Start with the economics of your own hotel
A booking dashboard shows revenue attributed to advertising. The commercial decision depends on what remains after cancellations, distribution costs and the cost of the stay. Review those figures by room category, market and stay period before deciding which campaign deserves more budget.
Use industry averages to frame questions, rather than set a target for every property. A seasonal resort and a city hotel have different booking windows, room mixes and demand patterns. Your own reconciled booking data is the useful starting point for the next investment decision.
One9Six / Working notes
Calculate what the campaign leaves behind
Use a consistent revenue basis before comparing channels. The example below uses realised room revenue excluding taxes. It is a planning example, not a client result. Contribution is not accounting profit and attributed revenue is not evidence of incremental demand.
| Focus | Record | Practical check |
|---|---|---|
| Realised room revenue | €20,000 after cancellations and refunds | Reconcile booking IDs with the property system |
| Variable costs | €6,000 servicing + €600 payment and booking fees | Include only costs defined in the agreed contribution model |
| Campaign contribution | €20,000 less €6,000 less €600 less €3,000 media = €10,400 | Add attributable production and agency costs separately if comparing full acquisition cost |
| Revenue ROAS | €20,000 ÷ €3,000 = 6.67 | Read beside contribution, occupancy and cancellation maturity |
Apply this to your next project
- Separate booking date from stay date in every report.
- Compare room types, stay periods and markets before moving budget.
- Flag immature cohorts instead of treating their booked revenue as final.
Build a revenue bridge
Begin with revenue on a consistent basis, excluding taxes and refundable amounts as appropriate to the hotel’s reporting policy. Reconcile cancellations and refunds. Deduct media, booking and payment fees, attributable service costs and the variable cost of fulfilling the stay. Record discounts once: a discounted selling price should not have the same discount deducted again.
This produces a management contribution measure, not audited profit. Fixed overheads and the opportunity cost of displacing another booking may still sit outside it. The finance and revenue teams should approve the definitions before marketing compares channels.
An illustrative 10× can become 4.6×
Consider a hypothetical campaign with €10,000 booked revenue and €1,000 media spend. The initial revenue ROAS is 10×. If €2,000 is cancelled or refunded, €400 goes to transaction and distribution fees, and €3,000 covers variable fulfilment cost, contribution before media is €4,600. After media, it is €3,600. Contribution before media divided by media spend is 4.6×. None of these figures is a One9Six client result.
Even the €3,600 is not automatically incremental. Some guests might have booked without the ad. A brand search campaign can efficiently capture existing intent while creating less additional demand than its dashboard suggests. Attribution allocates credit. Incrementality asks what would have happened without the intervention.
Buy the demand the property needs
Compare similar stay periods, source markets, booking windows and room categories. Avoid using a high value repeat guest segment to prove that a channel will perform equally well with first time visitors. Keep booking date and stay date reporting visible together.
Give the next budget decision three inputs: adjusted contribution, remaining inventory and evidence of additional demand. A campaign filling otherwise empty midweek rooms may deserve investment even when its headline ROAS trails a campaign harvesting brand searches for sold out weekends. The objective is a better marginal booking, not a more flattering report.
Apply the method
The hotel campaign contribution scorecard