Put to: Cindy Estis Green.
Why it matters to buyers: Kalibri’s budgeting guidance identifies OTA commissions, loyalty contributions, reservation costs and GDS fees as costs to make visible alongside revenue forecasts. Its argument is contribution-led commercial planning, not eliminating third-party demand. (kalibrilabs.com)
Draft framing of a good answer: Ask for a channel-and-segment contribution analysis rather than a direct-booking percentage target. Define the revenue basis and reconcile gross-versus-net accounting before comparing channels.
Include commission, transaction charges, payment costs, attributable marketing, discounts and incremental servicing costs where applicable. Separate marginal booking economics from the allocation of fixed commercial overhead.
Ask whether a proposed booking fills a room that would otherwise remain empty or displaces more valuable demand. Examine length of stay, cancellations, refunds, ancillary contribution and repeat behavior without automatically crediting all future stays to the first acquisition channel.
Sharp follow-up: “Show us a period when a higher-cost channel was the right choice—and one when a supposedly cheaper direct campaign destroyed contribution.”
Evidence to request: Booking-source reconciliation, channel invoices, campaign costs and a small set of reproducible booking-level examples with personal data removed.
Interview status: No expert response has been recorded.