Hotel Marketing Agency · UK
Contents
- 1 More direct. Less OTA. Built for ambitious UK hotel operators.
- 1.1 You don’t need more marketing. You need your margin back.
- 1.2 Hotel marketing isn’t like other marketing.
- 1.3 The six levers that drive covers.
- 1.4 Light on meetings. Heavy on bookings.
- 1.5 Work that pays back.
- 1.6 The right fit, not every fit.
- 1.7 Pick the shape that fits your team.
- 1.8 Agencies bill hours. Consultants’ bill decks. We bill bookings.
- 1.9 Questions we get before the call.
- 1.9.0.0.1 What does a hotel marketing agency actually do?
- 1.9.0.0.2 How is Insourced different from a generic marketing agency?
- 1.9.0.0.3 We already have a marketer in-house — why do we need you?
- 1.9.0.0.4 How do you help reduce OTA dependency?
- 1.9.0.0.5 Do you work with single properties or only groups?
- 1.9.0.0.6 How long until we see results?
- 1.9.0.0.7 Do you work with metasearch (Google Hotel Ads, Trivago, Kayak)?
- 1.9.0.0.8 What's typically included in a monthly engagement?
- 1.9.0.0.9 How do you measure success?
- 1.9.0.0.10 Do you handle social media?
- 1.9.0.0.11 What tools and systems do you work with?
- 1.9.0.0.12 Do you work with restaurants and pubs too?
- 1.10 Ready to make marketing pay back?
More direct. Less OTA.
Built for ambitious UK hotel operators.
Revenue-first hotel marketing for boutique hotels and independent groups tired of paying 15–25% OTA commission. We rebuild the direct booking engine — organic, paid, metasearch, CRM — to grow direct share, lift margin, and reduce channel dependency. Founded by the ex-Head of Digital at Young’s.
15+ years hospitality
Ex-Head of Digital at Young’s, with Brakspear and hospitality groups across the UK
Reduce OTA dependency. Grow direct share. Every pound from Booking.com costs 15-25% you don’t have to lose.
THE PROBLEM
You don’t need more marketing. You need your margin back.
Most independent hotels we meet have a growth problem that’s also a margin problem. OTAs dominate the channel mix, commissions eat 15–25% of every room night, direct traffic doesn’t convert, and the booking engine leaks at every step. And nobody can answer the only question that matters :how much of next quarter’s revenue can we actually keep?
i.
The owner or GM is carrying marketing. Senior attention drained into tactics that should sit a level below. Revenue strategy suffers.
ii.
OTAs are quietly eating your margin.. 15–25% commission on every Booking.com or Expedia night. Direct share isn’t growing because nothing is being actively done to grow it.
iii.
The booking engine leaks.Most independent hotel sites lose direct bookings at the date-picker, the room-type page, or the payment step. Mobile is worse than desktop.
iv.
Channel mix reporting is opaque. Nobody has a clean view of direct vs OTA vs metasearch contribution — or which channels actually earn their place.
v.
A full in-house digital team is uneconomic. Budget for one good marketer, not the five specialists a modern hotel stack really needs.
WHY SPECIALIST BEATS GENERALIST
Hotel marketing isn’t like other marketing.
Hotels run on channel mix, rate parity, length of stay and ancillary revenue. Guest search is long-consideration, not impulse. Metasearch matters more than in any other hospitality category. And the booking engine is both a conversion point and a commercial weapon. A good hotel marketing agency understands that in its bones.
Direct-first, commercially
We start with channel mix: what’s your current direct share, what should it be, what are the OTAs really costing you. The plan is built around getting more of every booking’s revenue into your P&L, not growing top-line volume at the expense of margin.
Metasearch, parity, booking engine
The modern hotel stack is Google Hotel Ads, Trivago, Kayak, Booking Holdings, plus your own site and booking engine. We run them as a connected system — with rate parity, direct incentives and booking-engine CRO working together.
Operator DNA
Daniel built the Young’s digital function from inside a £300m+ hospitality group. We write campaigns that respect what’s realistic for a GM or revenue manager running a busy property — and ship work that actually gets actioned.
WHAT WE DO
The six levers that drive covers.
We focus relentlessly on the 20% of actions that drive 80% of your revenue. If a channel isn’t paying back, we cut it. If it’s the lever that moves the business, we double down.
Google Ads & Metasearch01
Google Hotel Ads, Trivago, Kayak plus traditional search. We cut OTA bid leakage, structure campaigns around length-of-stay and ADR, and focus spend where it reliably drives direct bookings.
