Do Google Hotel Ads work for small hotels?

Yes, when they run on your own name and your live dates, and rarely when they run on "hotel in your town" against the OTAs' budgets. Since 20 February 2025 Google no longer offers commission-per-stay bidding for hotel ads, so a small property pays per click or on a target return, and that makes the narrow campaign the only one that reliably pays.

Google Hotel Ads are the paid entries in the price list that appears in the hotel module and in your knowledge panel, next to the OTAs' rates and, if you have them, your free booking links. They need three things: a Google Hotel Center account, a rates feed from a connected booking engine, and a Google Ads account with a hotel campaign. Most UK booking engines connect; the set-up is a few days.

Do the free version first

Free booking links put your own rate in the same price list at no cost per click, either through the connected booking engine or by entering rates in the Business Profile. For most small properties that alone catches the name search. The paid ad sits above the free link and is worth paying for in one situation above all others: when an OTA is bidding on your property's name and its paid entry sits above your free one.

What changed in 2025

Until February 2025 a hotel could bid a commission per stay, paying Google only when a guest booked and stayed, which suited small properties because there was no risk. Google withdrew those bid strategies; hotel campaigns now run on cost per click or target return on ad spend, or inside Performance Max for travel goals. That means clicks cost money whether or not they book, so the campaign has to be narrow: your own name, your live dates, a daily cap, and the booking engine's conversion tracking switched on so you can see the cost per booking against the commission it replaced.

When it pays and when it does not

• Pays: an OTA bidding on your name; a booking window for a season you have rooms for; a city property where the name search is large.
• Does not pay: bidding on the town name against OTA budgets; running in months you are full; running without conversion tracking, which is most small accounts we see.
• Not yet: a property whose listing is incomplete or whose booking path loses guests. Ads send people to what exists.

How to judge it

Cost per direct booking from the ads against the commission an OTA booking would have cost. At a £115 room and 15 per cent commission, a direct booking is worth about £17 in avoided commission; if the ads cost more than that per booking, the campaign is too wide. Read the number monthly and cut the terms that do not book.