Luxury hotel brands need to reexamine their digital marketing budgets as Google continues to grow its presence in travel search and online booking, strengthening its position as a formidable competitor to traditional online travel agencies.
That’s one of the messages in a report from L2, a research and business intelligence firm owned by Gartner, titled “Luxury Hotels U.S.: Google Hotel Finder vs. OTAs.”
Google has long been a popular outlet for consumers looking to explore destinations, accommodations, transportation and other facets of travel. Recent updates to its travel platform – such as price-tracking options for hotel rooms - strengthen that position.
Subscribe to our newsletter below
And as Google’s influence grows, it’s creating another stressor on the already strained - but co-dependent - relationship luxury hotels have with OTAs.
According to L2, across TripAdvisor, Expedia and Kayak, the average hotel brand gains only 5% of comparable website traffic, 6% of unique email subscribers and 14% of unbranded Google search visibility.
Google presents an opportunity to challenge that position, and as such brands need to juggle their spending to ensure they’re investing in systems – i.e. ad dollars for sponsored listings - that deliver to the right audience.
According to L2, 80% of United States luxury hotel search leaders generate the majority of their overall visibility via sponsored listings. This means they are leading consumers to their reservation system rather than a booking agent.
Travel Metasearch – Just Google It?
The top brands by visibility on Google are Four Seasons for U.S. destinations and Mandarin Oriental for international destinations.
Though OTA and metasearch sites dominate Google results in unbranded search terms, large hotel brands better compete in paid results for unbranded terms. Hilton is tied with Expedia at 5% and just ahead of Booking.com at 4%. Marriott is also at 4%.
Additionally in the report, L2 looks at which luxury hotel brands in the U.S. are effectively using Google to grow their visibility, how brands can boost their profile on TripAdvisor in light of the site’s recent algorithm changes and how these brands should balance their digital marketing budgets across the broad field of options.