Hotel and travel PPC
Hotel PPC that stops OTAs buying your guests
Brand defence, Google hotel campaigns and non-brand search built around your booking engine, measured in direct bookings and cost per stay, not clicks.
- Brand terms defended daily
- Live rates in hotel ads
- Your account, your data
Quick answer
ProntX runs hotel PPC for UK hotels, serviced apartments, tour operators and travel agents. We defend your brand name against OTA ads, set up Google hotel campaigns with live rates, and target qualified non-brand searches. PPC management starts from £450 a month, with ad spend paid directly to Google from your own account.
Hotel PPC has a problem most sectors do not: the biggest advertisers on your own name are often the companies you already pay commission to. ProntX builds paid search for hotels and travel businesses around three jobs: defend your brand, show your live rates next to the OTAs, and buy only the non-brand searches that turn into bookings cheaper than commission.
Who our hotel and travel PPC is for
Independent and boutique hotels, small groups, serviced apartments, inns, holiday parks, tour operators and travel agents. If you take bookings online and you pay OTA commission, there is almost certainly money being lost on your brand searches today.
What makes travel PPC different
Generic agencies tend to report clicks and impressions. In travel, the only useful measure is net revenue from bookings that would otherwise have gone through an OTA. That means tracking through your booking engine, deducting cancellations and comparing every campaign’s cost per booking with the commission it replaces.
Brand defence
Why do OTAs bid on your hotel name?
Because guests searching your name are ready to book, and an OTA that wins the click earns commission on a guest you had already won. A brand campaign puts your official site back on top.
Search your property name in a private browser window. If an OTA ad sits above your website, you are paying for that position indirectly, through commission. Brand defence is normally the cheapest booking channel a hotel has, because your ad is the most relevant result and earns a high quality score.
- Auction Insights review to see which OTAs and competitors appear on your name
- Brand campaign covering your name, misspellings and “name plus town” searches
- Ad copy that gives a reason to book direct: best available rate, free parking, flexible cancellation
- Sitelinks to rooms, offers, dining and contact pages
- Price assets showing room types from your direct rate
- Trademark complaints filed where your name appears in other advertisers’ ad text
- Daily budget set so you never drop out of the auction on busy evenings
- Brand spend kept low when no one else is bidding
Hotel campaigns
How do Google hotel campaigns work?
They show your live room prices in Google’s hotel results and Maps, next to OTA prices, and send guests straight to your booking engine. Rates and availability come through Google Hotel Center.
Step 1
Connectivity
Your booking engine or a connectivity partner sends prices and availability to Hotel Center. We check which partner your engine supports and handle the setup with them.
Step 2
Rate checks
Google compares your direct price with OTA prices. If your rate is higher, your listing will struggle to win clicks, so we review parity with your revenue manager first.
Step 3
Bidding
We group properties or room types and set bids by length of stay, booking window and device, then tune them from booking data rather than click data.
Google also offers free booking links in its hotel results. They cost nothing per click and should be switched on before any paid hotel campaign, so your official site appears even when you are not bidding.
Non-brand search
Which non-brand travel searches are worth paying for?
Specific searches with clear booking intent and modest competition. Broad destination terms usually cost more than the commission they save.
Usually worth testing
- Feature searches: “hotel with pool near Bournemouth”, “dog-friendly B&B Peak District”
- Occasion searches: “spa break for two Cotswolds”, “wedding night hotel Chester”
- Event searches: hotels near a venue on concert or race dates
- Niche trips: “guided cycling holiday Puglia”, “small group tour Japan”
Usually poor value for independents
- “Hotels in London” style terms where OTAs bid heavily
- Cheap or last-minute deal searches that attract price hunters
- Job, brochure or free-stay searches that never convert
- Broad match keywords left running without negative lists
Remarketing completes the picture. A visitor who looked at a room page but left can be shown a reminder on search and display, ideally with a direct-booking benefit rather than a discount that trains guests to wait.
Tour operators and agents
How is PPC for travel agents and tour operators different?
Trips have longer research periods, higher order values and more enquiries than instant bookings, so campaigns are built around destinations and departures and measured on enquiries as well as sales.
A guest booking a two-night city break may click and book within the hour. A couple planning a three-week tailor-made trip to Vietnam will read itineraries, request a quote, talk to a consultant and book weeks later. Treating both the same way in Google Ads wastes money. For tour operators we structure campaigns by destination and trip type, use ad copy that answers the first questions travellers ask (group size, difficulty, what is included) and send each click to the specific itinerary rather than a homepage.
Measurement changes too. We track quote requests, brochure downloads and calls as conversions, then import confirmed bookings back from your CRM or booking system so Google learns which searches lead to real sales, not just form fills. When departures sell out, the matching ads pause automatically, and when a date is short of passengers, budget moves towards it. That is the difference between a PPC account that spends steadily and one that fills departures.
Ad rules
What rules apply to hotel and travel ads?
