Case study · Hotels
Guests who book with the hotel, not the agency
A hotel group was paying commission on most of its online bookings, including those from guests who had searched for the hotel by name. This is how we used paid search and hotel ads to bring those bookings direct, and measured each property on revenue after commission.
Project overview
Paid search for direct bookings.
- Industry
- Hotels
- Client
- Confidential
- Solution
- Paid search and hotel ads
- Platform
- Google Ads + booking engine
- Timeline
- 8–12 weeks
- Team
- 3 people
- Properties
- Every hotel in the group
- Measurement
- Booking revenue per property
- Integration
- Booking engine and rates feed
Expected business outcomes
What the client set out to achieve
The comparison was always the commission that a direct booking avoids.
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20–40%
More direct booking revenue
Guests who search for the hotel are offered the direct rate first.
Target range over six months; measured in the booking engine
-
8–12×
Return on advertising spend
Brand and hotel ad campaigns cost far less than agency commission.
Target range; varies by property and season
-
5–10 pts
Higher share of bookings made direct
Bookings move from online travel agencies to the hotel's own site.
Percentage-point range; tracked per property
Business challenges
Where the client started
The group's best customers were being sold back to it.
Brand searches
Travel agencies advertised on the hotels' own names.
Hotel ads
The group's direct rate did not appear next to the agencies' rates.
Tracking
The booking engine sat on another domain, so revenue was not tracked.
Budgets
One budget for the group, with no view per property.
Parity
Direct rates were not always the best available.
Proposed solution
What the paid search programme covered
Win back the guests who were already looking for the hotel, then widen out.
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Brand protection
Campaigns on each hotel's name, with direct booking benefits in the advert.
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Hotel ads
Direct rates shown in Google's hotel results through a rates feed.
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Booking engine tracking
Revenue tracked across the website and the booking engine.
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Destination campaigns
Campaigns for each city and occasion, judged on revenue.
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Per-property budgets
Budgets and targets set for each hotel.
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Commission comparison
Advertising cost compared with the commission avoided.
Project requirements
What the client asked us for
The request was more direct bookings. The quickest gain was from guests already searching for the hotels by name, who were being intercepted by agency adverts.
We also raised rate parity early: advertising a direct rate that is higher than the agency's only sends the guest back to the agency.
What the project had to deliver
- 01Direct rates visible wherever guests compare
- 02Revenue tracked through the booking engine
- 03Targets and budgets per hotel
- 04Advertising cost compared with commission
Key challenges & considerations
What made it harder, and what we did
-
A booking engine on a separate domain
What we did
Cross-domain tracking was set up so revenue was recorded from the advert to the confirmed booking.
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Agencies with far larger budgets
What we did
Spend was concentrated on brand and hotel searches, where a direct booking costs far less than commission.
-
Seasonal demand that differs by property
What we did
Budgets and targets were set per property and adjusted by season.
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Rate parity agreements with agencies
What we did
Direct booking benefits were offered within the parity agreements: flexible terms and extras rather than lower rates.
What we watched for
- Track through the booking engine first
- Protect brand searches before anything else
- Check rate parity before advertising
- Compare cost with commission, not with clicks
Development process
Track revenue, protect the brand, then expand
Campaigns were launched in the order of their return.
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Tracking
Revenue tracked from advert to confirmed booking.
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Brand campaigns
Each hotel's name protected.
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Hotel ads
Rates feed connected and direct rates shown.
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Destination campaigns
Launched per city once tracking was trusted.
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Budgets per hotel
Set from each property's targets and season.
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Monthly review
Direct share and return reviewed per hotel.
Technology stack
Ads, a rates feed and the booking engine
Every campaign is measured on confirmed booking revenue.
Advertising
- Google Ads
- Google Hotel Ads
- Metasearch
Bookings
- Booking engine integration
- Rates and availability feed
- Cross-domain tracking
Measurement
- Google Analytics 4
- Revenue per property
- Looker Studio
Testing
- Ad copy tests
- Landing page tests
- Budget pacing alerts
Quality assurance & deployment
Checked before it went live, measured after
Marketing work is only as good as its measurement. Tracking was verified before anything launched, technical changes were tested on staging, and every result was reconciled with the client's own sales or booking data.
- Conversion tracking tested end to end before launch
- Technical changes checked on staging with a full crawl
- Redirects, links and structured data validated
- Copy and claims reviewed by the client's experts
- Reported figures reconciled with the client's own system
Deployment
- 01Budgets per hotelSet from each property's targets and season.
- 02Monthly reviewDirect share and return reviewed per hotel.
- 03Staged releasesChanges went live in small batches, each one watched in the first days.
- 04Reporting and handoverA monthly review against the agreed targets, and documentation the client's team can work from.
Final deliverables
The direct rate is the first thing a guest sees
A guest searching for one of the hotels now sees the hotel's own advert and its own rate, and books through its own engine.
Each general manager has a monthly view of direct share, advertising cost and commission avoided for their property.
- Brand searches protected
- Direct rates in hotel results
- Revenue tracked per booking
- A monthly view for each property
Handed over to the client
- 01Audit and roadmapFindings ranked by their effect
- 02Implemented changesIn the client's own site, accounts and tools
- 03Tracking and dashboardResults in the client's own figures
- 04Content and campaign assetsTemplates, pages and creative
- 05Documentation and trainingSo the client's team can carry on
Success metrics
How success is measured
| Measure | Outcome | How it is measured |
|---|---|---|
| More direct booking revenue | 20–40% | Target range over six months; measured in the booking engine |
| Return on advertising spend | 8–12× | Target range; varies by property and season |
| Higher share of bookings made direct | 5–10 pts | Percentage-point range; tracked per property |
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