Built by hoteliers, for hoteliers
Every guest who books through an OTA is a guest you can't reach after checkout. A loyalty program gives them a reason to come back — and book direct every time.
OTAs spent $17.8 billion on marketing in 2024 to make sure your guests never reach your website. You can't outspend them. But you can give your guest a personal reason to come back to you.
Guest finds you on Expedia
They search your area. The OTA owns the relationship from day one.
They stay and love it
Great experience. But you have no way to reach them after checkout.
Next year: back to Expedia
You pay commission again. They never became YOUR customer.
South EST gives your hotel its own branded loyalty program — your name, your brand, your guest relationships.
Drift Club
Welcome back, Sarah
Points Balance
24,850
Drift Tier
Recent Stay
Avenue Inn & Spa
Feb 14–17, 2026
+5,250 pts
Badges
Guests earn points when they stay.
They see their rewards on their phone. They have a real reason to book direct next time instead of searching on Expedia.
You build a database of YOUR guests.
Their emails, their preferences, their stay history. That database becomes the most valuable asset your hotel owns.
Commission savings are the byproduct.
As more guests book direct, your OTA costs go down naturally. The real value is a guest list that grows every month.
Three steps. No IT project. No system changes. Most hotels are live within a week.
Your name, your look, your properties. We handle everything — your loyalty program is ready in days, not months. No IT project, no system changes.
"Would you like to join our rewards program?" That's it. Guests sign up on their phone in 30 seconds. Works alongside any PMS you already use.
Export a checkout report from your existing system once a week. We match guests, credit stays, and award points automatically. Your team manages everything from one dashboard.
Own two properties? Ten? South EST runs one loyalty program across all of them — guests earn everywhere, and you see everything in one dashboard.
A guest who stays at your beach hotel earns points they can redeem at your downtown boutique. One program ties it all together.
See every member, every stay, every redemption across all your properties in one place. Per-property reporting built in.
Each property keeps its own personality. Different colors, different rewards, different perks — one cohesive program.
No franchise fees. No corporate mandates. Your hotels. Your brand. Your guest relationships.
Plug in your numbers and see what happens when guests start coming back direct.
Annual average is fine
Expedia, Booking.com, Hotels.com, etc.
Usually 15–25% depending on your agreement
These guests came and went. You don't have their email. You can't bring them back.
If your loyalty program moves...
| OTA guests to direct | Guests retained | Commission saved | New direct rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10% | ~190/yr | $14,947/yr | 64% |
| 20% | ~380/yr | $29,894/yr | 68% |
| 30% | ~569/yr | $44,840/yr | 72% |
That's 190 to 569 guests per year who become YOUR repeat customers — and $14,947 to $44,840 in commissions you stop paying.
And it compounds. Year two, those guests come back direct again — plus the new ones you enroll this year.
Tell us about your property and we'll show you what your branded loyalty program would look like. No commitment, no pressure.
“We built South EST because we've been in the hotel business our whole lives. We watched OTAs take a bigger cut every year and knew there had to be a better way for independent hotels. You deserve the same loyalty tools the big chains have — without the big-chain price tag.”
Created by a 4th-generation hotelier
CPA by training, hotelier by heritage. Built from real experience running independent coastal properties.