Case study · § 01 · Boutique
28 rooms, Sài Gòn District 3
Khách sạn nhỏ tại Quận 3, TP. Hồ Chí MinhA 28-room independent boutique in Sài Gòn District 3, opened in 2019, targeting the domestic urban weekend segment and inbound long-stay guests from Australia and Northern Europe. Existing SiteMinder Distribution and SiteMinder Direct account; no channel-manager problems. What they wanted: more direct booking without cutting rate.
The starting point
Direct-booking share had plateaued at 14% for eighteen months. The hotel had a clean visual identity, strong Instagram presence, and consistent occupancy above 78%. But the direct site was English-only, priced in USD, with a card-only checkout. The domestic weekend segment — young professionals from Sài Gòn D1 and D3 — was defecting to Traveloka and Mytour.
§ 01The intervention
Three SiteminderStore modules were provisioned on the existing SiteMinder workspace: Widget Direct-Booking VN (Vietnamese-language checkout with VND display), Add-on MoMo & VNPay Guarantee (wallet holds instead of card), and Add-on Vietnamese E-Invoicing (hoá đơn điện tử for corporate guests). Total monthly cost: 4,170,000 ₫. No changes to the SiteMinder workspace itself; no new channels; no new rate plans.
§ 02What changed
Over the following eight months, the domestic direct-booking share rose from 14% to 31% of total bookings. Inbound direct (English checkout) held at 12%. OTA share compressed from 74% to 57%, with the largest reductions on Traveloka and Mytour. Average daily rate on the direct channel was 4.2% higher than on the domestic OTAs, driven mostly by the absence of OTA commission absorbed into the display price.
| Metric | Before (H1 2025) | After (H1 2026) |
|---|---|---|
| Direct-booking share | 14% | 31% |
| Domestic direct | 3% | 19% |
| Inbound direct | 11% | 12% |
| OTA share | 74% | 57% |
| ADR on direct channel | Baseline | +4.2% |
| OTA commission bill | Baseline | -24% |
§ 03What did not change
The SiteMinder workspace was untouched. Channel connections stayed as they were. Reservation delivery to the property's PMS continued through the standard SiteMinder pipeline. Rate plans were not re-priced. The intervention was entirely at the direct-booking presentation layer — a Vietnamese checkout, VND display, wallet-hold guarantee — which caught the audience that was already trying to book direct.
"The change we saw is not that new people came to the site. The change is that the people who already came now completed the booking instead of bouncing to Traveloka."
— Revenue Manager, Sài Gòn District 3§ 04What to notice
The intervention was small — three modules, four million VND a month, no operational change on the SiteMinder side. The result was a nine-point compression of OTA commission. The ROI on the modules paid back within the first month. This is a common shape for Vietnamese boutique properties that have not yet localised their direct checkout.