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Travel & Hospitality PPC

Google Ads for Hotels, Tours & Travel

Direct bookings, not OTA commission bleed.

We run Google Ads for independent hotels, tour operators, destination marketing organizations, and travel brands. Our focus is on direct bookings at a rate that materially beats OTA commission structures — and on Google Hotel Ads for properties specifically.

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10+ yrs
Inside Google before this
500+
Brands we've worked with
Vertical
Travel & Hospitality-specific playbooks
What breaks

Why Travel & Hospitality Google Ads fail.

01

OTAs outbid hotels on their own brand terms

Booking.com and Expedia routinely bid on your hotel's brand name, intercepting direct-booking searches and taking 15-25% commission on bookings that should have been direct. Most hotels either don't protect their brand search or do it ineffectively.

02

Metasearch complexity confuses operators

Google Hotel Ads, Trivago, Kayak, and Tripadvisor operate differently from standard Google Ads. Rate parity rules, room-type mapping, and real-time availability feeds add infrastructure most operators haven't built. Without it, hotel ads can't compete.

03

Seasonality and lead time wreck consistent optimization

Beach resort demand peaks in June-August. Ski resort demand peaks in January-March. Most hotels run the same bids and budgets year-round, leaving peak season revenue on the table and wasting spend in low season.

What works

Travel & Hospitality PPC tactics that actually produce revenue.

Tactic 01

Brand-term protection against OTAs

Bid on your own hotel name with high max-CPC to outrank Booking.com and Expedia on brand searches. The CPC is low because you have high Quality Score on your own brand. Commission savings from reclaimed direct bookings dwarf the brand-term ad spend.

Tactic 02

Google Hotel Ads / Property Promotion Ads

Google Hotel Ads (now Property Promotion Ads inside Performance Max Travel) show hotels directly in SERP with pricing. This is where the direct-booking battle happens. Requires a rates & availability feed integration — usually through your booking engine (Siteminder, Cloudbeds, DerbySoft).

Tactic 03

Destination vs property-level campaigns

Destination intent ('hotels in Aspen') gets metasearch campaigns. Property-level intent ('Hotel Jerome Aspen') gets branded search campaigns. Mid-funnel intent ('luxury hotels Aspen ski-in') gets destination-specific Search campaigns with direct links to property pages.

Tactic 04

Seasonal bid modifiers and dayparting

Bid 150-300% higher during your high-season booking windows. Daypart around when travelers actually search (evenings, weekends for leisure; weekday business hours for business travel). Hotels running static bids leave 20-40% of peak season revenue to OTAs.

Tactic 05

Booking-completed conversion with revenue value

Don't count 'search on property page' as conversion. Count booking-completed with full revenue value (room rate × nights, not per-night rate). Smart Bidding will optimize toward actual booked revenue — and integrating cancellation data back via offline conversions protects against scaling on bookings that get refunded.

Our playbook

How we run Travel & Hospitality campaigns.

01

Week 1: Brand audit + OTA conquest assessment

We audit your brand-term performance, measure how much commission bleed goes to OTAs on branded searches, and assess Google Hotel Ads / feed integration readiness.

02

Week 2: Brand protection + Hotel Ads activation

Brand-term campaigns live with OTA-conquest bidding. Google Hotel Ads activated with rates/availability feed via booking engine. Destination-specific campaigns built for mid-funnel intent.

03

Week 3: Launch + seasonal bid automation

Campaigns live with seasonal bid modifiers. Booking-completed conversion tracking with full revenue value. Offline import for cancellation data configured. First optimization cycle on day 7.

04

Month 2+: Scale on ADR and length-of-stay value

Once booking revenue flows back, shift Smart Bidding toward higher-value bookings (longer stays, premium room types, package add-ons). This is how a hotel shifts from 'cost per booking' to 'cost per $500 ADR booking with 3+ night stay'.

Frequently asked

Questions about Travel & Hospitality Google Ads.

What is a realistic cost per direct booking via Google Ads?

Independent hotels: 8-15% of ADR on brand terms, 20-40% of ADR on non-brand. Tour operators: $50-$200 per booking. Vacation rentals: 12-25% of booking value. The comparison number that matters is direct-booking cost vs OTA commission — OTAs commonly take 15-25%, so any direct campaign running under that is profitable.

Should hotels use Google Hotel Ads?

Yes, non-negotiable for any hotel competing against OTAs. Google Hotel Ads (Property Promotion Ads) show your hotel with real-time rates directly in the SERP next to Booking.com and Expedia. Without participation, OTAs win the booking. Requires a booking engine integration — typically already in place on most properties.

How do I prevent OTAs from bidding on my hotel's brand name?

You can't fully prevent it — OTAs have contractual rights to bid on hotel brand names under most rate parity agreements. But you can outrank them by running your own brand-term campaigns with high max-CPC and Ad Rank. Your Quality Score on your own brand is near-perfect, so your effective CPC stays low even at high bid ceilings.

What's the minimum ad spend for hotel Google Ads?

$1,500-$3,000/month for independent boutique hotels focused on brand protection. $5,000-$15,000/month for mid-size properties running full direct-booking campaigns. $25,000+/month for luxury and resort properties competing on destination-level search. Below $1,500/month, you cannot meaningfully compete against OTA spend in your category.

How do seasonal hotels handle Google Ads in off-season?

Scale back, don't pause. Pausing campaigns loses Smart Bidding learning and brand-term auction history. Instead, reduce budget to maintain brand-term coverage (cheap) and kill non-brand destination campaigns for the off-season. Re-activate destination campaigns 60-90 days before next high season when booking-window searches start.

Google Ads vs Expedia / Booking.com commission — which is better?

Run both, but actively defend direct bookings. OTA commission averages 15-25%. Well-run Google Ads direct-booking campaigns routinely deliver bookings at 8-15% of ADR — materially better economics. The goal isn't to replace OTAs (they produce real incremental bookings) but to stop losing direct-intent bookings to OTA brand-term bidding.
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