Azur Bay Resort cut OTA commissions 41% and lifted RevPAR 24% with a direct booking engine
A 180-room beachfront resort was handing 68% of its bookings to OTAs and paying $1.4M a year in commissions. A branded direct booking engine with real-time availability, deposits, and automated stay extensions flipped the channel mix and added $2.1M in margin the first year.
This is an illustrative case study. Company names, identifying details, and testimonials have been changed to protect client confidentiality. The technical solution and target outcomes are representative of the work we do. We extend the same confidentiality to every client.
Where they started
Azur Bay's 180 rooms were filling — but the wrong way. 68% of bookings came through OTAs at a 18-22% commission, costing the resort $1.4M a year it could barely afford on seasonal cash flow. The resort's own website had a 'Book Now' button that opened an email form, and the front desk spent 30+ hours a week on the phone quoting rates and chasing deposits. Overbooking happened twice a quarter because the OTA inventory and the in-house reservation book were never in sync, and group bookings — the resort's highest-margin business — had no self-serve path at all.
What we built
We deployed our Booking & Reservation Engine branded to Azur Bay, with a real-time availability calendar tied directly to the property's room inventory, online deposits and full prepayment for non-refundable rates, automated SMS and email reminders that cut no-shows, and a group and recurring booking flow for weddings and corporate retreats. The engine sits on the resort's own domain, so every direct booking skips the OTA commission entirely, and a channel-manager sync keeps OTA inventory and the direct book in lockstep — overbooking is now impossible.
Target outcomes
More from this project
We were filling every room and still losing money to commissions. The first month the direct engine went live, we took 71% of bookings on our own site. The $2.1M isn't a projection — it's the commission we didn't pay, sitting in our bank account.
Representative testimonial — name and role changed to protect client identity.