Marketing for hotels, guest houses and wedding venues
Almost every guest arrives through somebody else’s platform, and every one of those platforms takes a cut you can usually calculate. This page is about the parts of your visibility you actually own, the ratings that cost real money, and a new legal duty that turns your marketing channels into a regulatory disclosure.
FINDING
89% of UK adults use online reviews when researching a product or service, per Which? figures cited by the CMA in March 2026, and since 6 April 2025 fake reviews have been a banned UK practice with fines of up to 10% of global turnover.
Source: UK online review statistics, Whito Research.
What we know, and what we have not measured yet
Whito has not run an AI visibility study on accommodation or venues. The figures above come from cross-industry review research in March 2026 and from platform, regulator and trade sources read at source on 8 September 2026.
Two gaps we will not paper over. Booking.com’s partner pages returned access errors on three separate paths and Expedia’s returned an error, so no OTA commission percentage for either appears anywhere on this page. And the widely repeated line that food business registration is free and cannot be refused is not on either GOV.UK page we opened. The 28 day rule is confirmed twice over. The free part is not, so we do not state it.
The obvious study is whether AI assistants recommending places to stay in a given town name independents or platforms, and what they cite. That runs later and lands on this page first. Until then the AI Visibility Index shows the method across eight other sectors.
Whito need-to-know for accommodation and venues
- The food hygiene display rule genuinely differs by nation. In Wales you are legally required to display your rating in a visible place at or near each customer entrance, under the Food Hygiene Rating (Wales) Act 2013. In Northern Ireland the same duty applies under the 2016 Act. In England the FSA’s own wording is that you can display your rating. Getting this wrong in either direction is common, and the public check at ratings.food.gov.uk is free and national.
- Martyn’s Law is now real, and it names your website. The Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025 applies at 200 or more individuals, with enhanced duties from 800, penalties of £10,000 at the standard tier and the greater of £18 million or 5% of worldwide revenue at the enhanced tier, regulated by the SIA. The 2026 notification regulations require the responsible person to notify expected maximum occupancy and how it was calculated, licences held, and the website and social media used to promote the premises.
- Approved premises is a local register with no national list. Under the Marriages and Civil Partnerships (Approved Premises) Regulations 2005, each local authority must maintain an up to date register of approved premises in its area, available for public inspection during normal working hours. Approval runs for a minimum of three years, four fees may be levied at the authority’s discretion up to full cost recovery, and applications are publicised for 21 days. There is no single national online register, which is a discoverability gap you have to fill yourself.
- Airbnb’s fee structure is published, and it forces hotels onto the expensive one. Most hosts pay a 3% split service fee. Most host-only hosts pay 15.5%, with the range typically 14 to 16%. Airbnb states host-only is mandatory for certain hosts including traditional hospitality listings such as hotels and serviced apartments, and hosts using property management software. If you are a hotel on Airbnb, you are on the 15.5% side by rule, not by choice.
- Google’s free booking links cost nothing. Google states there is no cost for clicks on free booking links and that hotel partners pay no fee for them. Hotel Ads commissions are set by the advertiser, not by Google, with no published minimum or default. Against a 15.5% platform fee, a free booking link is the highest-return listing available and it is chronically under-configured by independents.
- One wedding directory publishes a real rate card. Bridebook publishes venue listings at £99 a month plus VAT for Essentials, £399 for VenuePro Classic, £499 for Expert and £995 for Platinum, or £1,188 to £9,920 a year. That is the only wedding directory price we could open. Hitched and Guides for Brides publish nothing, which makes Bridebook’s card the only benchmark you have.
Why independents pay too much for their own guests
Paying a platform for a guest who already knew your name
A guest who finds you on an OTA and books there costs you the commission even if they searched your property by name. The free booking link and a working direct booking path are what capture that guest instead.
A rating you paid for and never explain
An AA star rating costs a bed and breakfast £500 to £875 a year depending on room count. Most properties display the badge and never say what it was assessed against.
Invisible in the register couples are told to check
Approved premises registers are held locally and available for inspection during working hours. There is no national list, so a couple searching online finds whatever the venues themselves have published.
What actually works
In this order. Structure before scale.
Own the direct booking path first
A working booking engine, a rate that is never beaten on an OTA, and Google free booking links configured. That is the only part of the funnel where the whole rate is yours.
Publish the rating and what it measures
Food hygiene rating with a link to the free FSA check, and any AA or VisitEngland assessment with the date and what it covered. A badge with no explanation persuades nobody.
