SEO for Hotels
More direct bookings from Google, the map and AI answers, from the searches guests make for a town, a kind of stay or a reason to travel.
- No lock-in contracts
- Tracked to direct bookings, not rankings
In the map guests book from.
No lock-in contracts
If the work isn't paying its way for your hotel, you're free to stop.
Booking-led businesses we have worked with
What is SEO for hotels?
SEO for hotels is the work of getting a hotel found, and booked direct, when guests search for a town, a kind of stay or a reason to travel, on Google, in the map results and in AI answers from ChatGPT, Gemini and Google’s AI Mode. It covers the hotel’s Google Business Profile, a page for each kind of stay and each reason guests visit, reviews on the sites guests read, the tracking behind a booking engine, and the technical work that lets search engines read the site, all written within the Australian Consumer Law.
- Usually moves first
- Your Business Profile, fixed
- Compounds
- Pages for each kind of stay
- Measured by
- Direct bookings, not rankings
Why hotels lose direct bookings in search
Most hotels we speak to have the same four problems, and none of them shows up in a rankings report.
Bookings by channel
| Channel | Bookings |
|---|---|
| Booking sites | 64 |
| Your website | 18 |
| Phone and email | 11 |
| Walk-in | 3 |
| Not recorded | 7 |
| Total new patients | 103 |
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Guests search the booking sites by name
“booking.com” is searched 246,000 times a month in Australia and “wotif” 74,000. Those guests have already chosen where to book, and every one of those bookings pays the site a commission.
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The map decides who gets the click
“hotels near me” is searched 550,000 times a month. The answer is a map with a handful of hotels, and a hotel whose Business Profile is thin, out of date or short on reviews isn't one of them.
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Pages for rooms, not for reasons
Guests search for “pet friendly accommodation” (12,100 a month), airport stays and weekends away, not for room types. A site with one page per room type misses most of what guests actually search for.
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Bookings you cannot trace
Most booking engines run on a separate website, so the booking is often recorded as a visit from the booking engine itself. The search, the map listing or the AI answer that sent the guest gets no credit.
How guests search for hotels in Australia
The searches Australians make every month, grouped by what the guest already knows, with the page that wins each one.
| Search | Searches a month, Australia | What wins it |
|---|---|---|
| Near me and by city | ||
| hotels near me | 550,000 | A complete Google Business Profile, with photos, amenities and reviews |
| accommodation near me | 60,500 | The same |
| motels near me | 49,500 | The same, for motels |
| hotels sydney | 27,100 | A strong home page and Business Profile for your city |
| hotels melbourne | 22,200 | The same |
| hotels perth | 14,800 | The same |
| hotels brisbane | 12,100 | The same |
| hotels gold coast | 9,900 | The same |
| hotels adelaide | 9,900 | The same |
| hotels hobart | 4,400 | The same |
| Destinations | ||
| noosa accommodation | 22,200 | A page for the destination, not just the property |
| byron bay accommodation | 14,800 | The same, with what's walkable from your door |
| port douglas accommodation | 12,100 | The same |
| margaret river accommodation | 12,100 | The same, with the wineries and trails nearby |
| hunter valley accommodation | 9,900 | The same |
| blue mountains accommodation | 8,100 | The same |
| Kind of stay | ||
| pet friendly accommodation | 12,100 | A page for pet stays, with the rules and fees stated |
| boutique hotels sydney | 6,600 | A page that says what makes the stay different |
| serviced apartments | 4,400 | A page for longer stays, with kitchen and laundry details |
| pet friendly hotels | 1,600 | The same page as pet friendly accommodation |
| hotels with spa | 1,000 | A page for the spa, with treatments and hours |
| apartment hotels | 1,000 | The same page as serviced apartments |
| hotels with pool | 880 | Photos of the pool, on the page and the Business Profile |
| Reason for the trip | ||
| glamping | 14,800 | A page for the stay, if you offer it |
| weekend getaways | 1,600 | Packages and pages for a two night stay |
| romantic getaways | 1,000 | A page for couples, with the extras priced |
| weekend getaways nsw | 880 | The same, for the state |
| staycation sydney | 590 | A page for locals, with the city’s own reasons to stay |
| Work and events | ||
| wedding venues | 22,200 | A venue page with capacity and photos, if you host weddings |
| melbourne airport hotels | 12,100 | A page for airport stays, with transfer times |
| sydney airport hotels | 9,900 | The same |
| function rooms | 2,400 | A function room page with capacity and layouts |
| conference venues sydney | 320 | A conference page with rooms, capacity and catering |
| Booking sites | ||
| airbnb | 1,000,000 | Nothing you can win: these are the booking sites’ own names |
| booking.com | 246,000 | The same |
| expedia | 135,000 | The same |
| wotif | 74,000 | The same |
“booking.com” is searched 246,000 times a month and “wotif” 74,000, and a guest who searches a booking site by name has already picked where to book. The searches a hotel can win are the town, the kind of stay and the reason for the trip: “pet friendly accommodation” and “port douglas accommodation” at 12,100 each, or “conference venues sydney” at 320, where advertisers pay US$15.67 a click against US$1.10 for “hotels near me”.
