Marketing for Hotels and Resorts
Hotel marketing pays off when direct bookings grow faster than OTA bookings. Lead Miles builds direct-booking demand for hotels and resorts: metasearch and brand-term defence, a booking-engine-first website, package and offer campaigns, and guest lifecycle flows that turn one stay into repeat revenue.
What growth looks like for a hotel or resort
Every OTA booking costs commission. The growth job is to shift mix towards direct: capture guests who already want you, give them a reason to book on your own site, and keep them in a lifecycle that brings them back without paying commission twice.
- Defend your own brand terms so OTAs do not resell your existing demand back to you
- Metasearch presence so your direct rate appears beside the OTA rate at the decision moment
- A booking engine that loads fast on mobile and does not lose people between rate and payment
- Package and offer campaigns tied to real occupancy gaps rather than blanket discounts
- Guest lifecycle: pre-arrival upsell, in-stay service, post-stay review and rebooking
What we run
- Paid search including brand defence and metasearch management
- Paid social for offers, seasons and experience-led demand
- Website and booking-engine conversion work
- Email and messaging lifecycle across pre-arrival, in-stay and post-stay
- Reputation and review generation feeding both rankings and conversion
The numbers that decide it
| Metric | What good looks like | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Direct share of bookings | Rising quarter on quarter | Every point of shift is commission saved |
| Cost per direct booking versus OTA commission | Comfortably below commission | The honest benchmark for paid spend |
| Booking engine conversion rate | Improving without more traffic | Cheapest revenue available to a hotel |
| Repeat guest rate | Rising with lifecycle flows live | Repeat guests cost a fraction of new ones |
Common mistakes
- Comparing paid cost per booking to zero instead of to OTA commission
- Ignoring brand terms and letting OTAs buy your own name
- A beautiful site with a slow, clumsy booking engine
- Discounting publicly and undercutting your own rate parity position
Where we run this
- UAE — travel marketing
- UK — travel marketing
- US — travel marketing
- Saudi — travel marketing
- Singapore — travel marketing
- Australia — travel marketing
- Canada — travel marketing
- Thailand — travel marketing
- Germany — travel marketing
- Netherlands — travel marketing
Frequently asked questions
Is it worth bidding on our own hotel name?
Usually yes. If OTAs bid on your name, the alternative is paying commission on a guest who already chose you. Brand defence is almost always cheaper than the commission it prevents.
How do we increase direct bookings without breaking rate parity?
Add value rather than cutting rate: room upgrades, flexible cancellation, breakfast, late checkout or loyalty credit available only on direct bookings. That keeps parity intact while making direct the better deal.
Other travel business types
- Marketing for Tour Operators
- Marketing for DMCs and Destination Management Companies
- Marketing for Luxury and Experiential Travel
- Marketing for MICE and Corporate Travel
- Marketing for Travel Agencies and Advisors
- Marketing for Adventure, Safari and Expedition Travel
- Marketing for Inbound Tourism and Destination Marketing
Pricing and market data last reviewed .