Hotel SEO is the work that brings direct bookings to a property without paying a booking site's commission: you don't win it on "hotels + city", where on "hotels central london" (18,100 searches a month in the UK) five of the nine organic results are OTAs or comparison sites. You win it in the places the OTAs don't cover well: the Google Hotels listing, searches for the hotel's own name, and service, seasonal and area keywords.
Sounds like giving up, right?
It isn't. It's just reading the SERP (Google's results page) for what it is.
On "hotels central london" page one holds Trivago, Hotels.com, Skyscanner, Tripadvisor and Booking.com. Above everything sits the Google Hotels block with three properties and their prices, and two more hotel blocks appear further down.
The only hotel websites on page one belong to chains and groups: Premier Inn, IHG and Imperial London Hotels (DataForSEO, Google UK, September 2026).
And the mistakes we see at hotels are always the same:
- paying for SEO sold as "page one for hotels London";
- a five-page website with the offers locked in a slider;
- letting only Booking.com and Expedia appear in Google's price list.
Here you'll find the SERPs we measured, the numbers for three UK hotel websites (a national chain and two single seafront hotels in Blackpool) and the method we draw from them. It applies to hotels, B&Bs, guesthouses, farm stays and serviced apartments alike.
Let's start with the SERP.
How people search for a hotel when they are about to book (area first, property second)
Someone about to book finds the Google Hotels block at the top of the page, not an organic result, followed by a page one crowded with booking sites. We checked it on two SERPs that represent the two typical markets: a big city and a seaside resort.
| Keyword | Searches/month | CPC | First element | Hotel websites on page one | OTAs on page one | AI Overview |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| hotels central london | 18,100 | £1.82 | Hotels pack | 3 (premierinn.com, ihg.com, imperialhotels.co.uk) | 5 | no |
| hotels blackpool | 12,100 | £1.06 | Hotels pack | 3 (Boulevard Hotel, The Imperial Hotel, Britannia Hotels) | 5 | no |
Three things to read in this table.
One: the first element is always the hotels pack, the block with photos, rating and price. In Blackpool, for a one-night stay at the end of September: Grand Hotel Blackpool from £42, The Imperial Hotel from £53, Premier Inn Blackpool North Pier from £81.
Two: in London the only operators on page one are chains and groups with pages dedicated to their central London hotels. In Blackpool two single hotels are first and third, with titles such as "Boulevard Hotel: Luxury Blackpool Seafront Hotel".
Three: neither SERP shows an AI Overview. That's rare in 2026, and it still matters in travel.
And what are people asking?
"Where" questions, all of them: "What is the best central area to stay in London?", "Where should I stay in London for 3 days?", "What is the best area to stay in Blackpool?".
People looking for a hotel choose the area first and the property second. Keep that in mind for when we get to content.
Further reading: how to read search intent from a SERP.
Where an independent hotel really wins (and why service pages can beat the brand)
An independent hotel wins on its own name and on the service and offer pages the OTAs don't build: for The Imperial Hotel Blackpool, the brand brings 38% of estimated organic traffic and the rest comes largely from pages such as dog-friendly breaks and all-inclusive stays. The common belief that hotel SEO means ranking for "hotels + city" only tells part of the story.
The Imperial (imperialhotelblackpool.co.uk) is third on "hotels blackpool", 12,100 searches a month, and one of two single hotels on page one. It ranks for 752 organic keywords.
So is that where the traffic comes from? Partly. Look at the table.
| Keyword | Position | Searches/month | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| hotel blackpool england | 1 | 27,100 | generic |
| imperial hotel blackpool | 1 | 18,100 | brand |
| imperial hotel | 2 | 9,900 | brand |
| hotels with pools blackpool | 1 | 2,400 | service |
| hotels blackpool seafront | 1 | 1,900 | generic |
| blackpool hotels that allow dogs | 1 | 1,600 | service (offer page) |
| blackpool all inclusive | 2 | 1,600 | offer |
| xmas in blackpool | 2 | 1,000 | seasonal |
| imperial hotel blackpool reviews | 2 | 1,000 | brand |
| imperial hotel blackpool prices | 1 | 480 | brand |
Among the 100 keywords that bring it the most traffic, the 19 containing the hotel's name generate 38% of estimated organic traffic.
