5 Best Agencies to Increase Direct Hotel Bookings in the UAE (2027)
The best agencies for increasing direct hotel bookings in the UAE in 2027 are Gorilla Marketing, Net Affinity, Sojern, TheBuzihub and Drivix. Each takes a different route to the same goal: fewer commissionable OTA bookings, and more guests booking straight through brand.com.
OTAs are not the enemy. They bring discovery and fill rooms you would otherwise leave empty. But when too much of your revenue mix comes through third parties, every percentage point of commission comes straight off the bottom line, and the guest relationship belongs to someone else.
Shifting that mix takes a combination of tactics: brand protection on Google, metasearch campaigns on Google Hotel Ads and Tripadvisor, a booking engine that converts, rate parity and a reason to book direct. These five agencies are the specialists.
The Top 5 Direct Booking Agencies
- Gorilla Marketing: Best for search-led direct booking growth
- Net Affinity: Best for booking engine and metasearch
- Sojern: Best for programmatic travel advertising
- TheBuzihub: Best for OTA mix strategy
- Drivix: Best for seasonal campaigns on a budget
| Rank | Agency | Headquarters | Specialty | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gorilla Marketing | Dubai, UAE | Brand protection, SEO, remarketing | Search-led direct booking growth |
| 2 | Net Affinity | Ireland | Booking engine, hotel websites, digital marketing, metasearch | Booking engine and metasearch |
| 3 | Sojern | Omaha, NE (Dubai office) | Programmatic, metasearch and social advertising for travel | Programmatic travel advertising |
| 4 | TheBuzihub | Dubai, UAE | OTA optimization, metasearch, review management, direct booking campaigns | OTA mix strategy |
| 5 | Drivix | Dubai, UAE | Seasonal Meta and Google Ads, SEO, direct booking strategy | Seasonal campaigns on a budget |
The Direct Booking Toolkit
| Lever | What it does | Typical impact |
|---|---|---|
| Brand protection ads | Stops OTAs bidding on your hotel name and winning the click | Recovers bookings you already earned |
| Metasearch | Shows your direct rate beside OTA prices on Google and Tripadvisor | Captures price-comparing guests |
| Hotel SEO | Ranks brand.com for destination and experience searches | Commission-free bookings over time |
| Remarketing | Brings back guests who checked dates but did not book | Recovers abandoned bookings |
| Direct-only perks | Gives guests a reason to book with you | Improves booking engine conversion |
The Agencies
1. Gorilla Marketing
Best for search-led direct booking growth
| Headquarters | Dubai, with further UAE offices in Abu Dhabi and Ras Al Khaimah |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2015 |
| Hospitality focus | One of several sectors |
| Core services | Brand protection campaigns, destination and seasonal search, dynamic remarketing, hotel SEO |
| Notable | Google Premier Partner, Microsoft Advertising Partner |
| Ideal for | Hotels and resort groups with a heavy OTA mix |
Gorilla Marketing's direct booking work starts with protecting the brand name on Google, then builds destination-based and seasonal search campaigns and dynamic remarketing around it. Every booking is attributed in Gorilla Reports, the agency's live dashboard.
The results are unusually well documented. A five-star resort group in Abu Dhabi grew direct bookings by 410% and cut OTA dependency by 38%. A six-property boutique hotel group increased direct bookings by 256% at 7.8x ROAS.
Worth knowing: Gorilla works with your existing booking engine rather than providing one.
2. Net Affinity
Best for booking engine and metasearch
| Headquarters | Ireland |
|---|---|
| Hospitality focus | Hotels only |
| Core services | Booking engine, hotel websites, digital marketing, metasearch |
| Notable | More than two decades focused on hotel direct bookings |
| Ideal for | Independent, resort and group hotels |
The Irish company pairs a booking engine with metasearch and digital marketing, which means the path from a Google Hotel Ads click to a confirmed brand.com booking is handled end to end.
Net Affinity has spent more than two decades helping independent, resort and group hotels grow their direct business, combining its own booking engine technology with web design and digital marketing.
Worth knowing: Works best when you adopt its booking engine, so check fit with your existing tech stack.
3. Sojern
Best for programmatic travel advertising
| Headquarters | Omaha, NE (Dubai office) |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2007 |
| Hospitality focus | Travel only |
| Core services | Programmatic, metasearch and social advertising for travel |
| Notable | Regional office in Dubai since 2015 |
| Ideal for | Hotels and attractions targeting international source markets |
Sojern is a data-driven travel marketing company founded in 2007, using traveler intent data and machine learning to reach people who are actively planning trips. It has served the Middle East from its Dubai office since 2015.
Rather than a traditional agency, Sojern is a performance marketing platform built purely for travel, reaching travelers across display, social and metasearch while they are still deciding where to stay.
Worth knowing: Best for paid reach. Organic search and content would need another partner.
4. TheBuzihub
Best for OTA mix strategy
| Headquarters | Dubai, UAE |
|---|---|
| Hospitality focus | Dedicated hospitality service |
| Core services | OTA optimization, metasearch, review management, direct booking campaigns |
| Notable | Works with properties in Dubai, Saudi Arabia and Qatar |
| Ideal for | Hotels trying to rebalance OTA and direct revenue |
Rather than telling hotels to abandon the OTAs, TheBuzihub works to shift the revenue mix toward direct channels while keeping OTA visibility for discovery.
TheBuzihub is a Dubai hospitality agency built around the hotel revenue mix: OTA optimization, metasearch advertising, review management and seasonal campaigns, all measured against RevPAR, ADR and occupancy.
Worth knowing: A younger agency than some on this list, so ask for property-level results.
5. Drivix
Best for seasonal campaigns on a budget
| Headquarters | Dubai, UAE |
|---|---|
| Hospitality focus | Dedicated hospitality service |
| Core services | Seasonal Meta and Google Ads, SEO, direct booking strategy |
| Notable | Publishes its fees: from AED 3,000 per month per channel |
| Ideal for | Properties wanting transparent pricing and no lock-in |
Drivix is refreshingly upfront: it publishes its fees (AED 3,000 to 5,000 per month for a single channel), works month to month, and openly states it does not yet have a named hotel case study.
Drivix is a Dubai performance agency that runs seasonal, visual-led Meta and Google Ads campaigns for hotels and resorts, built around the UAE's peak winter season and quieter summer months.
Worth knowing: Hospitality is a newer vertical for the agency.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a good direct booking share for a UAE hotel?
It varies widely by property type and source market. Rather than chase a benchmark, track your own direct share month by month and measure whether each campaign moves it.
Will cutting OTA spend hurt occupancy?
Not if it is done gradually. The goal is to rebalance the mix, keeping OTAs for discovery and distant source markets while winning more repeat and brand-aware guests directly.