Industry Guide · 15 of 15 chapters published
Google Ads for Hotels, Built to Win the Booking Back From the Booking Sites.
A hotel shares the search page with Expedia, Booking.com and Google's own hotel box, and most of its guests search from somewhere else. These fifteen chapters build a Google Ads account in the order that works, using real searches, websites and guest reviews from one example market, New Orleans. The method works for independent and boutique hotels, inns and small hotel groups anywhere in the US.
Google Ads for Hotels Beats the Commission, Starting With Your Own Name
The whole guide in five steps. Numbers come from our example market, New Orleans. Yours will differ; the method won't.
A Booking Has a Dollar Value, and the Commission Sets What a Click Is Worth
Count every booking with its value, not just the booking. Google can only bid on the value it can see. Ten of the 12 example hotels sent the booking step to another company's booking engine, so the tag has to follow the guest there.
Then price the click against the alternative. At the US average daily rate and an 18% commission, a two-night stay costs the hotel about $58 through a booking site. A search for the hotel's own name, at an illustrative $1.50 a click and 5% of clicks booking, costs about $30 a booking. A city search at $2 and 1.5% costs about $133.
Most Hotel Searches Name a Hotel, So Your Own Name Comes First
Pooled across 12 example hotels' keyword lists, about two-thirds of lodging searches named a specific hotel. Other hotels' names go on the negative list; your own name gets its own brand campaign with the larger share of the budget.
What's left goes into Isolation, our name for the first non-brand campaign: exact match, one neighborhood or amenity per ad group, bids set by hand. The ads borrow the guests' words. In 850 recent reviews, friendly staff came up in 312 and location in 296, yet only 3 of 18 hotels' own ads mentioned service at all.
Nine in Ten Searches for a City's Hotels Come From Outside It. Aim at the Country.
Of 112,200 monthly searches for the example market's hotels, the city's own metro made 10,100. Google recommends Presence or Interest for travel; we use Presence on the whole country and let the keyword carry the destination.
Search partners, Display and AI Max stay off at launch. AI Max arrives switched on.
Automation Waits for About 30 Bookings a Month, and Performance Max Never Gets Your Name
Exploration, broad match bidding on booking value, starts once the account records about 30 quality bookings a month, usually months two and three. Performance Max for travel waits for that pace to hold, usually months six and seven, and Google says it targets property terms on Search, so request your hotel's brand exclusion weeks before launch.
Demand Gen reaches travelers on YouTube before they search. The map listing carries travelers already in town. AI Max comes last.
A Price Feed Puts Your Rate Next to the Booking Sites'. A Funded Brand Campaign Wins Your Name Back.
Google ended its third-party hotel rates on September 30, 2026. Hotel ads now need the hotel's own price feed through a connectivity partner, the same feed free booking links have always used, and the prices have to match the booking page.
Booking.com's standard contract lets it advertise on your hotel's name, and Google's trademark policy allows it. The brand campaign, fully funded and on exact match, is how a hotel takes that click back.
Fifteen Chapters, From the First Booking to Your Own Name Back
New to Google Ads? Begin with Chapter 1. Each chapter builds on the ones before it.
Measure
Count every booking with its dollar value, and know what a guest is worth against a booking site's commission
A Room Booking Has a Dollar Value the Moment It Happens. Google Ads Should Learn From the Dollars, Not the Count.
A Traveler Searching a City Is Still Planning. A Traveler Searching Your Hotel's Name Is Ready to Book.
A Hotel Click Isn't Expensive Until It Costs More Than the Booking Site's Commission.
Build
Win your own name first, then the neighborhood, amenity and long-tail searches
Google Ranks a Hotel Ad on How Closely It Matches the Search. Tight Ad Groups by Neighborhood and Amenity Win That Match.
Most Hotel Searches Name a Specific Hotel. Keyword Planner Fills Your List With Competitors You'll Block.
Every Hotel and Booking Site Bids on the City Search. The Long Tail Asks for Parking, Pets and a Balcony.
One Cheap Night and a Week in a Suite Are Not the Same Conversion. Bid by Hand Until Google Learns the Difference.
Hotel Guests Already Wrote Your Best Ad in Their Reviews. Start With the Words They Use for the Staff and the Location.
Launch
Settings to fix before the first dollar goes out, starting with where guests live
Scale
More reach once the account knows what a booking is worth
Performance Max for Travel Can Spend Your Budget on Your Own Hotel's Name. Exclude It Before Launch.
A Search Ad Waits for a Traveler to Type Your City. Demand Gen Shows Them Your Hotel on YouTube Before They Do.
Hotels Can't Buy Local Services Ads. Travelers Already in Town Find You on the Map, So the Listing Has to Sell.
Google's New Search Campaigns for Travel Come With AI Max Built In. That Makes Them the Last Campaign a Hotel Turns On.
Hotels
Bonus chapters: the price feed behind free booking links, and winning your name back from the booking sites
The Rollout, Month by Month
The order matters as much as the campaigns. Each step waits until the one before it has taught Google something.
Brand, Isolation and the price feed
Your hotel's name first, with the larger share of the budget, exact match on neighborhood and amenity searches, and a price feed through your booking engine so free booking links run.
Exploration and paid hotel ads
Broad match bidding on booking value, plus paid hotel price ads, once real bookings reach about 30 a month. Bigger hotels get there sooner.
Performance Max for travel goals
Only after months of clean booking data, with your own hotel's name excluded.
Demand Gen and AI Max
YouTube before the trip, then Google's newest automation, including Search Campaigns for Travel, last.
How to Use This Guide
Starting a new account?
Read in order. Booking value tracking and the commission math come before the first keyword.
Chapter 01 →Ads already running?
Check where your location targeting points and who wins searches for your own name. Targeting only your own city and an underfunded brand campaign are two common leaks.
Chapter 09 →One example market
Examples come from New Orleans hotels, described as we found them. Run the same steps in your own market.
Chapter 05 →Google Ads for Hotels
The Travel Sites Take a Cut of Every Booking. Your Own Ads Shouldn't.
We've run paid ads for 25+ years and seen just about every way a budget goes sideways. Get on the phone with someone who does this every day. Bring your questions, your numbers and your skepticism. You'll hang up knowing what we'd do, whether you hire us or not.
Or see how our Google Ads management works.