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Hotel marketing consultant

Hotel marketing: more control over demand, the direct channel and margin.

I work with hotels and hotel groups, connecting acquisition, Google Ads, Google Hotel Ads, website, booking engine, tracking and revenue. The goal is not simply more traffic, but understanding which channels and markets produce sustainable bookings and more direct value.

Let us talk about your hotelSee how I work

Before proposing any activity I check distribution, data, rates and the operational capacity of the property.

Fabio De Leonardis, hotel and hospitality marketing consultant

Recurring signals

When the problem is not simply doing more marketing

A direct booking is not valuable just because it is direct. It has to be measured against acquisition cost, avoided commissions, cancellations, margin and customer value.

  • Heavy dependence on OTAs, with little room to negotiate.

  • Direct booking that does not grow despite the investment.

  • Google Ads assessed without accounting for cancellations and margin.

  • A booking engine with a low conversion rate.

  • Direct rates that are not competitive against intermediated channels.

  • Incomplete booking tracking.

  • Campaigns disconnected from availability and revenue.

  • Markets or properties in the group performing very differently.

  • Data fragmented across PMS, booking engine, GA4 and advertising platforms.

The system

Direct booking depends on a system, not on a single channel.

The booking path

  1. Demand

    Markets, seasonality and intent to book.

  2. Google and metasearch

    Search, Hotel Ads and Free Booking Links.

  3. Hotel website

    Message, proof, clarity of the offer and speed.

  4. Booking engine

    Where traffic turns into a booking.

  5. Availability and price

    Direct rate, parity and rooms actually sellable.

  6. Booking

    Real value, not just a conversion count.

  7. PMS and CRM

    Stay, cancellations, no-shows and guest history.

  8. Revenue

    ADR, occupancy and contribution by channel.

  9. Repeat

    Returning guests and value beyond the first booking.

Feedback to marketing

  • Confirmed bookings net of cancellations
  • Value and margin by channel
  • Markets that deserve more budget
  • Rates that make the campaign sustainable

Campaigns, pricing, site experience and availability have to work together: if one step does not hold, the others work for nothing.

Scope of analysis

From demand to booking

I look at these six areas together, because the point where margin is lost rarely matches the point where the problem shows up.

  • Acquisition

    Demand coverage by market, separation of brand and non-brand, and the actual role of each campaign.

    • Google Ads
    • Search
    • Performance Max
    • Markets
    • Brand protection

  • Google Hotel Ads

    Metasearch presence, accuracy of the rates being sent and competitiveness against intermediated channels.

    • Hotel Center
    • Metasearch
    • Free Booking Links
    • Price accuracy

  • Website and CRO

    The path from first click to the booking engine: clarity, friction, mobile behaviour and speed.

    • UX
    • Mobile
    • Speed
    • Page structure
    • CTA

  • Booking engine

    Where most of the loss happens: unnecessary steps, unclear availability and checkout.

    • Conversion rate
    • Availability
    • Offers
    • Mobile
    • Checkout

  • Tracking

    Bookings tracked with the right value, cancellations included and readable attribution.

    • GA4
    • Tag Manager
    • Booking value
    • Booking ID
    • Attribution

  • Revenue and distribution

    Direct share, channel mix, pricing and the relationship between marketing choices and revenue management.

    • Direct share
    • OTA
    • Pricing
    • Availability
    • Margin
See the Google Ads consultingSee the full expertise

Measurement

I do not measure ROAS and conversions alone.

These are the indicators I use to understand whether one more booking actually improves the bottom line.

I do not use industry benchmarks as a target: the useful reference is the property own history and its margin.

  • Direct booking share
  • Acquisition cost per booking
  • Direct revenue
  • Net margin
  • Site to booking conversion rate
  • Booking engine conversion rate
  • Cancellations
  • ADR
  • Average booking value
  • Performance by market
  • Brand and non-brand
  • Avoided OTA commissions

Method

How I work with hotels and hotel groups

Marketing and revenue cannot make decisions on two different versions of reality.
Read more about the method

Method

  1. 01 Understand

    Property, markets, segments, distribution, revenue and margin.

  2. 02 Measure

    PMS, booking engine, analytics, advertising platforms and tracking quality.

  3. 03 Diagnose

    Understanding where traffic, conversion or margin is lost.

  4. 04 Prioritise

    Defining the work with the highest potential impact.

  5. 05 Execute

    Campaigns, tracking, CRO and coordination with teams and suppliers.

  6. 06 Optimise

    Reallocating budget and priorities based on real results.

