Hospitality & Hotel Marketing
Search-led marketing for greater visibility, more direct bookings and reduced reliance on third-party platforms
I help hotels and hospitality businesses improve how they are found and evaluated during travel research, strengthen their direct booking channels and generate more commercially valuable reservations and enquiries.
My experience includes optimising a high-traffic website for a large international hotel chain, alongside work with multiple high-end boutique hotels in the UK. I combine SEO, Google Ads, content, analytics and AI search visibility to help businesses compete throughout the research and comparison journey while reducing excessive dependence on commission-based booking platforms.
Experienced Marketing Support for Hotels and Hospitality Businesses
I have worked in search and digital marketing since 2002, across agency, freelance, in-house and consultancy roles. From 2012 to 2014, I was a Senior Analyst at a specialist hospitality digital agency, where I worked on SEO for a large international hotel chain and later led the project team.
This involved optimising a large, high-traffic website representing multiple hotels and destinations around the world. Work had to account for individual properties and locations while maintaining a clear and scalable approach across the wider site. It also involved coordinating with developers and resolving technical implementation problems where changes could affect many properties and substantial volumes of search traffic.
I have also supported multiple high-end boutique hotels in the UK. These projects required a more property-specific approach, communicating the distinctive character, location, facilities and experiences of each hotel while improving visibility during destination research and encouraging prospective guests to book directly.
This combination gives me experience of both complex international hotel websites and individual properties competing within distinctive UK destinations. Based in Edinburgh, I work remotely with hotels and hospitality businesses across Scotland and the UK, either providing direct support or working alongside internal teams, developers, booking-platform providers and other specialist suppliers.
Common Hotel and Hospitality Marketing Challenges
Online travel agencies such as Booking.com and Expedia provide hotels with valuable reach, but commissionable reservations reduce the amount retained from each stay. Heavy reliance on these platforms can also make it harder to build direct customer relationships and leave the hotel dependent on channels it does not control. The objective is not necessarily to replace OTAs, but to create a more profitable balance between third-party distribution and direct bookings.
Hotels must also compete throughout a complicated research journey involving destination searches, maps, reviews, prices, amenities, room types and availability. Even when the hotel is discovered, unclear information, inconsistent rates, poor mobile usability or friction within the booking engine can send the prospective guest back to an OTA.
Large, multi-property and frequently updated websites can develop further problems involving redirects, duplicated content, migrations, site performance and booking-platform tracking. Effective hotel marketing must connect visibility, booking experience and commercial value rather than measure rankings, traffic or reservations without considering their source and acquisition cost.
Digital Marketing Services for Hotels and Hospitality Businesses
The right approach depends on your properties, target guests, destinations, current visibility and balance between direct and third-party bookings. I combine the services that support your commercial objectives rather than treating each channel as a separate package.
Hotel SEO
Improve visibility when prospective guests research destinations, compare accommodation or search for a particular type of property, facility or experience. I can help with technical SEO, commercial keyword research, website architecture, property and location pages, content optimisation, internal linking, migrations and ranking-loss diagnosis.
Digital Marketing Consultancy
Get independent senior support without appointing a full-service agency or recruiting a permanent marketing manager. I can diagnose an existing performance problem, establish priorities, provide a second opinion, manage an ongoing search programme or work with your internal team and specialist suppliers.
Google Ads and PPC
Reach travellers actively searching for relevant destinations, accommodation, facilities and experiences. I plan and manage paid-search campaigns around commercial intent, priority markets and suitable guest types, using negative keywords, landing-page review and booking analysis to reduce wasted spend and improve the value of direct demand.
Hotel Content Strategy and Creation
Develop useful content around the information guests need when researching and comparing accommodation. This can include property and room pages, facilities, dining, spa, weddings, meetings, events, offers, destination information, local guides, FAQs and other content that supports relevant searches and booking decisions.
AI Search Visibility
Strengthen how your hotel, locations, facilities and distinctive characteristics are understood by AI-assisted search and travel-research tools. I assess important entities, terminology, topic coverage and information gaps, then improve the clear, consistent and verifiable information available to traditional search engines and AI systems.
