HOTELS & HOSPITALITY// Digital marketing for independent hotels, B&Bs and accommodation businesses across the UK
Every Booking.com reservation costs you 15–25% commission. Direct bookings via your own website cost a fraction of that. We build the SEO, Google presence and paid strategy that fills rooms directly.
Why direct bookings are worth twice as much as OTA bookings and how to get more of them
Every booking that comes through Booking.com or Expedia costs your property 15 to 25 percent of the room rate. A direct booking from your own website costs nothing beyond the marketing investment that generated it. The single most commercially important objective for hotel and accommodation digital marketing is shifting the balance from OTA to direct, and every channel we use is measured against how well it achieves that.
Hotels, boutique B&Bs, self-catering properties, glamping sites and serviced apartments all benefit from the same combination: a strong Google profile that captures searches with local intent, a well-reviewed presence on both Google and TripAdvisor, direct booking capability on the website and email marketing to a database of previous guests.
SearchSoda can work with independent hotels, boutique B&Bs, self-catering accommodation, glamping and camping sites, serviced apartments and small hotel groups across the UK.
The most common problems we fix
Who this is for
Key numbers for your industry
The one thing a booking platform cannot copy
Booking.com can show a map pin and a star rating. It cannot tell a guest that five Bloomsbury museums shut on a Monday, that the Soane has a queue so go at opening, or that Sunday lunch on Lamb’s Conduit needs booking. Your hotel knows all of that because it is there. A guest who has planned their weekend on your site does not go back to an OTA to save four pounds.
The hotel is invented and the booking form does not send anything. Everything around it is real: the opening hours and walking distances were checked rather than written from memory, because a tool like this is only worth having if it is right. A real hotel would need to keep it current.
Talk to us about building this
OTA commission is the largest variable cost for most independent accommodation businesses, and it is one of the few major costs that is entirely within the property owner's control over time. A boutique hotel paying 20 percent commission on 80 percent of its bookings is effectively giving away £30,000 to £60,000 per year on a £200,000 room revenue, depending on room rates. The return on investment calculation for direct booking marketing is therefore clear: almost any realistic marketing investment will recover its cost in commission savings within twelve months.
The challenge for most independent properties is that OTA dependency is a trap that is easy to fall into and hard to exit. Once a property's revenue depends heavily on OTA bookings, reducing the OTA channel without replacing the volume feels risky. The answer is to build the direct channels incrementally: start with Google visibility and email to previous guests, which generate direct bookings at very low cost, before reducing OTA exposure. The transition can typically be managed over twelve to eighteen months without any reduction in total occupancy.
Location and attraction searches are one of the most effective organic SEO opportunities for accommodation businesses. Someone searching for "places to stay near the Lake District" or "hotels near [specific attraction]" is a highly motivated potential guest in active booking mode. Content that targets these searches, combined with a Google profile that appears for them, generates bookings from people who are not yet thinking about specific hotel names and who will book directly if the property appears first and looks credible.
We can work with accommodation businesses anywhere in the UK. All meetings are by video call, so it does not matter where you are.
Pricing: Our hotel and accommodation marketing packages start from £500 per month for Google profile management, review generation and email marketing to previous guests.
How guests find and choose accommodation in 2026
OTA platforms capture a large share of bookings but charge 15 to 25 percent commission on every one. The direct booking channels: Google, direct website and email to previous guests , cost a fraction of that per booking.
Questions from hotels and accommodation businesses about growing direct bookings
Built for hotels & hospitality
Local SEO
Rank for "hotel [destination]" and related accommodation searches. We optimise your Google Business Profile and build the content that captures direct booking intent.
Review Management
TripAdvisor, Google and Booking.com review strategy , generating new reviews, responding professionally to all feedback and addressing negative reviews appropriately.
Website Design
Direct booking websites with integrated room availability, rate comparison tools and compelling photography that convert visitors without OTA intermediaries.
Google Hotel Ads
Appear in Google's hotel search results with competitive rates. Lower cost than OTAs and reaches guests in active booking mode.
Social Media
Instagram and Facebook content showcasing rooms, dining, local experiences and events , content that builds aspiration and drives direct enquiries.
Email Marketing
Guest loyalty campaigns, early bird offers and seasonal promotions to your past-guest list. The highest-ROI channel for repeat and direct bookings.
The full digital marketing toolkit
What happens in the first six months of working with SearchSoda
Every engagement is different depending on where you are starting from, but this is the typical progression for a business investing in digital marketing for the first time.
Profile and direct booking foundations
Google Business Profile fully optimised with accommodation-specific categories, amenities and photos. Review generation process built for post-checkout communications. Direct booking setup reviewed and optimised.
Local visibility building
Rankings improving for location and accommodation type searches. TripAdvisor profile reviewed and optimised alongside Google. Email marketing to previous guests launched for direct rebooking.
Review and ranking authority
Review count growing consistently on both Google and TripAdvisor. Google Maps visibility strong for local and visitor searches. Direct booking share beginning to measurably increase.
OTA dependency reducing
Consistent direct bookings arriving from Google and email to previous guests. OTA commission costs reducing. Review profile among the strongest in the local accommodation market.
Ready to drive more direct bookings?
Free consultation, no obligation. We'll calculate exactly how much OTA commission you could save with better direct booking performance.
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