Looking for a hospitality marketing agency?
Guests pick where to stay in minutes. Ioka helps hotels, F&B operators and tourism brands be the obvious choice.
The real problems we see.
If more than two feel familiar, you're not alone and you're probably paying for them more than you realise.
- OTA commissions are eating your margin and direct bookings are flat.
- Your Instagram is pretty but it isn't driving reservations.
- You rank low on Google for your own city + category.
- F&B covers are up but revenue per cover is flat.
- Your email list is big but open rates are declining.
- Marketing and operations don't talk, so the brand breaks at every touchpoint.
The customers behind Hospitality.
Each segment has its own behaviour, platforms and messaging. One campaign doesn't fit all of them.
Business travellers
Trip-triggered, high-value, loyalty-sensitive.
Leisure travellers (international)
Research-heavy, review-driven, 2–8 week booking windows.
GCC weekenders
Regional short-trip buyers, Instagram-led discovery.
Local F&B diners
Mid-week vs weekend dynamics, loyalty-sensitive.
Event and MICE buyers
Corporate, government, longer sales cycle, B2B dynamics.
Where to invest. Where not to.
Not every channel earns a place in a Hospitality plan. Here's where the budget belongs and where it burns.
Where to invest
- Google Search + Hotel Ads
Direct-booking driver. Position-ad competition with OTAs is brutal but essential. - Meta (Instagram + Facebook) paid
Especially for F&B and leisure. Reels and location-tagged content drive discovery. - TripAdvisor + review platforms
Trust layer. Response strategy matters as much as star rating. - Email + loyalty programs
Where OTA margins get clawed back. Direct channel = direct revenue. - Snapchat and TikTok
Younger local segments in UAE/KSA/Qatar for F&B and lifestyle experiences. - Owned content (blog, newsletter)
Compounds over years. Where premium brand gets built.
Where not to
- LinkedIn for leisure
Wrong audience for most hospitality segments. - Pinterest for GCC hospitality
Minimal regional traction compared to Instagram. - Programmatic without hyper-targeting
Burns budget in a review-and-recommendation-driven category.
What actually converts.
Offer, landing page and messaging the three things most Hospitality campaigns get wrong.
Hospitality offers work best when specific. 'Suite upgrade + breakfast + late checkout, direct booking only' outperforms 'luxury stays from X'. Loyalty perks drive repeat; limited-time windows drive first-time direct bookings.
Property-specific or F&B-specific landing pages: hero visual (not just a hero shot but a sense of place), room/menu detail, pricing with direct-booking perk vs OTA, reviews, FAQ about check-in/dress code/COVID, booking widget visible always.
Booking windows vary business travellers decide in days, leisure in weeks. Email, remarketing and WhatsApp follow-up sequenced to that window. Loyalty members get different sequences than first-time guests.
How leads should be qualified.
What marketing should pre-qualify before sales takes the call.
- 01Trip purpose business vs leisure vs event.
- 02Trip length and date flexibility.
- 03Party size and composition (families, couples, groups).
- 04Loyalty program membership + prior stays.
- 05Price sensitivity vs experience priority.
How we run a Hospitality program.
Three parts of the system: what we test first, what data we need, and what we measure.
- Direct-booking perk variants upgrade vs breakfast vs flexibility.
- Hero creative property shot vs experiential shot vs guest story.
- Google Hotel Ads vs standard search ads.
- Loyalty-upsell timing in post-booking sequence.
- F&B retargeting from room guests (hotel restaurants) vs cold acquisition.
- Historical booking data by channel + direct vs OTA breakdown.
- PMS access (Opera, Mews, Cloudbeds, etc.).
- Loyalty program membership data.
- Email list and engagement history.
- Review data and sentiment analysis.
- Direct-booking share of revenue (vs OTA).
- Revenue per available room (RevPAR).
- Average daily rate (ADR) and total revenue per guest.
- Loyalty program growth rate.
- Repeat guest rate.
The mistakes we see most.
Letting OTAs own the demand without a direct-booking counter-strategy.
Pretty social content with no booking path.
Slow response to reviews especially negative ones.
No email program, or an email program sending generic blasts.
How we help Hospitality businesses, specifically.
Common questions.
The real questions prospects ask us before signing an engagement.
Why does direct-booking matter so much?+
OTA commissions are 15–30% of revenue. Every booking shifted to direct is margin recovered. Over a year, direct-booking share lift is often the single biggest P&L mover for a property.
How do we compete with Booking.com on Google ads?+
Direct hotel ads integration + specific direct-only perks + brand-term defence. You won't win every click, but the right strategy claws back meaningful share.
Should we invest in TikTok for hospitality?+
Yes, especially for F&B and younger-skewing leisure experiences. Content-led, not ad-led, works best.
Is email still relevant for hotels?+
Yes and under-invested. A properly segmented list of past guests is the most profitable channel most properties have.
How do we handle negative reviews?+
Respond within 24 hours. Personally. Without defensiveness. The response is public it signals brand to future guests more than the review itself.
Can one agency handle a hotel + its restaurants?+
Yes if the strategy is integrated. The audience overlaps. The asset library overlaps. The loyalty data overlaps. Keeping them separate is a missed opportunity.
Ready to grow?
We take on a limited number of partnerships each quarter. Thirty minutes, no pitch a frank conversation about where your growth is leaking and what it would take to seal it.
Book a Strategy Call