A hotel's paid search account has an unusual first question. Search for the property by name and the results are frequently the booking platforms bidding on it, selling the same rooms with a commission attached. Whether to bid on your own name, and what to spend on everything else, depends on what a direct booking is actually worth to you compared with a platform one, and most operators have never worked that number out.
Work out the value of a direct booking first
Commission avoided, payment fees, the cost of the advertising itself and the staff time. Once you have a number, brand bidding stops being a matter of principle and becomes arithmetic: if a click on your own name costs a fraction of the commission it displaces, and some of that traffic would otherwise have gone to a platform, it pays. If almost everyone would have reached you anyway, it does not.
Metasearch is a separate purchase with its own economics
Hotel metasearch placements, where your rate appears beside the platforms', are bought differently from ordinary search advertising, often on a per-click or commission basis, and they reach people already comparing. They are frequently the highest-return paid channel a hotel has and they need a connected booking engine and accurate rates. Ask specifically whether an agency manages them.
The rate and the calendar drive the bidding
Paid search for a hotel should follow occupancy: spend into the soft dates, stop on the nights that sell themselves, and adjust when a large local event moves demand. That requires the agency to see the forward booking position, which means giving them access to it. An account run without visibility of occupancy is buying clicks for nights that were already full.
Ad extensions and the booking link decide the click's value
Price, availability, direct-booking benefits and a link that lands on the correct dates rather than the home page. A paid click that arrives on a generic page and asks the guest to re-enter their dates loses a meaningful share of them to the platform they came from. Test your own paid path on a phone with real dates before spending anything more.
Judge it on net revenue after commission, by channel
The right measure is revenue net of commission and of the advertising itself, compared between direct and platform bookings for the same period. An agency reporting a return on ad spend that ignores what those bookings would have cost through a platform is measuring the wrong comparison, and it is the comparison the whole strategy rests on.
Questions people ask about hotel PPC agency
Should a hotel bid on its own name?
It depends on what a direct booking is worth against a platform one, and how much of that traffic would have reached you anyway. With those two numbers it is arithmetic rather than a matter of principle.
What is hotel metasearch?
Placements where your direct rate appears beside the booking platforms' for people already comparing. It is bought differently from ordinary search advertising and is often a hotel's best-performing paid channel.
When should we spend?
Into the soft dates, not the nights that sell themselves. That requires the agency to see your forward booking position, which means giving them access to occupancy data.
How should it be measured?
Revenue net of commission and advertising, compared between direct and platform bookings. A return figure that ignores the commission those bookings would otherwise have cost measures the wrong thing.