Case Study:
How a 4-Star Irish Hotel Earned 25% More Booking Value from 19% Less Google Ads Spend
Spending Less, Earning More: an 11.8× Return on Ad Spend
AI Summary
Agile Digital Strategy manages Google Ads for a 4-star hotel in Ireland. Comparing May–October 2026 with the same months in 2025, the hotel spent 19% less on Google Ads and earned 25% more booking value from them. Its return on ad spend (ROAS) rose to 11.8×, up 55% on the previous year.
Booking value from people searching for the hotel by name grew by 56%, and bookings from one niche offer grew by more than 700%. These figures only count tracked online bookings. Around 200 phone calls a month from the ads are not included, so the true return is higher.
This case study shows how a hotel can win more direct bookings from a smaller Google Ads budget by protecting its own name in search, funding the offers that sell and cutting spend that doesn’t lead to bookings.
Many businesses treat Google Ads as a cost that only goes one way: “If we spend more, we’ll get more bookings.”
But a bigger budget only helps if it goes to the right searches. When spend drifts into searches that never book, or booking sites outbid a hotel for its own name, a bigger budget just means more waste and more commission paid to third parties.
This hotel’s goal was simple: more direct bookings, without spending more to get them.
The Challenge
Hotels compete for every booking with online travel agents such as booking.com. These sites bid on the same searches as the hotel, including the hotel’s own name, and every booking that goes through them costs the hotel commission.
The hotel needed its Google Ads to:
- Win the guests who were already searching for it by name
- Put its offers and packages in front of the people most likely to book them
- Stop paying for clicks that didn’t lead to bookings
- Show clearly what the ads were earning, not just what they cost
What We Did
We focused the budget on the searches that turn into bookings, and cut the spend that didn’t.
- Protected the hotel’s own name in search. A dedicated brand campaign makes sure guests searching for the hotel by name find its own website first, so they book direct instead of through a booking site.
- Put each offer in front of the right people. Offers and packages run in their own campaigns, so each one gets budget according to the bookings it earns.
- Cut wasted spend. Regular search term reviews and negative keywords stop ads showing for searches that won’t book, including dates when the hotel is already full.
- Measured booking value, not just clicks. Online booking value is tracked in Google Ads, so budget decisions are based on revenue rather than clicks or impressions.
- Compared results year on year. Measuring each period against the same months last year shows the real effect of the changes, separate from seasonal swings.
The Results
Compared with May–October 2025, the hotel spent less on Google Ads in May–October 2026 and earned more from them.
| Result | May–Oct 2026 vs May–Oct 2025 |
|---|---|
| Ad spend | 19% less spent on Google Ads |
| Booking value | 25% more booking value from the ads |
| Return on ad spend | 11.8×, up 55% on last year |
| Brand searches | 56% more booking value from people searching for the hotel by name |
| Niche offer | More than 700% growth in bookings |
Every euro now works harder, so more guests book directly with the hotel and fewer go through commission-charging booking sites.
And the real figure is higher
These results only count online bookings that could be tracked. They don’t include:
- Around 200 phone calls a month from the ads, many of them booking enquiries
- Bookings from guests who declined cookie tracking on the website
So the true return from the ads is higher than the figures above.
Results are Google Ads–attributed booking value, May–October 2026 compared with May–October 2025.
Why This Matters
For a hotel, a direct booking is worth more than the same booking through a travel site, because there is no commission to pay. Google Ads that win direct bookings at an 11.8× return don’t just pay for themselves. They move bookings away from expensive third-party channels.
Many businesses spend more on Google Ads every year without knowing whether that spend is paying its way. They pay for clicks that never turn into bookings or enquiries, and they put budget into campaigns that look busy while better opportunities go unfunded.
Less Spend Doesn’t Have to Mean Less Business
The lesson from this account applies to any business that advertises on Google: how the budget is spent matters more than how big it is.
Before you increase your budget, check where the current one is going. Which searches are you paying for? Which campaigns produce enquiries or sales? Are you tracking what the ads actually earn? The answers often free up budget that can be moved to what already works.
Key Results at a Glance
✅ 19% less spent on Google Ads than the same six months last year.
✅ 25% more booking value from the ads.
✅ 11.8× return on ad spend, up 55% year on year.
✅ 56% more booking value from people searching for the hotel by name.
✅ More than 700% growth in bookings from a niche offer, with around 200 phone calls a month from the ads on top of tracked bookings.
Why Agile Digital Strategy?
These results didn’t come from a bigger budget. They came from careful account management: knowing which searches turn into revenue, tracking the right conversions, and moving budget to what works.
At Agile Digital Strategy, we manage Google Ads for Irish businesses in hospitality, manufacturing, engineering, environmental services, home energy and B2B. We focus on bookings, enquiries and revenue, not clicks and impressions, and we report on the numbers that matter to your business.
If you want to know whether your Google Ads budget is working as hard as it should, we’d love to help.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
What is return on ad spend (ROAS)?
Return on ad spend is the revenue earned from ads divided by the amount spent on them. An 11.8× ROAS means that for every €1 the hotel spent on Google Ads, it earned €11.80 in tracked booking value.
Why should a hotel advertise on its own name?
Booking sites and other hotels often bid on a hotel’s name. If the hotel’s own ad isn’t at the top, guests searching for it may book through a booking site instead, and the hotel pays commission on that booking. A brand campaign usually has a low cost per click and protects direct bookings.
How can spending less on Google Ads lead to more bookings?
By moving budget away from searches and campaigns that don’t produce bookings, and into the ones that do. Removing irrelevant searches, funding the best-performing offers and tracking booking value lets each euro do more work.
Why aren’t phone calls included in the results?
Calls from the ads are counted, but they don’t carry a booking value in Google Ads. To keep the figures conservative, the results only include online bookings that could be tracked, so the true return is higher.
How do I know if my own Google Ads budget is working?
Start with an independent review of the account. Our Google Ads audit checks conversion tracking, search terms, campaign structure, bidding and budget, and shows where your spend is working, where it’s leaking and what to change.
Is your Google Ads budget working this hard?
Get a Google Ads Audit
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