Tourism Marketing
How Zanzibar hotels can cut OTA commission with direct bookings
Practical steps for island properties to shift revenue away from booking platforms without losing occupancy.
By Amir Khalfan, Founder & Growth Strategist · · 6 min read
Most Zanzibar properties pay between 15% and 25% commission on every OTA booking. Shifting even a third of that volume to direct channels usually produces more profit than raising rates.
Fix the booking path first
- A booking engine that works on a phone in three taps
- Rate parity plus a direct-only benefit such as airport transfer or late checkout
- WhatsApp as a first-class enquiry channel
Then earn the search visibility
Travellers search by beach, not by brand. Pages for Nungwi, Paje, Jambiani, Kendwa and Michamvi, each answering what the area is genuinely like, capture demand that never reaches your homepage.
Photography is a revenue asset
Honest, well-lit photography of real rooms outperforms stylised imagery. Compress properly: an image-heavy page that takes eight seconds to load will lose most mobile visitors before they see any of it.