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OTAs Are Bidding on Your Hotel's Name: How to Protect Direct Bookings

By MarginStay9 min readPublished Updated

Short answer

Booking sites can show ads when travelers search your hotel's name. Booking.com's General Delivery Terms let it promote your hotel by name in pay-per-click ads, and Google does not restrict trademarks used as keywords. You usually cannot stop it, but you can bid on your own name so your website and price show at the top.

A traveler who types your hotel's name into Google already knows who you are. If the first thing they see is a booking site's ad, the booking, and its commission, may go there instead. This guide sets out what the booking sites' terms and Google's rules allow, how to see who is bidding on your name, and how to decide whether to bid yourself. Terms and rules were read on their original pages on October 5, 2026. We are not lawyers, so take trademark questions to yours.

Can Booking.com and Expedia bid on my hotel's name?

Booking.com can, under its standard terms. Clause 4.3.1 of its General Delivery Terms says Booking.com runs online marketing at its own cost and discretion, and may promote your hotel using your hotel's name in that marketing, including email marketing and pay-per-click advertising. Its Partner Hub says it promotes properties on search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo in 45 languages (Partner Hub).

The rule runs the other way only in part. Clause 4.3.3 says a hotel may bid on or use the Booking.com brand for its own web marketing and pay-per-click ads, but may not run pay-per-click ads on meta or other search sites that send people to the hotel's own page on Booking.com.

Expedia Group does not publish its hotel terms. Its 2025 annual report says it gets a significant portion of its website traffic from search engines such as Google, through the purchase of travel-related keywords and organic search (Expedia Group's 2025 annual report). Booking Holdings' 2025 report lists search engine keyword purchases first among the costs of its performance marketing, which it says makes up a substantial majority of its marketing spend (Booking Holdings' 2025 annual report). Neither report says which keywords. Your Expedia agreement is the place to check.

Does Google allow ads on another company's trademark?

As keywords, yes. Google's trademark policy says Google Ads will not restrict using trademarks as keywords (Google's trademark policy). When a trademark owner complains, Google looks at the trademark's use in the ad itself, not only on the landing page.

Even in the ad text, a booking site has room. Google says it restricts trademarks in ads from a direct competitor, and ads that use a trademark in a confusing, deceptive or misleading way. It does not restrict ads whose landing page is mainly dedicated to selling the products or services the trademark refers to, as long as the page clearly offers a way to buy, shows commercial information such as rates or prices, and makes clear whether the advertiser is a reseller or an informational site. A booking site selling rooms at your hotel can fit that description.

Before you complain

Google says it only accepts complaints against specific advertisers, identified by their URL, in the countries and industries where the trademark owner has shown trademark rights. Whether your hotel's name gives you those rights, and what your contracts allow, are questions for a lawyer.

How can you see who is bidding on your hotel's name?

  1. Search your hotel's name yourself on a phone and a laptop, in a private window, at different times of day. Note every result marked as sponsored, and check whether your own booking page appears in the hotel prices panel.
  2. Use the auction insights report once you run an ad on your name. Google says it compares your results with other advertisers in the same auctions, including how often their ad showed alongside yours and how often it showed above yours. It shows no insights when your impression share is below 10% (Google Ads Help).
  3. Read the search terms report. It lists the actual searches that triggered your ads, so you can see whether your budget is going on your name or on other searches.

Should a hotel bid on its own name?

Usually yes, if each booking it brings costs less than the commission you would otherwise pay. Two things in Google's auction work in your favor. You are charged the actual cost per click, which Google says is often less than your maximum bid, because you only pay what is needed to clear the Ad Rank thresholds and beat the ad ranked immediately below you (Google Ads Help). And Ad Rank weighs ad quality, including expected clickthrough rate, ad relevance and landing page experience, alongside the bid. For a search of your own hotel's name, your own website is about as relevant as a page can be.

An illustrative comparison for a 3-night stay worth $480 before taxes. Click prices and clicks per booking are examples only. Your auction decides yours.

RouteCost of the bookingShare of $480
Booking site at 20%$96.0020.0%
Your name ad, 10 clicks at $1.50$15.003.1%
Your name ad, 20 clicks at $3.00$60.0012.5%

Illustrative. Excludes taxes and fees. A booking site usually costs 20% to 30% of a booking once add-ons are counted.

Measure the result honestly. Some people who click your ad would have booked on your website through the free result below it. So compare all direct bookings from searches for your name before and after you start, not only the bookings the ad reports. Our guide to tracking which ad brought a booking explains how to link each booking to its source.

How do you set up an ad on your own hotel's name?

  • Use exact match for your hotel's name. Google says exact match gives you the most control over who sees your ad, while broad match, the default, can show your ad on related searches, including ones that do not contain the direct meaning of your keyword (Google's guide to match types).
  • Send the click to your own booking page or a page with your rates, not a general page.
  • Show the total price if the ad mentions one. The FTC's fee rule, in force since May 12, 2025, requires mandatory fees such as resort fees to be included (FTC).
  • Keep a separate budget for your name, so spend on other searches does not starve it.

What should you fix before paying for any ad?

The free results. Claim your Google Business Profile, so your own website, phone and photos show when someone searches your name. Our guide to Google Business Profile for hotels covers it. Then get Google's free booking links, which put your own rate next to the booking sites' rates at no cost per click (see Google's free booking links). Once those are in place, Google Hotel Ads for small hotels let you bid for a more visible spot in the same hotel prices panel.

To see what each booking that moves from a booking site to your own website is worth, enter your numbers in our calculator.

MarginStay runs Google Search ads for hotels, including ads on a hotel's own name, so we have a stake in this topic. Terms come from Booking.com's General Delivery Terms and Partner Hub, Google's rules from its Advertising Policies and Google Ads Help, and marketing facts from Expedia Group's and Booking Holdings' 2025 annual reports, all read on October 5, 2026. The example is illustrative. This is not legal advice.

Bidding on your name: quick answers

Can Booking.com use my hotel's name in Google ads?

Under its standard terms, yes. Clause 4.3.1 of Booking.com's General Delivery Terms says it may promote your hotel using your hotel's name in its marketing, including pay-per-click advertising, at its own cost and discretion. Check your own agreement, since terms can differ, and ask a lawyer if you think your trademark is being misused.

Can I stop OTAs from bidding on my hotel's name?

Usually not through Google. Its trademark policy does not restrict trademarks used as keywords, and it allows trademarks in ad text when the landing page mainly sells the products or services concerned. Read your contracts and ask a lawyer about your rights. The practical answer is to bid on your own name so your website shows first.

How much does it cost to bid on your own hotel's name?

Google publishes no price list. You pay the actual cost per click, which Google says is often less than your maximum bid, and ad quality counts alongside the bid. Judge it by cost per booking: if each booking from the ad costs less than the commission a booking site would take, the ad pays.

Can a hotel bid on the Booking.com brand?

Booking.com's General Delivery Terms say a hotel may bid on or use the Booking.com brand for its own web marketing and pay-per-click advertising. It may not run pay-per-click ads on meta or other search sites that send people to the hotel's own page on Booking.com. Check your agreement for any differences.

Make sure guests who search your name find you

Talk to us about ads on your hotel's name that send guests to your own booking page, or see first what your booking-site bookings cost.

See your numbers

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