Google Ads for Travel & Hospitality: Booking Strategy 2026

The travel and hospitality industry presents unique challenges for digital advertisers. Unlike e-commerce where purchases happen in single sessions, travel bookings often involve weeks of research, multiple devices, and comparison shopping across dozens of websites. Travelers dreaming of a beach vacation might visit your hotel website five times before finally booking, and they'll almost certainly check OTAs, read reviews, and compare prices along the way.

Google Ads offers travel marketers powerful tools specifically designed for this complex buying journey. From Hotel Ads that display your rates directly in search results to remarketing campaigns that keep your property top-of-mind during extended consideration cycles, the platform provides everything you need to capture bookings at every stage. This guide covers the strategies that help hotels, vacation rentals, tour operators, and travel agencies drive direct reservations while competing effectively against OTAs and larger competitors.

Understanding the Travel Customer Journey

Before diving into campaign tactics, you need to understand how travelers actually make decisions. The travel booking funnel is longer and more complex than most industries, typically spanning four distinct phases: dreaming, planning, booking, and experiencing. Your Google Ads strategy should address each phase with appropriate messaging and targeting.

During the dreaming phase, travelers are gathering inspiration without specific dates or destinations in mind. They search broad queries like "best beach vacations" or "romantic getaways near me." The planning phase narrows focus to specific destinations and dates, with searches like "hotels in Santorini August" or "Maui resorts with ocean view." The booking phase involves high-intent queries with your property name, specific dates, and price comparisons. Finally, the experiencing phase presents opportunities for upselling experiences and capturing future bookings.

Typical travel booking timelines

Google Hotel Ads: Your Direct Booking Engine

Google Hotel Ads represents one of the most powerful tools available for accommodation providers. When travelers search for hotels on Google Search or Maps, Hotel Ads display your property with real-time pricing, photos, reviews, and a direct booking link. Unlike traditional search ads that compete with ten other results, Hotel Ads position you directly against OTAs in a price comparison format where you can showcase your rate advantage.

To participate in Google Hotel Ads, you need a Hotel Center account connected to your Google Ads account. Your property information, rates, and availability must be fed to Google through an integration partner or direct API connection. Most property management systems and channel managers offer Google Hotel Ads integration, making setup relatively straightforward for properties already managing online distribution.

Hotel Ads bidding strategies

Google Hotel Ads offers several bidding models suited to different business objectives:

• Commission (per stay): Pay only when guests complete their stay. Best for properties wanting zero-risk advertising with guaranteed ROI
• Commission (per conversion): Pay when bookings are made. Lower commission than per-stay but includes cancellation risk
• Manual CPC: Set maximum cost-per-click bids. Offers most control for sophisticated advertisers optimizing specific scenarios
• CPC%: Bid a percentage of room rate per click. Automatically scales with room value and length of stay
• Enhanced CPC: Manual bidding with automatic adjustments based on conversion likelihood

For most hotels, commission-based bidding provides the safest entry point since you only pay for actual revenue. As you gather performance data, transitioning to CPC-based bidding often delivers better cost efficiency, especially during high-demand periods when conversion rates are strong.

Google Things to Do: Capturing Experience Seekers

Google Things to Do showcases tours, activities, and attractions directly in search results when travelers research destinations. For tour operators, activity providers, and attractions, this platform offers prime visibility to travelers actively planning what to do during their trips. Similar to Hotel Ads, Things to Do displays your offerings with pricing, reviews, and booking options integrated into Google's interface.

Things to Do listings appear when travelers search queries like "things to do in Paris," "Rome tours," or specific attractions. Your activities compete alongside major OTAs like Viator and GetYourGuide, making direct booking optimization crucial. Ensure your listings include compelling descriptions, high-quality images, competitive pricing, and strong review profiles.

Optimizing Things to Do listings

• Detailed descriptions: Include duration, inclusions, meeting points, and what makes your experience unique
• High-quality imagery: Use professional photos showing the actual experience, not stock images
• Competitive pricing: Match or beat OTA rates since travelers can compare instantly
• Review management: Actively solicit and respond to Google reviews to build trust
• Availability accuracy: Keep real-time availability updated to avoid booking failures

Search Campaign Strategies for Travel

Beyond Hotel Ads and Things to Do, standard Search campaigns remain essential for travel advertisers. They capture travelers throughout the research process with messaging tailored to each intent level. A comprehensive search strategy layers branded, destination, and competitive campaigns to maximize coverage while controlling costs.

Brand campaign essentials

Never skip brand campaigns for your property name. OTAs aggressively bid on hotel brand terms, and without protection, your potential direct bookers will click through to Booking.com or Expedia instead. Brand campaigns typically deliver the lowest CPA and highest ROAS in your account because searchers already know and want your property specifically.

Structure brand campaigns to capture variations of your property name, including common misspellings, location qualifiers ("Grand Hotel Chicago downtown"), and branded amenity searches ("Grand Hotel rooftop bar"). Use exact and phrase match for efficiency, and include negative keywords for irrelevant brand associations.

