Google Hotel Ads vs. Traditional OTAs: Where Should You Invest?

Want to draw up the right sales strategy for your hotel/serviced apartment? In this case, there are several dilemmas that you have to resolve, notably the debate between traditional OTAs and Google Hotel Ads. Where should you invest your money to reach more customers and garner higher bookings? That’s what we look to demystify below. 

A Basic Guide to Google Hotel Ads & Traditional OTAs for You 

Now, Google Hotel Ads is a metasearch platform for helping you advertise your direct booking link. On the other hand, the OTA (online travel agency) will be an intermediary. It will give you a platform to sell your hotel room to more customers. Now, Google Hotel Ads has the primary goal of getting more direct bookings to your hotel brand’s website, while avoiding OTAs and intermediaries. You’ll have to bid on keywords to appear in the search results on Google, basically paying for every click that falls on the advertisement linking to your booking engine. 

Google Hotel Ads is often the preferred choice for several hotels as you may know, due to its higher visibility in search results (knowledge panel and also the hotel search box). At the same time, you also keep your control directly over all communication with guests, branding, booking procedures, and other important systems. OTAs, however, while charging commissions and handling payments, are valuable intermediaries in the industry. They will help you get a bigger reach in terms of the customer base and may help you expand in several markets. OTAs also manage customer relationships, which includes support and pre/post-booking inquiries. So, which one is best for you? Let’s take a look at their differences below. 

Key Differences To Be Aware Of

Here are some of the major differences that you should note: 

• Bookings

Google Hotel Ads drive traffic directly to your website for bookings, while traditional OTAs take and manage bookings on their platforms as intermediaries. 

• Fees

The charges for Google Hotel Ads listings may be potentially lower since there are no booking-related commissions. OTAs charge significant commissions on the bookings that they enable. 

• Branding

With OTAs, you have limited control over your branding and presentation, while you have total control with Google Hotel Ads. 

• Customer Relationships

OTAs manage customer relationships on their platforms, while you can directly manage your guests in the case of Google Hotel Ads. 

• Control

Google Hotel Ads gives you more control over the booking system, while OTAs give you limited control over the process. 

Of course, it goes without saying, that the visibility quotient is high for both, with GHA offering prominent displays within its search results and OTAs connecting you to massive global audiences. 

Benefits of Each of These Options 

What are the key benefits and cons of both traditional OTAs and Google Hotel Ads? Here are some key aspects that may help you decide. 

Advantages of Google Hotel Ads- 

• You can focus more on direct bookings and bypass OTA commissions, thereby earning higher profits (GHA fees are potentially lower). You only pay whenever any user clicks on your advertisement and there is no booking-related commission to pay. 

• There is full ownership over your guest data and you can directly build and manage relationships with customers. 

• You also enjoy full control over your pricing, guest communication, offers, branding, and other aspects. 

Disadvantages- 

• Google Hotel Ads will need some work on your part, since you have to manage advertisements and make sure that you have a highly-optimized website for bookings. 

• You may require an additional budget to pay for Google Ads, although you may optimize the campaign for higher savings. 

Advantages of Traditional OTAs- 

• What you see is what you get in terms of the vast reach. OTAs give you access to wider networks of potential customers across multiple regions. 

• They may also help in considerably enhancing the visibility of your brand, while boosting your overall digital presence at the same time. 

• OTAs are also known to manage several parts of the process efficiently, while offering more user-friendly booking experiences for travelers. 

Disadvantages- 

• You’ll have to pay high commissions for each booking, which may potentially eat into your margins. 

• There is less control over guest communication, branding, etc. 

• OTAs are often super-crowded with tons of other hotel/serviced apartment listings, making it tougher for your brand to stand out from the rest. 

Which One Should You Choose? 

Now comes the million-dollar question- which one should you invest in? It goes without saying that Google Hotel Ads are the best bet in case you wish to maximize your revenues/profits and build your relationships with clients directly. At the same time, if you’re looking for quick global expansion, higher visibility, and access to a wider audience with a pre-built booking platform, there’s no substitute to traditional OTAs. 

It all really depends on your current position, budget, marketing aims, pricing, brand, and other considerations. Have you thought of using both? Many hospitality players do this, using OTAs to scale up their reach and maintain a steady flow of guests throughout the year, while simultaneously leveraging Google Hotel Ads to shore up direct bookings and customer loyalty alike.