Start with the honest part.
The corporate brand owns the domain, the templates, the page structure and usually the booking path. No search program changes any of that, and any proposal that assumes otherwise was written for a different kind of property.
- You cannot restructure brand.com, add pages to it, or change how your property is described on it
- You cannot usually change the booking path or what appears at the point of conversion
- You cannot compete with the corporate domain for brand terms, and you should not try
- You may be restricted in what you can publish elsewhere, which is a contractual question rather than a technical one
This is not a reason to do nothing. It is a reason to be precise about where the available ground actually is, which is what the rest of this page is about.
Four surfaces the brand does not control.
- 01
Local and map visibility
The individual property profile, its categories, attributes, photography and posts. Brand standards rarely govern this the way they govern the website, and on a phone it frequently occupies the entire first screen.
- 02
Guest reviews across platforms
Volume, recency and response activity feed local ranking as well as conversion. This is managed at the property, by your people, and it is usually the largest lever available to a flagged hotel.
- 03
Third party surfaces
Directories, regional publications, travel and local media where your property appears on pages the brand does not own. These can be earned property by property.
- 04
A vanity property site, where permitted
A separate site on a domain you own, addressing the destination, neighborhood and room type searches the corporate page will never write for one location. Contractual before it is technical.
Check the agreement before you commission anything.
The keyword vanity website for hotel property SEO exists because properties in your position are actively looking for this. It is a real strategy, and it comes with a real precondition.
Franchise agreements and brand standards vary enormously, not only between brands but between contracts within the same brand. Some permit a property site with conditions on branding, rate display and booking path. Some restrict it to a narrow set of uses. Some prohibit it outright.
We cannot interpret your agreement and would not try. Ask your brand team the direct question, get the answer in writing, and then the build is straightforward. Getting this order wrong is expensive in a way that has nothing to do with search.
The channel question, at your scale.
Preset to a 110-room chain-affiliated property with a lower third-party share, since brand channels already carry part of your volume. Adjust to your actual mix.
You pay roughly
a year in OTA commission, in your currency.
Moving 15% of that volume to direct would keep
a year, in your currency.
The Platinum program is $325 USD a month, or $3,900 USD a year. At these numbers that is 11.4% of what you would keep.
These are illustrative projections based on figures you entered. They are not a forecast or a guarantee. Commission rates and channel mix vary by property and contract.
What it costs.
Month to month, cancel anytime, setup fee waived, dedicated account manager on every plan. Available as a monthly subscription or a one-time order. All prices in US dollars.
| Basic | Silver | Golden | Platinum Best value | Titanium | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly | $65 USD | $125 USD | $235 USD | $325 USD | $575 USD |
| One-time | $75 USD | $140 USD | $260 USD | $380 USD | $620 USD |
| Domains | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
| Keywords | 5 | 10 | 20 | 40 | 100 |
| Guest posts (DA 20+) | 5 | 10 | 20 | 30 | 50 |
| Web 2.0s (DA 50+) | 5 | 10 | 20 | 30 | 50 |
| Amplification links | 1,500 | 3,000 | 5,000 | 10,000 | 20,000 |
| Keyword research | Standard | Standard | In-depth | In-depth | In-depth |
| Premium indexing | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| On-page technical audit | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Content gap analysis | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Competitor traffic spy | No | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Toxic link check with disavow | No | No | No | No | Yes |
| Turnaround | 8-10 days | 10-12 days | 12-14 days | 14-16 days | 16-18 days |
Our recommendation Golden at $235 USD a month covers local and review-led work on a single domain. If your brand standards permit a vanity property site, Platinum at $325 USD is the right choice, because it covers two domains and the larger keyword set a second site requires.
- Dedicated account manager
- Month-to-month, cancel anytime
- Setup fee waived
- Every link delivered with a live, clickable URL
- You own the assets forever
- Available as a monthly subscription or a one-time order
Build the exact program in the builder, or send us the property and we will tell you what we would target and what we would not bother doing.
Questions.
We cannot change our website at all. Is there any point?
Yes, and it is a larger opportunity than most flagged properties assume. The corporate site is one surface among several. Local and map visibility, guest review activity across platforms, third party surfaces where your property appears, and in many cases a vanity property site on a domain you own are all available without touching brand.com. Those surfaces frequently decide what a guest sees first on a phone.
What is a vanity property site and are we allowed one?
A vanity property site is a separate website on a domain you own, built for your individual property, sitting alongside the brand page rather than replacing it. Whether you may have one depends entirely on your franchise agreement and brand standards, which vary enormously. Some brands permit it with conditions on branding and booking path, others restrict or prohibit it, and you should confirm with your brand team before commissioning anything.
Will this conflict with what the brand is already doing?
It should not, because it operates on different ground. Corporate marketing works the brand terms and the brand domain, which no individual property could compete with anyway. This works the destination, neighborhood and local surfaces for one specific property, which corporate rarely addresses at that granularity because there are too many hotels to do it for each.
Does the commission argument still apply if bookings come through brand.com?
It applies differently and it still applies. A booking through the brand channel typically carries fees and program costs of its own, and a booking through a third-party listing carries commission on top of that. The channel mix question for a flagged property is more complicated than for an independent, but the direction is the same: demand arriving through a route you influence costs less than demand arriving through one you do not.
Which plan suits a flagged property?
Golden at $235 USD a month is often enough if the work is confined to local visibility and review surfaces. If you are permitted a vanity property site, move to Platinum at $325 USD, because a second domain and a full keyword set are then in play. Platinum covers two domains, which is exactly the flagged property case.
Can you tell us what our brand standards permit?
No. We have not seen your franchise agreement, brand standards vary between brands and between contracts within the same brand, and interpreting them is not something an SEO agency should be doing. Confirm with your brand team first, then we will build to whatever the answer turns out to be.
What makes this different.
Every link comes with a live URL
You get a clickable address for every placement, so you can open it and confirm the work exists. That is the whole reporting standard, and it is rarer than it should be.
You own the assets forever
Placements do not disappear if you stop paying us. What we build stays yours.
Month to month, no contract
There is no minimum term and no cancellation penalty. If the work is not worth the fee, you stop.
We say no to the wrong plan
If your numbers do not justify a larger program, we will tell you to start smaller. The calculator on this site does that automatically.
No guarantees on rankings
We do not guarantee rankings, occupancy, booking volume or revenue, because no agency controls them. Be careful with anyone who does.
Delivered remotely, worldwide
We do not claim offices or staff in your market, because we do not have them. Search work has always been delivered remotely and our published results include clients outside the United States.
Where to go next.
Start with the arithmetic.
Send us the property and we will come back with what we would target, what it costs and what we would not bother doing. We reply within 24 hours on business days.