Destination and category campaigns

These campaigns target travelers researching your destination without knowing specific properties. Keywords like "boutique hotels Miami Beach" or "family resorts Orlando" capture planners early in their journey. Competition is fierce and CPCs run higher than brand campaigns, so careful keyword selection and bid management matter significantly.

For destination campaigns, focus on qualifiers that match your property's strengths. A luxury resort should bid on "5-star hotels" and "luxury accommodations" rather than "cheap hotels." A family-friendly property should target "kid-friendly resorts" and "hotels with waterpark." This alignment between keyword intent and property positioning improves Quality Score and conversion rates.

Location Targeting for Tourism Markets

Effective location targeting separates profitable travel campaigns from wasted spend. Unlike local businesses targeting nearby customers, travel advertisers need to reach people planning to visit from elsewhere. Your targeting strategy should focus on feeder markets, the cities and regions that historically send travelers to your destination.

Analyze your booking data to identify top source markets. A beach resort in Florida might find that New York, Chicago, and Toronto generate most bookings. Concentrate budget in these proven markets rather than spreading thin across the entire country. Layer bid adjustments to increase aggressiveness in high-performing locations while maintaining presence in secondary markets.

Location targeting best practices

• Target by presence, not interest: Reach people physically in feeder markets, not those interested in those locations
• Exclude your destination: Remove your local area from non-local campaigns to avoid wasting budget on residents
• International markets: Create separate campaigns for key international feeder markets with localized messaging and landing pages
• Airport targeting: Reach travelers already in transit by targeting major airports in connecting cities
• Radius targeting: For attractions and activities, target visitors already at your destination with same-day booking offers

Seasonal Campaign Optimization

Travel demand follows predictable seasonal patterns that should drive your entire advertising strategy. The key insight many travel advertisers miss is that booking behavior leads travel dates by weeks or months. When summer travelers are packing their bags, savvy marketers are already ramping up for fall bookings.

Build your seasonal calendar backward from peak travel periods. If your busiest season runs June through August, begin increasing budgets and bids in April when booking activity peaks. By June, booking windows have shortened to last-minute travelers, and competition intensifies as desperate advertisers chase remaining inventory.

Seasonal budget allocation framework

Coordinate with Meta Ads seasonal campaigns to maintain consistent messaging and budgets across platforms. Travelers research across multiple channels, and unified seasonal strategies reinforce your offers regardless of where potential guests encounter your brand.

Remarketing for Extended Consideration Cycles

Travel purchases involve some of the longest consideration cycles in digital marketing. A traveler might first discover your property three months before booking, return multiple times to compare options, and finally convert after seeing a remarketing ad with a limited-time offer. Sophisticated remarketing strategies keep your property visible throughout this extended journey.

Build remarketing audiences based on engagement depth and recency. Someone who viewed five pages and checked availability deserves different treatment than a casual homepage visitor. Create audience segments for homepage visitors, property page viewers, availability checkers, booking abandoners, and past guests. Each segment warrants unique messaging and bid levels.

Remarketing audience segments for travel

• Homepage visitors (1-7 days): General awareness ads, destination inspiration
• Property page viewers (1-14 days): Specific property benefits, rate highlights
• Availability/date checkers (1-7 days): Urgency messaging, limited rooms available
• Booking abandoners (1-3 days): Special offers, price match guarantees
• Past guests (30-365 days): Loyalty offers, return visit incentives
• Long-term considerers (30-90 days): Seasonal specials, new amenity announcements

Cross-platform remarketing coordination amplifies your efforts. Combine Google Display remarketing with TikTok travel ads to reach travelers wherever they spend time online. The repetition across channels builds familiarity and trust that drives eventual conversion.

Mobile Booking Optimization

Over 60% of travel research now happens on mobile devices, and mobile booking rates continue climbing year-over-year. Yet many travel advertisers still treat mobile as an afterthought, with slow-loading sites and clunky booking flows that frustrate potential guests. Mobile optimization isn't optional for travel marketers in 2026.

Start with mobile page speed. Google's research shows that 53% of mobile users abandon sites that take longer than three seconds to load. Travel sites heavy with images face particular challenges. Use next-gen image formats, lazy loading, and content delivery networks to ensure fast load times. Test your booking flow on actual mobile devices, not just desktop browser simulations.

Mobile optimization checklist

• Page speed: Under 3 seconds load time on 4G connections
• Tap targets: Buttons and links minimum 48x48 pixels with adequate spacing
• Form simplicity: Minimize required fields, use autofill where possible
• Click-to-call: Enable direct phone calls for complex bookings
• Mobile-first booking: Test complete booking flow on actual devices
• Payment options: Support Apple Pay, Google Pay, and popular mobile wallets
• Calendar integration: Easy date selection optimized for touch

Mobile bid adjustments

Analyze your mobile conversion rates compared to desktop. If mobile converts at 50% the rate of desktop but comprises 60% of traffic, you might reduce mobile bids by 20-30%. However, don't dismiss mobile entirely. Many travelers research on mobile and book on desktop, meaning mobile plays a crucial awareness role even without direct conversions. Use cross-device tracking in Google Ads to understand the full mobile contribution.

