Helping hotels across the UK grow direct bookings, reduce OTA commission, and build a marketing engine that fills rooms profitably. SEO, PPC and content that drives direct revenue.
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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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Brand protection PPC that intercepts guests before OTAs capture them, plus discovery campaigns that attract new guests. We build and manage campaigns that grow direct bookings and reduce commission costs from day one.
Rank higher for the searches that matter. From your own hotel name to discovery searches like "boutique hotel [location]" and "hotel with spa", we get your property found directly — not through a commission-hungry OTA.
Reach potential guests on Instagram and Facebook with targeted campaigns. Showcase your rooms, restaurant, and experiences to the right audience — driving direct bookings for stays, events, and ancillary services.
Get your hotel shown in ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and other AI travel tools. The way guests discover and compare hotels is changing — we make sure your property appears in AI-powered travel recommendations.
Turn more website visitors into direct bookers. We analyse how guests use your site through session recording and heatmapping, and optimise the booking journey to compete with the seamless OTA experience.
Trusted by 150+ businesses to deliver organic growth that actually bears fruit 🍌
The hotel industry has been transformed by digital distribution. Where guests once booked through travel agents or called reception directly, today the overwhelming majority of bookings begin with a search engine. The challenge for hotels — particularly independents and small groups — is that the search landscape is dominated by OTAs. Booking.com, Expedia, and Hotels.com pour billions into advertising to ensure they appear between your hotel and your potential guest. Every booking through these platforms costs you 15-25% in commission.
This guide explains how digital marketing works specifically for hotels, which strategies shift the balance back towards direct bookings, and how Gorilla Marketing helps properties increase occupancy while reducing commission costs and building genuine guest relationships.
The reality: 52% of travellers visit a hotel's own website after finding it on an OTA — but most don't book directly because the hotel's site doesn't give them a reason to. A proper direct booking strategy can shift 30-50% of OTA revenue onto your own channels, saving thousands in commission every month.
We work with hoteliers who share a common frustration. They're paying enormous commissions to OTAs, their own website generates a fraction of their bookings, and every attempt to reduce OTA dependency seems to plateau. The irony is painful: guests search for the hotel by name, find it on Booking.com, and book there instead of direct — costing the hotel 20% on a booking that should have been commission-free.
The underlying issue is that most marketing agencies don't understand hotel distribution. They'll focus on vanity metrics like website traffic or social media followers without addressing the fundamental question: how do we convert OTA lookers into direct bookers?
OTAs have trained guests to book through their platforms with loyalty programmes, price guarantees, and seamless user experiences. Competing requires more than just having a booking engine on your website — it requires a comprehensive digital strategy that intercepts guests at every stage of their journey and gives them compelling reasons to book direct.
We build direct booking strategies that combine brand protection PPC, organic search dominance, conversion-optimised landing pages, and compelling direct booking incentives. The goal is simple: every guest who discovers your hotel should end up booking on your website, not an OTA.
Every hotel is different. A city centre business hotel has different marketing needs to a countryside boutique property or a coastal resort. We tailor strategies based on your property type, your guest mix, your location, and the balance you want between room revenue, event income, and ancillary sales.
Here's how our core services apply to hotels:
Hotel SEO serves two critical functions. First, it ensures your hotel website ranks above or alongside OTAs for your own brand name — reducing commission leakage on guests who are already looking for you. Second, it captures non-branded searches from travellers who haven't yet decided where to stay, bringing new guests into your pipeline without OTA involvement.
For hotels, SEO success requires optimising for both brand and discovery searches, building content around local attractions and experiences, and ensuring your website's technical performance matches or exceeds OTA booking experiences.
| Keyword Type | Examples | Intent Level |
|---|---|---|
| Brand + Direct | "[Hotel Name] official site", "[Hotel Name] book direct" | Very High |
| Location + Type | "boutique hotel Lake District", "city centre hotel Newcastle" | Very High |
| Experience / Feature | "hotel with spa Yorkshire", "dog friendly hotel Peak District" | High |
| Occasion-Based | "wedding venue hotel Lancashire", "Christmas break hotel deals" | High |
| Local Discovery | "where to stay near [attraction]", "hotels near [event venue]" | Medium-High |
PPC for hotels is dominated by one critical strategy: brand protection. OTAs bid aggressively on your hotel name — every click they capture on your brand terms costs you a 15-25% commission on the resulting booking. Bidding on your own name ensures your official website appears first, intercepting guests before they reach the OTA listing.
