Determining Appropriate Hotel Marketing Spend: A Comparison to Retail Industry Benchmarks.

Hoteliers should consider spending between 5-10% of their total revenue on marketing, similar to the retail industry and broader economy. The hospitality industry averages less than 2.5% of room revenue spent on marketing, which is significantly lower than big OTAs like Expedia, which spent 54% of its 2024 revenue on sales and marketing. Instead of competing with OTAs, hotels should focus on creative marketing strategies that OTAs cannot replicate.