Channels

Google Ads for hotels is not just buying your own brand.

Brand defence is the starting point, not the strategy. The work is deciding where there is demand worth buying.

  • Brand protection: covering searches on the property name at the right cost.
  • Non-brand demand: reaching people searching by destination, type or experience.
  • International markets: language, currency, seasonality and competition change by country.
  • Google Hotel Ads: metasearch presence with accurate and up-to-date rates.
  • Free Booking Links: organic visibility on the listings, managed alongside paid.
  • Performance Max: useful in some contexts, not as a replacement for intent-based structure.
  • Separate campaigns by property, market or segment when the economics differ.
  • The link between available rate and investment: without a competitive rate, spend does not hold.

Dedicated pages on Google Hotel Ads and direct booking are in preparation.

See the Google Ads consulting

Direct channel

Growing the direct share without making ROAS the only objective.

Shifting bookings from OTAs to the direct channel only pays off if the maths works once every term of the comparison is included.

  1. OTA commission

    The cost avoided by moving the booking to the direct channel.

  2. Direct CAC

    What it actually costs to acquire that same booking on your own.

  3. Margin

    What is left after commissions, ad spend, cancellations and delivery costs.

  4. Incrementality

    How many of those bookings would have arrived anyway, without the campaign.

Not every booking attributed to advertising is incremental. Before increasing budget I check how much of that volume actually depends on the spend.

Experience

Hands-on hospitality experience

Since 2020 I have been CMO of The Bright Hotel, coordinating marketing for ten hotels in the United States.

I work directly on paid media, Google Hotel Ads, analytics, booking engine, CRO, direct booking and the relationship between marketing and revenue.

This lets me treat hotel marketing not as a set of separate campaigns, but as a system that has to connect demand, availability, price, conversion and margin.

See the hospitality pageSee the full track record

Who it is for

When I can be useful

  • Structured independent hotels.
  • Boutique hotels.
  • Resorts.
  • Hotel groups.
  • Properties with paid investment already running.
  • Hotels that want to develop the direct channel.
  • Groups with several markets, properties or suppliers to coordinate.
  • Companies that need to connect marketing and revenue.

I set no requirement on room count: what matters is the complexity to govern and the ability to measure the result.

Ways of working together

The shape of the work depends on what is missing, not on a price list.

The scope is defined after understanding distribution, data and operational capacity.

  • Audit on marketing and direct booking.
  • Google Ads and Google Hotel Ads.
  • CRO and tracking project.
  • Ongoing advisory.
  • Coordination of agencies and suppliers.
  • Fractional CMO for a hotel or a small group.
Let us talk about prioritiesRead more about the Fractional CMO role

Frequently asked questions

Common questions about hotel marketing

What does a hotel marketing consultant do?

Connects acquisition work to the result of the property: campaigns, metasearch, website, booking engine, tracking and distribution, read together with rates, availability and margin.

How much does a hospitality marketing consultant cost?

It depends on the scope and the way we work together. There is no standard price: I define it after understanding objectives, available data and implementation capacity.

How do you increase direct bookings for a hotel?

There is no single lever. It takes work on direct rate competitiveness, metasearch presence, website clarity, booking engine conversion and measurement quality, together.

Does Google Ads work for hotels?

It can, provided it is judged on confirmed bookings and margin rather than conversion volume alone. If the direct rate is not competitive, the spend rarely holds up.

What are Google Hotel Ads?

Listings that appear in Google hotel results with rates and availability, alongside OTA results. They require an accurate and up-to-date rate feed.

How do you reduce dependence on OTAs?

By making the direct channel a reasonable choice for the guest: competitive rate, simple booking path and presence where the comparison happens. Dependence falls over time, not with a single campaign.

How do you measure the real cost of a direct booking?

By including ad spend, cancellations, the actual value of the stay and the commissions genuinely avoided, rather than the platform cost per conversion alone.

Should marketing and revenue management be integrated?

They should at least work from the same numbers. If the two functions read different data, budget and rate decisions end up contradicting each other.

Can you work with our existing revenue manager or agency?

Yes, that is the most common situation. My role is usually to provide a shared reading of the data and define priorities, not to replace people who already work well.

Do you work with international hotels?

Yes. I work in Italian and English, across several markets and groups with properties in different countries.

In short

Before increasing the budget, I would find out where the margin is lost.

If campaigns, website, booking engine, distribution and revenue are working separately, we can rebuild the full path and understand which priorities actually make sense.

Tell me about the situation

Or email me directly fabio.deleonardis@bigup.marketing