The Problem: Rising OTA Commissions and Flat Direct Bookings
Swell Resort in Burleigh Heads was facing a common challenge in the short term accommodation industry: over reliance on Online Travel Agents (OTAs). While the resort had a solid offering and an attractive location, their direct website bookings were stagnant. Worse, OTAs were hijacking their brand name on Google, outbidding them on search ads and taking bookings that could have gone direct.
Like many resorts, they were paying OTA commissions of 15 percent per booking, a costly channel that reduced profitability and left little margin for growth.
That’s when they partnered with eTourism and joined the Boost Direct marketing program, a performance based strategy designed to increase direct bookings and reduce dependency on OTAs.
The Solution: A Fully Managed, Results Based Marketing System
We deployed our Boost Direct strategy, a complete done for you marketing system tailored to accommodation providers. The commission structure negotiated with the property is significantly lower than what OTAs charge, which means that for every booking we help take back, the owners come out well ahead.
Boost Direct Includes:
- A high converting custom website optimised for search, mobile and conversions
- Paid search ads to block OTAs from hijacking brand searches
- Weekly social media posts and monthly content calendars
- Photography, video and ongoing creative asset management
- SEO and blogging strategy focused on location based search terms
- Review response and online reputation management
- Email marketing campaigns and guest database growth
- Unlimited website updates and hosting
- Monthly analytics reporting and ROI tracking
- A performance based pricing model (no upfront cost)
The Results: Growth Across Every Metric That Matters
In the first five months of 2024 (Jan to May), Swell Resort saw:
📈 Online revenue increased by 55.8 percent
✅ Every month outperformed the previous year
🚀 February revenue more than doubled, up 114 percent
💰 Lowest monthly growth was still over 23 percent
🔥 All this from online bookings only — not including increased phone and email bookings that also rose as website traffic grew
Total uplift in online revenue in just five months: 55.8 percent
SEO Wins: Ranking for High Intent Holiday Terms
By June 2025, Swell Resort was dominating the first page of Google:
- #2 for “Burleigh Heads resort”
- #2 for “Resorts in Burleigh Heads”
- #3 for “Burleigh”
- #4 for “Burleigh resorts”
These are non branded, highly competitive local search terms — exactly what holidaymakers type in when planning a trip. This positioned Swell Resort ahead of the competition and delivered a steady stream of qualified traffic straight to their website.
What This Means for You
If you are running a short term accommodation property with 15 or more units, you do not need to keep handing your profits to the OTAs.
With Boost Direct, we:
- Stop OTA brand hijacking with smart paid search
- Optimise your website and rankings for local traffic
- Manage your social media, reviews, content and email
- Provide full creative, hosting and ongoing support
- Charge a much lower commission than OTAs, so every booking you win back boosts your bottom line
It is everything you would expect from a high performance marketing team, with none of the overhead.