70% of travellers start their search on Google. But 80% book on Booking.com.
This is the paradox of the hotel industry: users search on Google, but end up booking with an OTA (Online Travel Agency). Booking.com, Expedia, TripAdvisor, and Google Hotels dominate search results for most hotel keywords.
Is it possible to compete? Yes — but it requires a very different strategy from an e-commerce site or a B2B company.
From 2024 to 2026, with the evolution of conversational search and artificial intelligence, reliance on OTAs may even intensify if hotels do not adapt their strategies. New opportunities also arise for those who invest in a robust and differentiated digital presence.
The Problem: OTAs have more authority than your website.
Booking.com has a Domain Rating of 93. Expedia has 91. Your hotel probably sits between 20 and 40. In terms of domain authority, it's an uneven battle for generic keywords like “hotel Barcelona city centre”.
This authority gap translates into greater visibility for OTAs in search results for broad, high-competition terms. Google, by prioritising authority and relevance, shows industry giants first. This does not mean the battle is lost for independent hotels or small chains.
But there is a hopeful fact: direct bookings have a significantly higher margin. If a hotel can get 5% of its organic traffic to book directly, the ROI of SEO is huge compared to the 15-25% commission Booking.com charges. In our experience at ZDS, a 10% increase in direct bookings can mean up to a 30% increase in net profits, by eliminating third-party commissions. This makes SEO a strategic investment with a very attractive return on investment (ROI) in the medium to long term.
SEO Strategies that Work for Hotels
1. Long-tail and Local Searches
You won't rank for “hotel Barcelona” — but you can rank for “boutique hotel with terrace in Born Barcelona” or “family hotel near Sagrada Familia”. Long-tail keywords are your territory.
These more specific searches, while having lower volume, attract users with much clearer booking intent. For example, someone searching for “hotel with heated pool and spa near Sagrada Familia” is much closer to making a decision than someone searching for “hotel Barcelona”. The key is to identify these niche needs and create content that directly addresses them. Tools like Semrush, Ahrefs, or Google's autocomplete function can help you discover these long-tail gems.
With the increasing sophistication of voice search and conversational AI (like ChatGPT or Perplexity), users formulate more natural and detailed questions. Optimising for long-tail positions you better for these new forms of search.
2. Destination Content
Create comprehensive guides about your area: “What to do in El Born”, “The 10 best restaurants near our hotel”, “How to get here from the airport”. This content positions you for informational searches and builds trust before booking.
This type of content not only attracts organic traffic but also establishes your hotel as a local authority, improving your E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) in Google's eyes. A 2023 Google study showed that 65% of travellers research activities and restaurants at their destination before booking accommodation. By providing this valuable information, you capture these users in the early stages of their buying journey and offer them a reason to return to your site and, ultimately, book.
Include interactive maps, personalised recommendations, and links to local events. At ZDS, hotels that invest in detailed and regularly updated destination guides experience a 20-35% increase in time on site and a 10-15% reduction in bounce rate, which are positive signals for SEO.
3. Impeccable Google Business Profile
Your Google Business Profile is your most important SEO asset. Updated professional photos, responses to all reviews, regular posts, complete hours and services. An optimised GBP can generate more bookings than your organic position.
In 2024, an optimised Google Business Profile (GBP) is crucial for local SEO. Ensure all information is accurate and up-to-date: address, phone number, opening hours (including holidays), services offered (Wi-Fi, pool, parking, etc.), and relevant business categories. High-quality photos are essential; Google reports that businesses with good quality photos receive 42% more requests for directions and 35% more clicks on their websites. Respond to all reviews, both positive and negative, professionally and promptly. Regular GBP posts about special offers, events, or hotel news also increase visibility and engagement.
4. Schema Hotel and Room
Implement Schema.org for your hotel: property type, location, star rating, amenities, room types with prices. Google can display this information directly in the results.
Schema markup, or structured data, helps search engines understand your page's content. For hotels, this means using types like Hotel, LodgingBusiness, HotelRoom, Accommodation, and Offer. By implementing Schema correctly, you can qualify for rich snippets in search results, which can include star ratings, prices, availability, and other highlighted details, significantly increasing your CTR (Click-Through Rate). Tools like Google's Rich Results Test can help you validate your implementation. A 2023 Moz study indicated that pages with rich snippets can see a CTR increase of up to 50% compared to standard results.
5. Truly Multilingual
If your hotel receives international tourists, your website needs versions in the languages of your main source markets. Not automatic translations — native content with market-researched keywords. At ZDS, we work in 14 languages with this approach.
The multilingual strategy goes beyond simple translation. It involves specific keyword research for each language and culture, considering differences in how travellers from different countries search for accommodation. For example, a German traveller might search for “Ferienwohnung” (holiday apartment) while a Briton would search for “holiday flat”. Use hreflang tags correctly to indicate to Google the different language versions of your pages, avoiding duplicate content issues and ensuring users are directed to the correct language version. A well-executed multilingual strategy opens doors to international markets, as we have seen at ZDS when working with hotels in key tourist destinations.
