Small hotel marketing strategy in Italy: 5 things to do, in order

A small hotel marketing strategy works when you do five things in the right order: photos first, then a website where guests can book direct, then getting found on Google and in AI assistants, then social media, and ads last. Most lists of hotel marketing ideas skip the order, yet the order decides whether your time and money come back as bookings.

The five steps, in short:

1. Photos that show what guests will really find.
2. A website that takes direct bookings, in English as well as Italian.
3. Getting found on Google, Google Maps, and AI assistants such as ChatGPT.
4. Social media that keeps people interested until they’re ready to book.
5. Ads, once the first four work.

Each step feeds the next: ads that send people to a slow website with dark photos waste money.

I wrote this for owners of small hotels, B&Bs, agriturismi (farm stays), villas, and vacation rentals (holiday lets, if you’re British) in Italy who sell to guests from abroad. I’m a photographer based between Pistoia and Lucca, in Tuscany, and I also build websites, do SEO, and run campaigns, so I work on all five steps. First, though, there’s a step zero.

Start with a number, not with a channel

Most owners start with a channel: “I need to be on Instagram,” “I need a new website.” Start with the number you want to move instead.

An agriturismo owner once asked me for an online shop to sell his olive oil to past guests. I asked him first: at what price and margin would he sell, and would the shop pay for itself if only 5% of his website visitors bought something? He couldn’t say, because nobody had ever asked him. So I suggested waiting, which cost me an invoice. When the numbers came, what he needed was a marketing plan, not a shop.

It’s a habit from my first career: more than 15 years in IT, as a software engineer and then a manager, at companies such as HelloFresh and Rocket Internet. There, every campaign and every page had a number to move. If nobody could name it, the project didn’t start.

For a small property, a good number looks like this:

• 10 more direct bookings a month from May to October.
• 15 more room-nights sold in November.
• 30 bookings a year moved from booking sites to your own website.
• A new website that pays for itself within 12 months.

“More visibility” is not a number. It’s a wish.

Here is what the third goal can be worth, with round numbers as an example. Say an average booking is 3 nights at €120, so €360. If it comes through an OTA (a booking site such as Booking.com, Airbnb, or Vrbo) that keeps 15%, you pay €54 in commission. Move 30 bookings a year to your own website and €1,620 a year stays with you, minus your booking engine and card fees. Real commissions vary by platform and contract, and I work through them in my guide on whether you need your own website if you’re on Booking.com.

Then split your effort roughly 80/20, as I saw it done in those companies: 80% of your time and budget on what already brings bookings, 20% on tests, such as a new channel, a small ad campaign, or a niche stay that fills the low season. If a test works, it moves into the 80%. If it doesn’t, you’ve lost the 20%, not everything.

The five steps of a small hotel marketing strategy

Keep this order, even when a later step looks more urgent.

1. Photos that show what guests will find

Your photos are the first thing guests see on Booking.com, Airbnb, Google, and your website, often as a thumbnail on a phone. Every later step reuses them, and no campaign can rescue weak ones.

A photo that documents says: here’s a room with a double bed. A photo that sells shows morning light on white sheets, a coffee on the nightstand, the hills outside. You need three kinds: a hero shot, the one photo that says why this place is different; the experience (breakfast, the pool, a walk through the vineyard); and the details (stone, linen, the olive oil on the table). Show what guests will really find, because photos that promise too much bring bookings first and bad reviews later.

Shoot short videos at the same time, such as a 30–60 second tour and a few behind-the-scenes clips. One story in short episodes works better than a catalog: for an agriturismo, I made a series that followed the olive harvest from the trees to the olive mill to the breakfast table.

Not sure a professional shoot pays off for a small property? I answer that with numbers in whether professional hotel photography is worth it. If you’re in Tuscany, here’s how I photograph hotels, B&Bs, and agriturismi.

2. A website where guests can book direct

Photos make people curious. Your website is where they decide, and the only place online where you set the rules. It has to:

• Open fast on a phone. Photos uploaded at 4 MB each can take seconds to load, and many visitors leave before the best one appears.
• Make booking obvious, with a clear button on every page and prices one tap away.
• Speak real English, written by a person, not machine-translated from your Italian page.

A guest who finds you on Booking.com or Airbnb may still look you up before booking. If your website answers their questions and lets them book, that booking can be yours, without the commission. The tactics for that are in how to increase direct bookings.

