Helping restaurants, hotels, pubs, and venues across the UK grow direct bookings, reduce OTA dependency, and fill covers year-round. SEO, PPC and content that drives revenue.
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Rated 4.8 /5 on Google and 4 other major review platforms. We have been dominating Google for 11 years.
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Senior strategists, not account managers. Real results, not vanity metrics. Straight talk, not jargon
We’ve spent 11 years building campaigns that actually move the needle – and we’re confident enough in our work to prove it upfront. No long contracts, no run-around, just a team that knows what they’re doing and communicates like humans.
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Instant visibility on Google when guests search for dining, accommodation, and event venues. We build campaigns that deliver direct bookings from day one — reducing your dependency on commission-heavy third-party platforms.
Rank higher for the searches that matter. From "restaurants near me" to occasion-specific searches like wedding venues and private dining, we get your business found by guests ready to book.
Reach potential guests on Instagram and Facebook with targeted campaigns. Showcase your venue, seasonal menus, and events to the right audience — driving direct reservations and event enquiries.
Get your venue shown in ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and other AI search tools. The way guests discover restaurants and hotels is changing — we make sure your business appears in AI-powered recommendations.
Turn more website visitors into direct bookings. We analyse how guests use your site through session recording and heatmapping, and remove the friction stopping them from reserving a table, booking a room, or enquiring about an event.
Trusted by 150+ businesses to deliver organic growth that actually bears fruit 🍌
The hospitality industry runs on reputation, reviews, and visibility. Whether you operate a restaurant group, a boutique hotel, a pub chain, a wedding venue, or a catering company — the vast majority of your customers now find and evaluate you online before they ever walk through the door. The competition for attention is fierce: every high street is crowded with dining options, OTAs dominate hotel search results, and social media has made every meal a public review.
This guide breaks down how digital marketing works for hospitality businesses, which channels deliver the strongest return on investment, and how Gorilla Marketing helps venues and operators fill covers, increase direct bookings, and reduce dependency on commission-hungry third-party platforms.
The reality: 90% of diners research a restaurant online before visiting, and 75% of hotel guests check reviews before booking. Your digital presence isn't just a marketing channel — it's the front door to your business. If it doesn't look inviting, customers walk straight past.
We work with hospitality businesses regularly who share the same frustrations. They're pouring effort into creating brilliant guest experiences, but their online presence doesn't reflect that quality. Their website is outdated, they're over-reliant on Booking.com or Deliveroo for revenue, their social media gets engagement but doesn't translate into bookings, and they're losing ground to competitors with slicker digital operations.
The fundamental issue is that most marketing agencies approach hospitality as if it's just another local business. They miss the seasonal dynamics, the critical role of reviews and reputation management, the different booking channels, and the complex relationship between third-party platforms and direct revenue.
Hospitality businesses face a unique challenge: third-party platforms like Booking.com, Just Eat, and OpenTable deliver volume but eat into margins through commissions. Meanwhile, building direct bookings requires investment in marketing that many operators struggle to justify against the guaranteed (if expensive) traffic from aggregators.
We build strategies that grow direct bookings and reduce commission dependency — using SEO, local search dominance, and targeted PPC to drive customers to your own website and booking system. The result is higher margins, stronger customer relationships, and a business that isn't hostage to third-party algorithms.
Every hospitality business operates differently. A fine dining restaurant has different marketing needs to a pub group, a wedding venue, or a hotel. We build strategies around your specific business model, your revenue goals, your local competitive landscape, and the balance you want between direct bookings and third-party channels.
Here's how our core services apply to hospitality:
SEO for hospitality is about owning the searches that happen in the crucial decision-making moments: "best restaurant near me", "hotels in [city] with parking", "wedding venues [county]". These searches represent customers with immediate intent — they're going to book somewhere tonight, this weekend, or for their event. The businesses that appear in those results get the bookings.
For hospitality businesses, SEO success requires strong local optimisation, rich venue and menu content, and a technical foundation that ensures your website loads fast and converts visitors into bookings.
| Keyword Type | Examples | Intent Level |
|---|---|---|
| Venue + Location | "restaurants in Newcastle", "boutique hotel Liverpool" | Very High |
| Occasion-Based | "wedding venue Lancashire", "private dining London" | Very High |
| Cuisine / Type | "Italian restaurant near me", "dog friendly pubs Lake District" | High |
| Event-Driven | "Christmas party venues", "Sunday lunch near me" | High |
| Experience / Feature | "rooftop bar Manchester", "hotel with spa Yorkshire" | High |
PPC for hospitality is about capturing demand at the exact moment someone is deciding where to eat, stay, or host their event. The conversion window is often short — a customer searching "restaurant for tonight" will book within the hour. PPC ensures you're the option they see first.
