If your hotel is at 50% occupancy, it isn’t just the low season. It’s that your guests can’t find you.
According to COTELCO (the Colombian Hotel and Tourism Association), average hotel occupancy in Colombia was 50.6% in 2024. For a business where every empty room is money that never comes back, that number should keep you up at night. The healthy target for a well-managed hotel is between 65% and 70%. That 15–20% gap isn’t explained by “there aren’t any tourists”. In 2024 the country received 6.7 million international visitors, a record figure. Tourists are arriving. The problem is that they aren’t arriving at your hotel.
And before you think “Booking charges me too much commission”: yes, and that’s just one of the symptoms. The full diagnosis is more uncomfortable. Most Colombian hotels operate without a digital strategy of their own. They depend on OTAs that keep 15–25% of every booking. Their Google Business Profile is abandoned. Their website doesn’t show up in searches. They don’t ask for reviews. And when a traveler searches for “hotel in [your city]”, the one that appears is the hotel next door.
This guide shows you how to turn that around. No hype, no “revolutionary strategies”. Things that work in Colombia, with real data and a plan you can start executing this week.
The diagnosis: why your hotel isn’t filling up (and it isn’t the season’s fault)
The 50.6% occupancy COTELCO reports isn’t a random number. It reflects several problems that pile up. And most of them have nothing to do with how many tourists there are in the country. They have to do with how you’re going after them.
The first problem is dependence on OTAs. Booking, Expedia and Airbnb aren’t your partners; they’re your most expensive distributors. For every booking that comes through them, you lose between 15% and 25% of your rate. If 80% of your bookings come through OTAs (a common proportion in Colombian hotels), you’re giving away a fifth of your gross revenue to platforms that, on top of that, don’t give you guest data for remarketing.
The second problem is invisibility on Google. More than 80% of travelers search on Google before booking. If your hotel doesn’t appear in the top results when someone searches for “hotel in Cartagena’s historic center” or “hotel near Parque del Café”, you simply don’t exist for that traveler. And not showing up isn’t bad luck: it’s not having local SEO.
The third is “post and pray” marketing. Uploading a pretty photo to Instagram and hoping someone books is like putting a sign on the hotel door and hoping a German reads it from Berlin. Without a content strategy, targeted ads and a booking system that measures what works, every peso you put into marketing is a shot in the dark.
The fourth (and perhaps the most underestimated) is the lack of reviews. 81% of travelers read reviews before booking. 53% wouldn’t book a hotel with no reviews. If you have 12 reviews on Google and the hotel next door has 340, guess who gets the booking.
If any of these points sounded familiar, you’re not alone. The good news is that all of them can be fixed. And they don’t require an international chain’s budget.
Google Business Profile: the free channel you’ve abandoned (and should be your #1 priority)
When was the last time you updated your hotel’s profile on Google?
If the answer is “I don’t know” or “months ago”, I have uncomfortable news: you’re losing bookings every day. And the worst part is that fixing it doesn’t cost a peso.
Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business) is the listing that appears when someone searches for your hotel by name or when Google shows local map results. For a hotel, that profile is in many cases more important than your website. It’s the first thing a traveler sees: photos, location, phone, check-in hours, reviews and, crucially, the booking link.
This is what you should have optimized today:
1. Up-to-date, quality photos. I don’t mean the 3 photos you took with your phone when you opened the hotel. I mean photos of every room type, the breakfast, the view, the lobby and the pool if you have one. Google rewards profiles with lots of photos, and travelers trust hotels that show what they offer more. Upload at least 20–30 professional photos.
2. Answer all the frequently asked questions at once. Google Business Profile has a Q&A section where users ask things like “do you have parking?” or “can I pay by card?”. Most Colombian hotels have that section empty or full of unanswered questions. If you don’t answer, another user can, perhaps with incorrect information. Sit down for an afternoon, write the 15 questions you’re asked most often by phone and publish them with their answers.
3. Post offers and news every week. Google lets you create posts within your profile. You can publish seasonal promotions, hotel events, new photos and links to your website. These posts appear directly in search results and last 7 days. One post a week keeps your profile active and tells Google “this business is alive, show it more”.
4. Activate the direct booking button. If your website has a booking engine, connect it to your profile. If it doesn’t, there are free integrations that let you add a WhatsApp link or a simple form. The point is that travelers can book without leaving Google.
Local SEO for hotels: get found when people search (and before they find your competition)
When someone searches for “hotel in Medellín near El Poblado” or “budget accommodation in Santa Marta”, Google decides which hotels to show based on three things: relevance, distance and prominence.
You can’t control distance (your hotel is where it is). But you can control relevance and prominence.