Average monthly Google searches and cost per click in Australia, from Google Ads keyword data, pulled 12 September 2026. Searches with no reported volume are left out rather than estimated.
What our SEO for hotels includes
Six workstreams, run together, each one aimed at a direct booking rather than a ranking.
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Google Business Profile and map results
A complete Business Profile: photos of every room type, amenities, accurate details, and answers to the questions guests ask. Your booking link goes into Google’s free booking links too, so a guest can book direct from the search itself.
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Pages for every kind of stay
A page for each kind of stay you offer and each reason guests come, from pet stays and spa weekends to airport nights and conferences, written for the searches guests make rather than your room types.
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Destination and local pages
Pages that say what's near you and how to get there, so you can be found for the destination as well as the property, and a guest planning a trip finds you before a booking site does.
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Reviews, handled carefully
Reviews asked for from every guest, on Google and the travel sites guests read, with any incentive offered whatever they say and disclosed. Reviews that are faked, filtered or edited mislead, and the ACCC has penalised businesses for all three.
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AI search visibility
Travellers now ask ChatGPT, Gemini and Google’s AI Mode where to stay. We structure your pages, schema and listings so those answers can find, trust and cite your hotel.
How AI search visibility works -
Direct booking tracking
Bookings made through your booking engine tracked back to the search, map listing or page that started them, across the engine’s separate website, so you can weigh direct bookings against what the booking sites charge.
Ready To Take More Bookings Direct?
Get a free growth plan built around your hotel and the guests you want more of.
Get Free Growth Plan!Results For Businesses That Take Bookings
The closest match we can show: three Sydney businesses whose customers choose them from a search and then book or order online, an event photo booth company, a Santa photography studio and a florist. None is a hotel. The Santa Studio’s work was paid social and conversion work; the other two included SEO and Google Ads. Every figure comes straight from their case study.
Halo 360 Events
Halo 360 Events, based in Sydney, is known for offering unique 360-degree photo booth experiences for weddings, corporate events, and parties.
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89%
Increase in Online Leads
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250%
Increase in Organic Traffic
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28%
Drop in Cost Per Lead
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40%+
Increase in Website Conversion Rate
The Santa Studio
The Santa Studio, based in Sydney, is a new studio photography experience offering Santa sessions that capture magical family moments.
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300%
Increase in Booked Sessions
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318%
Increase in Conversions
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500%
Return on Ad Spend Achieved
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204%+
Increase in Conversion Rate
Seed Blossom Pod
Seed Blossom Pod is a Sydney florist offering same day delivery across the city.
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541%
Increase in Top 3 Keyword Positions
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514%
Increase in Organic Traffic
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106%
Increase in PPC Revenue
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+228%
Growth in Total Online Revenue
Hotel marketing inside Australian Consumer Law
Accommodation has some of the best-known consumer law cases in Australia. In 2022 the Federal Court ordered Trivago to pay $44.7 million over how it highlighted hotel room rates, and in 2018 it ordered Meriton to pay $3 million for stopping guests it suspected would leave a negative review from receiving TripAdvisor’s review invitation. The ACCC’s rule on prices is plain: the advertised price must include every fee a guest cannot avoid. This is where we draw the line.
What we won’t publish
- A room rate that leaves out a cleaning, booking or resort fee every guest pays
- A “from” rate the cheapest booking can't actually be made at
- A price comparison that sets one room type against another
- Review invitations sent only to the guests expected to be happy
- Reviews that are written for you, bought, filtered or edited
What we do instead
- Rates stated as the total a guest will pay, unavoidable fees included
- A “from” rate that's the cheapest total a guest can book
- Comparisons made room for room, on the same dates
- One review invitation, sent to every guest after they check out
- An honest, public reply to the reviews you would rather not have
We write hotel marketing copy to the Australian Consumer Law and the ACCC’s guidance on prices and reviews. It supports your own obligations; it does not replace legal advice. ACCC, price displays
How our SEO process for hotels works
Five steps, in order. The pace is set by your property, your destination and your seasons, so the plan sets it rather than a template.
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Audit
Search Console, your Business Profile, the map results for your area, the pages you have, and how bookings are tracked through your booking engine.
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Growth plan
What to fix and what to build, in order of the direct bookings each is likely to bring, with your seasons in mind.
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Build
Business Profile, pages, technical fixes and tracking, with every page approved by your team before it goes live.
