Holiday cottages / websites
Penmaenucha Farm
20% more website traffic and £2,000 more in direct bookings across the same weeks as last year.
£2k+
More in direct bookings, across same weeks
15%
Cut in OTA fees
12 hrs
Admin saved per week
Nathan Britten
Over a decade of experience helping businesses save time and make more money with technology.
Own a holiday cottage? Start with a Free Direct Booking Audit of your Google findability and public booking journey.
Get my free audit →The problem
“Guests couldn't see a price without emailing us. By the time we replied, a lot of them had already booked elsewhere or on Airbnb — and a chunk of the inbox was spam.”
The old site had no live prices and no way to book. Every stay started as a form. The owners then matched names and dates against a WordPress calendar by hand, wrote back with a quote, and hoped the dates were still free. In one eight-week window, more than a third of submissions were spam. Dates website guests were waiting on a reply for often showed up later as an Airbnb booking on the calendar.
What I built
Live pricing and a real booking path on the site, wired into a property management system so availability, payments, and confirmations aren't an email thread. Cottage pages and North Wales SEO so people can find the farm on Google and finish the booking when they get there.
What an enquiry actually looked like
No prices on the site, so almost every message was “what would this cost?”. People submitted two or three forms for one stay. Existing guests emailed because they had lost when the balance was due. Dates website guests were waiting on a reply for were already marked Airbnb on the calendar.
A booking path that doesn't wait on email
Live availability and pricing, a PMS so the calendar is the source of truth, and cottage pages built to convert the visit instead of starting another inbox thread.
The inbox got quieter — and more of it became a stay
Around £2,000 more in direct bookings on the same eight weeks as last year. About 12 hours a week of quote-chasing gone. Organic traffic up 20%. A 15% cut in OTA fees as more people book direct.
The result
The same eight weeks as last year. Around £2,000 more in direct bookings.
Direct booking revenue was around £2,000 more on the same eight weeks as last year. The owners get around 12 hours a week back. OTA fees are down 15%, organic traffic is up 20%, and more stays come direct because guests can see a price and book without waiting for a reply.
Free calculator
See what OTA commissions are costing you
What if
Result
£7,200
Lost to commission / year
If you lowered your OTA bookings from 60% to 40%, you would save £2,400 a year.
- OTA-booked revenue£48,000
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