Let’s start with the obvious thing almost nobody does well: local keywords. Having “hotel” in your page title isn’t enough. Every page on your site needs to be optimized for the real searches your ideal guest makes. And those searches aren’t generic. They’re things like:
- “hotel with a pool in Villavicencio”
- “cheap accommodation near Bogotá airport”
- “pet-friendly hotel in the Coffee Region”
- “hostel with coworking in Medellín”
Each of those searches is a page on your website waiting to be created. If you have a pool, you should have a page about your pool, with photos, hours and, above all, the words a traveler would use to find it.
Local SEO also demands something as simple as it is hard to execute: data consistency. Your name, address and phone (what SEO calls NAP) must be identical on your website, on Google Business Profile, in tourism directories and on your social networks. If one place says “Hotel El Paraíso” and another “Hotel Paraíso S.A.S.”, Google hesitates. And when Google hesitates, it moves you down the results.
An additional step (and one of the most profitable for hotels) is creating content about what’s near you. If your hotel is 10 minutes from the National Coffee Park, write a guide to visiting it. If you’re in Cartagena’s historic center, create an article with “10 things to do within walking distance of our hotel”. That content doesn’t only help your current guests: it ranks on Google for searches like “what to do in Cartagena”, and from there you link to your booking page.
A well-executed local SEO strategy can double your organic traffic in 6–8 months. If you want to see what opportunities your hotel specifically has, book a diagnosis with our SEO team.
→ See our SEO service for hotels
Direct website vs. OTAs: how to stop giving away 20% of your revenue
Let’s run the numbers for a moment. Suppose your hotel bills COP 500 million a year. If 70% of your bookings come through Booking and Expedia, with an average commission of 18%, you’re paying COP 63 million a year in commissions. For every room you sell at COP 300,000 a night, COP 54,000 goes to a platform that doesn’t build your brand, doesn’t give you customer data and puts you right next to your direct competition.
The alternative isn’t to stop using OTAs. That would be naive. Booking gives you visibility you won’t get on your own, especially at the start. The smart strategy is to gradually reduce your dependence on them.
How? By building a direct sales channel that converts better.
Your website has to stop being a digital brochure and become your main salesperson. That means:
An integrated booking engine. Not a button that says “book” and sends you to a contact form. A system where guests can see real-time availability, choose a room, see the final price and pay. If your current website doesn’t have that, you’re forcing travelers to look for your hotel on Booking to make the reservation, and Booking will charge you the commission anyway, even though the guest arrived through your website.
A guaranteed lowest price on your website. If the room costs COP 280,000 on Booking and COP 300,000 on your website, the traveler will book through Booking. Period. Your website should match or beat the OTAs’ price. Yes, you reduce the margin per booking, but you keep 100% of that booking instead of 82%. And you also get the guest’s data.
Photos that sell. It sounds obvious, but most Colombian hotel websites have photos taken on a phone, poorly lit, that don’t show the whole room. Investing in professional photography (truly professional, not “my nephew who has a good camera”) is one of the decisions with the best return a hotel can make. A TripAdvisor study found that hotels with more than 30 photos on their profile receive 40% more booking inquiries.
Load speed. If your website takes more than 3 seconds to load, 53% of visitors abandon it. And these are people who were considering booking with you. For a hotel that receives 5,000 visits a month, that’s 2,650 potential guests who left without even seeing your rooms.
A professional website that converts isn’t an expense. It’s the asset that lets you recover the margin you’re leaving to the OTAs today.
→ See how we create websites that sell for hotels and tourism services
Instagram and TikTok for hotels: sell the experience, not the bed
Nobody books a hotel because the bed is comfortable. They book for the experience they imagine having there: breakfast on the terrace, the pool at sunset, the bar with live music, the hike to the waterfall the receptionist recommended.
And yet most Colombian hotels use their social media to post photos of empty rooms with a caption that says “Book now”.
That doesn’t sell.
Look at what the hotels that are winning on social media do:
They show the experience, not the product. A 15-second video of a guest opening the window to a sunrise over the sea sells more than 10 photos of the room. A reel of the chef preparing the hotel restaurant’s signature dish converts better than a photo of the menu. People buy emotions, not square meters.
They make the most of guest-generated content. If a guest posts a photo tagging your hotel, repost it (with permission). That content is more authentic than any photo shoot and it makes other guests want to share their experience to appear on your profile. It’s a free content machine.
They use TikTok for organic reach. Instagram no longer gives the reach it used to. TikTok does. A hotel in Salento that posts a video showing “5 things you didn’t know we offer” can reach 50,000 people without paying a peso in ads. And if 50 people book thanks to that video, the return is absurd.
They geotag and use local hashtags. Don’t use #hotel (it’s too generic and your content gets lost). Use #HotelCartagena, #AlojamientoEjeCafetero, #TurismoSantaMarta. Local hashtags have less competition and attract people who are planning a trip to that specific destination.
