How Boston Harbor Hotel increased direct bookings with website personalization & strategic campaigns
As travel demand stabilizes after the post-pandemic surge, hotels are faced with a new challenge: maintaining and growing direct bookings in a more competitive landscape.
In this exclusive webinar, GCommerce and The Hotels Network reveal how the Boston Harbor Hotel successfully adapted its digital strategy to outperform during a market slowdown. You’ll discover the combination of website personalization, targeted campaigns, and metasearch tactics that led to increased direct revenue—despite a declining travel trend.
What you'll learn:
✅ Respond to shifting travel trends with data-driven decisions
✅ Boost engagement through website personalization
✅ Drive direct bookings with strategic campaigns
✅ Optimize metasearch performance and ROI
✅ Apply tactics that future-proof your hotel’s digital strategy
In the context of hotel metasearch marketing, your listings function as a condensed sales funnel operating within the larger metasearch landscape. 🌐 This micro-funnel is crucial because it encapsulates the journey from initial exposure to final conversion, directly impacting your advertising effectiveness and the volume of direct bookings. 📈
During our webinar, we'll dive into three pivotal metrics that are instrumental in optimizing this funnel:
💻 Impression Share
🔗 Click-Through Rate (CTR)
📊 Conversion Rate
By meticulously tracking and optimizing these key metrics, hoteliers can refine their hotel metasearch strategies, enhance advertising performance, and ultimately increase the number of direct bookings. 📊 This webinar aims to equip properties with actionable insights to effectively leverage these metrics and drive measurable success in their hotel metasearch marketing efforts.
It was a busy week for Google. Along with Google Marketing Live on Wednesday, Google I/O took place this week, and between the two, they announced an incredible list of updates (100+ between the two events!). While Google Marketing Live centered around product updates associated with its ad campaigns and platforms, Google I/O focused on updates more applicable to organic search marketing.
It’s such an incredible moment in history for organic search. Generative AI platforms are pushing change across the industry, and it has big implications for hotel organic search marketing. Here are our top takeaways for hotels from Google’s I/O 2025.
AI Mode rolling out to everyone in the US
As of May 20th, 2025, Google announced that its AI Mode search experience is rolling out to everyone in the US. It was previously just available to those who opted in via Search Labs. Our team has been deep in testing mode with this new search experience and will be releasing a study soon. Unfortunately, it has been discovered that there is currently no referral tracking in analytics from AI Mode, and this traffic is being tracked as direct traffic. This means AI Mode traffic is currently untrackable. Google recently announced that AI Mode reporting will be coming to Search Console, although we still don’t know how it will show. As usage of this search experience increases, it will most likely mean a continued decline in organic search traffic to hotel websites. We’re having to let go of even more data as it’s taken away from us and lean into AI, as well as a deeper understanding, to ensure our ads are visible where our audience spends their time. Also noteworthy is that Google announced ads are coming to AI Mode and AI overviews during Google Marketing Live.
Agentic capabilities in AI Mode
Google announced it’s bringing agentic capabilities to AI Mode, starting with the ability to let the agent search out, compare shop between sites, and present site options to book your event ticket. How? They are partnering with top ticket broker sites like StubHub to provide a seamless experience. They are starting with event tickets but plan to roll this out to restaurant reservations and local appointments. It’s only a matter of time before it hits the hotel industry. History shows that Google leans into partnerships with top industry companies that can support the tech. Alexa partnered with Kayak early on for voice search. Recently, Selfbook and Perplexity announced a partnership to enable booking directly on the platform - it’s available for hotels using the Selfbook booking engine. This gave us hope for independent hotels and the battle for direct bookings. We can only hope that other booking engine providers will lead this charge. Chances are, sites like Kayak or OTAs will step up to be the first.
Pushing boundaries of Google Search with Google Lens
Google Lens now offers live search capabilities. Examples shown? Being mid-project and need guidance on what the next steps should be in the process. Google returns multi-modal results from video, forms, blogs, and more. In Google Marketing Live they hinted at how much image-based search shows purchase intent. Hoteliers need to be thinking about expanding content and topical relevance, from enhancing blogs to including video and continuing to produce stunning visual assets. Additionally, focusing on structured markup of all site components will help ensure they are more easily found in Google’s entity mapping.
AI Mode shopping experience
Shopping/ecommerce always tends to be a step ahead with search features. Google announced a new AI-driven shopping experience that allows shoppers to virtually try on clothes, engage with AI to filter and find the best items, and even check out and purchase them using Google Pay. It’s pretty wild that many booking engine providers still don’t accept mobile wallets like Google and Apple Pay. The future is hinting towards a world where AI agents book our hotel rooms for us, but right now it seems like only via platforms that integrate into this type of ecommerce technology space.
