Methodology status (14 September 2026): The measurement pipeline is live. Our first public percentage snapshot is pending until the BitLegacy lodging cohort reaches ≥ 30 properties with reservations in a 90-day window (privacy bar). This article explains the method so owners and journalists can use it now — and so the numbers, when published, stay honest.
Independent hotels in India often feel “OTA-heavy” without ever measuring it. Commission maths only make sense when you know the mix: how many stays came from your website, the desk, and channels.
This page is BitLegacy’s Candidate A authority asset: how we measure that mix across customers — without guest names, hotel names, or invented industry averages.
Also useful: OTA commission vs direct bookings · Channel manager India · Channel Manager product.
Why source mix matters
| If most stays are… | What to fix first |
|---|---|
| OTA / channel | Direct site conversion, rate parity honesty, commission maths |
| Walk-in / phone | Still win — but add a bookable website so repeat guests stop bouncing to OTAs |
| Direct website | Protect inventory truth with a channel manager so growth does not create double bookings |
You cannot improve what you never classify.
How BitLegacy buckets a reservation
We read reservations.source for lodging tenants (non-cancelled stays in the study window) and map to four buckets:
| Bucket | What’s included |
|---|---|
| direct_website | Public booking engine (online and clear direct aliases) |
| walk_in | Desk / offline / phone-style creates (walk_in, empty/offline aliases) |
| ota_channel | Channel Manager imports (channel_manager and OTA aliases) |
| other | Group, event, homestay-tagged, or unknown sources |
Cancelled / no-show rows are excluded. We never export guest PII or property names for this study.
Privacy bar (before any public %)
From our Phase 4 authority-assets standard (docs/seo-phase-4-authority-assets-playbook.md):
- ≥ 30 lodging tenants with counted reservations in the window
- Suppress any bucket with < 5 contributing tenants
- Label clearly: BitLegacy Hotels customer sample — not a census of India
- Product/privacy sign-off before charts go live
Until that bar clears, we do not publish fake or local-dev percentages.
Live sample status
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Study id | independent-hotel-booking-sources-india-bitlegacy-sample |
| Window | Rolling 90 days |
| Public % snapshot | Pending (publish_ok: false on last engineering run against non-production) |
| Next step | Re-run aggregate on production → update this page’s findings table |
Engineering command (BitLegacy ops):
cd hm-backend
# production credentials via env
npx tsx scripts/seo-booking-source-aggregate.ts --days=90 --out=../docs/seo-booking-source-snapshot.json
When publish_ok is true, we will replace this section with anonymised shares for the four buckets and date the snapshot.
What owners should track this week (without waiting for us)
- Tag every stay: website / walk-in / OTA / other
- Compare last 30 days vs the prior 30
- If OTAs dominate, improve direct booking UX before cutting channels blindly
- If you sell on MakeMyTrip / Booking.com, keep calendars honest with a channel manager
- Pair with restriction / min stay on peak weekends so one-night gaps do not wreck your week
How BitLegacy helps
- Front desk records walk-ins
- Booking engine + website create
online(direct) reservations - Channel Manager imports OTA stays as
channel_manager - Same inventory truth across desk, site, and OTAs
See pricing or start a free trial. Revenue tools overview: hospitality revenue tools.
For journalists / digital PR
When the first public snapshot clears the privacy bar, we will share:
- Headline % shares + methodology footnote
- Chart PNG with attribution
- Clear “customer sample, not national census” language
Contact: business@bitlegacy.in — ask for the booking-source sample briefing.
Last updated: 14 September 2026. Percentages intentionally omitted until publish_ok.
About the author
Captainjeet Kaur
Managing Director, BitLegacy Solutions LLP
Captainjeet Kaur leads BitLegacy Solutions LLP, the team behind BitLegacy Hotels — hotel management software for independent Indian hotels — and writes about running and growing hotels with simple, practical technology.
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Direct website vs walk-in vs OTA — how we measure
Privacy-safe BitLegacy customer sample method. Public percentages publish when the cohort clears 30+ properties.