Digital marketing for hotels: what to do first, and how to measure it

Each part leans on the one before it. A reel that sends guests to a slow website, or to a website dearer than the booking sites, wastes the reel. Work in this order:

1. 1Your Google Business Profile: correct, complete, and with your own website on it.
2. 2Your own website: quick on a phone, with your price and a way to book in a minute.
3. 3Your own price on Google, through free booking links, beside the booking sites'.
4. 4Your listing on each booking site: the same facts, photos and policies as your own website.
5. 5Reviews: a reply to each, and a link to ask every guest for one.
6. 6Instagram, WhatsApp and emails to past guests, each sending guests back to your own website or your desk.
7. 7Ads, only once all of this is done and measured.

It is the panel beside your name on Search and Maps, and Google says creating one is free. Fill in every part a hotel can: your name as on your sign, your category, address, phone, your own website, photos, and your amenities under Hotel details (see the guide on what to fill in on your Google Business Profile).

• Ranking: Google says local results depend mainly on relevance, distance and prominence, and that there is no way to request or pay for a better local ranking.
• Posts: hotels may post news and events, but Google doesn't let hotels create offer posts, or any post that mentions or links to deals, promotions, special offers or discounts.
• Chat: where Google offers it, add your WhatsApp link under “Edit profile”, then “Contact”, then the pencil next to “Chat”.
• Reviews: reply to each, and share the link Google makes for you under “Read Reviews”, then “Get more reviews”.

The prices and booking links on your profile come from Google's hotel listings, not from the profile itself. Free booking links put your own website's price there, and Google says there is no cost for clicks on them; a hotel that uses a reservation system may already be connected through its provider (see the guide on Google's free booking links).

Every other part ends here, so the website has to load quickly on a phone, show your price, and let a guest book without an account or a long form (see the guide on a hotel website that turns visitors into guests). Google's own starter guide for site owners asks for:

• A title for each page that is unique to it, clear and concise, and says what is on it: your hotel's name and town on the home page, the room's name on each room's page.
• A short description for each page with its most useful points, which Google sometimes shows under the title.
• Addresses with words in them, such as /rooms/deluxe-with-balcony, rather than strings of numbers.
• Photos with a short description of each (alt text), which Google says help it understand an image.
• Words written for people. Google asks for content created primarily for people, and not to manipulate search rankings.

Give each kind of room a page of its own, and a page to each thing guests search for: weddings, the restaurant, things to do nearby. Keep your price there no higher than the booking sites', with a reason to book with you beside it.

To see whether Google has your website at all, search site: followed by your address. Google says some changes take effect within hours and others can take several months, so judge a change after weeks, not days.

Google Search Console is a free service from Google that shows how your website does in Google Search. Google says adding your website doesn't change how it appears: it lets you see it. To set it up:

1. 1Go to Search Console, open the property selector and select “+ Add property”.
2. 2Choose “Website property”, then a Domain property to cover every address on your domain, verified with a record at your domain name provider; or a URL-prefix property for one address, which can be verified in several ways, such as uploading a file to your website.
3. 3Follow the steps for your method and click “Verify”, or ask whoever runs your website or domain to do it.
4. 4Once verified, open the Performance report.

The report opens on the past three months. It counts clicks (times someone came to your website from Google Search), impressions (times your website appeared), the click-through rate (clicks out of impressions) and your average position. Its Queries tab shows the searches you appeared for, and its Pages tab which pages.

Then look for pages that are seen but not chosen. Google's steps: click the CTR box above the chart, open the Pages tab, and sort by CTR from lowest. Google says a low click-through rate can mean people see your page in the results but don't think it answers their search. Rewrite that page's title and description to say plainly what a guest gets there.

Google Analytics, which Google offers free of charge, shows where the visitors to your website came from and what they did. Google's steps to set it up:

1. 1Go to analytics.google.com and, the first time, click “Start Measuring”.
2. 2In Admin, click “Create”, then “Account”, give it your hotel's name and click “Next”.
3. 3Name the property, choose India's time zone and rupees as the currency, click “Next”, add your industry and size, click “Next”, choose how you will use Analytics, click “Create” and accept the terms.
4. 4In Admin, under “Data collection and modification”, click “Data streams”, then “Add stream”, then “Web”.
5. 5Enter your website's address and a name for the stream, and click “Create stream”.
6. 6Copy the Measurement ID, which starts with G-, into your website builder's Google Analytics field, or ask whoever built your website to add the Google tag to every page.
7. 7Open the Realtime report to check it works. Google says data can take up to 30 minutes to start.

Since 8 June 2026 you can also link your Business Profile: in Admin, under “Product links”, click “Google Business Profile links”, then “Link”, and choose your profile. You need the Editor or Administrator role on the Analytics property, and to be an Owner or Manager of the profile. Analytics then shows the profile's interactions, website clicks, calls, directions, messages and bookings, for the last six months only.

If your booking engine runs on another company's website, ask its provider whether it can send bookings to your Analytics, so that a visit and a booking can be joined up.

A link with campaign tags tells Google Analytics where a visitor came from, so an Instagram profile, an email or a WhatsApp message can each be counted. Google says to use three tags on every link: utm_source (where, such as instagram), utm_medium (what kind, such as email or social) and utm_campaign (which promotion).

• Write tags in lower case. Google says they are case sensitive, so Instagram and instagram would count as two sources.
• Choose one name for each source and keep to it: instagram, whatsapp, past-guests, google-post.
• Google's Campaign URL Builder writes the link for you.
• Find the results in Analytics under Acquisition, then Traffic acquisition.

Booking sites bring guests who would never have found you, and charge a commission for it. Keep your listing on each as accurate as your own website, reply to its reviews, and use its own reports to see what sells (see the guides to the Booking.com extranet and the InGo-MMT extranet).

What you control is what a guest sees when they compare: the same room at no higher price on your own website, and a reason to book there. Check it for your own nights (see the guide on checking your hotel's price on every booking site).

• Instagram: a professional account with up to five links in its profile, your own booking page first, and original reels made at the hotel, which Instagram can recommend to people who don't follow you (see the guide to Instagram for hotels).
• WhatsApp: the WhatsApp Business app is free to download, with a business profile, quick replies, greeting and away messages, labels and a catalogue for your rooms (see the guide to WhatsApp Business for hotels).
• Email: past guests who said yes to hearing from you, written to a few times a year. India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 says what that yes must be (see the guide to emailing past guests).

Each of the three should lead guests to your own website or straight to your desk, never to a booking site.

AI assistants such as ChatGPT answer questions about where to stay from what they find about you online: your website, your Google listing, booking sites and reviews. Keep your facts the same in every one of those places, let the assistants' search bots read your website, and answer on your own pages the questions guests ask before booking (see the guides on getting recommended by AI assistants and on the questions guests ask before booking).

Once a month, on the same day, write down:

• Bookings and room nights by source, and the share that came direct.
• The commission you paid that month.
• From your Business Profile's “Performance”: calls, website clicks, booking clicks and direction requests.
• From Search Console: clicks and impressions, and the searches behind them.
• From Analytics: visitors by source and campaign, and how many reached your booking page.
• From Instagram: views, accounts engaged and new followers.
• From WhatsApp: enquiries, and how many booked.

Compare each month with the same month last year, not only with last month. Keep a note of what you changed and when, so that a change in the numbers can be put beside it.