Hospitality Marketing: What It Is and How It Works

Hospitality marketing is how hotels, motels, inns, resorts, bed and breakfasts and vacation rentals attract guests and fill rooms. It covers the property's own website and booking engine, online travel agencies (OTAs) like Booking.com and Expedia, Google's hotel search, reviews, email and loyalty programs, and social media.

For a lodging business, every unsold room night is revenue that can't be recovered. Marketing decides whether a traveler finds the property, trusts the price they see, and books direct or through a channel that takes a commission.

What is hospitality marketing?

Hospitality marketing is the promotion of places to stay. In this glossary we use it for lodging. Restaurants have their own entry on restaurant marketing, and the work of promoting a destination, tour or activity is covered under travel and tourism marketing.

The difference matters. A destination marketer is trying to convince someone to visit a city. A hotel marketer is competing for a traveler who has often already picked the city and is now comparing a handful of properties on price, location, reviews and amenities like parking, pet policies or a pool.

Why hospitality marketing matters

Distribution costs money. OTAs bring reach, but they charge the property a commission on each booking. Most hotels use both. The marketing question is how to earn enough direct bookings that the property isn't dependent on intermediaries.

Price display is regulated. In the US, the FTC's fee rule now governs how lodging prices are advertised. A low nightly rate that grows at checkout is no longer just a bad guest experience. It can be a legal problem.

Small facts decide bookings. Guests filter by details: free parking, accessible rooms, pet fees, breakfast, check-in times. When those facts are wrong or missing on a hotel's own site, guests rely on OTA listings, review sites and AI assistants instead.

How hospitality marketing works

Google hotel search and free booking links

Google shows hotel prices and booking options directly in search. Through Google's Hotel Center, properties can run paid hotel ads and also appear in free booking links, which Google says carry no cost for clicks. If a hotel uses a reservation system, Google notes that the provider may be able to set up booking links for it. The property's Google Business Profile supplies photos, amenities and reviews around those prices.

OTAs, metasearch and direct booking

OTAs and metasearch sites put a property in front of travelers comparing many options. Direct channels, like the hotel website, email list and loyalty program, keep the guest relationship and avoid commission. Good hospitality marketing treats them as one system, so rates, photos and policies match everywhere.

Pricing rules: the FTC fee rule and drip pricing

The FTC's Rule on Unfair or Deceptive Fees (16 C.F.R. Part 464) took effect on May 12, 2025. It covers short-term lodging, including hotels, vacation rentals and home shares, and applies to ads as well as booking pages. If a business shows a price, it must show the total price, including mandatory fees it knows about upfront, and display it more prominently than other pricing. The FTC's FAQ uses a $199 nightly rate with a required $39 daily resort fee as an example: the resort fee must be in the total. Taxes, government charges and truly optional add-ons can be left out of the total, but they must be disclosed before payment. The FTC also says fees need clear descriptions, not vague labels like "service fee."

States add their own rules. California's SB 478, in effect since July 1, 2024, is meant to prohibit what the state calls drip pricing, and the Attorney General's page names hotels and short-term rentals as examples. This entry is not legal advice, so check current federal and state rules with counsel.

Accessible room information

The ADA's lodging reservation rule, 28 C.F.R. 36.302(e), requires hotels to identify and describe accessible features in enough detail for a guest to judge whether a room meets their needs. It applies to reservations made by any means, including through third parties. In practice, that means room-level accessibility details on the website and in the data sent to booking channels.

Hospitality marketing in practice: an example

Picture a hypothetical 40-room independent hotel near a downtown arena. Most bookings come through OTAs, and its own site shows a "from $149" rate in large type, with a mandatory $25 amenity fee added at checkout.

The hotel reworks the basics. Every rate on the site, in email and in paid ads now leads with the total nightly price, including the amenity fee, and the fee is described plainly. A new accessible rooms page lists door widths, bed heights, roll-in showers and which room types have them. Parking costs, pet rules and check-in times move out of PDFs and images into plain text on one crawlable page.

The team then asks ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity questions like "pet-friendly hotel near the arena with parking." One assistant says the hotel has free parking, which it doesn't. The hotel fixes the outdated parking line on an old directory listing and updates its OTA profiles so every source says the same thing, the core idea behind NAP consistency.

Common mistakes and misconceptions

"Resort fees can go in the fine print." Under the FTC rule, mandatory fees belong in the total price shown upfront. A fee that is charged automatically unless a guest notices and objects is treated as mandatory.

"The OTA listing is good enough." If the property's own site is thinner than its OTA listings, guests and AI tools learn to trust the OTA. Your site should be the most complete and current source about your hotel.

"Amenities are obvious from the photos." Search engines and AI assistants read text far more reliably than images. Facts locked in photos, PDFs or booking widgets often go unseen.

"Reviews are just reputation." Reviews on Google, Tripadvisor and OTAs are part of how travelers shortlist properties. Respond to them, and never buy or fake them.

How Butter approaches hospitality marketing

We'll be straightforward: Butter doesn't manage OTA listings, Hotel Center accounts or booking engines, and we don't manage Google Business Profiles directly as a standalone service. Our plans work for lodging businesses on the website and visibility side. Our GEO plan, which starts at $399/month, includes monthly AI prompt testing, where we ask assistants the questions your guests ask and check whether your property shows up and whether facts like fees, parking and pet policies are right.

From there, our on-page recommendations, schema markup guidance and knowledge graph submissions help keep your property's details clear and consistent. On the GEO+SEO plan, we also handle technical SEO fixes and publish supporting content each month. You can see how this works on our GEO services page.

Frequently asked questions

Do hotels have to include resort fees in advertised prices?

In the US, yes, if the fee is mandatory. The FTC fee rule, effective May 12, 2025, requires lodging businesses that show a price to show the total price, including required resort or amenity fees, more prominently than other pricing. Taxes can be disclosed separately before payment. This is not legal advice.

Should a hotel focus on OTAs or direct bookings?

Most properties use both. OTAs help travelers discover you, while direct bookings avoid commission and keep the guest relationship. The goal is accurate, matching information on every channel and good reasons to book direct.

What are Google free booking links?

They are unpaid listings that show a hotel's or booking site's rate in Google's hotel search. Google says there is no cost for clicks. Hotels can join through Hotel Center or, often, through their reservation system provider.

How is hospitality marketing different from travel and tourism marketing?

Hospitality marketing, as we use it here, promotes a specific place to stay. Travel and tourism marketing promotes destinations, tours and activities. A city's tourism office sells the trip, while the hotel competes for the room.

Sources and further reading

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