What to budget for digital marketing as a hotel or resort

Fibvo editorial · 6 October 2023 · 4 min read

A hotel's marketing budget for direct booking should be compared directly against the OTA commission it could displace, since this comparison often makes even a substantial direct-booking marketing investment look inexpensive by comparison.

What the spend typically covers

• Booking engine and website platform costs, an ongoing operational expense.
• Google Ads for branded search and seasonal campaigns.
• Guest data and CRM tooling to support retention and repeat direct bookings.
• Photography and content refresh, periodically.

Calculating the real comparison

If OTA commission runs 15-25% of a booking's value, a direct-booking marketing spend well under that percentage, applied to bookings that would otherwise have gone through an OTA, is a straightforward financial win worth calculating explicitly.

The real comparison is not 'how much to spend on marketing' — it is 'marketing spend versus commission saved', and the latter is often the larger number.

Seasonal budget adjustment

Increase spend ahead of known high-demand periods and shift toward aggressive promotional offers during low-occupancy months, since the value of filling an otherwise empty room justifies a different spend logic than peak season.

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Written by Fibvo — Bengaluru and Erode, India — working with clients in other time zones. Questions, or think we have it wrong? Tell us.