6. Speed and Mobile-First
70% of travel searches are done on mobile. If your website takes more than 3 seconds to load, you lose bookings. Core Web Vitals are critical in tourism.
Google has emphasised the importance of user experience, and loading speed is a fundamental pillar. Core Web Vitals (CWV) — LCP (Largest Contentful Paint), CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift), and INP (Interaction to Next Paint, replacing FID from March 2024) — are key metrics Google uses to evaluate page experience. A slow website frustrates users, increases bounce rate, and negatively affects your ranking in search results, especially on mobile devices. Optimise images, minimise code, use caching, and good hosting to ensure your site loads quickly. Test regularly with tools like Google PageSpeed Insights.
Online Reputation as SEO
Reviews don't just affect your buying decision — they affect your SEO:
- Google uses reviews as a quality signal for the Local Pack.
- Star snippets increase CTR by 30-40%.
- LLMs cite ratings when recommending hotels.
An active review strategy is an integral part of hotel SEO. Actively encourage your guests to leave reviews on Google Business Profile, TripAdvisor, and other OTAs. Respond to all of them professionally and personally, showing that you value your customers' opinions. Positive reviews improve your visibility in Google's Local Pack, increase the trust of potential guests, and can influence recommendations from large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, which often extract information from ratings for their responses. Good online reputation management is an extension of your SEO strategy.
7. Internal and External Linking Strategy
A good internal link structure helps Google understand your site's hierarchy and distribute page authority. Ensure your most important pages (e.g., room type pages, special offers) are easily accessible and receive links from other relevant pages. For example, from a destination guide, you can link to rooms that offer views of that location. For external linking (link building), look for opportunities to get quality links from travel blogs, local newspapers, or tourism websites in your city. A link from a high-authority website significantly impacts your own Domain Rating.
At ZDS, we have found that a well-planned link building strategy, focused on quality and relevance, increases a hotel's domain authority by 10-20% in a year, which in turn improves visibility for more competitive terms.
8. Adapt to GA4 and Data Privacy
With the full transition to Google Analytics 4 (GA4) and the growing importance of data privacy (GDPR, CCPA), your SEO and analytics strategy must be up-to-date. GA4 offers a more user-centric and event-based view, allowing you to better understand your visitors' behaviour and optimise your conversion funnels. Ensure your website complies with all privacy regulations, implementing clear and transparent cookie consent. User trust in data management is a relevant factor for retention and conversion.
9. Optimisation for Google Hotels and Metasearch
While the primary goal is direct bookings, ignoring Google Hotels and other metasearch engines (like Trivago or Kayak) would be a mistake. Ensure your hotel is correctly listed on these platforms and invest in Google Hotel Ads campaigns. These platforms act as an additional shop window for your hotel, directing qualified traffic to your website or your direct booking engine, even if the final booking is made through them. The key is to actively manage your presence and prices to maximise returns.
10. Evergreen Content and Constant Updates
SEO is not a one-time task. The content you create, especially destination guides and service pages, should be “evergreen”, meaning relevant over time. This does not mean it shouldn't be updated. Regularly review and update your content to ensure the information is accurate and current. This improves user experience and sends positive signals to Google that your site is active and a reliable source of information. Google's Helpful Content Update, implemented in 2022 with continuous updates, penalises low-quality content or content that does not provide real value to the user.
In our experience, hotels that dedicate resources to keeping their content fresh and relevant see sustained improvement in their ranking and the quality of their traffic.
Common Mistakes to Avoid in Hotel SEO
- Neglecting Local SEO: Thinking that only global SEO matters is a serious mistake. For a hotel, local visibility is fundamental.
- Ignoring reviews: Not responding to reviews or not having a strategy to generate them is missing a golden opportunity for SEO and reputation.
- Duplicate content: Copying room or service descriptions from other websites or OTAs penalises your ranking. Create original and unique content.
- Not optimising for mobile: With most travel searches on mobile, a non-responsive site is SEO suicide.
- Lack of speed: A slow site frustrates users and is penalised by Google.
- Not using Schema: Missing the opportunity to get rich snippets and improve visibility in the SERPs.
- Excessive reliance on OTAs: While useful, a strategy that does not seek direct bookings leaves you vulnerable to their commissions and policies.
The Future of Hotel SEO: AI and Conversational Search
The search landscape is evolving rapidly with the integration of artificial intelligence. Platforms like ChatGPT, Perplexity AI, and Google's future SGE (Search Generative Experience) are changing how users find information and make travel decisions. In this new environment, optimising for conversational search, creating content that answers complex questions, and presence in direct response formats (like rich snippets) will be even more crucial. Hotels that invest in understanding and adapting to these new trends will be better positioned for success.
LLMs often extract information from authoritative and well-rated sources. Ensuring your hotel is one of those sources, with detailed content and excellent reviews, will give you a competitive advantage in the “AI era”.
Is your hotel too reliant on OTAs? At ZDS, we design specific SEO strategies for hotels that increase direct bookings. Let's talk about your hotel.