Analytics and Booking Journey Analysis
Understand what happens between a search, website visit and completed booking or valuable enquiry. I use Google Analytics, Search Console, advertising data and available booking information to identify performance problems, assess direct-booking activity and investigate tracking gaps between the hotel website and third-party booking engine.
Why Work With an Independent Hotel Marketing Consultant?
Experience Across International and Boutique Hotels
My hospitality experience includes optimising a high-traffic, multi-property website for a large international hotel chain and supporting multiple high-end boutique hotels in the UK. I understand how destination research, property comparison, website performance and booking technology interact rather than treating SEO as an isolated activity.
Focus on Profitable Direct Demand
I concentrate on searches and campaigns that can contribute to commercially valuable bookings and enquiries. Performance can be considered through direct booking value, acquisition cost, booking-engine conversion and the balance between direct and commissionable reservations - not traffic alone.
Flexible, Independent Senior Support
I can take ownership of strategy and delivery, support an internal hotel marketing team or coordinate work with developers, booking-engine providers, content contributors and other suppliers. You receive direct advice based on your priorities rather than a predetermined package of agency services.
Discuss Your Hotel or Hospitality Marketing
Whether your business is overly dependent on online travel agencies, important properties or facilities are difficult to find, or your website receives traffic without generating enough direct bookings, I can help you understand what is happening and establish a practical way forward.
Based in Edinburgh, I work primarily remotely with hotels and hospitality businesses across Scotland and the wider UK.
Frequently asked questions
What Types of Hotels and Hospitality Businesses Can You Support?
My experience includes optimising a high-traffic, multi-property website for a large international hotel chain and supporting multiple high-end boutique hotels in the UK.
This approach is relevant to established independent hotels, boutique and destination properties, hotel groups, resorts, spa hotels, aparthotels, serviced-accommodation operators and hospitality businesses offering dining, weddings, conferences or events. The strongest fit is an established organisation where additional bookings, reservations or event enquiries have meaningful commercial value.
How Can Digital Marketing Reduce a Hotel’s Reliance on Online Travel Agencies?
SEO, paid search, content and booking-journey improvements can help more prospective guests discover the hotel directly, understand what it offers and complete a reservation through its own website.
OTAs can remain valuable sources of visibility and demand, so the objective is not necessarily to remove them. A more realistic goal is to increase the proportion of efficiently acquired direct bookings, reduce excessive commission dependency and create a more profitable distribution mix.
How Can SEO Help a Hotel Generate More Direct Bookings?
SEO can improve visibility while travellers research destinations, accommodation types, locations, facilities and specific experiences. It can also help guests who have already encountered the hotel elsewhere find its official website when they are ready to compare details or book.
Relevant work may include technical SEO, property and location pages, room and facility information, destination content, internal linking, local visibility and improvements to the pages that lead into the booking engine.
Should a Hotel Invest in SEO or Google Ads?
SEO can build sustained visibility across destination, accommodation and property-specific searches. Google Ads can provide faster access to existing demand, support priority dates or services and help hotels compete for valuable searches while organic visibility develops.
Many hotels benefit from using both, but the appropriate balance depends on destination competition, seasonality, booking value, existing visibility, OTA reliance and advertising budget. I recommend the combination supported by the available evidence rather than assuming every property needs the same approach.
Can You Help Improve a Hotel Booking Journey?
I can assess what happens between search visibility, the hotel website and the booking engine. This can identify unclear landing pages, inconsistent information, tracking gaps, mobile friction or other issues that may prevent prospective guests from completing a direct reservation.
I do not develop booking engines, but I can diagnose marketing and measurement problems, recommend requirements and coordinate with the hotel’s developers or booking-platform provider where specialist implementation is needed.
Can You Help a Hotel Appear in AI Travel Searches?
I can improve the information and signals that AI systems may use when researching, comparing or recommending hotels, although no consultant can guarantee inclusion in a particular AI-generated result.
This work can include clarifying the hotel’s location, accommodation type, room options, facilities, amenities, suitable guest groups and distinctive experiences; strengthening relevant destination and supporting content; and making important property information more consistent and verifiable across the website.
Still have questions about hospitality marketing?
Drop me a message – I’m happy to have a chat!