Say plainly what the venue can and cannot do
Capacity by layout, approved premises status and authority, accessibility, noise curfew, corkage, supplier rules. Every one of those is a question that costs an enquiry when it is not answered.
Publish a price, or a from price
The average UK wedding venue hire is published at £6,040 and the full wedding at £21,990. Couples arrive with those numbers. A venue publishing nothing is compared against an average that may be nowhere near it.
Ask for reviews properly and legally
89% of UK adults use reviews, and since 6 April 2025 fake and concealed incentivised reviews have been a banned UK practice with fines up to 10% of global turnover. Ask everyone, incentivise nobody.
Get ahead of the occupancy question
Martyn’s Law notification requires expected maximum occupancy and how it was calculated. Working that out now, and publishing capacity by layout, serves the regulator and the enquiry at once.
Quick wins this week
Turn on Google free booking links
Google publishes that they cost nothing and that partners pay no fee for placement. Against a 15.5% platform fee it is the highest-return hour you will spend this month.
Publish capacity by layout
Seated, standing, ceremony, dining. Free, immediately useful to every enquiry, and it is the number Martyn’s Law will ask you for anyway.
Link the free food hygiene check
ratings.food.gov.uk is free, national and public. If your rating is good, linking it is a two-minute trust win. If display is mandatory where you are, it is also the law.
Common mistakes
Assuming the England display rule applies everywhere
Display is mandatory in Wales and Northern Ireland and voluntary in England. Scotland runs a different scheme entirely, which we have not researched and neither should you assume.
Letting the OTA own your best guest
A returning guest booking through a platform is the most expensive booking you take. The direct path, and a reason to use it, is the whole margin.
Treating Martyn’s Law as a security matter only
The 2026 notification regulations require you to tell the SIA your promotional website and social accounts, and your expected maximum occupancy with its working. Marketing and compliance now share a form.
Hotel, guest house and venue marketing guides
Airbnb’s published fees, Google’s free booking links, and the two OTAs whose partner pages we could not open.
Wedding venues, and the register with no national listApproved premises under the 2005 regulations, the published wedding benchmarks, and the only directory with a real rate card.
Free marketing for an independent propertyFree booking links, the free hygiene check, capacity by layout, and a weekend of fixes that cost nothing.
Property software, and who publishes a priceSix hospitality platforms, not one publishing a price in pounds. What each showed and what to ask instead.
The register that matters
Three registers, one of them free and national, one of them only local.
Accommodation and venues are not licensed as businesses, but three registers matter. The food hygiene rating scheme is national and its public check at ratings.food.gov.uk is free to anyone, and the display duty differs by nation: legally required at or near each customer entrance in Wales under the Food Hygiene Rating (Wales) Act 2013 and in Northern Ireland under the Food Hygiene Rating Act (Northern Ireland) 2016, and voluntary in England, where the FSA’s own wording is that you can display it. Re-rating fees are charged by all local authorities in Wales and Northern Ireland and by some in England, with no national amount published, and the appeal window is 21 days. Food business registration must be done at least 28 days before trading. Second, approved premises for civil marriage under the Marriages and Civil Partnerships (Approved Premises) Regulations 2005: each local authority must maintain an up to date register available for public inspection during normal working hours, approval runs for a minimum of three years, four fees may be levied at the authority’s discretion up to full cost recovery, and applications are publicised for 21 days. There is no national online register, so your own page is the only searchable record most couples will find. Third, and new, the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025, which applies where 200 or more individuals may be present, with enhanced duties at 800 or more, penalties of £10,000 at the standard tier and the greater of £18 million or 5% of qualifying worldwide revenue at the enhanced tier, regulated by the SIA. All read at source on 8 September 2026.
Ready to fill more rooms and dates?
See what search and AI engines can read on your site. Seventeen checks, scored out of 100, every result shown on the page, no email needed. Then list your business free in the Whito directory. Money cannot buy either.
Looking for somewhere to stay instead?
Whito is a marketing guide for the trade, not a booking site. If you are trying to hire, the Whito directory lists verified UK businesses, and every listing is checked against the public record before it appears.
Whito is independent and companies cannot pay to appear in our guidance. This page is marketing advice, not licensing, fire safety or food safety advice: check food hygiene obligations with your local authority and the FSA, licensing under the Licensing Act 2003 with your council, and Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025 duties with the SIA.