PPC for hotels: defend your own name, feed Google your prices, and judge every click against the OTA commission

PPC for hotels is mainly three campaigns. First, a brand search campaign on your own hotel name, so the traveller who already wants you lands on your booking engine rather than an online travel agency. Second, Google hotel campaigns, which show your live room price in the hotel results on Search and Maps and need a price feed through Hotel Center. Third, a small, tightly chosen set of destination searches. Judge all three against what the same booking would have cost you in OTA commission, and the right budget for each becomes obvious.

This guide uses Google's own help pages for hotel campaigns, pricing and trademarks, read on 21 October 2026. Google changes these products often, so check the current pages before you build.

Campaign one: your own name

When someone searches your hotel's name, they have already chosen you. The only question is where they book. Online travel agencies and metasearch sites can bid on that search too. Google's trademark policy says it does not restrict the use of trademarks as keywords, so your hotel name can trigger their ads. It does review complaints about trademarks used in the ad text itself, but a site whose landing page genuinely sells your rooms can fall under the policy's reseller allowance.

A brand campaign answers this. It usually costs little per click because your own site is highly relevant to your own name, and every booking it saves from an OTA is a booking without commission. Build it with:

• Your exact hotel name and common misspellings, plus "hotel name + booking", "+ phone", "+ offers".
• Ad text that gives a reason to book direct: a perk, a package, flexible cancellation or the best available rate.
• A landing page that opens the booking engine with dates ready to choose, not your home page.
• Negative keywords for job seekers and for searches about past events at the hotel.

Campaign two: Google hotel campaigns

Google's hotel campaigns let you bid for ads in the hotel booking module that appears when a traveller searches for a hotel on Search, Maps or YouTube. The module shows photos, amenities, prices and a link to book. To take part you need three things, managed in a Hotel Center account linked to Google Ads:

• A hotel list with names, addresses and attributes.
• Prices, kept up to date for different dates and stays.
• Landing pages where the traveller can book.

Google strongly recommends working with an approved integration partner, often your booking engine or channel manager, to send prices. Direct integration is possible but technical.

Bidding options listed by Google include target return on ad spend, a maximum cost per click (fixed or a percentage), and commission-based options for some partners; the page notes that commission per stay is being retired. You can reach travellers by their country of residence and device, and adjust bids by itinerary, such as length of stay.

Free booking links sit beside the ads

Google's hotel results also include free booking links, listed under "All options", which cost nothing per click. Appearing there with your own rate is part of hotel search optimisation, covered in our page on hotel SEO and free hotel listings.

Price strategy inside the feed

Google's pricing guide for hotel ads explains how to offer different rates to different travellers through conditional rates:

• By country: rates can be targeted at user country level only, not by state, city or radius. A domestic rate and a rest-of-world rate are both possible.
• By device: a mobile-only or desktop-only promotion can sit alongside the public rate.
• By loyalty: member rates can be shown to eligible travellers.

Use this to give direct bookers a real reason to book with you, while staying within whatever rate agreements you have signed with your distribution partners. Read those contracts before you change the feed.

Campaign three: destination searches, carefully

Searches like "hotels in [city]" are expensive and crowded with OTAs, chains and metasearch. Most independent hotels should start narrow:

• Searches that describe what makes you different: "dog friendly hotel [area]", "hotel with parking near [venue]", "spa hotel [region]".
• Event and venue searches when something big is on near you.
• Wedding and meeting searches, sent to dedicated pages with an enquiry form.

Add remarketing to travellers who visited your booking engine and did not book. These are often the cheapest direct bookings you can buy.

PPC for luxury hotels and resorts

Luxury properties usually sell an experience before a room. Their paid search tends to lean on brand, named suites and villas, signature restaurants, and occasion searches such as anniversaries and honeymoons. Landing pages need to carry the same quality as the property, with large real photography and an easy route to a reservations person as well as the booking engine.

Vacation rentals

Google treats lodging as hotels, vacation rentals or outdoor lodging. Its lodging categories page says a property counts as a hotel only if it has a front desk or on-site management, accepts overnight guests and lists its address publicly. If you manage vacation rentals, check which Google programmes your category qualifies for before you plan, and lean on brand and location search campaigns in the meantime.

Measure against commission

The test for any hotel PPC campaign is simple. Divide what you spent by the bookings it produced, and compare that cost with the commission an OTA would have charged on the same bookings. Track bookings and revenue in your booking engine through Google Ads conversion tracking, not just clicks. Report each month by campaign: spend, bookings, revenue, cost per booking, and that comparison.

What to ask a hotel PPC company

• Do they work with your booking engine or integration partner already?
• Who owns the Google Ads and Hotel Center accounts? It should be you.
• Do they report in bookings and revenue, measured against OTA commission?
• How is the fee set: flat, a share of spend, or per booking?

Our scorecard for choosing a PPC agency covers fee models in more depth.

Questions about hotel PPC

Should a hotel bid on its own name?

In most cases yes. OTAs and metasearch sites can bid on it, and Google does not restrict trademarks as keywords. A brand campaign keeps those direct bookers on your site.

What do I need to run Google hotel ads?

A Hotel Center account linked to Google Ads, a hotel list, a live price feed, and booking landing pages. Most hotels connect through an integration partner.

Can I show a lower price to people in one country?

Yes, through conditional rates in your feed. Google supports targeting at country level, not by city or state.

How much should a hotel spend on PPC?

Start with what it costs you per OTA booking today. Spend where your cost per direct booking stays below that, and cut what does not.

The traveller who never sees the hotel results

Some travellers now skip the results page entirely and ask ChatGPT or Gemini for "a small hotel near the station with a good breakfast". The reply names a few properties, built from travel guides, reviews and hotel websites, and no bid can place you in it. For a hotel that already pays to win its own name on Google, it is worth knowing whether the assistants name you in that sentence, and which sources they read. AI Knows Us runs those traveller questions and shows the answer for your property.