Behind the DeskGuides for small hotels and B&Bs What's still onyour desk today.
These guides start with the job in front of you. Find the line you recognise.
- There's been a two-star review online since Tuesday.
10 min - Someone asks at 23:40 whether the dog can come.
6 min - The Booking.com invoice is here again.
6 min - Your latest photo on Google is from before the renovation.
8 min - On a phone, the cookie banner sits on top of your Book button. 11 min
- Guests google your name and still book through Booking. 11 min
Direct bookings
Every OTA booking costs commission. Some of that you didn't need to pay.
- Direct bookings: how a small hotel gets moreGuests google your name and still book through Booking.
- Booking.com commission: what hotels really payThe Booking.com invoice is here again.
- Booking.com commission calculatorRun the numbers for your own hotel, in a minute.
- OTA meaning for hotels, and how many you wantEveryone says you should use OTAs less. How much less?
- Rate parity: what changed for hotels in the EUCan you be cheaper on your own site than on Booking?
8 of the 20
hotel sites had a cookie banner covering at least a quarter of the phone screen.
What else we saw →Our own measurement, 1 November 2026. Twenty small hotels we looked up ourselves, not a market figure.
Your website
We opened 20 hotel sites on a phone. Booking didn't work first time everywhere.
Reviews
Whoever wrote the review has gone. Your reply is for the guest who hasn't booked yet.
Getting found
In 10 of our 12 searches Google put its own hotel block on top. That's where it starts, before any blog.
- Hotel SEO: getting found next to Booking.comSearch for your own town and count how far you scroll.
- Google Hotel Ads and free booking linksOn Google, your hotel sits between the booking sites.
- Google Business Profile for hotels: what to postYour latest photo on Google is from before the renovation.
- Hotel marketing strategy for small hotelsThere is no marketing team. There's you, on a Tuesday night.
- Bed and breakfast marketing without a budgetFour rooms, and nothing left over for marketing.
When the desk is closed
Guests ask things when nobody's there. This is what AI can take over, and this is what it can't.