Hotel Distribution Consultancy will pair hotel businesses with industry experts to help them increase direct bookings in the UK and other European source markets.

During his time heading up Airtours/MyTravel, Endacott oversaw hotel buying functions before taking on responsibility for UK tour operations and high street retail, roles he said had allowed him to build up an "in-depth understanding" of the beach hotel sector.

He has also, for the past 10 years, provided consultancy services to OTAs and homeworking ventures.

Endacott claims to have already formed "strategic alliances" with a range of UK-focused providers, and is in negotiations with businesses in other European source markets "to extend the consultancy offering and create a multi-source market offering".

"The holiday market continues to evolve, and many hotels now want to increase their mix of direct bookings to improve cash flow, margins and reduce reliance on booking.com, tour operators or OTAs," said Endacott.

"HDC aims to guide hotels through the nuances of the UK market and to introduce them to business that can provide call centre support, website development, barter-based advertising in exchange for empty rooms, PPC [pay-per-click advertising], SEO [search engine optimisation], metasearch, PR, trade representation and Instagram brand advertising."

He added: "After 30 years in the UK holiday sector, I have an extensive black book of contacts and knowledge of home to best promote hotels across trade, Google, metasearch, and social channels. Many hotels are still making very basic mistakes and could do with some local market know how."