Question 1

What is a direct booking engine?

Accepted Answer

A booking engine is the conversion layer on your own website: guests check real availability, pay, and get instant confirmation without an OTA in the middle. It is not a reservation system — every booking it captures writes straight into the Nokumo PMS, which stays the system of record.

Question 2

Is a booking engine the same as a reservation system?

Accepted Answer

No. The booking engine is the guest-facing checkout on your website; the reservation system — the PMS — is where bookings are stored and managed. Nokumo's engine writes every reservation into the PMS in real time, so there is one calendar and no manual re-entry.

Question 3

What commission does Nokumo take on direct bookings?

Accepted Answer

Zero. Every booking made on your own site is commission-free. Payment settles through Nokumo Pay — Stripe-powered and secure — with instant confirmation, and the reservation lands in your PMS in real time.

Question 4

How do guests find my direct booking page?

Accepted Answer

Nokumo's booking pages are SEO-structured and Google-indexable, and your property appears on Google Hotels. A guest searching for a hotel in Dubrovnik can find your property, check availability, and confirm a booking without ever seeing Booking.com.

Question 5

What results have properties seen with direct bookings?

Accepted Answer

Hotel Delminivm cut OTA dependency by 30% in its first year on Nokumo. AdriaticExplore grew revenue 50% in 12 months, combining direct bookings with Nokumo's revenue tools. Promotional codes and direct-only rates help convert returning guests.

Question 6

Why is the Booking.com commission described as "optional"?

Accepted Answer

Because the guest relationship — and the repeat booking — belongs to you, not to the OTA. First-time guests will keep arriving via Booking.com, and Nokumo prices that channel correctly. But when a guest returns, your direct booking portal lets them rebook at 0% commission instead of 15–20%.

Question 7

How quickly can I set up a direct booking portal?

Accepted Answer

You can be taking direct bookings within your onboarding week. The portal is generated from your existing PMS data — rooms, rates, photos, policies — so there is no separate build project. A shareable portal link works even before you attach a custom domain or full website.

Question 8

Can I offer promo codes and packages on my direct portal?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Promo codes with configurable scope run per rate plan, and you can display them publicly for consumer campaigns or hide them for B2B partners such as corporate clients and travel agents. Packages bundle accommodation with extras like cleaning or excursions, bookable only on your direct channel.

Question 9

Does the booking portal support multiple languages and currencies?

Accepted Answer

Yes. The guest-facing portal renders in the languages Nokumo supports, and multi-currency billing handles cross-border guests. This matters most for Adriatic and Alpine properties whose guests book from across the EU — the portal should not lose a German guest at a Croatian property to a language gap.

Question 10

Will direct bookings mess up my OTA availability?

Accepted Answer

No — the portal draws from the same central availability as every OTA channel. A direct booking decrements inventory and closes the window on Booking.com and Airbnb within the same 60-second sync, so you can never oversell by adding a direct channel.

Question 11

How do I measure whether the portal is working?

Accepted Answer

Compare your direct share of bookings before and after, and watch repeat-guest behaviour: returning guests who originally came via an OTA are the cheapest direct-conversion opportunity. Nokumo's reporting shows channel mix per booking, so the shift is measurable rather than anecdotal.

The commission you pay Booking.com is optional.

Google search to confirmed booking.

Direct Booking Engine FAQ

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