Hospitality businesses paying a middleman on every reservation

The play in three steps

1Trigger

No booking link on their own domain: the site sends visitors to a third-party platform, or the only way to book is a phone number or an email, usually the founder's.

2What it means

They do the work of bringing the visitor in, then hand them to an intermediary that keeps its cut, often 15 to 20 percent, or answer the phone themselves at 10pm.

3Move to make

Estimate the yearly commission from their review volume and average rate, or the hours lost on the phone, and open with that number. The site comes up in the second email.

Who it targets

Ideal customer: Hotels, restaurants, guesthouses and venues in your regions, independent, with a site and no booking path of their own.
Decision maker: The owner or the manager. On an independent, the one who checks the platform dashboard every morning.
Where the signal is read: Their own site, crawled for a booking path, plus the platform listing for review volume and rates, read monthly.
Window: The off-season. That is when they look at the year's commission statement and have time to change something.

First email

Subject {commissionEstimate} a year to {platformName}, {firstName}

{firstName}, every booking at {companyName} goes through {platformName}, and at {reviewCount} reviews and {averageRate} a night that is around {commissionEstimate} a year in commission.

You pay the middleman for the visitors your own reviews bring in.

If I could get [a share of those bookings] to come through your own site instead, commission-free, live before [the next season] (you keep the platform for the rest), would you be interested in hearing more ?

{yourFirstName}
{yourDomain}

PS: my estimate can be wrong by a lot, reply with the real number and I will redo the maths.