There has been a lot of noise in the industry this autumn. First, Booking Holdings reported a $457 million writedown for its Kayak brand. Then, industry veterans like Max Starkov noted that metasearch accounts for less than 5% of hotel room nights—a number that hasn’t budged in a decade.
The question circulating is: « Is Metasearch dead? »
From where I sit—managing digital marketing for independent boutique hotels—the answer is « No. » But the category has consolidated.
For a 50-room design hotel, « Metasearch » is no longer a diverse landscape of Trivago, TripAdvisor, and Kayak. Practically speaking, Metasearch is Google.
Here is the reality I see when auditing ad accounts for new clients.
1. The « Google Ecosystem » is the Homepage. The user journey has shortened. High-intent guests aren’t opening 5 tabs to compare prices; they want the answer immediately on the Search Result Page. If you aren’t visible on Google Hotel Ads (GHA) and Free Booking Links, you are invisible to the high-intent guest.
2. The « Rate Parity » Trap (Where budgets go to die).
This is the most common mistake I see. Owners turn on Google Hotel Ads to drive direct bookings, but they haven’t fixed their distribution.
If a wholesaler leaks a rate to an OTA that undercuts your direct price by even €5, your GHA budget is useless. When a guest sees your official site at €200 and an OTA at €195 right next to it, they click the OTA.
In that moment, you just paid Google for the privilege of losing a booking. Your ad budget became a donation to the OTA.
The Practitioner’s Playbook: 5 Rules for 2026.
If you want to survive the « AI Search » era, here is your roadmap:
1. Consolidate spend: Stop spreading small budgets across Tier-2 meta platforms. Focus 100% of your meta budget on Google Hotel Ads to maximize impression share where it actually matters.
2. Automate parity protection: You cannot police this manually. Ensure your bid management tool is configured to automatically suppress bids when you lose rate parity. Never pay for a click you can’t win.
3. Fence your rates: Google allows you to show « Member Rates » in the meta-auction. Create a « Sign up for 5% off » tier. This contractually allows you to beat the OTA price and—more importantly—captures the guest’s email.
4. Retargeting is mandatory: GHA traffic is high-intent but often low-conversion on the first click. Use pixel data to retarget these specific users on social media with « Complete your booking » visuals, not generic brand ads.
5. Audit the deep links: Never send GHA traffic to your homepage. The link must land the guest directly in the booking engine with their dates and room pre-selected. Friction kills conversion faster than price.
Metasearch isn’t dead. It just got ruthless. It demands operational discipline, not just ad spend.
💡 This discussion was sparked by Max Starkov and his excellent analysis of the shifting metasearch landscape. Highly recommend reading his take.