How to Get More Customers as a Hotel in Melbourne

Most hotels in Melbourne still bank on word of mouth, tourism board listings, and OTA referrals. That approach kept rooms filled a decade ago. It won't cut it in 2026.

Today, 97% of travellers search online before booking accommodation. They're Googling "hotel in Melbourne CBD," reading reviews, scanning AI-generated recommendations, and making decisions before they ever visit your website — let alone pick up the phone.

The hotels filling rooms consistently aren't necessarily the ones with the biggest budgets or the flashiest lobbies. They're the ones showing up where guests are actually looking: Google Maps, local search results, AI platforms like ChatGPT and Perplexity, and high-intent content pages that answer real traveller questions.

If you're a hotel owner, general manager, or marketing director wondering how to get more customers as a hotel in Melbourne, this guide breaks the process into six concrete steps. No fluff. No vague "build your brand" advice. Just the tactics we use every day at Searchmaxxed to help hospitality businesses across Melbourne attract more direct bookings, reduce OTA dependency, and grow revenue.

With an average booking value of $150–$500 per night — and many guests staying multiple nights — even a handful of additional direct bookings each month can translate to tens of thousands in annual revenue. Let's get into it.

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TL;DR

• Step-by-step guide to getting more customers as a hotel in Melbourne
• Covers Google Maps, reviews, website optimisation, content marketing, and AI search
• Average hotel booking value: $150–$500 per night
• Practical tactics you can start implementing today
• Guidance on when to handle it yourself vs. bring in professionals

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Step 1: Claim and Optimise Your Google Business Profile

Your Google Business Profile (GBP) is the single most powerful free tool for driving direct enquiries. When someone searches "hotel near Flinders Street" or "boutique hotel Melbourne CBD," the first thing they see is the Google Maps pack — three local listings with photos, reviews, and a click-to-call button.

If your hotel isn't showing up there, you're invisible to the highest-intent guests in your market.

Here's how to set it up properly:

Claim and verify your listing. Head to business.google.com and search for your hotel. If it's already listed (most are), claim it. Google will verify ownership through a phone call, postcard, or email. Don't skip this — unverified listings can't be edited or optimised.

Fill out every single field. Business name (use your actual name — no keyword stuffing), address, phone number, website URL, hours of operation, check-in and check-out times, amenities, and service areas. Google rewards completeness. Incomplete profiles get buried.

Choose the right categories. Your primary category should be "Hotel." Add secondary categories that fit: "Boutique Hotel," "Business Hotel," "Pet-Friendly Hotel," whatever applies. These categories directly influence which searches you appear in.

Upload high-quality photos. Listings with photos get 42% more direction requests and 35% more click-throughs to websites. Upload professional shots of rooms, common areas, the lobby, breakfast setup, views, and the exterior. Add new photos monthly — freshness matters.

Write a compelling business description. You get 750 characters. Use them wisely. Mention your location, key selling points, and the type of traveller you serve. Work in natural phrases like "hotel in Melbourne" without making it sound forced.

Post weekly updates. Google Business Profile has a "Posts" feature that most hotels ignore entirely. Use it. Share seasonal offers, event partnerships, local guides, and room upgrade promotions. It signals to Google that your listing is active and maintained.

We've seen Melbourne hotels jump from page two to the Maps 3-pack within 60 days simply by optimising their GBP properly. It's that impactful.

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Step 2: Get Your Website Ranking for Local Keywords

Your Google Business Profile drives Maps visibility. Your website drives organic search visibility. You need both.

When a traveller types "boutique hotel in Southbank" or "family hotel near Melbourne Airport," Google serves up a mix of Maps results and organic website listings. If your site isn't optimised for these searches, you're leaving direct bookings on the table — and paying OTAs 15–25% commission for guests who could have found you directly.

Start with keyword research. Identify the specific terms travellers use when searching for hotels like yours. Think beyond just "hotel in Melbourne." Consider:

• hotel in [suburb] (e.g., "hotel in St Kilda," "hotel in Fitzroy")
• [type] hotel Melbourne (e.g., "pet-friendly hotel Melbourne," "luxury hotel Melbourne")
• hotel near [landmark] (e.g., "hotel near Melbourne Convention Centre")
• accommodation Melbourne [purpose] (e.g., "accommodation Melbourne business trip")

Build dedicated landing pages for each service + suburb combination. A single homepage can't rank for dozens of different search terms. Create individual pages targeting your strongest keyword opportunities. Each page should include unique content about that suburb or service type, relevant photos, pricing guidance, and a clear call to action.