AI Mode gets even more personal with results
Google’s algorithm has incorporated AI for years with its RankBrain technology. Coupled with its algorithm, it’s focused on incorporating your search history, location and more into providing personalized results. AI Mode takes this a step further. It allows you to opt in to connect it to other Google apps, like Gmail. Using structured data, it can view your email content and make personalized results using the data. Google’s example, “you can get suggestions for events while you’re in town….based on your flight and hotel confirmations” in your inbox. Mind blown. The breadth of 1st party data that Google will be able to tap into will be monumental in helping you reach an even more targeted audience using AI. We’ve seen the power of leaning into Meta (Facebook/Instagram)’s AI audiences over the years, now it looks like Google is stepping up the game to provide even more relevant, personalized, and qualified results for each user.
These are just a handful of takeaways from an incredibly packed Google I/O 2025. They also announced a huge roll out of product features from some mind-bending AI video and image capabilities, Google Meet live translation (English/Spanish only to start), and so much more. You can check out the full keynote recordings here. It’s truly an exciting time for the world of digital marketing. It’s rapidly changing and we’re excited to explore the new frontier for digital marketing for hotels.
Google Marketing Live 2025: key takeaways from the GCommerce team
Every year, the marketing industry eagerly awaits Google Marketing Live, Google’s annual event to showcase what’s new in the world of Google advertising. It always blows our mind exactly how many (30 this year!) product innovations are announced. While last year’s theme weighed heavily on AI, this year built on that theme with an emphasis on the evolution towards AI agents, poised to automate and assist beyond just generative AI search. Our team is excited to test everything that is rolling out, and we look forward to seeing how these innovations equate to better advertising success for our hotel clients.
Discover our key takeaways from Google Marketing Live 2025 below.
By Patrick Buckner, Search Marketing Supervisor
Greater control is coming to PMAX
Google announced that advanced reporting will be available in PMAX campaigns, which will allow advertisers to break down performance by channel. This will allow not only greater reporting, but also provide new opportunities related to previously unknown keywords. Enhanced reporting will allow hotels who may have previously been uncomfortable with PMAX’s lack of transparency to test PMAX campaigns and truly understand the impacts.
By Alex Scharpf, Search Marketing Supervisor
Search is now a guiding hand
The future of search extends far beyond objective information. With the rise of generative AI results and expanding integrations for shopping, brand partnerships, and more, the purpose of search is shifting away from fact-finding. People are refocusing their research, moving away from a list of options to prioritize others’ opinions and get help with planning. By predicting what users want before they explicitly ask for it, search now reaches into idea generation, guiding the research process and influencing user behavior.
By Jaylene Van Lin, Marketing Strategist
Guest privacy and performance can work together
Google is putting a big focus on first-party data this year. For hotels, that means the information you collect directly from guests through bookings, email signups, or loyalty programs is more valuable than ever. It lets you create personalized marketing that actually matters, like sending special offers to returning guests or promoting weekday stays to local travelers.
To help with privacy, Google also updated Consent Mode. This tool makes sure you stay compliant with data regulations while still getting insights into how your ads are performing. Even if someone opts out of tracking, you can still understand how your campaigns are doing using modeled data.
Put simply, the more you build your own data and manage it with care, the better your marketing will perform. It is about being smart and respectful at the same time.
By Maddie Holifeild, Marketing Strategist
New AI tools supercharge marketing creativity & personalization
At this year’s event, one of the standout themes was how Google AI is revolutionizing ad creativity, especially through some new powerful innovations. Some of these new innovations - including text generation, image creation, and brand voice customization - open the door to more personalized, visually engaging campaigns that resonate with travelers.
With AI-generated headlines and descriptions now being optimized for performance, marketers within the hotel space can test messaging that captures seasonal offers, local events, or unique property features. The new image generation tools let marketers create compelling, on-brand visuals (like a dreamy beachfront scene or a cozy ski retreat) even when assets are limited. And by training Google AI on a hotel’s specific brand voice, the outcome feels consistent and authentic.
Together, these new tools allow hospitality brands to achieve personalized storytelling and create a tailored ad experience that attracts and converts the right guests at the right time.
By Meaghan Reynolds, Marketing Strategist
Immersive AI ads transform hotel marketing
At Google Marketing Live 2025, Google unveiled AI-powered, interactive ads within AI Overviews and AI Mode, transforming how hotels can engage with travelers. These ads now appear naturally within conversational search results, offering personalized recommendations, booking links, and the ability to reach users earlier in their planning journey.
What makes this especially impactful for hospitality is the introduction of immersive formats like 3D visuals, virtual tours, and interactive elements that would allow guests to preview rooms or amenities directly in the ad experience. Combined with enhanced Performance Max tools and AI-generated creative, this marks a new era of dynamic, visually rich campaigns that drive deeper engagement and more direct bookings.
