Inside the Mind of a Hotelier: How Booking Channels Really Work and How to Use That to Your Advantage
If booking flights has felt increasingly frustrating with fluctuating prices, disappearing inventory, “buy now or regret it later” pressure, you’re not imagining things. Dynamic pricing has been shaping airfare for decades.
Hotels? They’ve been playing this game just as long — quietly, strategically, and with far more nuance than most travelers realize.
Behind every hotel rate you see online is a complex web of decisions being made daily, sometimes hourly, by revenue managers and leadership teams whose sole job is to answer one question:
Which guests deliver the most value to the hotel and through which channels?
Understanding that mindset is the single biggest unlock to getting better rooms, better treatment, and better overall value.
What Hotels Are Actually Looking At
Every reputable 4 and 5-star hotel has a revenue management team. These teams aren’t guessing, they’re deeply analytical.
They’re reviewing:
Market demand and compression
Competitive set pricing (via tools like CoStar)
Occupancy forecasts
Day-of-week performance trends
Average Daily Rate (ADR)
Length of stay patterns
Total guest revenue (not just room rate)
They’re asking questions like:
Are weekends or weekdays stronger right now?
Are we over-indexing on low-value, high-friction bookings?
Where can we incentivize longer stays?
Which channels bring guests who actually use the hotel — dining, spa, bar, experiences?
This is why staying longer often unlocks better value. A guest who stays four nights creates less turnover, less operational strain, and more opportunity for on-property spend than someone popping in for a single night. It’s also why leisure hotels may quietly favor weekday stays and business hotels often welcome weekend extensions that blend work and pleasure.
This isn’t arbitrary. It’s operational math.
I shared this exact insight recently in Travel + Leisure, because once you understand how hotels think, you can plan in ways that benefit both sides.
Why Booking Channel Changes Everything
Here’s where most travelers unknowingly work against themselves.
Hotels don’t view all bookings equally. They can’t and they don’t.
I know this firsthand. Before becoming a travel advisor, I worked on the OTA side at Expedia, and I’ve also worked in-house at hotels, sitting around tables with general managers, sales and revenue leaders reviewing P&Ls, channel mix, and guest profitability as the director of marketing.
What hotels see when a booking comes in matters:
Who sent the guest
How much commission they’re paying (OTA’s take the biggest cut)
Whether they can communicate directly
Whether the guest is likely to spend beyond the room
Whether there’s a relationship attached
OTAs exist to fill inventory, especially inventory that can’t command the highest value elsewhere. They are volume-driven, price-led, and relationship-agnostic by design. Their business model depends on owning the customer relationship, which means hotels often cannot engage meaningfully with guests booked through them before arrival.
That’s why OTA bookings are typically:
Lowest priority for upgrades
Least flexible when issues arise (even the hotel can’t make changes to third-party bookings)
Least personalized
Least valued operationally
Not because hotels dislike guests but because the channel blocks relationship-building and long-term value.
Every Booking Has Its Place, But Not Every Booking Gets the Same Outcome
To be clear: every booking channel serves a purpose.
There are times when you just need a bed for the night. We’ve all done it — book fast, check in late, check out early. That guest has a place in the hotel ecosystem.
But hotels are constantly balancing their mix:
Quick, low-spend stays
Long, high-value stays
Loyal guests
Relationship-driven bookings
First-time guests who might become repeat clients
When you book directly with a hotel or through a trusted travel advisor, you’re signaling something very different than when you book through an algorithm.
You’re signaling:
Intent to engage
Willingness to invest in the experience
Openness to relationship
Potential for return
That signal influences how your booking is valued and how you’re treated.
Why Travel Advisors Still Matter, Especially Now
In a world increasingly driven by AI, automation, and dynamic pricing, human relationships have actually become more valuable — not less.
Hotels recognize advisor bookings immediately. They know the agency. They know the network. They know the expectations attached to those guests.
When my advisor code is attached to a booking:
The hotel knows where it came from
The reservation is flagged differently
There is context and accountability
There is an open line of communication
And now, for the first time, you can access those same preferred partner rates, Virtuoso benefits, and advisor-only amenities online, in real time, just like you would with an OTA.
The difference? Your booking still carries relationship weight.
You can book at midnight. On a weekend. In five minutes.
And if you want me to step in and elevate it further, I can. It gives me the power to advocate for you.
Understanding the Hotel Booking Hierarchy
Once you see the full picture, it becomes clear that hotel bookings operate in a hierarchy — one based on value, relationship, and long-term potential, not just price.
That hierarchy shapes:
Upgrade priority
Flexibility
Recognition
Service recovery
Overall experience
In the posts that follow, I’ll break down each booking channel individually:
Booking through a luxury travel advisor (Virtuoso & preferred partners)
AMEX Fine Hotels & Resorts
Online travel agencies
Booking direct with a hotel
Each has strengths. Each has limitations. And each delivers a very different outcome.
The key is knowing which channel works best for your stay and why.
Without further ado, my travel-agent hotel-booking platform is live, so you can access priority status in a few clicks. Password: tripwhisperer