UK consumer law on price transparency applies to ads as much as websites, and package holiday sellers have protection rules to follow.
Headline prices in ads and price assets should include unavoidable fees such as resort or cleaning charges, in line with the CMA’s guidance updated in November 2025. “From” prices must be genuinely available on a reasonable number of dates. Tour operators and travel agents advertising ATOL-protected holidays need accurate protection messaging, and claims such as “lowest price guaranteed” must be true across channels. Your revenue or compliance lead signs off price claims before campaigns go live.
Pricing
How much does hotel PPC management cost?
From £450 a month for management, with ad spend paid straight to Google from your own account. No markup on media, no lock-in.
| Setup | Typical management fee | Campaigns included |
|---|---|---|
| Single property, brand plus search | From £450 a month | Brand defence, a small set of non-brand campaigns, remarketing |
| Property with Google hotel campaigns | Typically £600 to £900 a month | Adds Hotel Center, hotel campaign bidding and parity monitoring |
| Group or tour operator | Typically £1,000 and up | Multiple properties or trip ranges, feeds, seasonal campaigns |
PPC and Google Ads
from £450/month
Management fee. Ad spend is paid direct to Google
What is includedWe also run a standalone PPC audit if you already have an agency and want an independent view of how much brand traffic is leaking to OTAs. Day-to-day account work follows the same standards as our Google Ads management for every client.
Why ProntX
Why choose ProntX for hotel PPC?
Because we measure campaigns in direct bookings against commission, and we work in accounts you own.
Booking engine tracking
Conversions are recorded where bookings actually happen, with cross-domain tracking and cancellation checks.
SEO and PPC together
Our travel SEO team shares search term data, so paid spend fills gaps organic rankings cannot.
No lock-in
Rolling monthly contracts, your own Google Ads account and full access to every campaign from day one.
Remarketing audiences can also feed hotel social media campaigns, so a guest who searched your name but did not book sees your rooms again on Instagram. Want to know how much brand traffic you are losing? Our free audit checks who is bidding on your name and sends you a personal video within two working days.
How it works
What happens after you get in touch
- 01Free audit
We review your site, search visibility, ads and competitors, then send a short video walkthrough with the quickest wins.
Request audit - 02Plan and price
A one-page plan with goals, channels, timeline and a fixed monthly price. No surprises later.
See prices - 03Launch in weeks
Tracking first, then quick wins, then the bigger builds. You see progress in the first month.
See our work - 04Report and grow
Monthly report in plain English: leads, sales, cost per result and what we do next.
Talk to us
Same industry
More for hotels and travel
Should a hotel bid on its own brand name?
In most cases, yes. If OTAs or competitors are bidding on your name, your organic listing gets pushed below their ads and guests who already chose you book through someone else. Clicks on your own name are usually cheap because your ad is the most relevant. We check Auction Insights first, and if nobody is competing, we keep brand spend low.
Can Booking.com legally bid on my hotel name?
Generally, bidding on a name as a keyword is allowed under Google's trademark policy. Using a trademark in the ad text is a different matter, and owners can file a trademark complaint to restrict that. Some OTA contracts also contain clauses about brand bidding by either side, so it is worth checking yours before you act. For legal questions, speak to an IP lawyer.
What are Google hotel ads?
Google hotel campaigns show your property with live prices and availability in Google Search, Maps and the hotel results, next to OTA prices. Rates come from your booking engine or a connectivity partner through Google Hotel Center. They are separate from text ads, and they work best when your direct rate is at least as good as the OTA rate.
Is PPC worth it for a small independent hotel?
It is worth it when the cost per booking is below the commission you would pay an OTA for the same guest. Brand defence usually passes that test easily. Broad non-brand terms like 'hotels in York' often do not. We start small, track bookings through your engine and only scale the campaigns that beat commission.
How much should a hotel spend on Google Ads?
There is no fixed figure. Brand campaigns often need a modest daily budget because clicks are cheap. Non-brand and hotel campaigns scale with your room count, season and how much demand there is in your area. We set a starting budget from search volumes and your target cost per booking, then adjust monthly against actual bookings.
Do travel agents and tour operators need different PPC campaigns?
Yes. Tour operators sell trips rather than rooms, so campaigns are built around destinations, activities and departure dates, with longer research periods and more enquiries than instant bookings. Ads for package holidays need accurate protection details where you hold ATOL, and price-led ads must include any unavoidable fees in the headline price.
How much does hotel PPC management cost?
ProntX hotel PPC management starts from £450 a month on a rolling contract. Ad spend is separate and paid directly to Google from an account you own, so we never mark up media. Groups with several properties or tour operators with large trip ranges typically pay more for management because there are more campaigns and feeds to run.
How quickly does hotel PPC work?
Brand campaigns can go live and protect bookings within days. Non-brand search needs a few weeks of data to learn which searches turn into stays. Google hotel campaigns depend on your connectivity partner and Hotel Center setup, which can take longer. You should expect a clear view of cost per booking within the first two to three months.
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