Max Starkov: Impactful marketing strategies for independent hotels

In a recent interview, hospitality consultant and strategist Max Starkov addressed the question: What marketing strategies that hotels with limited marketing budgets can afford have the biggest impact?

Mr. Starkov's insights:

1. Although in 2023 OTAs spent $12 billion on marketing, that's only around $250 per hotel per month.

2. Even small independent hotels should be spending 4% of their room revenue on marketing monthly, so $250 should be doable.

3. Some things hotels can do for $250/month to increase their online visibility and get people to book directly:

• Ensure website is mobile-friendly, downloads in 2.5 seconds or less, has fresh content that truly represents your property, and is fully optimized for organic search.
• Take advantage of free opportunities: Google Business Profile, free Google Hotel Ads, directories, CVB listings, etc.
• Run a Google Ads campaign with the goal of owning 100% share-of-voice for your property's brand name and other branded keywords. Budget enough for clicks that your ads are showing 100% of the time. Because OTAs are already bidding on your hotel's name.
• Invest in content marketing to engage consumers in the Dreaming and Planning stages of trip planning - along with intermediaries like group tour organizers and wedding planners - priming them to have your hotel top-of-mind when they're ready to book.
• Use B2B content marketing to reach corporate travel managers and group planners, corporate executives, and meeting and convention organizers.

Comment: If you were to spend $250/month on Google Ads, that would be a pretty small click budget to keep ads running 24/7. You cannot afford to buy wasted clicks on too-broad keywords. Run ads that draw clicks only on searches for your unique, branded keywords.

And if you have business customers, please take a look at my B2B Lead Generation Service. The internet is full of tech and ad “experts” who claim to be able to deliver more customers and more money for B2B businesses. But I'm different...