Nail the technical fundamentals. Your site needs to load in under three seconds on mobile. Over 70% of hotel searches happen on phones. Use compressed images, clean code, and a hosting provider with Australian servers. Ensure your site uses HTTPS, has a clear navigation structure, and includes schema markup for hotels (this helps Google understand and display your business information in search results).

Optimise on-page elements. Every landing page needs a unique title tag, meta description, H1 heading, and body content that naturally incorporates your target keyword. Don't over-optimise — write for humans first, search engines second.

Build internal links. Connect your pages together logically. Your homepage should link to suburb pages. Suburb pages should link to relevant blog content. Blog content should link back to booking pages. This structure helps Google crawl and understand your site while keeping visitors engaged longer.

If you're not sure where your website currently stands, we offer a free visibility audit for Melbourne hotels that shows exactly where you're ranking, where your competitors are beating you, and what to fix first.

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Step 3: Build a Review Generation System

Reviews are the most underestimated growth lever in the hotel industry. A hotel with 200 five-star Google reviews will consistently outrank and outconvert a competitor with 30 reviews — even if the competitor has a better location or lower rates.

Why? Because 88% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. And Google uses review quantity, quality, and recency as ranking factors in local search.

The problem isn't getting great service. It's asking for the review.

Most satisfied guests never leave a review unless prompted. You need a system.

When to ask: The best time is during checkout or within 24 hours of departure. The experience is fresh. The guest is (hopefully) feeling positive. Don't wait a week — response rates drop dramatically after 48 hours.

How to ask: Make it dead simple. Send a follow-up email or SMS with a direct link to your Google review page. One click, no searching required.

Template you can steal:

"Hi [Name], thanks for staying with us at [Hotel Name]! We'd love to hear how your experience was. If you have 30 seconds, a quick Google review helps other travellers find us — and means a lot to our team. [Direct Link]"

Handling negative reviews: Respond to every single one. Publicly. Professionally. Acknowledge the issue, apologise where appropriate, and offer to make it right. Potential guests read your responses just as carefully as they read the complaints. A thoughtful reply to a negative review often builds more trust than a five-star rating with no response.

Aim for consistency. Five reviews in one week followed by silence for three months looks suspicious to both Google and potential guests. Target two to four new reviews per week through systematic follow-up.

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Step 4: Create Content That Attracts Customers

Content marketing for hotels isn't about writing generic blog posts nobody reads. It's about creating pages that answer the exact questions your ideal guests are asking — and ranking for those queries.

Think about what travellers search before they book:

• "Best areas to stay in Melbourne"
• "Is St Kilda safe for tourists?"
• "Things to do near Southern Cross Station"
• "Melbourne hotel with airport shuttle"
• "Where to stay for the Australian Open"

Every one of those searches represents a potential guest in the research phase. If your website answers their question with genuinely helpful content, you've earned their attention — and you're perfectly positioned to convert that attention into a booking.

Types of content that work for Melbourne hotels:

Local area guides. Write detailed guides to the neighbourhood around your hotel. Cover restaurants, attractions, transport options, and insider tips. These rank well, attract links naturally, and demonstrate local expertise.

Event-based content. Melbourne is an events city. Create pages targeting major events: the Australian Open, Melbourne Cup, Grand Prix, comedy festivals, food festivals. Travellers searching for accommodation during these events have high booking intent and are often willing to pay premium rates.

FAQ pages. Compile the questions your front desk team answers daily and publish thorough answers on your website. Check-in times, parking options, pet policies, accessibility features, nearby public transport — all of it. These pages rank for long-tail searches and reduce repetitive enquiries.

Comparison content. "Hotel vs Airbnb in Melbourne CBD" or "Staying in Southbank vs St Kilda" — this type of content captures travellers still deciding and positions your hotel as the knowledgeable authority.