Hotel SEO & Content02
Own the high-intent searches for every property — “boutique hotel [city]”, “weekend break [region]”, “wedding venue [area]”. Content, technical SEO and citations that build direct demand over time.
CRM, Email & Loyalty03
Every booking is a database entry. We build repeat-visit automations, direct-only offers, birthday and anniversary triggers, and loyalty mechanics that bring guests back without discounting.
Booking Engine CRO04
The biggest leak in most hotels. We audit the mobile date-picker, the room-type page, the rate comparison, the payment flow. Small fixes. Huge compounding impact on direct share.
Content & GEO05
AI search changes the rules for hotels — especially boutique properties with a story. Content that earns citations in ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews — and the organic SERPs they feed from.
Analytics & Channel Mix06
One scorecard: direct share, ADR, RevPAR, occupancy by channel, conversion by source. Revenue, ops and marketing see the same numbers.
Social is only included if it’s a gap. If your in-house team has social covered and it’s working, we leave it there and focus on what’s moving revenue. We plug what you need, not what we want to sell.
HOW WE WORK
Light on meetings. Heavy on bookings.
The operating model is part of the product. You get clarity, ownership and visible progress — without another supplier to manage. One owner, one plan, one scorecard.
01
Plan around revenue
Monthly or quarterly planning day with the main stakeholder. Targets, budgets, priorities.
02
Short weekly catch-up
Keep momentum, make decisions, unblock execution. No endless meetings.
03
Transparent workflows
Every task lives in shared Asana boards. Owners, deadlines, status — visible.
04
Friday results note
Three to five priorities each week. A short Friday note: what we did, what moved, what’s next.
05
One live scorecard
Bookings, revenue, channel performance — powered by our Cover Confidence framework.
PROOF
Work that pays back.
Three recent engagements. More on request.
Cotswolds · Destination Hotel-Pub
Wild Thyme & Honey — rebuilding direct
A destination Cotswolds property leaning too hard on aggregators. We rebuilt the organic and local SEO stack, restructured Google Ads around high-intent queries, and reduced OTA dependency through direct-first positioning.
London · Boutique Hotel
Hotel name — direct booking transformation / metasearch win / CRM activation
Integrated launch campaign for a flagship opening. PR, experiential, ambassador activity and CRM combined to drive trial, build brand momentum, and open without discounting.
Regional · Small Hotel Group
Wild Thyme & Honey — rebuilding direct
A picturesque Cotswolds gastro pub leaning too hard on aggregators. We rebuilt the organic and local SEO stack, restructured Google Ads around high-intent queries, and reduced OTA dependency through direct-first positioning.
Final numbers pending client approval — live version will carry signed-off data.
HOW WE WORK
The right fit, not every fit.
We take on a maximum of two new partners per quarter. We work best with owner-operators and small independent groups who know OTA dependency is a strategic problem, not just an operational one — and are ready to act on it.
Commercially ambitious UK hotel operators. Boutique independents, lifestyle hotels, small independent groups up to ten properties. London and destination regions both.
Owners, GMs or revenue managers fed up with the OTA commission bill.Ready to invest in the direct channel rather than keep renting guests from Booking.com.
In-house marketers who need senior digital cover. Strong on brand, comms and social but under-resourced on performance media, metasearch, CRM and analytics.
Hotels whose direct share should be 50–70% but currently sits at 25–35%.That’s the gap we close.
Operators who prefer candour to deck theatre.Weekly accountability, a clear scorecard, and a direct-first commercial plan.
TWO WAYS TO ENGAGE (PLUS ONE)
Pick the shape that fits your team.
01 · Coach & Execute
We lead the plan. Your marketer grows.
A picturesque Cotswolds gastro pub leaning too hard on aggregators. We rebuilt the organic and local SEO stack, restructured Google Ads around high-intent queries, and reduced OTA dependency through direct-first positioning.
Best fit: you already have a marketer who needs senior cover.
02 · Run the Department
We are your marketing team.
We act as your Fractional Head of Digital plus execution team, owning strategy, channels and reporting. One team on the hook for the digital plan, spend and results — no juggling agencies, freelancers and juniors.
Best fit: no senior marketer in-house, no appetite to hire one.
03 · Plug the Gaps
We drop in where you need depth.
