Stay by the Sea: a direct-booking site built to outrank OTAs for a 7-bed Blackpool apartment
A bespoke Next.js direct-booking website for a seven-bed Blackpool seafront apartment sleeping fourteen. Engineered to outrank Airbnb and Booking.com listings for high-intent local queries: group accommodation, family accommodation, beachfront, near Pleasure Beach, and convert that traffic directly, saving 15–20% commission per booking.
Labels distinguish client facts, reported results, comparisons and delivered system capabilities.
The bottleneck
A premium seven-bed Blackpool seafront apartment was paying 15–20% commission per booking to Airbnb and Booking.com. That works while inventory exposure matters, but compounds expensive at premium nightly rates, and concedes the customer relationship to the OTA platform.
Building direct demand means ranking for the high-intent local searches OTAs dominate: "group accommodation Blackpool", "family apartment Blackpool", "luxury beachfront Blackpool", "holiday apartment near Pleasure Beach". Then converting that traffic into bookings without the OTA layer, which means a booking flow as smooth as Airbnb\'s but with a price advantage.
What I built
A bespoke Next.js site engineered around two principles:
- Per-intent landing pages. Each high-intent buyer segment gets its own URL with tuned headline, copy, metadata, and imagery:
/blackpool-group-accommodation,/family-accommodation-blackpool,/blackpool-beachfront-accommodation,/blackpool-holiday-apartment-near-pleasure-beach,/luxury-blackpool-apartment-sleeps-14. Each ranks for its own query class without diluting the others. - Direct-booking incentive. Every page surfaces a 10% direct-booking discount vs. OTA price. The page reframes the visitor\'s choice as "pay less here or pay more there": competitive on price, not just on brand.
- Trust + content layers. A blog, a Blackpool attractions guide, guest info pages, reviews, and structured data describing the property at a level OTAs can\'t match (because OTAs use template content).
- Booking flow. Direct booking + admin tooling under the same roof. The relationship and the data are owned by the apartment, not by an OTA.
What changed
A direct-booking site competing with OTA listings on the same search results, but converting bookings without the 15–20% commission tax. The 10% direct-booking discount visible on every page reframes the choice on price terms; per-intent landing pages capture niche search demand the OTA listings can\'t target as cleanly.
Each direct booking that would have gone via an OTA now pays for itself, plus margin, plus reusable owned data (guest emails, review momentum, repeat-stay relationships) that OTAs would otherwise have intercepted.
Services used in this build
The capability and service pages this engagement delivered against. Use them to scope a similar build for your operation.
Voice Agents →
Inbound enquiry coverage outside reception hours, guests don't end up on competitors' calendars.
Chat Agents →
Web + WhatsApp coverage for booking changes, pre-arrival queries, and post-stay support.
AI Receptionist (use case) →
The named hospitality pattern, front-line call handling with brand-voice qualification.
AI Appointment Booking (use case) →
Booking flow with confirmation and reminder sequences tuned to hospitality no-show patterns.
Questions about this build
OTAs charge 15–20% commission per booking. For a premium 7-bed seafront apartment with strong nightly rates, that's a meaningful five-figure annual tax. Direct booking captures the same buyer at the same rate (or a 10% discounted rate, which is still better economics than OTA), without the platform fee. The site exists to compete with those OTA listings on Google rather than alongside them on the OTA platform itself.
Each high-intent search class gets its own landing page with tuned copy and metadata: "group accommodation Blackpool", "family accommodation Blackpool", "beachfront accommodation Blackpool", "holiday apartment near Pleasure Beach", "luxury Blackpool apartment". Each ranks for its specific query class without diluting the others, versus a single homepage trying to rank for everything.
OTAs rank well by default, they have huge domain authority. The bespoke site competes by being more specific. Every landing page is hyper-targeted to one buyer segment, with metadata, headings, and copy tuned to the exact query. The property has its own brand, its own reviews, its own direct-booking incentive (10% off vs. OTA), and structured data describing the apartment as a hotel-equivalent. Pre-rendering and tight Core Web Vitals do the rest.
A blog, a Blackpool attractions guide, guest information pages, a reviews surface, sitemap generation, an admin area, and a structured booking flow. The marketing site, the trust layer, and the booking surface are one product, not three.
Still have a question? Book an Operations Review, direct line to me, Dean.
Other industries I've built for
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