Hotel SEO that wins the booking back from the OTAs.
A guest searches your hotel's name, finds Booking.com and Expedia sitting beside your own site, and books wherever the button looks easiest. We run hotel SEO for independent properties: owning your brand searches, showing up in Google Hotels and in searches about your area, and counting direct bookings, not visits.
Hotel SEO is the work of getting an independent hotel's own website found and booked, rather than its listing on an online travel agency. It covers brand searches, Google Hotels and free booking links, local area content, room and amenity pages, hotel schema and reviews, measured in direct bookings and room revenue.
Dream, compare, book.
A stay gets planned in stages. The OTAs are built for all three. Most hotel websites only turn up for the last one.
Dream
Compare
Book
Where independent hotels hand bookings away.
Most of these cost little to fix except attention.
Losing your own name
Search a hotel's name and OTA listings often appear alongside, or above, the official site. A complete Business Profile, a fast website and your rates in Google's hotel results give Google a direct option to show.
No free booking links
Google shows free booking links in its hotel results and charges hotel partners no fee for them. If your booking engine or channel manager connects to Google, it may be able to switch them on for you. Plenty of properties never ask.
A booking engine that loses mobile guests
SEO can bring a guest to your site, but a slow, fiddly booking flow sends them straight back to the OTA app they trust. We review the path from search result to confirmation email, not just rankings.
Room pages without answers
Bed sizes, step-free access, parking, pets, late check-in. Guests want specifics before they commit, and pages that give them can rank for detailed searches the OTA listings answer badly.
Reviews left unanswered
Guests read Google and Tripadvisor before they book, and your replies show who actually runs the place. Google also says more reviews and positive ratings can help local ranking. A daily reply routine takes minutes.
No hotel schema
Hotel and LodgingBusiness markup describes your address, amenities, check-in times and star rating in a format search engines read. It won't set your prices in Google Hotels, which come from booking feeds, but it removes guesswork.
What we do for hotels
SEO, Google Hotels and content in one plan, built for properties without a twelve-person revenue team.
Brand search defence
Official site, Business Profile and knowledge panel set up so a search for your hotel's name leads to you, with Google's "Official site" badge where your booking partner qualifies.
Google Hotels and free booking links
We work with your booking engine or channel manager to get your rates and free booking links showing in Google's hotel results.
Area guides that rank
Guides to the neighbourhood, seasonal events, walks and places to eat nearby, written from your staff's local knowledge, not rewritten from the tourist board.
Room and amenity pages
A page for each room type, plus weddings, meetings, spa or dining if you offer them, with the specifics guests usually ask at the front desk.
Reviews and reputation
Post-checkout review requests, reply templates for Google and Tripadvisor, and a monthly read of what guests praise and what they grumble about.
Direct booking tracking
Booking engine and GA4 connected so you see bookings, room nights and revenue by search and page, set against what those stays would have cost through an OTA.
SEO, Hotel Ads or the OTAs?
You'll probably keep all three. The question is the mix, and how much commission you're happy to pay for it.
| SEO and direct booking | Google Hotel Ads | OTAs (Booking.com, Expedia) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| How you pay | Monthly retainer plus your booking engine fees | Ad spend, set by your bids | Commission on each stay |
| Guest relationship | Yours: email, preferences, repeat stays | Yours, once they book on your site | The OTA holds the booking data and the app |
| Speed | Brand fixes in weeks, area guides in months | Days, once rates are connected | Immediate |
| Reach | People searching your name and your area | Travellers already comparing hotels on Google | Huge, including overseas travellers |
| Best for | Lowering what each booking costs over time | Winning your own brand searches | Filling dates you'd struggle to sell |
Rate parity matters here. Under the EU Digital Markets Act, Booking.com must let hotels in the EEA offer better prices on their own websites. Elsewhere, read your OTA contracts before you advertise a lower direct rate.
Your first 90 days
A first quarter for an independent property. Brand fixes move quickly; area content takes longer. Here's why.
Own your name
Brand search audit, Business Profile clean-up, booking engine and GA4 tracking check, and a call with your channel manager about rates in Google and free booking links.
Rooms and reviews
Room and amenity pages rebuilt, hotel schema added, a review reply routine started on Google and Tripadvisor, and direct-booking perks made obvious on every page.
Area guides
First local guides published ahead of your next peak season, links from venues, attractions and event organisers, and the first report on direct bookings.
$11.3K to $47.5K a month.
Our SEO retainer is $1,199 a month, with the same deliverables listed on our SEO packages page. Our SEO retainer is $1,199 a month. We don't have a hotel case study to show you, so the proof below comes from online brands that had to grow through organic search because paid channels kept closing on them, a fight not unlike outlasting OTA ad budgets.
Sources: Google Hotel Center Help, "About hotel free booking links" and "About Official site badges"; European Commission, "Booking must comply with all relevant obligations under the Digital Markets Act" (14 November 2024); Google Business Profile Help, "Tips to improve your local ranking on Google"; schema.org, Hotel and LodgingBusiness types. Case-study figures from Hello Bleu client GA4 and Google Ads data, client names withheld.
Free direct-booking audit.
Send us your website. We'll look at what guests see when they search your hotel and your area, and where the booking ends up.
- Brand searchWho appears when guests search your hotel's name, and whether your own site gets the click.
- Google HotelsWhether your rates and free booking links show in Google's hotel results.
- Content gapsThe area and room searches nearby properties rank for that you don't.
Prefer to talk it through? Book a free 30-minute call →
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Book a Free CallFrequently asked questions
How much does hotel SEO cost?
Hello Bleu's SEO retainer is $1,199 a month, with the full list of deliverables on our SEO packages page. The useful test is against OTA commission: if SEO moves enough bookings to your own site each month, it pays for itself. Our SEO ROI calculator lets you run that sum with your own rates.
How long until we see more direct bookings?
Brand search and Business Profile fixes can change what guests see within weeks. Area guides and room pages usually take several months to rank, so we publish them well ahead of the season they're written for. Plan around your calendar: work that starts in autumn should be aimed at spring and summer searches.
Can we offer cheaper rates on our own website?
It depends where you are and what you've signed. In the EEA, the Digital Markets Act has required Booking.com since November 2024 to let hotels offer better prices and conditions on their own websites. Outside it, parity terms live in your OTA contracts, so read them or ask your account manager before promoting a lower direct rate.
What are Google free booking links?
They're unpaid links in Google's hotel results that show your rate and send guests to your own booking page. Google charges hotel partners no fee for them, though normal charges apply if you also run Hotel Ads. If your booking engine or channel manager connects to Google, it may be able to turn them on; otherwise you start in Google Hotel Center.
Do Tripadvisor and Google reviews affect hotel SEO?
Google says the number of reviews and positive ratings can help local ranking, and both Google and Tripadvisor reviews shape whether a guest books. We won't buy reviews or filter out unhappy guests. We set up a routine that asks every guest and replies to every review, good or bad, in a human voice.
Can you guarantee we'll outrank Booking.com for our own name?
No. OTAs advertise on and rank for hotel names, and Google decides what appears, not us. What we can do is make your official site, profile and booking links the strongest direct option Google has, then report how much brand search traffic and revenue you keep.
From The Bleu Print
Guides from our team on the questions we get asked most.
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The formula, worked examples for ads, SEO and your budget, and four free calculators that do the maths in seconds.
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Read article →Fewer commissions.
More guests booking direct.
Book a free call. We'll search for your hotel the way a guest does, show you where bookings slip away to the OTAs, and tell you honestly what SEO can win back.
Book a Free Call