We also use PPC strategically for seasonal peaks: Christmas party bookings, Valentine's Day reservations, summer wedding enquiries, and bank holiday promotions. Pre-planning these campaigns weeks in advance means you capture demand before competitors even start marketing.
Campaigns are structured around your venue type, booking channels, and seasonal calendar:
Local SEO is the most critical marketing channel for hospitality businesses. Nearly every customer search includes a location element — "near me", a city name, or a neighbourhood. Your Google Business Profile, your position in the local map pack, and your review profile collectively determine whether customers choose you or a competitor.
Your Google Business Profile has outdated photos, unanswered reviews, and missing information about menus, opening hours, and booking options. When customers search for restaurants or venues in your area, competitors with richer, more active profiles appear above you.
We turn your Google Business Profile into your most powerful marketing asset — professional photos, complete service information, active review management, regular posts about events and seasonal menus, and direct booking links. Combined with directory optimisation and locally-targeted content, we ensure your venue dominates local search.
Hospitality content marketing is about being discoverable for the thousands of micro-searches that customers make when planning dining experiences, holidays, events, and celebrations. From "best Sunday roast in Leeds" to "unique wedding venues Yorkshire", every piece of content that ranks is another route to a booking.
We create content that captures both practical search traffic and emotional decision-making — combining venue guides, seasonal content, and event-focused material that positions your business as the obvious choice for whatever the customer is planning.
| Content Type | Purpose | Example Topics |
|---|---|---|
| Venue Pages | Rank for venue searches, convert bookings | Private dining room, Wedding reception packages, Conference facilities |
| Seasonal Content | Capture time-sensitive demand | Christmas party menu 2026, Valentine's Day dinner, Summer terrace menu |
| Experience Pages | Target specific guest needs | Dog friendly dining, Family Sunday lunch, Afternoon tea experience |
| Area Guides | Attract tourists and visitors | Where to eat in [area], Best things to do near [venue], Weekend break guide |
| Event Content | Capture event planning searches | How to plan a wedding at [venue], Corporate event packages, Birthday party ideas |
AI is rapidly changing how people discover restaurants, hotels, and venues. ChatGPT, Google's AI Overviews, and Perplexity already recommend dining options, suggest hotels, and compare venues directly in their responses. The hospitality businesses that produce rich, structured, and authoritative content will be the ones AI tools recommend.
We're adapting strategies to ensure hospitality businesses appear in AI-generated recommendations — structuring menu data, venue information, and guest experience content so that AI systems include your business when customers ask "where should I eat in [city]?" or "best hotels near [attraction]?".
Forward thinking: Agencies that ignore AI will leave their clients behind. We're actively testing and refining strategies for the next generation of search — so your hospitality business stays visible wherever guests are looking for their next experience.
Understanding how guests discover and choose hospitality venues is essential to marketing effectively. The journey varies by occasion — a casual midweek dinner is discovered differently to a wedding venue — but search is the common starting point. Here's the typical path:
We've worked with hospitality businesses across the UK — from independent restaurants to hotel groups, pub chains, and wedding venues. We understand the seasonal rhythms, the commission dynamics of third-party platforms, and the critical importance of reputation management in an industry where one bad review can cost you dozens of bookings.
Whatever your hospitality business type, we can build a strategy around it. Here are the sectors and services we most commonly help operators promote:
| Venue Types | Services & Events | Revenue Channels |
|---|---|---|
| Restaurants & bistros | Private dining | Direct online bookings |
| Hotels & B&Bs | Wedding receptions | Direct room reservations |
| Pubs & gastropubs | Corporate events & conferences | Event & function enquiries |
| Wedding venues | Christmas & seasonal events | Takeaway & delivery orders |
| Bars & cocktail lounges | Afternoon tea | Gift vouchers & experiences |
| Catering companies | Tasting menus & experiences | Membership & loyalty |
| Event spaces | Outdoor dining & terrace | Spa & leisure bookings |
Ready to reduce your dependency on third-party platforms and build a direct booking engine for your hospitality business? Here's how we work:
For further reading on hospitality marketing and business growth, we recommend these external resources:
Have questions about digital marketing for your hospitality business? Get in touch — we're always happy to help point you in the right direction, even if you're not ready to work with us yet.