The rest comes from generic resort searches and, above all, from service and offer pages: the dog-friendly package page is first for "blackpool hotels that allow dogs", the all-inclusive package is second for "blackpool all inclusive", the Christmas page is second for "xmas in blackpool".
The other single hotel on page one, the Boulevard Hotel, has the same profile: first for "blackpool hotels" (27,100 searches) and first for "blackpool family hotels" with its family room page.
And a chain?
At chain scale the brand weighs more. Premier Inn (premierinn.com) ranks for about 118,800 organic keywords and gets around 6 million estimated organic visits a month. In its top 100 keywords by traffic, 81 have navigational intent and those containing the brand account for 48% of the traffic: "premier inn" (1.5 million searches), "premier inn london" (110,000), "premier inn edinburgh" (49,500).
The limits of this data need saying: these are traffic estimates from a tool, not the hotels' own analytics, and the sample is 100 keywords per domain.
In the Search Console data of the hotels we work with in Italy, the brand is often around three quarters of organic clicks. Blackpool shows that in a resort town, with well-built service pages, the balance can tip the other way.
What does NOT exist, for an independent in a big city, is page one for "hotels London". Anyone selling that is selling something that isn't there.
Further reading: how company size changes SEO strategy.
How to structure a hotel website so it ranks (Premier Inn's model, scaled down)
A hotel website ranks when it has one page for every "what + where" combination people search for. The architecture to copy is Premier Inn's: one page per destination and one per hotel, in a clear hierarchy, with URLs such as /gb/en/hotels/england/greater-london/london.html and /gb/en/hotels/england/greater-london/london/london-county-hall.html.
The London destination page is first for "hotel in london" (60,500 searches a month) and is also the organic result on page one for "hotels central london".
Individual hotel pages rank for the names of their areas, such as "london county hall" (90,500 searches, second position).
But I have one hotel, not hundreds. Same logic, and it translates into four types of page:
- Home page and property page, with a title built like those of the two Blackpool hotels on page one: town, category and a distinguishing feature ("Luxury Blackpool Seafront Hotel"), not just the name.
- Pages by room type and service (family room, pool, parking, dog friendly, spa). "hotels with pools blackpool" gets 2,400 searches a month and the Imperial is first: a three-line "Pool" page won't rank for it.
- Seasonal and event offer pages, permanent and updated every year. The Imperial ranks with dedicated URLs under /offers/ for dog-friendly breaks and all-inclusive stays, and with a /christmas page for "xmas in blackpool". Same for events: the Boulevard Hotel ranks for "what's on blackpool" (2,900 searches) because it has a page about it.
- Area pages and guides, which we cover shortly.
The mistake we see most often is the opposite.
A five-page website (home, rooms, facilities, contact, book) and a booking engine on an external subdomain that takes half the domain's authority with it.
Offers put in a PDF or in a home page slider? They don't rank for anything.
One technical point that matters more in travel than elsewhere: the website is almost always multilingual. You need one version per language with correct hreflang, not a plugin's automatic translation. And photos should be uploaded with descriptive file names and alt text, because for a hotel the images are half the content.
Further reading: how to build an SEO-friendly website and international SEO and hreflang.
Why the Google Business Profile is worth more than any page (and the free links many hotels never switch on)
The hotels pack, the first element in both SERPs we measured, doesn't take its data from the website: it takes it from the property's Google Business Profile (name, photos, star rating, reviews, amenities) and from the prices sent through Hotel Center. A hotel with an incomplete profile, old photos and 40 reviews competes badly with one that has 900, even if its website is perfect.
In the Blackpool pack, the listings shown had between 107 and 3,400 reviews.
Since 2021 Google has also shown so-called "free booking links" in the Google Hotels price list: a link to the hotel's official booking engine, free, next to those of Booking.com and Expedia.
To switch them on you need a connection that sends rates to Hotel Center. Almost all booking engines and channel managers can do it.
And yet many independent hotels still haven't activated them.
The result: only the OTAs appear in their own listing. With their commission.
The three things that count most in the profile, from what we measure:
- category and amenities filled in completely, because they are the filters Google Hotels uses to narrow down results;
- reviews with replies;
- photos uploaded regularly, not once at opening.
