Take control of your Google Business Profile. How and why OTAs intercept your direct bookings

The Problem: Your name on Google no longer belongs to you

Every day, thousands of potential guests search for hotels, B&Bs, and vacation rentals on Google using the exact name of the property. These are high-intent searches: the user already knows where they want to go; they just want to find the most convenient way to book.

In an ideal world, the most relevant result should be your website and your Google Business Profile. This duo should work together to cover the entire top fold of the search: the website (if well-made) provides organic authority, while the official Google Business Profile confirms your identity, location, contact details, and ownership of the property. In reality, if one of the two is missing or inconsistent, an OTA can intercept the click and turn it into a commissionable booking.

The result? The guest books through an intermediary. You pay a commission on a booking that was already practically yours.

Does this affect you? Here is what you should check

Let’s look at a real-life—and unfortunately common—example of a property falling victim to this mechanism. In this case, the official website, built with Lestis, holds the top organic position (organic position means it appears naturally after the sponsored results), so there is a chance the user will book directly. This is a bit of "good luck" in a bad situation, which doesn’t always happen for mediocre websites or those with a weak search engine presence.

What is happening?

Positive: Artificial intelligence knows who we are and quotes directly from the website. We are first in the list of organic results.

Negative: In the displayed Google Business Profile, the website link in the listing does not lead to the official property website but to an OTA—in this case, via a booking meta-search engine.

Why? Google pulls from its integrated partners (like OTAs), "trusted sources, and structured signals" (These are boring technicalities we’ve already handled for you, trust us: life is better without knowing them!).

How can you tell if this is happening to your property?

Open an incognito tab or private browsing window (very important) and search for your property name on Google. Try changing the search language or location (eg. if you are in Poland, try searching on google.es or set results for another country). If the Google Business Profile isn’t yours and points to a website that isn’t yours, then you are a victim of this mechanism.

Note: sometimes the phone number and contacts are correctly entered, but the website link or the booking link is not the one leading to your site.

Why it happens: the mechanisms of interception

This phenomenon has multiple cumulative causes. Understanding them is the first step toward countering them. Don’t worry, we won’t be discussing complex concepts that require hours of study. I will guide you step-by-step and case-by-case in a simple, practical way.

Your Google Business name is different from the one on OTAs

This is often the most underestimated issue. Google uses the name on your Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business) as the primary identity signal. If your property is called "Destiny Farmhouse" on Google Business, but appears as "Destiny Farmhouse - Relax & Spa" on Booking.com and "Destiny Country House" on Airbnb, Google struggles to establish with certainty that they are the same entity.

The practical result is that Google might not recognize you as the authority for the property name Destiny Country House. This leaves room for ambiguity that other players can exploit—as they have consistent names across millions of pages—often appearing more relevant to the search than the name on your Google My Business profile.

No Google Business Profile, or an incomplete one

Many hosts have never claimed their Google Business Profile, or created one long after adding their Vacation Rental, B&B, or Hotel to various OTAs. In these cases, Google might automatically generate a listing with incomplete information—and anyone, including OTAs, can add data or suggest edits. Your property exists on Google, but you don’t control it.

An unverified profile has less authority in search results. When a user searches for your name, Google lacks a strong signal regarding the legitimate owner of the entity, and OTAs—which are highly verified—fill the void.

Even a verified profile that is thin on information is a problem: without updated photos, an official website link, and the correct category, the website + profile combination loses its strength.

The economic power of OTAs in ad auctions

Major OTAs spend billions of dollars every year on Google Ads. They can afford to bid on every single property name—including yours—because their commission-based model always guarantees a return.

This doesn’t mean you are without options: with a well-made website and an official Google Business Profile, you can effectively dominate the organic section for "branded" searches of your name. Furthermore, when the official profile is correctly linked, the local panel reduces the need to chase OTAs on their own advertising turf.

OTA comparators on Google and unofficial listings

In hospitality searches, Google may display comparison modules powered by OTAs and intermediaries who pay to appear. If your property’s official profile is missing or not clearly linked, the user might end up on an OTA link even when they specifically searched for your name.

Essentially, when a strong official presence is missing, Google completes the information using third-party sources, diverting the booking path toward commission-heavy channels.

Official website and branded SEO: this is where you can win

For brand searches (the exact name of your property), a website optimized and consistent with your Google Business Profile can rank very well, often outperforming OTAs in organic results. In this specific area, the technical quality of your site and data consistency matter more than general domain strength.

The situation changes for generic or long-tail queries (e.g., "romantic hotel with spa in..."), which require ongoing active SEO. But that is not the focus of this article: we are talking about reclaiming control of searches for your own name, and in this scenario, the official website + Google Business Profile combo remains your primary leverage.

The consequences for you, the independent host

Every booking that goes through an OTA instead of your direct channel has a concrete cost. And it’s not just financial.

Reclaim control: a step-by-step practical guide

Stop the interception of your branded queries and recover the traffic that belongs to you. Here is how.

Frequently Asked Questions