B&B Consulting

07/05/2026

So, carrying on our pass through some of the main revenue management issues facing smaller independent hotels, let's turn to reviews.

Reviews are often treated as part of customer service rather than a revenue issue, but they contain vital clues for how you run your property. Of course they matter for reputation, but they also affect how confidently you can price your rooms.

A hotel with strong, recent reviews has more wriggle room to hold or push its rate, as guests feel reassured and the booking feels less risky. This can really matter, especially when people are choosing between several similar properties.

Weak or patchy reviews create doubt, and just a little bit doubt can be enough to trump the price. Worse still, this can often lead to hotels discounting their rates to compensate for something that isn’t really a pricing problem at all.

Think about your own behaviour: when you are booking or buying, how do you read them, and how does it affect your own behaviour?

Yes, reply to reviews. But more importantly, read them properly and take note: what are people praising? What are they criticising? What would make the next guest feel more confident booking with you?

As well as being vital feedback, this is free commercial intelligence, sitting in plain sight and waiting to be analysed.

Perhaps we'll return to this topic in the future to talk how to write good review replies - would that help?

06/05/2026

Continuing on from our previous couple of posts on occupancy and OTAs, the natural next question is how you actually start to attract more direct bookings.
This is usually the point where the conversation jumps to bigger ideas like marketing consultants, new websites, SEO, paid campaigns etc. All of which are good solutions, but before any of that, it’s probably worth reflecting on a simple question: why would someone book direct with you?

If we’re being honest, in a lot of cases there isn’t a particularly compelling reason. The OTA service is slick and familiar, and often feels like the safer option. As consumers, we have the apps on our phones, and the platforms offer a huge amount of choice. To change that behaviour, there needs to be a pretty good reason. So what can you do?

The good news is, you can make some small changes which will help tilt things slightly in your favour.

That might be:
– a bit more flexibility for direct customers, perhaps around check-in/out or cancellation policies
– a small perk
– a booking process that feels straightforward rather than hard work

As you can see, there’s nothing dramatic here. But one or more of these, working together, might be enough to make someone pause and think, “Actually, I’ll just book with them.”

You don’t need to be thinking about taking on the OTAs—you’ll never win. But you can begin building your own stream of demand alongside them. And once that starts to happen—even at a modest level—you’ve got more control, a bit more room to manoeuvre, and you’re not quite as exposed to the whims and decisions of faceless corporate behemoths.

05/05/2026

Picking up from yesterday’s post on occupancy.

Now we’ve established it’s not just how many rooms you sell that matters, it’s worth looking at where those bookings are coming from. A lot of independent hotels rely heavily on OTAs, which makes perfect sense. They bring visibility, demand, and they work.

Years ago, marketing a hotel often meant setting a budget, running ads, and hoping for the best. Now we have much better data on what’s working. and what's not.

But those OTA bookings do come at a cost. Sell a £100 room through an OTA, and you might see £75–£85 after commission and processing. Sell that same room direct, and you’re likely closer to £90–£95.
On one booking, it doesn’t look like much. But anyone who’s paid a commission invoice will know how quickly it adds up.

I’m in no way anti-OTA as they play an important role, but they also wield a lot of power. And if most of your occupancy is coming through them, there’s a good chance you’re giving away margin at the same time as filling rooms.

We all know it’s risky to rely too heavily on any one channel and spreading your distribution is the only sensible strategy. I’ll come back to that in more detail, but Airbnb’s cancellation policy changes last year were a good reminder of how quickly things can shift—and how exposed some businesses were as a result.

So I'll leave with a question to mull: are you busy and profitable, or just busy?

I’ll share a few thoughts tomorrow on how to start attracting more direct bookings.

04/05/2026

A quick word about hotel occupancy%, and whether it’s actually a useful way to judge how your property is doing.

It’s the number everyone looks at. It's easy to calculate, understand and track. But it can be quite misleading.

Even with high occupancy rates, you can still be underperforming. In fact, it happens all the time, and the culprits are usually rooms sold too cheaply, too early, or to the wrong mix of guests.

Worse still, if you focus too heavily on occupancy, it can push you into chasing, it which means before you know it you're dropping your prices.

The question we often pose is, would you rather be full at a weak rate, with have all the extra work and housekeeping and utility costs associated? Or would you make peace with a lower occupancy but a stronger average daily rate?

Call now to connect with business.

20/03/2026

Do you ‘set and forget’? I.e. you set your rates for the year and then leave them alone until the following January.

If so, you're probably losing money — just not in an obvious way.

I’ve written a short piece on it here if if this sounds like you:

Set and forget pricing is costing hotels revenue. Learn why static pricing no longer works and how to improve your hotel pricing strategy.