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Compound
Pages, reviews and local authority, built on what the data shows is working.
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Report
Against direct bookings and revenue, not rankings.
How much SEO for hotels costs in Australia
Published Australian agency figures put SEO for hospitality and tourism businesses at $1,200 to $2,500+ a month, and most Australian small businesses pay $1,500 to $3,500 a month. No regulator sets SEO prices in Australia, so these are market figures, not a quote.
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$1,200 to $2,500+
a month, what Australian agencies publish for hospitality and tourism businesses
Published Australian agency rate card, verified September 2026
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$1,500 to $3,500
a month, where most Australian small businesses sit
Two Australian SEO cost guides agree, verified September 2026
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US$500 to US$1,000
a month, the most common agency retainer worldwide
What moves the price
- How many properties and kinds of stay you have
- How contested your destination is
- The booking engine your site uses
- The state of your Business Profile and reviews
- Whether Google Ads or hotel ads run alongside
Set the market figures next to what each booking made direct, rather than through a booking site, saves you in commission, and against the US$1.10 to US$3.56 a click that near me, city and airport hotel searches cost to buy. The useful question is how many bookings a month have to move to your own website for the work to pay for itself.
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SEO for Hotels Questions
Do you lock hotels into contracts?
No. We work without lock-in contracts. If the work isn't paying its way for your hotel, you're free to stop.
How much does SEO for a hotel cost in Australia?
Published Australian agency figures put SEO for hospitality and tourism businesses at $1,200 to $2,500+ a month, and most small businesses pay $1,500 to $3,500 a month (both verified September 2026). What moves the price is how many properties and kinds of stay you have, how contested your destination is and the state of your Business Profile. We scope each hotel before quoting.
How long does SEO for a hotel take?
It depends on how contested your destination is, the condition of your site and Business Profile, and how much authority they have already earned. Fixing the Business Profile tends to move first, while ranking for a crowded city takes longer. Rather than quote an industry average, we set out what's realistic for your hotel before you commit to anything.
Can SEO reduce how much we pay booking sites?
It can move some bookings direct, which is the point. Guests who find you through your own pages, your map listing or an AI answer can book on your website with no booking site in between. Booking sites will still bring guests you wouldn't otherwise reach, so the aim is a better mix, not leaving them.
Can we offer a lower rate than the booking sites?
In some channels, yes. Since 1 September 2016, after the ACCC’s involvement, Expedia (which includes Wotif) and Booking.com no longer require Australian accommodation providers to match their rates on other booking sites or through offline channels. The ACCC said that means lower rates by phone and for walk-ins, and special rates for loyalty members. Your contract with each booking site still governs the rate on your own website, so we check it before we advertise one.
Do fees have to be included in our room rate?
Yes, where every guest pays them. The ACCC’s guidance is that the advertised price must be the minimum total cost, including fees a guest cannot avoid, and its own example is a serviced apartment whose “from” rate should include its cleaning fee. Separately, a new law targeting drip pricing passed in July 2026 and takes effect on 1 July 2027.
Can our hotel appear in Google’s hotel search without paying for ads?
Yes. Google shows free booking links in hotel searches, listed under “All options”, and says clicks on them are free; paid hotel ads are shown separately and labelled as ads. Your own booking link is added through Google Hotel Center, which we set up with your booking engine provider.
Does our booking engine hurt our SEO?
Not usually, but it often breaks the tracking. Most booking engines run on their own website, so a guest’s path from your site to the booking is lost unless the engine and your analytics are set up to follow it. We work with your booking engine provider to track bookings back to the search that started them.
Do we need a page for every attraction nearby?
Only for the ones guests actually search for. A page for each reason people visit, such as the beach, the wineries, the airport or the conference centre, can bring guests who haven't yet chosen where to stay. A thin page for every landmark in town doesn't.
Do we need Google Ads as well?
Not always. SEO builds visibility you keep, while Google Ads and hotel ads buy it straight away. Many hotels use ads to fill quiet dates and SEO to depend less on paid clicks and booking sites over time. The same consumer law applies to ads, so we write both to the same standard.
Can you get our hotel into ChatGPT and AI Mode answers?
Nobody can guarantee a mention in an AI answer, and it is worth being wary of anyone who does. What we can do is strengthen the signals those answers draw on: clear pages for each kind of stay, an accurate Business Profile, genuine reviews, structured data, and mentions on travel sites AI tools already trust.
How do you choose which hotel searches to target?
We match search demand to the stays your property can genuinely accommodate. An airport stopover, a conference visit and a pet-friendly break involve different questions about location, amenities and booking. We prioritise the relevant opportunities, then build or improve pages that answer those questions and connect guests to your booking engine. The aim is suitable direct bookings, not unrelated travel traffic.
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