A couple stay in May through an OTA. They are easy guests, they like the property, they leave a good review. In September they come back — through the same OTA, at the same commission.
The property paid twice to acquire a guest it already had. Nothing in between invited them back: no message after checkout, no reason to book direct, no record that they had been before beyond a name the receptionist half-remembered.
The reason is almost never a decision. It is that the guest record lives in the PMS, the messaging lives in somebody's phone, the review request is a manual job that stopped happening in June, and the loyalty scheme is a stamp card nobody carries.
When those run off the same guest record, each becomes a consequence rather than a task. Feedback is tied to the visit it is about. A message after checkout goes to a guest who actually stayed. Points settle when the bill settles. And a returning guest is recognised at the desk rather than treated as new.
Why this matters to you: the difference between a direct repeat booking and an OTA repeat booking is the entire margin on the stay. Acquisition is the most expensive thing an independent property does, and paying for it twice on the same guest is the most avoidable version of it.