Introduction to Motel Marketing Channels
Marketing a motel doesn’t have to be complicated. Before diving into tactics, it’s important to understand where your bookings actually come from. Most motels rely on a small group of powerful channels that influence occupancy every day. By learning these channels first, you’ll know where to focus and which areas give you the biggest return on effort.
The Core Channels That Drive Motel Bookings
These are the channels that consistently matter for Australian motels:
Google Business Profile (Google Local) — Your most important digital storefront. Impacts local search, map visibility, and direct calls.
Booking.com — Usually the highest‑volume OTA for regional and metro motels.
Expedia Group (Hotels.com, Wotif, etc.) — Highly valuable for certain markets and feeder cities.
Direct Booking Path — Your motel website + phone calls + repeat guests.
Before touching social media, advertising, or broader marketing strategies, improving these channels alone will often lift occupancy more than anything else. Small improvements on these platforms—better photos, tighter descriptions, stronger reviews, corrected room type ordering—can produce noticeable increases in demand.
Why These Channels Matter First
They directly influence guests who are actively looking to book.
They’re measurable—views, clicks, bookings.
They affect both weekday and weekend demand.
They shape how your motel appears across the entire online marketplace.
This introduction sets the foundation for the rest of the course. Once you understand what each channel does, you can focus on improving them one by one. The next lessons will break down each platform in detail, starting with Google Business Profile optimisation.
