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Maximise direct bookings and eliminate wasteful agency practices
From online travel agencies to hotel groups and tour operators, we help you compete effectively against OTAs whilst controlling your own customer relationships.
The travel and hospitality industry faces unique pressures: fierce competition with OTAs commanding 15-25% commissions, highly seasonal demand patterns, intense price competition, and media costs that spike dramatically during peak booking periods. Every inefficiency directly impacts already-thin margins.
Every industry has unique pressures. Here are the specific media challenges travel & hospitality companies face, and how we help solve them.
Booking.com, Expedia, and Airbnb command huge ad budgets and extract 15-25% commissions, making direct booking acquisition critical.
Peak booking periods see media costs spike 100-200%, requiring strategic pre-planning and budget management.
Travel brands often face undisclosed rebates, opaque media buying, and agency relationships that favour volume over efficiency.
Long booking windows, multiple touchpoints, and cross-device journeys make attribution challenging.
Travellers compare prices across multiple sites, making brand advertising crucial to influence final booking decisions.
Rapid shift to mobile booking requires optimised mobile campaigns and user experience.
Google Hotel Ads, TripAdvisor, and metasearch platforms require specialist expertise to optimise effectively.
Targeting source markets (where travellers live) vs. destination markets requires sophisticated strategy.
Specialist audit services designed specifically for the unique challenges of travel & hospitality media strategies
Strategy to reduce OTA dependency and increase profitable direct bookings
Forensic review of media costs, rebates, and agency transparency
Strategic budget allocation across peak and off-peak periods
Specialist optimisation of TripAdvisor, Google Hotel Ads, and metasearch campaigns
Multi-touch attribution for complex travel research and booking paths
Optimisation of source market targeting and budget allocation
Industry-specific data and insights based on our audits of hundreds of travel & hospitality brands
Travel brands typically waste this proportion on agency rebates, poor attribution, and inefficient metasearch bidding
Media costs spike dramatically during peak booking periods, requiring strategic planning
Typical annual amount travel brands lose to undisclosed agency rebates
Average return on ad spend improvement our travel clients achieve
Where we typically find inefficiencies and opportunities for improvement
Media agencies receiving volume rebates from platforms without passing them through to clients
Poor bid management on Google Hotel Ads, TripAdvisor, and Kayak leading to overpaying for bookings
Failure to adjust budgets and bids strategically around booking windows leads to overpaying during peaks
Last-click attribution over-credits OTAs and metasearch whilst undervaluing brand awareness
Broadcasting to all markets equally rather than prioritising highest-converting source markets
Specialist expertise and proven results in the travel & hospitality sector
Travel industry specialists with deep expertise in OTA dynamics, metasearch, and direct booking strategies
Agency rebate audit experience - we know where to look and how to verify media costs in travel
Seasonal campaign planning expertise to maximise efficiency during peak booking periods
Attribution modelling for complex, long booking windows and multi-device journeys
Metasearch and Google Hotel Ads optimisation specialists
Independence means we can objectively assess OTA vs. direct booking ROI without platform bias
"We trusted our agency partner completely, which in hindsight was naïve. Fuel Media's independent review was genuinely shocking—£150K in undisclosed rebates, hidden markups, and media buying practices that clearly weren't in our best interest. We've recovered significant costs, achieved better performance, and most importantly, we now have complete transparency."
Common questions we receive from travel & hospitality brands about media auditing
Get a free, no-obligation contract review. We'll analyse your current agency agreements and identify immediate opportunities for improvement.
No obligation. No sales pressure. Just expert insights into your media efficiency.