Beyond brand protection, we use PPC to capture non-branded discovery traffic, promote seasonal packages, and drive bookings for event spaces and ancillary services. The economics are compelling: even at a £2-3 cost per click on your own brand name, you're saving 15-25% commission on bookings that would otherwise go through an OTA.
Campaigns are built around the booking funnel, from brand defence to new guest acquisition:
Local SEO for hotels extends beyond room bookings. Your restaurant, bar, spa, afternoon tea, and event spaces all represent revenue opportunities from local customers — not just overnight guests. A hotel that dominates local search for these services can generate substantial ancillary revenue that many properties completely overlook.
Your Google Business Profile shows basic hotel information but doesn't highlight your restaurant, spa, event spaces, or wedding facilities separately. Local residents don't think of your hotel as a dining or event destination — they drive past it to competitors who've optimised for these searches.
We optimise your Google Business Profile to showcase every revenue-generating service — rooms, restaurant, spa, events, weddings. We create separate landing pages for each service, build local citations, and implement a review strategy that highlights guest experiences across all your offerings.
Hotel content marketing serves a dual purpose: it captures organic search traffic from travellers planning trips (driving room bookings), and it positions your property as a destination in its own right (driving restaurant covers, spa visits, and event enquiries). The most effective hotel content goes beyond describing rooms — it sells the experience of staying with you and exploring the surrounding area.
We create content that inspires travel decisions and positions your hotel as the obvious choice — area guides that showcase why your location is worth visiting, experience pages that sell your unique offerings, and seasonal content that captures demand months before guests arrive.
| Content Type | Purpose | Example Topics |
|---|---|---|
| Area Guides | Capture trip-planning searches | Things to do near [hotel], Best walks in [area], Weekend break guide |
| Experience Pages | Sell your unique offerings | Spa day packages, Afternoon tea experience, Chef's table dining |
| Seasonal Content | Capture forward bookings | Christmas at [hotel], Summer holiday packages, Autumn breaks |
| Wedding Content | Capture high-value event bookings | Wedding venue guide, Real weddings at [hotel], Ceremony and reception packages |
| Best-Time Content | Target planning-stage travellers | Best time to visit [area], What to pack for [region], Getting here guide |
AI is fundamentally changing how travellers plan trips and choose hotels. ChatGPT, Google's AI Overviews, and Perplexity already recommend properties, compare options, and even suggest itineraries — often synthesising information from OTAs, review sites, and hotel websites. Hotels with rich, structured content will be the ones AI tools recommend when travellers ask "where should I stay in [location]?".
We're building strategies that position hotels for this shift — ensuring your property information, guest experiences, and unique selling points are structured so AI systems include you in personalised travel recommendations.
Forward thinking: Agencies that ignore AI will leave their clients behind. We're actively testing and refining strategies for the next generation of travel search — so your hotel stays visible wherever guests are planning their next trip.
The hotel booking journey has multiple touchpoints — and OTAs are competing for the guest at every one. Understanding this journey and ensuring your direct channels are present at each stage is the foundation of reducing commission dependency.
We've worked with hotels across the UK — from independent boutique properties to hotel groups with multiple sites. We understand the economics of hotel distribution, the commission dynamics of OTA relationships, and the strategies that genuinely shift the direct booking needle without damaging your OTA rankings.
Whatever your property type or revenue mix, we can build a strategy around it. Here are the hotel services and revenue channels we most commonly help properties promote:
| Room Revenue | Events & Functions | Ancillary Revenue |
|---|---|---|
| Direct room bookings | Wedding receptions | Restaurant covers |
| Package stays (spa, dining) | Corporate conferences | Spa & wellness treatments |
| Seasonal breaks | Private dining events | Afternoon tea |
| Last-minute availability | Christmas & New Year parties | Bar & lounge trade |
| Long stays & corporate rates | Celebration packages | Gift vouchers & experiences |
| Group bookings | Award ceremonies & galas | Meeting room hire |
| Dog friendly / accessible rooms | Team building days | Cookery classes & experiences |
Ready to stop paying OTA commissions on bookings that should be direct and build a marketing engine that fills rooms profitably? Here's how we work:
For further reading on hotel marketing and growing direct revenue, we recommend these external resources:
Have questions about digital marketing for your hotel? 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.