They measure what works. How many bookings came through Instagram last month? If you can’t answer that question, your social media strategy is a bet, not an investment. Every link in bio, every story with a link and every ad should have a tracking code that lets you know exactly which content generates bookings.
Reviews: the strategy that fills rooms without spending a peso on advertising
81% of travelers read reviews before booking. 53% say they wouldn’t book a hotel with no reviews. And, according to BrightLocal, a one-star increase in your Google rating can translate into 5–9% more revenue.
Reviews aren’t “nice to have”. They’re the most important decision factor after price and location.
So why do most Colombian hotels have 15 reviews on Google while their competition has hundreds?
The answer is simple: they don’t ask for them. Or they ask badly.
Asking for reviews isn’t bothering the guest. It’s giving them the chance to share an experience that, if you did your job well, was good. But some ways of doing it work better than others:
1. The magic moment. Don’t ask for the review at check-out, when the guest is in a hurry, carrying bags and thinking about the traffic to the airport. Ask at the high point of their stay. If the guest has just returned from a tour you recommended and tells you “it was amazing”, that’s the moment. “Can I ask you a favor? If you liked the recommendation, would you leave us a review on Google? It helps us a lot.”
2. The QR code in the room. Put a QR code somewhere visible in every room (on the nightstand, on the bathroom mirror, on the room service menu) that goes straight to your Google review link. The text: “Enjoying your stay? Leave us a review; it means a lot to us.” No pressure, no asking for 5 stars. Just the invitation.
3. The post-stay email. 24 hours after check-out, send a short email thanking the guest for their visit. Include the direct link to leave a review. If the guest hasn’t responded in 3 days, send a gentle reminder. No more than two emails. After that, let it go.
4. Reply to every review. Even the bad ones. A hotel that replies to reviews (all of them, not just the 5-star ones) shows it cares about the guest experience. When travelers see that you answered a complaint professionally and offered a solution, they trust you more than a hotel with 200 unanswered reviews. The reply to a negative review isn’t for the person who wrote it (they probably won’t come back). It’s for the 500 people who will read it tomorrow.
WhatsApp Business: the front desk that never sleeps (and that your guests already use)
WhatsApp has more than 90% penetration in Colombia. Your guests already use it to talk to their families, order deliveries and plan weekend trips. If your hotel isn’t on WhatsApp, you’re missing the chance to be on the channel where they already spend their day.
WhatsApp Business (the free version for companies) lets you do things that go far beyond the “write to us at 3XX-XXX-XXXX” you put on your website:
Automated confirmations. When a guest books, you set up an automatic message confirming the booking, including the hotel’s address, arrival instructions and an emergency contact. The guest arrives more relaxed and you get fewer “how do I get there?” calls.
Digital check-in. The day before arrival, you send a message with a simple form (full name, ID number, car plate if applicable). The guest fills it in within a minute, and when they arrive at the hotel everything is ready. Shorter lines at reception, a better experience.
Service during the stay. Does the guest need an extra towel? Want to order something from the restaurant? Don’t know how the air conditioning works? WhatsApp solves that in seconds. And it leaves you a record of every interaction.
Post-stay promotions. A month after check-out, you send a special offer to bring them back. “Hi Carlos, we hope you’re well. We have a 15% discount for returning guests in the low season. Would you like to come back in October?” With WhatsApp, that message is more likely to be read than an email.
A hotel in Santa Marta that implemented WhatsApp Business for guest service reported a 40% reduction in calls to reception and a 22% increase in satisfaction in post-stay surveys. It requires no software investment. Just download the app and spend 2 hours setting it up properly.
What you measure, you improve: the metrics that matter (and the ones that don’t)
Most hotels don’t measure anything. Those that do usually look at the wrong metrics: “we gained 15,000 more Instagram followers this month” or “the breakfast post got 800 likes”. That doesn’t fill rooms.
These are the metrics that matter for a hotel:
Occupancy rate. The obvious one. But look at it by channel: what percentage of your bookings come from your direct website, OTAs, walk-ins and phone calls? If you don’t know that breakdown, you don’t know where to invest your next marketing peso.
Customer acquisition cost per guest (CAC). How much does it cost you to get a booking through Google Ads? And through Instagram? And through Booking (adding the commission)? A hotel that doesn’t know its CAC by channel is making marketing decisions blind.
RevPAR (revenue per available room). Knowing how much you billed isn’t enough. You need to know how much you generated per available room, occupied or not. If your RevPAR is low, you can have a full hotel and still be losing money because you gave your rates away.
Repeat rate. A returning guest costs you 5 to 7 times less to acquire than a new one. If you don’t know what percentage of your guests come back, you don’t know whether your experience is working.
An adapted Net Promoter Score (NPS). After every stay, one simple question by WhatsApp: “On a scale of 1 to 10, how likely are you to recommend us to a friend?” Those who answer 9 or 10 are your promoters. Those who answer 6 or less need attention. Follow up with both groups.
