If you're a European hotel looking to grow direct bookings and reduce your cost per acquisition, you've probably realised that the guest journey doesn't start at check-in. It begins with a Google search, a metasearch comparison, or an abandoned booking on your website. Different providers cover different parts of that Guest Journey, from attracting visitors to converting them into confirmed guests.
This article covers six partners that help European hotel chains and independent properties drive direct booking revenue. You'll find a comparison, a breakdown of what each partner does, and a comparison table to help you choose the right fit for your property.
Transparency note: this comparison is published by Bookassist, which is one of the providers listed. Providers appear in alphabetical order rather than ranked, and Bookassist figures link to their published source.
We looked at which partners help European hotels generate more direct bookings, not just more clicks. The goal is to lower your cost per acquisition (CPA) while driving measurable revenue growth across every stage of the guest journey.
Bookassist works across four stages of the Guest Journey: Attract with AI-powered digital media, Engage with conversion-focused web design, Convert with the AI Booking Engine, and Refine with real-time intelligence and dedicated Client Success Managers.
The model pairs technology with people. A dedicated Client Success Manager works with the hotel's revenue and marketing teams on a data-informed strategy that aims to lower cost per acquisition as direct business grows.
Bookassist works with 1,200+ hotels in 60+ countries. The company reports ROI greater than 25:1 on its digital media and total CPA below 8% for engaged clients. Its Rate Recommender curates room options based on visitor behaviour rather than showing long lists, with a reported 20% improvement in conversion rate.
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Hotelchamp is a Netherlands-based company offering a suite of products including a booking engine, metasearch connectivity, website personalization (Convert), and a website builder. The company serves over 600 hotels and positions its booking engine as an alternative to OTA experiences.
The platform's booking engine runs on the same page and domain as your website, aiming to reduce the redirect experience that can cause booking abandonment. Hotelchamp also manages Google Hotel Ads campaigns for hotels looking to increase metasearch visibility.
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Mirai has operated since 1995 and serves over 3,400 hotels, primarily in Spain, Portugal, and Latin America. The company positions itself as a hotel distribution consultant, offering a booking engine, website development, metasearch connectivity, and digital marketing services.
Mirai's approach combines technology with distribution consulting. The company helps hotels analyse their channel mix and identify opportunities to shift revenue toward direct channels with lower overall distribution costs.
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Net Affinity is an Irish company offering a booking engine, website development, and digital marketing services. The company serves hotels primarily in Ireland and the UK, with a focus on independent properties and small groups.
Net Affinity positions itself as a hotel digital marketing agency that combines technology with campaign management. The team manages paid search, metasearch, and social media campaigns alongside their booking engine technology.
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Sojern is a travel advertising platform that helps hotels, destinations, and attractions reach travelers through data-driven campaigns. The company focuses on the attract stage of the Guest Journey, using traveler intent data to target potential guests across display, social, and programmatic channels.
In 2025, RateGain acquired Sojern and consolidated its marketing technology capabilities under the Sojern brand, creating what the company describes as the largest source of travel intent data. Sojern serves hotels looking to generate demand rather than manage the full booking journey.
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The Hotels Network (THN) focuses on website personalisation and conversion optimisation. The platform uses predictive algorithms to show different messages and offers to different visitor segments, aiming to move more lookers to bookers on your direct channel.
THN serves over 20,000 hotels globally and offers tools including BenchDirect for benchmarking direct channel metrics, behavioral targeting for personalised website experiences, and price comparison widgets. The company was acquired by Lighthouse in 2024.
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| Partner | Full Journey Coverage | Dedicated Strategy Manager | AI rate recommendation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bookassist | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Hotelchamp | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Mirai | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Net Affinity | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Sojern | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| The Hotels Network | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
Many hotel technology partners focus on one stage of the guest journey. You might use one vendor for paid advertising, another for website personalisation, and a third for your booking engine. Each has its own dashboard, its own reporting, and its own account manager.
A full-journey partner connects every stage. When your attract efforts drive more traffic, your conversion technology captures it, and your reporting shows which campaigns delivered the result. This closed loop makes it possible to refine your approach and work on lowering your cost per acquisition over time.
Specialist tools have their own strengths: they can be quicker to install and easier to swap. The value of a single partner depends on the support behind it. A dedicated account or strategy manager who understands your full funnel can spot when metasearch spend is driving traffic that doesn't convert, or when your booking engine is losing guests at a specific step.
The clearest metric is cost per acquisition (CPA). This includes every euro you spend to win a booking: digital media, commissions, discounts, loyalty perks, and operational effort linked to each channel. When hotels map this out by channel, many discover that heavy OTA reliance quietly erodes margin while direct bookings deliver higher profit per stay.
Return on investment (ROI) on digital media is another key measure: the direct booking revenue returned for each euro invested in attract campaigns. When comparing providers, ask for reported figures and where they come from. For example, Bookassist publishes ROI greater than 25:1 on its digital media.
Conversion rate tells you how effectively your booking engine turns website visitors into confirmed guests. AI rate recommendation technology aims to lift conversion by reducing choice paralysis and presenting guests with curated options rather than long lists. Bookassist reports a 20% conversion improvement from its Rate Recommender.
Bookassist suits hotels that want one partner across attract, engage, convert and refine: digital media, website, Booking Engine and reporting, with a dedicated Client Success Manager rather than self-serve tools.
It works best for properties prepared for an active, ongoing partnership. Hotels that only need a single tool, such as a website personalisation layer or a demand generation channel, may find a specialist provider from this list a better fit. You can read more about how Bookassist works with hotels.
A hotel Guest Journey partner helps you attract, engage, and convert guests across touchpoints from initial search to completed booking. The goal is to grow direct revenue and reduce dependence on OTAs. Some partners cover every stage, while others specialise in one, such as advertising or website conversion.
Hotels reduce CPA by shifting bookings from high-commission OTA channels to direct channels with lower overall costs. This requires effective digital marketing to attract visitors, conversion-focused websites and booking engines to capture them, and ongoing optimisation based on real data.
Each stage of the guest journey requires different tools and strategies. Attract brings visitors to your website through digital media and metasearch. Engage holds their attention with compelling web design and personalisation. Convert turns lookers into bookers with a fast, intuitive booking engine. Missing any stage means losing potential direct revenue.
ROI varies with property, market, budget and how actively campaigns are managed. Ask each provider for the figures they report and the source behind them. As one published example, Bookassist reports ROI greater than 25:1 on its digital media.
Many hotels see measurable changes in the first few months of an active partnership. Conversion rate changes from booking engine improvements can appear within weeks. Digital media ROI usually develops over time as campaigns are refined based on accumulating data and performance insights.