The same applies to a B&B, a farm stay or a hotel in Lugano: the profile feeds Google Hotels in every country.
Further reading: Google Business Profile guide and local SEO.
Is your own website in your hotel's price list?
If only Booking.com and Expedia are there, every booking that starts from that panel pays a commission that Hotel Center's free link would save you. In 30 minutes we check your profile, your Hotel Center connection and your booking engine together.
Book a strategy consultationWhat content to write: the area, not the hotel
The content that pays for a hotel is about the area, because the SERP questions were all "where to stay" and "which area".
The informational traffic no hotel is covering (a million searches for Big Ben)
Premier Inn has built a "things to do" section on top of that.
Its Big Ben page is fifth for "big ben london uk" (about 1 million searches a month), its Tower Bridge page sixth for "uk tower bridge" (823,000), its Canary Wharf page fifth for "canary wharf" (450,000).
These are visits that arrive months before a booking. And no independent London hotel captures them.
So should I write guides to every landmark in town?
No. The limit is obvious and should be stated: most people searching for "big ben" don't book anything. This traffic builds authority on the topic "London" and puts the hotel into remarketing; it doesn't fill rooms in September.
For a small property the sustainable version is a limited number of guides: the three or four questions guests ask at reception ("where do I park", "how do I get here from the airport", "what can we do with the kids if it rains"), written once and kept up to date.
Events and trade fairs: demand that starts before the accommodation
People searching for what's on in town, a conference or a televised event are planning a trip and haven't yet thought about the hotel.
The Boulevard Hotel is first for "where do strictly stars stay in blackpool" (170 searches) because it has written about it.
One page per event, with dates, distance from the venue and a dedicated rate, captures the booking before it ends up on a booking site.
For a hotel in a conference or exhibition city (London, Birmingham, Manchester, Harrogate) it is the part of the editorial calendar that pays best.
Further reading: how to create content for SEO and keyword research.
How to protect the hotel's name from the OTAs (even chains bid on each other)
You protect the hotel's name in two ways: with a brand campaign on Google Ads, because Booking.com, Expedia and Tripadvisor bid on the names of the hotels they list, and with a home page and structured data that put the official website first. If a large part of the traffic comes from the property's name, the most concrete risk is losing some of it to whoever buys it.
Do chains really do this?
Yes, to each other. Among the 443 paid keywords detected for premierinn.com are "travelodge edinburgh" (27,100 searches, CPC £1.13), "edinburgh holiday inn hotel" and "ibis hotel leeds centre" (DataForSEO, Google UK, September 2026).
On the organic side, ranking first for your own name with the right page takes a few things done well:
- the full name in the home page title;
- Hotel structured data with address, star rating, phone number and rating;
- pages that answer the brand variants.
"imperial hotel blackpool prices" (480 searches) and "imperial hotel blackpool reviews" (1,000) are searches by people who have already chosen and only want confirmation.
If Tripadvisor wins them, the booking starts there.
We have seen the same attention to brand work on a much larger scale on projects for Costa Crociere, where searches for the cruise line and ship names far outnumber generic ones. The principle is the same, only the number of zeros changes.
Further reading: structured data and schema markup and how to write a meta title.
Which links matter for a hotel (the ones nobody asks for)
The links that matter for a hotel already exist and nobody asks for them: the destination's official website (VisitBlackpool's accommodation list is on page one for "hotels blackpool"), local hotel associations, trade fair and conference organisers with a "where to stay" page, and industry bodies with member directories. They are topical, geographical links, and worth more than any article bought on a travel blog.
Generic directories are no use. Unlinked mentions in local press ("the X Hotel will host the team...") are worth more than people think, because Google and AI assistants use them to confirm that the property exists and is what it says it is.
Further reading: link building.
How to measure whether the hotel's SEO is working (and why December in Blackpool isn't a problem)
Only one metric counts: direct bookings from the booking engine with an organic source, and their value. To get it, the booking engine has to pass data to Google Analytics 4 with cross-domain tracking set up, which is missing on more than half the hotel websites we see.
And if tracking is there but counts the wrong things?
That's worse than having none.