By Alex Horrocks, Search Marketing Strategist
Google Search will start to empower a more AI-centric approach
At this year’s Google Marketing Live, a key theme was clear: Google Search is evolving from a traditional keyword-based engine into an AI-powered journey guide. With the introduction of features like AI Overviews and AI Mode, Google is now focused on understanding and supporting a user’s entire decision-making journey—from the moment of curiosity to the point of conversion. For example, a search for “things to do near me” might now return not only a curated list of attractions but personalized recommendations based on prior behavior, eventually leading the user down a path to book a hotel—all within a single AI-generated experience. This marks a major shift in how brands appear and engage within the search results page.
For hoteliers and travel marketers, this means content must no longer just rank—it must resonate throughout the guest journey. As Google connects the dots between user intent, hospitality brands will need to focus on providing rich, experience-based content. This includes building out pages or blog posts on local attractions, seasonal events, or travel tips—anything that can naturally feed into both early-stage inspiration and final booking decisions. Hotels that position themselves as part of a broader travel solution, rather than just a place to stay, stand to benefit the most in this AI-forward search landscape.
By Kaylin Long, Search Marketing Specialist
Quality landing pages designed for user experience are more important than ever
With the announcement of ads in Google’s AI Overviews, the landing page your ad leads to is of the utmost importance. Google shows ads more frequently that lead to a landing page that is likely to convert. Having a well-designed landing page focused on user experience will result in your ads earning more impression share and being shown as a top result in Google’s AI Overviews. Plus, you’ll see more conversions and keep people on your site longer.
By Jasmine McLamb, Marketing Specialist
AI Max for search campaigns: one-click enhancement for keywordless targeting
This approach takes the guesswork out of search targeting by using existing ads and landing pages to figure out what you offer and when it makes sense to show your ad. Instead of focusing on exact keywords, it looks at the intent behind searches to deliver more personalized results. It still allows for clear reporting (like which headlines and landing pages were shown), and brands are seeing up to 27% more conversions. It can be activated with a simple click. This kind of intent-based targeting is especially useful for hotels, since it can pick up on broader or less direct searches like “best places to stay near the airport,” “weekend getaway ideas,” or even “hotels with a pool.” It helps your ad show up when travelers are looking for travel destinations, even if they’re not typing exact keywords.
By Alexandra Thomas, Search Marketing Specialist
Google is leaning into video with powerful new ways to run video ads across search and shopping
Shoppers are showing up with broad searches: 75% of shopping queries are broad, signaling that people are in exploration mode. Whether they’re planning summer getaways or searching for the perfect weekend bag, marketers can meet shoppers in key moments of their shopping journey. Google is leaning into video more than ever, with new ways to run video ads across Search and Shopping. YouTube is a dynamic storefront, with Shorts becoming a major discovery channel for new brands. New prospecting tools let marketers find fresh audiences while easily excluding people that already searched for their brand. Combining rich video content with smarter audience targeting is the new way forward for winning the shopper.
By Naomi Georges, Search Marketing Specialist
AI video can be used as an affordable way to reach YouTube audiences
Google’s AI video tools make it easier than ever for advertisers to create and scale video campaigns. Even without a big production budget, brands can turn existing content into eye-catching video ads. The real power comes from AI’s ability to target the right audience, test different ad versions, and optimize performance in real time, helping you get better results with less guesswork. It’s a smart way to reach customers across YouTube and Google’s network without doing all the heavy lifting yourself.
By Sophie Hardina, Marketing Specialist
AI overviews are changing the way travelers search
AI is reshaping the way people search and book travel. With tools like AI Overviews becoming more prominent, users are often finding the answers they need directly in search results, which means fewer clicks to hotel websites and more importance placed on showing up in those AI-generated answers. For our hotel clients, this means we need to focus on creating clear, compelling content that’s easy for AI to surface, invest in high-quality visuals, and lean into Performance Max campaigns to stay visible across all of Google’s channels.
By Cassidy Tiedermann, Marketing Specialist
What Google Marketing Live 2025 tells us about what’s next
AI serves as both a creative and strategic partner, allowing marketers to scale successful strategies more rapidly. The evolution of search towards visual and conversational formats is reshaping our understanding of intent and discoverability. Innovations in retail and eCommerce are simplifying the customer journey through intuitive new methods.
In the world of performance-driven digital marketing for the hospitality industry, it’s inspiring to see how quickly our tools and strategies are evolving to meet the demands of a dynamic, AI-powered landscape. My key takeaway: Innovation is no longer optional—it’s essential to delivering better results every day.
By Erin Fischer, Director of Marketing
AI Mode brings in highly personalized ads to users
The introduction of Google's AI Mode promises to drive a highly engaging search experience that is even more personalized than ever before. Incorporating your past search history and optional data from other Google apps like Gmail (with permission) with your searched query, AI Mode aims to bring you not only the answers you were seeking, but also data for follow-up questions and searches, along with customized ads.