Publish consistently. One high-quality piece per week beats ten rushed articles per month. Quality content compounds over time, building search visibility that keeps delivering guests months and years after publication.

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Step 5: Optimise for AI Search (GEO)

Here's what most Melbourne hotels haven't caught onto yet: a growing number of travellers are asking ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google Gemini, and other AI tools for hotel recommendations instead of running traditional Google searches.

"What's the best boutique hotel in Fitzroy?" typed into ChatGPT returns a curated list. If your hotel isn't on it, you've lost that guest before the competition even started.

This is Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO), and it's the next frontier of hotel marketing.

AI models build their recommendations from structured data, authoritative content, and consistent online mentions. To get recommended, you need:

Strong entity presence. Your hotel needs to appear consistently across trusted sources — your website, Google Business Profile, tourism directories, travel blogs, news mentions, and review platforms. AI models synthesise information from multiple sources to determine which businesses to recommend.

Structured, clear content. AI tools favour content that directly answers questions in clear, factual language. Write content that states what your hotel is, where it's located, what makes it different, and who it's best suited for.

Third-party mentions and citations. Get featured in local travel guides, media publications, and industry roundups. Each mention strengthens your hotel's "authority" in the eyes of AI systems.

We've built a dedicated GEO service for Melbourne hotels because this channel is growing fast and the hotels that move early will dominate it.

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Step 6: Track Your Results

You can't improve what you don't measure. Yet most hotels either track nothing or obsess over vanity metrics that don't connect to revenue.

Focus on these numbers:

Direct phone calls and form submissions. These are your leads. Use call tracking numbers on your website and Google Business Profile so you know exactly which channels are driving enquiries. Track form submissions through Google Analytics or your CRM.

Google Business Profile insights. Google tells you how many people viewed your profile, clicked for directions, called your hotel, and visited your website — all broken down by time period. Review this monthly.

Keyword rankings. Track where your website ranks for your target keywords. Use tools like SEMrush, Ahrefs, or even free options like Google Search Console. Focus on movement trends rather than daily fluctuations.

Booking source attribution. Know where your direct bookings originate. Tag your URLs with UTM parameters so you can see whether a guest came from organic search, a blog post, a Google Maps listing, or an email campaign.

Review velocity. Track how many new reviews you're receiving per week and your average rating over time.

Set up a simple dashboard — even a spreadsheet works — and review it monthly. This discipline separates hotels that grow deliberately from those that spend money blindly and hope for the best.

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When to Hire a Professional

Everything in this guide can be done in-house. But let's be honest: most hotel managers and owners are already stretched thin running daily operations, managing staff, handling guest issues, and keeping occupancy up.

Digital marketing done inconsistently produces inconsistent results. And the learning curve for SEO, GEO, and content strategy is steep if it's not your core skill set.

Consider handling it yourself if: you have a dedicated marketing team member with SEO experience, time to publish content weekly, and systems to manage reviews and track results.

Consider bringing in professionals if: you'd rather focus on running your hotel while experts handle your online visibility — or if you've tried DIY and the results haven't materialised.

At Searchmaxxed, we work exclusively with local Australian businesses. Our hotel SEO packages range from $500–$2,000 per month depending on your market, competition, and growth targets. Every engagement starts with a free visibility audit so you know exactly where you stand before spending a dollar.

For a hotel averaging $300 per night, just three to four additional direct bookings per month covers the entire investment — and the returns compound as your rankings and review profile strengthen over time.

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Frequently Asked Questions

How can hotels get more customers online? Optimise your Google Business Profile, rank your website for local keywords, generate consistent reviews, and create content targeting traveller search queries.

What's the fastest way to get more calls as a hotel? Fully optimise your Google Business Profile. It's free and typically produces results within 30–60 days for hotels in Melbourne.

How much should I spend on marketing as a hotel? Most independent Melbourne hotels see strong returns investing $500–$2,000 per month in local SEO and content marketing.

Is Google Ads or SEO better for hotels? SEO delivers better long-term ROI. Google Ads work for immediate visibility but costs reset monthly. Combine both for fastest growth.

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Ready to fill more rooms through direct bookings? Get your free visibility audit from Searchmaxxed and find out exactly where your hotel stands in Melbourne's local search landscape.