dangle exclusive website offers; Discovery positions direct channels as a shift "from the cold transactions of booking via an OTA to a long-term relationship."

How does the group handle search and AI?

Discovery placed SEO at the heart of its integrated marketing from the start. Townes was quoted in 2019 saying "if one's business is not on Google, it doesn't exist" — a view she says few hotel marketing teams held then. Because the foundations were built right, the move into generative engine optimisation (tuning content for AI search answers) came naturally, she said.

Sojern's platform is AI-powered and Discovery has used Google's advertising stack from the beginning, targeting users with high booking intent. Townes described the company as a "plus AI company" — personalisation existed before the tools, and AI amplifies it. Visibility, in her telling, means being present where conversion happens, not everywhere.

Her competitive frame is notable for an independent Filipino group. Discovery does not measure itself against local comp sets but against global chains and the OTAs themselves. The transformation required a website revamp, new booking engines and channel-by-channel social media optimisation.

Sojern, she said, complements rather than replaces the in-house team — providing technology and reach without unlimited OTA-style ad budgets. The test now is whether 60% direct share can climb while the acquisition cost stays pinned at 3%.