Setting up Google Analytics 4 on your website, connecting your booking engine and measuring the source of every conversion isn’t a months-long project. It can be up and running in a week if your website is well built. Our comprehensive digital marketing service includes the full analytics setup, automated reports and a real-time dashboard so you know exactly which channel is filling your rooms.
Frequently asked questions
How much does digital marketing cost for a hotel in Colombia?
It depends on what you call “doing digital marketing”. If we’re talking about the free basics (optimizing Google Business Profile, asking for reviews systematically, posting on social media), the cost is essentially your time or that of someone on your team spending 5–8 hours a week on it. If we’re talking about a professional strategy (an optimized website, local SEO, Google Ads, Meta ads, email marketing), a realistic budget for an independent hotel starts at between COP 1,500,000 and 4,000,000 per month, depending on the city, the competition and the channels you activate. A hotel in Cartagena competing in high season needs more ad investment than a hotel in a small town competing for organic searches. The key isn’t how much you spend, but whether every peso invested traces a line to a concrete booking. If you can’t trace that line, you’re spending, not investing.
Is it worth having my own website if I’m already on Booking, Expedia and Airbnb?
Yes, absolutely. And it isn’t just worth it: it’s the difference between building a business and being one more item in another company’s catalog. OTAs are a distribution channel, not your digital strategy. With your own website you control the guest experience from the first click, capture their data for remarketing, pay no commission on direct bookings and build a brand travelers remember, not one they confuse with “that hotel I saw on Booking”. Besides, Google doesn’t rank your Booking profile when someone searches for “boutique hotel in Villa de Leyva”. Google ranks websites. If you don’t have an optimized one, you simply don’t appear in the most important search of the traveler’s decision process.
How long does it take to see SEO results for hotels?
Local SEO for hotels can show results in Google Maps and proximity searches within 4 to 12 weeks if you start from a decent base (an active Google Business Profile, an indexed website, no penalties). More ambitious results, such as ranking for searches like “hotel in [city]” or “accommodation in [region]”, take between 6 and 12 months of consistent work. Factors that speed up the process: new, relevant content every month, fresh reviews (Google rewards businesses with recent reviews), fast load speed and links from local tourism sites. Factors that slow it down: an abandoned website, 3-year-old photos, inconsistent data across platforms and zero posts on Google Business Profile. SEO isn’t magic and it isn’t instant, but it’s the channel with the best long-term return for a hotel: once you rank, every booking that comes in through organic search has an acquisition cost close to zero.
Which social network works best for hotels in Colombia?
Instagram and TikTok, in that order, for most Colombian hotels. Instagram is a hotel’s natural visual showcase: photos, reels of experiences, stories with a booking link and the ability to run ads targeted by location and travel interests. TikTok is growing as a travel discovery channel (more and more young travelers search for “hotels in [destination]” directly on TikTok instead of Google), and its organic reach is still far greater than Instagram’s. Facebook is still useful for reaching people over 40 and for ads targeted by travel behavior, but it shouldn’t be your main organic content channel. The winning strategy: Instagram for daily content and brand building, TikTok for organic reach and virality, Facebook only for ads aimed at specific segments, and WhatsApp for the direct relationship with the guest.
How do I get more reviews without bothering guests?
The most common mistake is asking for the review at the wrong moment (during check-out, when the guest is in a hurry) and in the wrong tone (“please leave us 5 stars”). What works: identify the moment of greatest satisfaction during the stay (after a good breakfast, after quickly solving a problem, after recommending a tour that worked out) and ask for the review then, naturally. Put a visible QR code in the room with a gentle message: “Enjoying your stay? Share your experience on Google.” Send an email or WhatsApp message 24 hours after check-out with the direct link. Offer a small, ethical incentive: “By leaving a review, you’re entered into a draw for a free night.” And above all: don’t ask for 5 stars. Ask for an honest review. If your hotel is good, the 5 stars will come on their own. If you ask for reviews consistently and naturally for 6 months, going from 20 to 200 reviews is completely achievable for a mid-sized hotel.
Is your hotel below 65% occupancy? Do you feel you depend too much on OTAs? Is your website not bringing you direct bookings?
You don’t need another pretty Instagram post. You need a digital strategy that turns searches into bookings.
At Gulupa Digital we work with brands such as the Jardín Botánico de Medellín and Universidad de Antioquia. We know what it takes to build a digital presence that generates measurable results, not just likes.
Two concrete steps you can take today:
- Request a diagnosis of your current website: we’ll tell you exactly what’s failing and how many bookings you’re letting slip away.
- See our SEO service: so that when a traveler searches for “hotel in [your city]”, the first one they see is yours.
Message us on WhatsApp or book a call. The initial audit costs you nothing. Staying at 50% occupancy costs you every day.