What could this mean for hoteliers? As an example, if a user were to search for “things to do” in a particular area of interest, AI Mode might take current hotel or flight reservation data from their Gmail and suggest restaurants and attractions near their hotel stay. AI Mode would also take your past search history into account to prioritize results. If you have previously searched for restaurants with patios before, your results might deliver similar restaurants with patios near your hotel. The ability to easily deliver highly customized results could help further the online user experience when it comes to trip planning.
We’ve all seen those social media posts crammed with every hashtag under the sun, desperately trying to get noticed. But do hashtags actually work anymore?
Once a staple of social media strategy, hashtags have lost much of their former power. Instagram no longer allows users to follow hashtags, TikTok’s algorithm prioritizes user behavior over metadata, and most platforms are moving toward AI-driven content discovery rather than hashtag reliance.
So what’s actually moving the needle now?
What matters more than hashtags in 2025?
Strong hooks: If your content doesn’t grab attention immediately, no hashtag will save it.
Engagement-driven content: Comments, shares, and saves hold more weight than a trending hashtag.
Algorithmic recommendations: Social platforms now surface content based on user preferences and interactions, not just hashtag metadata.
How to use hashtags in 2025
While hashtags can still serve a purpose, overusing them can make your social media posts look cluttered and unprofessional.
Messy captions: A wall of hashtags can overwhelm your message and distract from the actual content.
Spammy appearance: Excessive or irrelevant hashtags can make your brand seem desperate for attention rather than engaging organically.
Diminishing returns: Algorithms now prioritize valuable content over metadata, so stuffing posts with hashtags will not necessarily improve reach.
Should you ditch hashtags completely?
Not necessarily. While hashtags no longer guarantee reach, they still serve a purpose in niche targeting and paid media. Here’s how to use hashtags effectively:
Be strategic: Use niche, relevant hashtags to connect with specific communities rather than broad, generic ones.
Campaign-specific tags: Create unique hashtags for paid campaigns to track engagement and build a community.
Platform-specific approach: Adapt your strategy based on where you are posting. LinkedIn still benefits from hashtags, while Instagram relies more on SEO-friendly captions.
Quality over quantity: Stuffing posts with hashtags can look spammy. Stick to three to five well-chosen ones.
The future of social discovery
With AI-driven recommendations and keyword-focused searches, hashtags have shifted from being essential to optional. Instead of relying on them, focus on creating valuable, engaging content that naturally attracts attention.
Bottom line? In 2025, hashtags are no longer the key to social media success. They are just one small piece of the puzzle. Prioritize compelling content, audience engagement, and smart keyword usage to stay ahead.
This summer, travelers are skipping the airport hustle and hitting the road instead. And honestly, we get it. With flexibility, affordability, and the freedom to explore on your own schedule, road trips are making a serious comeback in 2025. Hotels and resorts have a big opportunity to lean into this trend.
Discover how your property can leverage these 2025 summer travel trends.
Road trips are having a moment
Air travel is not going anywhere, but it is not winning any popularity contests either. Between high prices and unpredictable delays, more people are choosing to drive. Families are especially planning relaxed, personal trips where the journey is just as meaningful as the destination.
Local travel is the new luxury
Travelers are realizing they do not need to go far to feel refreshed. No-passport vacations are trending, and guests are exploring nearby towns, mountain hideaways, and unexpected gems just a short drive away. Staycations are trending, too, as travelers look for ways to recharge close to home. For hotels, that means putting extra focus on your drive market audience.
This is the season to launch campaigns that speak directly to locals and nearby guests. Think messaging like your next stay is closer than you think, or plan a getaway without going far. These are the kinds of ideas that make spontaneous bookings feel easy and attainable.
It is all about family vibes
Summer break is prime time for multigenerational travel. With kids out of school and everyone craving more quality time, families are choosing slower trips where they can really reconnect. Think campfires, ice cream, and long conversations under the stars. Those small but unforgettable moments matter.
How hotels can tap into the trends
Refresh your look for summer Give your website and social platforms a summer glow-up. Highlight poolside scenes, shady patios, and anything that feels bright, breezy, and inviting.
Speak to the drive market Use regional targeting in ads and email. Highlight ease of access, last-minute booking perks, and pet-friendly stays. Make it easy for nearby guests to say yes to a quick trip.
Seasonal menus matter Light, refreshing options like smoothies, chilled drinks, and fresh local bites go a long way in helping guests feel cared for on a warm day.
Lean into nostalgia Road trips bring out the sentimental side in all of us. Craft campaigns around memory-making, spontaneous detours, and the joy of unplugging together.
The bottom line
In 2025, guests are not just looking for a place to stay. They are looking for moments that feel meaningful and easy to reach. Hotels that create space for connection and comfort, and that speak to the power of a local adventure, will be right where travelers want to be.
