Industry Pillar · Hotels & Hospitality
Guests find you on an OTA, then book on the OTA. You pay for a customer you already had.
Hospitality marketing is a fight for the direct booking. Guests discover you on MakeMyTrip and Booking.com, read your reviews on Google and TripAdvisor, and most of them book back on the OTA at a 15-25 percent commission. I build the direct-booking funnel, the reputation layer, and the metasearch presence that move bookings to your own site, so the OTA becomes a shopfront, not a landlord.
What goes into hospitality marketing that books direct.
Not a brochure site and an OTA listing. A direct-booking funnel, a managed reputation, metasearch presence, seasonal demand campaigns, and a guest CRM that brings them back.
Direct-booking funnel
A booking engine on your own site, fast and mobile-first, with a rate that beats or matches the OTA. The guest who discovered you on an OTA gets a reason to book direct.
Reputation management
Review velocity and response across Google, TripAdvisor, and the OTAs. A guest reads the score before the photos; managing it is not optional.
OTA and metasearch strategy
Your OTA listings optimised for discovery, plus a presence on Google Hotel Ads and metasearch so you compete at the moment of comparison, not only inside one app.
Local and search discovery
Google Business Profile, location and amenity pages, and content for the "hotels near" and "best stay in" searches that start a trip.
Seasonal demand campaigns
Meta and Google campaigns built around your occupancy calendar: fill the low season, premium the high season, target the events and weekends that drive your city.
Guest CRM and repeat stays
Past guests into a CRM, with WhatsApp and email flows for offers, festivals, and re-stay nudges. A repeat guest costs nothing in commission.
How hospitality marketing actually runs.
Where bookings leak
Your direct-vs-OTA split, your review scores, your booking engine, your search presence. The audit finds where commission and guests are leaking.
Direct-booking layer
Booking engine, rate parity, reputation system, Google Business Profile, and the pages guests search for. The foundation for booking direct.
Discovery and metasearch
OTA listings optimised, metasearch and Google Hotel Ads live, seasonal campaigns built around your occupancy calendar.
Own the repeat guest
Guest CRM, WhatsApp and email flows, re-stay offers. The booking that costs no commission at all.
One operator vs. hospitality agency vs. relying on the OTAs.
| What matters for a property | One operator (me) | Hospitality agency | Relying on the OTAs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Direct bookings | The whole point, built for | Sometimes scoped | Against their interest |
| Reputation | Managed across all platforms | Often a separate retainer | Their score, their rules |
| Metasearch presence | Set up and run | Varies | You pay them for it |
| Seasonal demand | Tuned to your occupancy calendar | Generic campaigns | Their algorithm, their priority |
| Guest data | Stays yours, used for re-stays | Rarely used | Theirs, not yours |
| Who runs it | One operator, accountable to direct revenue | Account manager | Nobody, on your side |
Travel and hospitality-adjacent work.
Travel, events, and enquiry-driven projects, where the same discovery, reputation, and fast-funnel discipline that fills rooms applies.
Three ways to bring me in.
Booking audit
~2 weeks
Your direct-vs-OTA split, review scores, booking engine, and search presence audited for where commission and guests are leaking. A written priority list, yours to act on or hand back to me.
Setup sprint
4-8 weeks
Booking engine and rate parity sorted, reputation system live, Google Business Profile and search pages built, metasearch set up. The direct-booking foundation.
Retainer
ongoing
I run hospitality marketing as one system: reputation managed, seasonal campaigns run to your occupancy calendar, metasearch live, guest CRM growing direct re-stays. Friday WhatsApp report. Pause anytime.
The real questions property owners ask.
What pairs with hospitality marketing.
Related services
Relevant industries
Tell me about your property.
Send me a short brief: your property type, your location, your current direct-versus-OTA split, and your review scores. I will reply within 24 hours with where commission is leaking and what a direct-booking system would look like. No sales call needed.