We've seen it outside travel, at Valore Solare, a solar and battery installer: in one month the account recorded 15,267 "conversions" against 5,467 clicks. They were technical events, not enquiries: in the first full month the real enquiries were 9, at €212 each.
Only after fixing the measurement could the account grow: 1,506 enquiries, an average cost of €70.78, 40% less per enquiry than in the first quarter.
For a hotel the principle is the same: count the confirmed booking, not the click on "Book".
Then two readings in Search Console:
- queries split into brand and non-brand: if brand grows and non-brand stays flat, it isn't SEO doing the work, it's reputation;
- year-on-year comparisons, not month-on-month.
Why year-on-year?
Because the sector's seasonality makes any short-range comparison useless. "hotels in blackpool" goes from 8,100 searches in December to 22,200 in July, August and September. "hotels central london" does the opposite: from 14,800 between May and August to 22,200 between September and January.
A drop in traffic in Blackpool in December is not an SEO problem. It's December.
Further reading: the SEO KPIs to watch and Google Search Console.
Do you know how many direct bookings Google brings you?
On more than half the hotel websites we see, the booking engine doesn't pass data to GA4, and without that number every decision on SEO and advertising is a bet. Let's look at your tracking, Search Console and booking engine together.
Book a strategy consultationSEO or Google Ads for a hotel? (clicks at £1.82, but auctions full of OTAs)
A hotel needs both, with different jobs: SEO covers the brand, the profile, the area and events; Google Ads protects the name and covers "city + service" keywords in high season. Cost per click in the sector is moderate (£1.06 on "hotels blackpool", £1.73 on "hotels in london", £1.82 on "hotels central london"), but auction competition is among the highest we measure: 99 and 100 on Google's 0-100 competition index.
In plain terms: auctions crowded with OTAs. So we give Google Ads three jobs:
- protecting the name, the campaign that stops Booking.com from buying your searches;
- "city + service" keywords in high season;
- Google Hotel Ads inside the hotels pack.
How to set up the account, with measured CPCs and a calculated minimum budget, is in Google Ads for hotels. The general reasoning on the two channels is in SEO and Google Ads together.
If instead of a hotel you run a tour operator or travel agency, the SERP is different and page one is more open to operators. We explain it in the guide to SEO for tourism.
Frequently asked questions
It depends: on generic big-city keywords, no, because on "hotels central london" five of the nine organic results are OTAs, the only hotel websites are chains, and the hotels pack sits above them; on resort keywords, yes, as the two Blackpool hotels in first and third place show. On its own name, its Google Hotels listing, its services and local events, the hotel starts with the advantage.
It depends: on where the website starts from and how many languages it has. For a single hotel most of the initial spend goes on the page structure and on booking engine tracking; after that the ongoing work is lighter than in other sectors. We have set out the orders of magnitude in how much SEO costs.
It depends: a few weeks on the brand and the profile; a whole season on area keywords and seasonal offers, because the Christmas page has to be published in September to rank in December; on "hotels + city" keywords you think in years. More detail on SEO timelines here.
Yes, with one advantage: the keywords are more specific (a type of stay plus a place, such as a farm stay with a pool in a particular valley or a B&B near a particular station) and the OTAs cover them less well. The Google Business Profile and the service pages weigh even more, because the website often has fewer pages and less authority.
No, not a news blog. It needs area and event guides kept up to date, which are permanent pages, not posts: five good guides do more than fifty articles about the "breakfast buffet".
Where to start (with your hotel's name on Google)
Not "hotels + city", but your name and your service pages: they carry the Imperial's traffic.
Not five pages, but one for every "what + where" people search for.
Not just Booking.com in the price list, but your free link too.
Not month-on-month, but year-on-year.
Now, two concrete things.
One: search Google for your hotel's name. See who else is on page one and who appears in the price list of the Google Hotels panel. If it shows only Booking.com and Expedia, the first job is to connect to Hotel Center: it is free and moves bookings from commission to direct before any other optimisation.
Two: open Search Console, separate brand queries from non-brand ones and count how many pages of the website get more than ten clicks a month. That number is your SEO today.
If the commission bill already hurts, read why commissions are already your marketing budget.
And if you would like us to look at the SERPs for your area and your booking engine data together, book a strategy consultation: we work with properties in Italy and in Ticino.
See you next time!
