Demand Resilience · Independent Hotels

Platforms change.
Demand shouldn't.

I help independent hotels build demand that survives Booking.com, Google — and whatever comes next.

Dmitry Solovei · 13 years with independent hotels
Tested in the only market where global platforms switched off overnight

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A market at night. When the platforms switch off,
most windows go dark. Some keep selling.

The problem

Your hotel runs on rented demand.

OTAs deliver the majority of bookings for independent hotels — and travelers now start their search on an OTA more often than on Google. The next shift is already here: AI assistants are becoming the new front door to travel, and the companies feeding them data are Booking.com and Expedia. Not your hotel.

63%
of independent-hotel bookings now come through OTAs — close to 80% in some markets
15–25%
commission paid on every one of those bookings, growing faster than room rates
1st
time in history OTAs have overtaken search engines as the starting point of hotel discovery

Every conference is debating what AI will do to hotel distribution. It's all theory — nobody actually knows what happens to a hotel when the platform layer moves, because nobody has watched it happen.

I have.

Sources: Cloudbeds — State of Independent Hotels 2026 · SiteMinder — Changing Traveller Report 2026

The experiment nobody could design

I watched the platforms switch off. Overnight.

In 2022, I was running marketing for independent hotels in a market that Booking.com, Google Ads and global hotel brands exited within weeks. Not "reduced their presence." Left. Every channel the industry considers essential — gone.

Most hotels froze. Within one week, I rebuilt advertising systems for three hotels around the channels that remained. Within a month, their sales were back to pre-crisis levels — while the market around them was still in shock.

That year taught me more about demand than the previous decade: what actually holds it — and what only looks like it does.

Lesson 01

Platforms rent you demand. They don't create it.

When the platforms vanished, hotels with a clear identity and their own guest relationships kept selling. Hotels that were "listings with a lobby" lost everything at once.

Lesson 02

Clarity beats volume.

Without paid reach, the only hotels that survived were the ones guests could understand and choose deliberately. The most obvious option wins — not the loudest.

Lesson 03

Resilience is built in advance.

The difference between recovering in a month and not recovering at all was decided years earlier — by where the hotel had invested its marketing.

The framework

Demand Resilience: how much of your demand is actually yours?

If a platform you depend on changed its rules tomorrow — raised commissions, dropped your ranking, or disappeared — how much of your demand would survive?

For most independent hotels the honest answer is "less than a third." The rest belongs to platforms and is loaned back to you, at 15–25% commission, one booking at a time. I help hotels change that answer — not by fighting OTAs, which are a useful channel, but by making sure the OTA is a channel, not the business.

Diagnose

Map where your demand actually lives: which bookings are truly direct, which are platform-dependent, and what a "switch-off" would cost you.

Rebuild

Positioning, website, data and guest relationships that make your hotel the obvious choice — with or without a platform in between.

Stress-test

Systems, analytics and AI tools that let you see dependency growing before it becomes a crisis.

Speaking

Talks built on data nobody else has.

Keynotes and workshops for hospitality, travel-tech and marketing audiences — in English, Spanish or Russian.

Signature keynote

The Switch-Off

What independent hotels learned when Booking.com and Google disappeared overnight — and why it matters in the age of AI travel agents.

Keynote / workshop

Demand Resilience

A practical framework for measuring how much of your demand you actually own — and growing that number before the next platform shift.

Formats: conference keynote (30–45 min) · executive workshop (half-day) · panels & podcasts

Invite me to speak
Advisory

The Demand Resilience Audit

A focused engagement for owners and GMs of independent hotels. In two to three weeks, I map where your demand really comes from, how exposed it is, and what to build first.

  • A dependency map: your real direct share vs. platform-owned demand
  • The three highest-leverage moves to grow demand you own
  • A clear plan your team — or your agency — can execute, with or without me

Ongoing strategic support is available — but only after the audit. First we find the reason, then the tools.

How it works
Duration
2–3 weeks
Format
Remote, via video calls
On-site
Available on request
Languages
EN · ES · RU
Start
A free 30-minute intro call
Book the intro call
Track record
Dmitry Solovei
Dmitry Solovei
Marketing strategist · Spain

Thirteen years. One segment. Measurable results.

  • 2010–2023Marketing strategy and execution for independent 4-star hotels, 18 to 200 rooms — from positioning to advertising, websites and analytics.
  • CaseRebranded and relaunched a hotel being prepared for sale — marketing built to survive investor due diligence, including an 8-language website and a repositioned brand.
  • CaseBuilt the full digital ecosystem from scratch — web, reputation, analytics — for an independent hotel competing against branded neighbors.
  • 2022Rebuilt advertising for three hotels in one week after global platforms exited the market. Back to pre-crisis sales within a month, outperforming the market.
  • TodayBased in Spain, working with independent hotels internationally.
Book · In progress

Real Estate Agent Spain

The same thesis, tested in another trust-driven market.

A book about real estate marketing in Spain — an industry where, just like in hotels, the purchase is expensive, rare, and built on trust. Why agencies compete with more than listings, how expert reputation is built, and why this market rewards the most understandable player — not the loudest one.

Out in 2026. Leave your email and I'll send you chapter one before the release.

Contact

Let's start with one question.

If Booking.com doubled its commission tomorrow — or an AI assistant stopped recommending you — what would happen to your bookings?

If you're not sure you'd like the answer, that's exactly where a 30-minute conversation is useful. No briefs, no decks. We look at your situation and decide whether I can genuinely help.

Book a call
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