3. Getting found on Google, Maps, and AI assistants

A good website that nobody finds is a nice shop on an empty street. Getting found means three things:

• Google search. You need pages that answer what guests type, in the language they type it: “agriturismo with pool near Lucca,” “B&B inside Lucca walls,” “villa with private pool Chianti.” If your pages also answer what guests ask before they choose a place (“things to do near Lucca,” “hiking in the Apuan Alps”), you meet them early. My hotel SEO guide covers searches in English and Italian.
• Google Business Profile and Google Maps. Your profile is often the first thing people see when they search your name. Keep it complete and current, with real photos and replies to reviews. Google Business Profile for hotels lists the mistakes that cost bookings.
• AI assistants. Some travelers now ask ChatGPT, Gemini, or Claude for “a farm stay between Siena and Florence for a couple, with good Tuscan food” and get names back. To be one of those names, your information must be clear and the same on your website, profile, and listings. More in AI search for hotels.

4. Social media that keeps people interested

Social media runs on the photos and videos from step 1, and it should send people to a page where they can book. Without those, it brings likes, not bookings.

A simple mix: out of every six posts, three that inspire (the landscape, the experiences, the light), two that invite a reply (a question, a poll, behind the scenes), and one that sells (an offer, dates, a link to book). If you only sell, people stop following. If you never sell, nobody books.

Tell the stories only you have: the building’s history, the people who run it, the neighbors who make your cheese or wine. “Comfortable rooms and breakfast included” says nothing. “This was an olive mill in the 1800s, and breakfast comes with oil pressed 5 km away” makes people want to come. Keep the same look and voice as your website and listings, which is what hotel branding means for a small property. What to post, and whether to do it yourself, is in hotel social media marketing.

5. Ads, once the first four steps work

Ads buy attention. If they send people to weak photos or to a website that can’t take a booking, you pay for every click and still lose the guest. That’s why they come last.

Once the first four steps hold, ads speed things up. Google Ads puts you in front of people searching for a stay in your area right now; ads on Facebook and Instagram help new people discover you. Start small: one offer, one page built for it, a test budget, and your number from step zero to judge it by. Watch the cost per inquiry and the bookings, not the clicks. For the quiet months, see Google Ads for hotels.

Selling to guests from abroad

Many of your guests book from another country, in another language, without ever having seen the place. That changes a few things:

• Your photos and your English text are the visit. Guests can’t drive past for a look. Show the access road (if the last stretch is a gravel road, a strada bianca, say so), the parking, the view, and how far the nearest town is.
• Answer the questions they’ll ask. Do I need a car? How far is the station, or the airport? Can I drive into the old town? Many historic centers have a ZTL, a limited-traffic zone where cameras fine cars without a permit, so explain it before guests arrive. Is there air conditioning? Is there a tourist tax?
• Know where your guests come from and when they book. Last year’s bookings show where guests came from, how far ahead they booked, and through which channel. That tells you which language to write in first and when to run ads.
• Reply the way they wrote to you: by email, on WhatsApp, or through Booking.com or Airbnb messages, in their language, and quickly.

Four suppliers, and nobody connects the pieces

Here is the mistake I see most often. The photos come from a photographer, the website from a web agency, social media from a relative who is good with Instagram, the ads from someone else again. Each one does a good job on their part. Nobody is in charge of how the parts connect.

The photographer delivers the files and leaves. The agency uploads them as they are: heavy, badly named, cropped wrong. Social posts link to the home page instead of the offer. Ads land on a page that was never built to take a booking. When bookings don’t come, each supplier blames another.

So ask one question: are my pieces working together? Are my best photos on the website, loading fast, and the same ones guests see on Booking.com, Airbnb, and Google? Does every post link to a page where people can book? If you don’t know, the answer is probably no, and that’s where the easiest bookings get lost.

There are two fixes: coordinate the suppliers yourself, using those questions as a checklist, or work with one person who covers all five steps. That’s the idea behind my marketing service: one point of contact, not four suppliers. A large hotel group needs specialized teams. A small property usually needs someone who sees the whole picture.

Your hotel marketing plan on one page

A hotel marketing plan for a small property fits on one page:

1. The number for the next 12 months, and how you’ll measure it.
2. Where you stand on each step: done, weak, or missing. Check your listing, website, and Google profile on your phone, the way a guest from abroad would. It takes 30 minutes.
3. The first weak step in the order, and what fixing it takes. Weak photos get fixed before you pay for ads.
4. The split: 80% on what already brings bookings, 20% on one test.
5. A monthly check: half an hour with bookings by channel, inquiries, and the test result. Move time and money toward what works.

Big companies check their numbers every week. For a small property, once a month is enough, as long as it really happens. Foundations first, then visibility, then the push: that’s the whole strategy.