Veya Direct-Booking Studio

The problem

The platforms didn't just take a cut. They took the relationship.

The OTAs feel unavoidable — until you see what they actually cost you beyond the commission line.

01

The commission tax

15–25% off the top of every stay, forever — the biggest line item you can't negotiate and never stop paying.

02

You look like everyone else

Same listing template, sorted by price, one tap from a cheaper room. The platform is built to make you interchangeable.

03

You never meet your guest

The OTA owns the email, the review and the rebooking. You rent access to your own customer — and pay again to reach them next time.

The leak, in your numbers

See what a year of commission actually costs.

Most owners have never put a figure on it. That figure is the whole reason the Direct-Leak Audit exists.

Monthly bookings through OTAs — £8,000

Their commission

£17,280

handed to the platforms this year — ≈ £51,840 over three.

Illustrative. Your real number — and exactly where it's recoverable — is what we map on the audit.

Three moves that turn a listing into a destination.

One system, run in order. We give the property a reason to be chosen, shoot the content that proves it, then build the direct channel that captures the demand — and keeps the guest.

1

We start by giving the property a reason to be chosen

Boutique stays rarely lose to a better room. They lose to a room that's easier to compare — and a listing with no point of view is the easiest thing in the world to put side by side with a cheaper one.

So we start with position: who the property is for, what it stands against, and the one thing it genuinely owns. Then we build the name, the story and the look around that — not the other way round.

The result is a stay a guest can describe to a friend in a single sentence, and search for by name a week later. That search is where direct booking actually begins.

Book a Direct-Leak Audit Learn more about brand ✦

10+ yrsdirecting brands across Caribbean tourism

Float · Dominicaflagship brand build, in progress

◊%lift in direct enquiries after repositioning

Veya

◊ wordmark

◊ palette

Aa

◊ type

◊ signage

V

◊ collateral

2

Then we shoot the film and stills that make the direct channel convert

OTA photography is built to sell the platform: flat, templated, shot to the same brief as every other listing. It makes a genuinely distinctive property look interchangeable with the one below it.

We shoot on-site — film and stills captured together in a single visit — and direct it for the places that actually earn you a direct booking: your own site, your socials, your ads.

You leave with a hero film, cutdowns sized for every platform, and a full stills library, colour-graded in your brand and owned outright. No licensing, no expiry, no platform in the middle.

Book a Direct-Leak Audit Learn more about film ▶

10+ yrsbehind the camera in Caribbean tourism

1 visitfilm and stills captured in the same trip

Owned outrightevery asset is yours, with no licence window

◊finished assets delivered per property

◊ hero film

◊ room tour

◊ host intro

◊ reel cutdown

Float · Dominica — first shoot ◊

◊ second property — shoot day

◊ third property — shoot day

3

Then we build the channel that captures the demand — and keeps the guest

A beautiful site that can't take a booking just sends a ready guest back to the platform to finish the job. Most owner-operated sites do exactly that, and never find out.

We build the direct-booking site and the funnel behind it, then wire live availability, deposits and instant confirmation into the calendar you already run — so booking direct is genuinely easier than booking through an OTA, not just cheaper for you.

Then we open the Returning-Guest Window: automated, on-brand email flows that bring past guests back on their own, with no platform in the middle and nothing on your to-do list.

Book a Direct-Leak Audit Learn more about the system ▤

0%commission on a direct booking

15–25%what the platform takes instead

Weeksfrom kickoff to a live booking channel

◊%your direct share after launch

Guest finds yousearch · referral · social

Your direct site & funnelbuilt by Veya

Booking enginelive availability + payment

Returning-Guest Windowthey rebook direct

Availability syncs both ways with the calendar, PMS or channel manager you already use — so a direct booking and an OTA booking never collide.

Connects to the systems you already run

We sync availability and payments with your existing setup rather than replacing it. ◊ Confirm which of these you actually support before this page goes live.

Lodgify◊ CONFIRM

Guesty◊ CONFIRM

Hostaway◊ CONFIRM

Cloudbeds◊ CONFIRM

Little Hotelier◊ CONFIRM

Stripe◊ CONFIRM

Google Calendar◊ CONFIRM

BespokeIF AN API EXISTS

Every booking that comes direct is margin you never have to win back. That's the whole point of running the three moves in order — each one makes the next cheaper, and the effect compounds every season.

Once the three moves are live, Ads & Demand is how you accelerate them — paid campaigns pointed at a channel that finally converts. We don't run them before that, because ads on a leaky funnel just fill it faster.

Proof

Early, honest, and growing.

No borrowed logos or invented numbers. Here's what's real today — and where your results will live as the first properties report them.

10+ yrs

behind the camera across Caribbean tourism markets

Float · Dominica

flagship direct-booking case study, in build

your number

◊%

direct-booking share after launch

your number

£◊

commission saved in year one

The studio

Founder-led, on purpose.

Veya is led by Norris — a Caribbean filmmaker and creative director with a decade across the region's tourism markets. You work directly with the person shooting and directing your brand, not a junior three layers down. For production at scale, Veya brings in a trusted network of Caribbean crews.

Questions

Before you book the audit.

Won't leaving the OTAs cost me bookings?

You're not leaving anything. We build a direct channel that wins back your highest-intent guests — the ones already searching for you by name — so the OTAs become overflow instead of your landlord. You keep every channel; you just stop depending on the expensive one.

How long until direct bookings actually ramp?

The brand and booking engine go live in weeks, not months. Direct share builds from there as content, retention and word of mouth compound — the Returning-Guest Window starts recovering past guests almost immediately, since they already know you.

Do I need a big social following?

No. Direct booking is about intent, not reach. Most of your direct guests are people who already stayed, were referred, or found you and just need a reason — and a way — to book you instead of a platform.

I already have a website — isn't that enough?

A brochure site tells people you exist. A booking engine turns intent into a confirmed, paid, direct reservation and captures the guest for next time. Most owner sites do the first and quietly send the booking back to an OTA. We fix that.

What size property is this for?

Owner-operated stays and small portfolios — villas, boutique hotels and guesthouses where the owner still cares how it feels and has real margin locked up in commissions.

What does the audit commit me to?

Nothing. It's a focused working session — we map where your bookings are leaking and the first moves to fix it. You leave with the plan whether or not we build it together.

Your guests are booking you — through someone else.

The platforms didn't just take a cut. They took the relationship.

The commission tax

You look like everyone else

You never meet your guest

See what a year of commission actually costs.

Three moves that turn a listing into a destination.

We start by giving the property a reason to be chosen

Then we shoot the film and stills that make the direct channel convert

Then we build the channel that captures the demand — and keeps the guest

Connects to the systems you already run

Early, honest, and growing.

Founder-led, on purpose.

Before you book the audit.

Find out exactly where your bookings are leaking.

Pick a time that works.