Already have some roles covered but missing depth in others? We drop in on performance media, CRM, CRO or analytics — joined up under one plan and one scorecard. Your team keeps what they’re good at; we cover the rest.
Best fit: partial team, specific capability gaps.
Agencies bill hours. Consultants’ bill decks. We bill bookings.
We’re not a traditional agency. We’re not pure consultants. We’re embedded operators with the senior judgement to set the plan and the execution muscle to ship it — focused on the 20% that drives 80% of restaurant revenue.
About the founder
Daniel Turner
Founder & Strategy Director, Insourced
Insourced exists because the same pattern kept repeating: hospitality operators paying for marketing that looked busy but didn’t move covers, and in-house teams struggling to keep up with a stack that keeps expanding.
A picturesque Cotswolds gastro pub leaning too hard on aggregators. We rebuilt the organic and local SEO stack, restructured Google Ads around high-intent queries, and reduced OTA dependency through direct-first positioning.
“Insourced is the agency I wish I’d had when I was client-side. Commercially focused, embedded in the business, built to act.”
Frequently asked
Questions we get before the call.
What does a hotel marketing agency actually do?
A hotel marketing agency grows direct bookings, reduces OTA dependency, and lifts channel mix toward profitable revenue. That means Google Ads and Hotel Ads, metasearch, hotel SEO, booking engine CRO, CRM, and analytics — tied to direct share, ADR and RevPAR, not impressions.
How is Insourced different from a generic marketing agency?
We don’t do decks, brand campaigns, or generic retainers. We embed with your team, set commercial targets around direct share and margin, and run the 20% of actions that drive 80% of your revenue. Founded by the ex-Head of Digital at Young’s, we operate like an in-house function with agency depth.
We already have a marketer in-house — why do we need you?
Most in-house hotel marketers are strong on brand, comms and social but under-resourced on performance media, metasearch, booking engine CRO and channel-mix analytics. We plug the skill gaps and coach your marketer so they level up. You end up with a stronger team, not a replaced one.
How do you help reduce OTA dependency?
A structured programme: rate parity audits, direct-only offer mechanics, booking engine CRO, Google Hotel Ads and metasearch positioning, CRM retargeting, and channel-mix reporting so every decision has data behind it. Typical target: move direct share from 25-35% toward 50-70% over 12-18 months.
Do you work with single properties or only groups?
Both. Our sweet spot is independent boutique hotels and small groups up to ten properties. Single-property engagements work well when there’s commercial ambition and budget.
How long until we see results?
Paid channels and metasearch move fastest: lift typically shows within 3–6 weeks of restructuring. Booking engine CRO shows up in 6–10 weeks. SEO and content compound over 4–8 months. Direct-share shift is a 6–18 month curve.
Do you work with metasearch (Google Hotel Ads, Trivago, Kayak)?
Yes — it’s often the single biggest direct-channel lever for independent hotels. We set up, structure bids, manage rate feeds, and integrate metasearch performance into the same scorecard as your other channels.
What's typically included in a monthly engagement?
Commercial leadership and planning, hands-on execution across chosen channels, a monthly or quarterly planning day, a weekly catch-up, transparent workflows in Asana, weekly priorities, a Friday results note, and one live scorecard covering direct share, ADR, RevPAR and channel mix.
How do you measure success?
Direct share, RevPAR, ADR and occupancy by channel first. Then channel-level metrics — cost per acquired booking by source, direct conversion rate, metasearch CPA, email revenue per send. We use our Cover Confidence scorecard so revenue, ops and marketing see the same numbers.
Only if it’s a gap. If your in-house team has social covered and it’s working, we leave it there. Most boutique hotels have social under control; where we add value is on performance, metasearch, CRM and booking engine.
What tools and systems do you work with?
We’re tool-agnostic. Hotel-specific: SiteMinder, Cloudbeds, Little Hotelier, Mews, Guestline, RMS, Cendyn, Revinate, Triptease. Reporting uses our Cover Confidence framework alongside GA4, Search Console, and your booking engine’s native reporting.
Do you work with restaurants and pubs too?
Yes. See our restaurant and pub pages. The commercial mechanics rhyme but the specifics — metasearch, rate parity, RevPAR — are distinctly hotel.
Two partners per quarter
Ready to make marketing pay back?
Thirty minutes. No deck. We’ll look at your current marketing, where the commercial opportunity is, and whether there’s a fit. If there isn’t, we’ll tell you and point you to who might be a better match.
We also help Restaurants | Pubs | Hotels.