Q1/Q2 2026 Review: The Defining Challenges for the UK and EU Market

All through the process, there are different ways.

Really for us, it's understanding what is going to add value to the customer, then understanding how we can monetize that and deliver something straight to the customer.

We don't want them leaving our ecosystem.

We don't want them going to find something somewhere else.

We just try and make it really easy.

And then as we can get that to our customers and know what they want, it's an easy purchase from them.

I mean, talking about easy purchases, I mean, poor website experiences are costing hotels bookings.

They're losing bookings, obviously, when online experiences creates the barriers, unnecessary barriers for guests.

And industry data shows that hotel websites convert direct visitors at around 1% to 2%.

while OTAs convert at around 4% to 6%.

So quite considerably different.

I think that you definitely see a greater connection between guests and the direct channel, but it's important to make sure that that's a smooth journey.

How have you approached that to ensure that you optimize that direct experience all the time?

The website serves many different purposes, whether it's information and inspiration, whether it's the actual booking process, or once you've actually booked, going back and understanding about restaurants, spas, and all those elements.

So what we've been able to do is to understand those customer journeys and what they're looking for and to present the right information to the customer.

So for example, if we can recognize the guest who's already booked on our website, we don't show them new offers.

We'll show them food and beverage and spa offers, and we can swap that content out based on that person's behavior.

We also have a chatbot that can sit there and answer any questions that need to be answered.

And then things that the chatbot can't answer, we then go and investigate and put that back into the website because obviously there's an interest.

So it's this constant reinvention, it's constant testing, it's constant understanding what the customer needs, and we respond to

that.

Across the revenue, obviously greater conversation with the marketing team to make sure you're not sitting in silos, as we always say in the industry.

What are some of the developments and real focus areas that you've had to do to ensure that you don't put those barriers digitally?

I think sometimes it's really about focusing on the basics.

A lot of the times we use AI as buzzwords and we talk about hotel tech stacks.