Retargeting for hotels: bring back visitors who didn't book

Of every 100 people who visit your hotel site, an average of only 2 to 5 book directly. The rest aren't gone, those people are still comparing. Retargeting brings them back.

The problem

Suppose you have 6 rooms and your site gets 1,000 visitors per month. People look at your rooms, read the reviews, check the price. And then they click away. Not because your site is bad, but because booking is a decision people rarely make in one go. They're also checking Booking, asking their partner, sleeping on it.

The number is harsh: 95 percent or more don't book on first visit. On a typical hotel site, the direct booking percentage is between 2 and 5 percent. That's normal, even at sites that look good and work smoothly. The problem isn't that those 95 percent are hesitating. Hesitation is logical, a few nights away is a conscious expense. The problem is that you never see them again. You've already done all the work to get them to your site, and then you let them go without follow-up.

Because what happens when someone views your room but is still hesitating? Three days later, that same person searches again, sees Booking.com at the top, and books there. With your room. Plus the commission you could have saved. The guest is the same, the room is the same, only the channel differs. And that's the channel that costs you hundreds of euros per booking per year.

Retargeting (showing ads to people who've already visited your site) solves exactly this. You stay in view of people who already showed interest, in the days when they're making their choice. No cold audience, no guessing. Only people who've already been with you. A guest who already viewed your rooms and read your reviews is worth many times more than someone who's never seen your name.

The word remarketing comes up too. That's the same idea: showing ads to past site visitors. Google calls it remarketing in its advertising platform, retargeting is more common in the market. For you it makes no difference in what it does.

This is one of the reasons Google Ads for hotels makes sense even if your budget is small: you're not paying to reach strangers, but to bring warm visitors back. With a cold ad you're paying to interest people for the first time, and most don't even click. With retargeting you're talking to people who've already taken a step. The chance that such a person books is far higher, so your cost per booking is lower.

Calculation example

Work it through for a B&B with average figures. Say: 1,000 site visitors per month, average booking value 240 euros for two nights.

The numbers are an example, your actual percentages may be higher or lower. But the logic is sound: you only pay for ads shown to people who already had interest, so your cost per booking is low. And every booking here is a direct booking, no commission to Booking.

Compare that with the same booking via a platform. At a 15 percent commission on that 240 euros you pay 36 euros to the platform. At 30 bookings that's 1,080 euros commission per month, just for the channel. If you bring in those same 30 bookings via retargeting for 150 euros in ad spend, you pocket the difference yourself. That's not a marketing budget that evaporates, that's margin that stays in your own pocket.

Note: not every visitor brought back would have booked via Booking otherwise. Some would have come to you directly anyway. Don't count the full commission savings as profit. The fair measure is what retargeting nets you extra compared to doing nothing, and that stays well positive at these figures.

Step-by-step plan

Here's how you set up retargeting without having to be technical.

1. First make sure your site is ready to book. Retargeting only makes sense if the visitor you bring back can actually book afterward. If your booking flow doesn't work smoothly, you're bringing people back to a leaky bucket. First check the 9 mistakes in your booking form.

2. Create a Google Ads account and install the tag. The tag is a small piece of code you put on your site. It remembers who came by, so you can reach those people later. Your web builder or booking engine can set this up in 15 minutes.

3. Set up your cookie banner correctly. You can only track people for retargeting if they gave consent via the cookie banner. Anyone who declines marketing cookies doesn't go on your list. This isn't optional, this is required.

4. Build up your retargeting list. Google automatically gathers visitors who gave consent. You need roughly 100 people minimum before ads start running. With little traffic, that takes a few weeks.

5. Create a simple ad. A nice photo of your room, your name, and a concrete reason to book with you directly. For example: "Book direct, free cancellation up to 48 hours." No commission means you can be sharper than the platform. Keep the message short and honest. You don't need to convince anyone your B&B is beautiful, they already saw that. You give them the final push and a reason to book with you instead of Booking.

6. Set a frequency cap and an exclusion. Show the ad a maximum 3 times per day to the same person, and exclude people once they've booked. This way you prevent coming across as pushy.

What retargeting costs per month and how you weigh that against your income, read in what Google Ads costs a hotel.

Common mistakes

• No frequency cap. Without a limit the same person sees your ad ten times a day. That irritates and damages your brand. Set the cap to a few times per day, no more.

• Keep tracking people who've already booked. Nothing more annoying than an ad for a hotel you just booked. Exclude bookers from the campaign. In Google Ads you set this up via a conversion list.

• Skip consent. Retargeting without valid cookie consent violates privacy law. The fine isn't the only risk, it also damages trust. Do it right from the start.

• An ad without a reason to book with you. If your ad only shows your name, you're not giving the hesitator a push. Name the concrete benefit of booking direct: a sharper price, free cancellation, or a little something at arrival.

• Too little traffic to start. Under 500 site visitors per month you barely build the list. Work on your visibility and booking buttons that work first, then start retargeting when there's more traffic.

• Same ad sitting there for months. A guest who's seen your ad for weeks gets used to it and stops looking. Swap your image and text once in a while, and adjust your offer to the season. In summer you don't need to advertise hard if you're full anyway, in shoulder seasons you do.

What you can do now

Retargeting is not a standalone trick, it's the capstone of a site that already brings people in. The order is: make sure your site works, make sure people come to it, then bring back the hesitators. Start the other way around and you're bringing people back to a site that doesn't yet convince, and you're paying per click for nothing.

Start with the basics. Does your booking process work smoothly? Go through the 9 mistakes in your booking form. Then look at the bigger picture of Google Ads for hotels, where retargeting is a standard part.

Don't want to tackle ad accounts and cookie banners yourself? Then we set it up for you. First calculate your savings with the savings calculator, then see what we can do at marketing for hotels.