Competing with OTAs Effectively

Online travel agencies present the primary competitive challenge for direct booking strategies. OTAs outspend individual properties massively, dominating generic travel searches with multi-million dollar budgets. Trying to outbid Expedia on "hotels in New York" is futile for most properties. Instead, focus on battlegrounds where you hold inherent advantages.

Your brand terms represent the most winnable territory. When someone searches your exact property name, they already want you specifically. OTAs still bid on these terms hoping to capture the booking and charge you commission, but you can defend efficiently with strong Quality Scores on your own brand. Your ads will achieve higher positions at lower costs because your landing page perfectly matches searcher intent.

Direct booking value propositions

Develop compelling reasons for travelers to book directly rather than through OTAs. Common direct booking incentives include:

• Best rate guarantee: Match or beat any published rate found elsewhere
• Loyalty points: Earn and redeem points only through direct bookings
• Room upgrades: Complimentary upgrades when available for direct bookers
• Flexible policies: More generous cancellation terms than OTA standard
• Exclusive amenities: Welcome gift, breakfast, or resort credit
• Early check-in/late checkout: Subject to availability, direct only

Communicate these benefits prominently in your ad copy and landing pages. An ad extension stating "Book Direct: Free Breakfast + Room Upgrade" differentiates your listing from OTA results and gives price-conscious travelers a reason to choose you.

Performance Max for Travel Campaigns

Performance Max campaigns offer travel advertisers reach across all Google properties with automated optimization. For properties with strong creative assets and accurate conversion tracking, PMax can efficiently find travelers across Search, Display, YouTube, Gmail, Maps, and Discover. However, the automated nature requires careful setup to avoid wasted spend.

Build comprehensive asset groups with travel-specific creative. Include stunning destination imagery, property photography, video tours, and compelling headlines addressing different traveler motivations. Create separate asset groups for leisure versus business travelers, couples versus families, and different seasons. This segmentation helps Performance Max serve the most relevant creative to each audience.

Performance Max asset recommendations

• Images: 15-20 per asset group including exterior, rooms, amenities, destination
• Videos: Property tours, destination highlights, guest testimonials
• Headlines: Mix of benefit-focused, seasonal, and offer-driven options
• Descriptions: Unique selling points, location advantages, booking incentives
• Audience signals: Add custom segments for past converters and competitor audiences

Monitor Performance Max alongside standard Hotel Ads and Search campaigns. Some travel advertisers find that PMax cannibalizes their existing campaigns without incremental lift. Run proper incrementality tests to ensure PMax delivers true additional bookings rather than simply claiming credit for conversions your other campaigns would have captured.

Measuring Travel Campaign Success

Travel conversion tracking requires additional complexity compared to simple e-commerce. A booking today might be cancelled next week, modified multiple times, or generate additional revenue through upgrades and add-ons. Your measurement framework should account for this complexity while providing actionable optimization signals.

Implement enhanced conversion tracking that captures actual booking values, not just conversion counts. Dynamic revenue tracking lets you optimize toward total booking value rather than treating a $100 room night equally with a $500 suite reservation. Work with your booking engine provider to pass accurate revenue data to Google Ads conversion tracking.

Key metrics for travel campaigns

Advanced Strategies for Travel Advertisers

Dynamic Search Ads for comprehensive coverage

Travel websites often contain hundreds of pages covering different room types, packages, amenities, and destination information. Dynamic Search Ads automatically generate ads based on your website content, capturing long-tail searches you might miss with manual keywords. For a resort with spa services, DSA might automatically show ads for "resort spa treatments" or "romantic couples massage packages" without explicit keyword targeting.

Custom intent audiences for travel planning

Build custom intent audiences around competitor research and travel planning behavior. Create audiences of people searching for specific OTAs, competitor properties, or destination review sites. These travelers are actively planning trips and represent high-value targets for your Display and YouTube campaigns.

Value-based bidding for revenue optimization

Not all bookings carry equal value. A week-long suite reservation generates far more revenue than a single night in a standard room. Implement value-based bidding to let Google's algorithms optimize toward total revenue rather than conversion volume. This approach automatically bids higher for searches likely to result in higher-value bookings.

Travel advertising on Google requires patience, data-driven optimization, and a deep understanding of traveler behavior. The extended booking cycles mean you won't see immediate results, but consistent investment in smart campaigns builds a direct booking channel that reduces OTA dependence and improves margins over time. Benly helps travel marketers manage complex multi-channel campaigns with AI-powered insights that identify optimization opportunities across your Google Ads, social, and display investments.