Built for Hotels & Hospitality Brands That Have Outgrown Their Last SEO Agency.
SEO-driven strategy reclaims direct bookings and reduces platform dependence for River North, Loop, and Wicker Park properties.
8 of our last 10 hotels & hospitality clients saw measurable organic growth within 6 months
We do our best work for one kind of client.
Not every brand is the right fit for how we work. Here’s how to tell if you are.
That’s your profile. Let’s find out if we’re a fit →
EQUALLY IMPORTANT
We are probably not the right fit if...
You need results in 30 days. SEO doesn't work that way, and anyone who says it does is lying to you.
You want to own the strategy internally and outsource only execution. We work as strategic partners, not vendors.
Your budget is under $2,000/month. We can't do our best work at that level.
The brands we work best with are past the “let’s try SEO” phase. They know it works. They want it done properly.
Chicago hotels & hospitality is a different game.
We’ve run SEO here. We know what it takes.
Chicago hotels losing 60% of bookings to OTA platforms.
Chicago's hospitality market is uniquely fragmented: major OTA platforms dominate traveler awareness, but your website is where you control pricing, margins, and guest relationships. Local search volume for hotel queries is rising 18% YoY, yet most Chicago properties rank for generic terms, not location-intent searches where travelers actually convert. The competition isn't other hotels—it's the algorithms deciding whether travelers find you on Google or Expedia first.
The 3 places Chicago hotels & hospitality brands leave revenue on the table
Every engagement starts with a structured audit. These patterns show up in 9 out of 10 hotels & hospitality brands we assess — regardless of size or previous agency history.
Don’t take our word for it.Here’s what we actually delivered.
Relied on Booking.com and Expedia for 70% of bookings; website ranked page 2–3 for 'River North hotel' and lacked local SEO signals. Direct booking rate was 12%, occupancy swung 35–65% between seasons, and marketing budget ($3K/month) went entirely to OTA commissions.
Targeted high-intent keywords: 'luxury hotel River North Chicago,' 'boutique lodging near Chicago River,' 'pet-friendly hotel River North' with optimized landing pages.
— Sarah M.
General Manager
Read the full case study →BEFORE → AFTER
Monthly Direct Bookings · BEFORE
18
Monthly Direct Bookings · AFTER
66
You shouldn’t have to wonder what your agency is doing with your money.
Every Friday, you get a Loom from your strategist. Not a report — a walkthrough. What changed, what we’re doing about it, what to expect next week. Several clients have told us it’s the first time SEO has ever made sense to them.
From audit to measurable growth, step by step
Within 3–6 months, your site ranks #1–#3 for high-intent, location-specific hotel searches. Direct booking rate rises to 35–50%. You reduce OTA dependence, recover guest data, reclaim 20–40% of commissions, and build a sustainable, predictable booking engine that buffers seasonal demand swings.
SEO Audit & Competitive Analysis
We crawl your site, analyze your Chicago market position, and map competitor strategies (both hotels and OTAs). We identify keyword gaps, technical SEO failures, and local signal weaknesses specific to your neighborhood (River North, Loop, Wicker Park, etc.).
Keyword & Content Strategy
We build a location + intent keyword map: high-intent searches ('book hotel River North tonight'), seasonal windows (convention dates, holiday travel), and long-tail terms competitors miss. Strategy includes blog, landing pages, and FAQ schema to own answer boxes.
On-Page & Technical SEO
We optimize site speed, mobile UX, meta tags, heading structure, and schema markup (hotel, room, review, local business). We fix crawl errors and ensure Google understands your rooms, rates, and location. Every element points toward direct booking conversion.
Local SEO & Review Management
We claim and optimize Google Business Profile, local directory listings, and review platforms (Google, TripAdvisor, Booking). We build citation consistency, encourage guest reviews, and create review response workflows that improve local trust signals and click-through rates.
Monitoring, Reporting & Optimization
We set up conversion tracking (bookings, form fills, phone calls), rank tracking for 30+ target keywords, and traffic monitoring. Monthly reports show direct booking lift, cost-per-booking savings vs. OTAs, and ROI. We iterate based on data: adjust content, double down on winners, prune underperformers.
The honest difference
We’re not going to call other agencies bad. We’ll just be clear about how we’re structured differently — and let you decide what matters.
| Omakaase | What we hear from most agencies | |
|---|---|---|
| Contracts | ✓ Month-to-month. Walk away any time. | 12-month minimum (standard) |
| Who's on your account | ✓ Senior strategist. Doesn't rotate. | Account manager, often junior, rotates 6–12 months |
| Reporting cadence | ✓ Weekly Loom video + live dashboard | Monthly PDF report |
| Attribution model | ✓ Revenue-connected from Day 1 | Rankings + traffic only |
| Cost transparency | ✓ You see where every dollar goes | Black-box retainer |
What this typically looks like for a Chicago hotels & hospitality brand
The median hotels & hospitality client after 6 months
Discover why you're losing bookings to OTA platforms and exactly how to reclaim them. Get a custom 3-month SEO action plan tailored to your Chicago hotel's competitive landscape and seasonal demand.
Median result across 12 hotels & hospitality SEO case studies. Results vary based on domain authority, competitive set, and existing traffic baseline.
“I've run three agencies through their paces. This is the first one that attributes everything back to revenue. Rankings are vanity. Pipeline is the point.”
David L.
Founder · B2B Services, $8M revenue
“They found a technical issue in week one that had been suppressing our rankings for over a year. Two previous agencies missed it completely. That was the moment I knew.”
Mark R.
Director of Growth · E-commerce Brand
“Month-to-month contracts and no lock-in wasn't just a selling point — it forced them to earn our business every month. They always did.”
Emma S.
CEO · Professional Services, $6M revenue
The questions founders actually ask us
Not the FAQ we wrote. The questions from real first calls.
How long until we see results from SEO?
Most Chicago hotels see measurable organic traffic increases within 4–6 weeks and meaningful ranking improvements in 3–4 months. Conversion lift (direct bookings) typically accelerates in months 2–3 as traffic volume grows. SEO is a long-term investment; compounding gains accelerate in months 6–12.
Will SEO affect our Booking.com and Expedia presence?
No. SEO and OTAs are complementary channels—we don't touch your OTA accounts. We reclaim direct bookings from search, reducing dependence on OTA platforms. You'll still appear on OTAs (they spider your site), but more guests will choose to book directly on your website first because your SEO visibility is stronger.
What if we're already running Google Ads for bookings?
Great. SEO and paid search work together. Paid ads give immediate visibility; SEO builds long-term, sustainable traffic. Many clients reduce ad spend once SEO matures, reallocating budget to higher-ROI channels. We can audit your current Ads strategy and help you optimize both channels in parallel.
How much does a Chicago hotels SEO engagement cost?
Typical retainers for hotels & hospitality in Chicago range $2,500–$8,000/month depending on property size, competition, and scope (single property vs. multi-unit). Most clients see ROI (recovered OTA commissions) exceed retainer cost within 4–6 months. We offer a free audit and custom proposal—no obligation.
What if we have multiple properties in Chicago (River North, Loop, Wicker Park)?
Multi-property optimization is our sweet spot. We build separate SEO strategies per location to avoid cannibalizing search results, optimize each property's local signals independently, and centralize content efforts (blog, resources) to boost domain authority. Typical multi-property engagements are 30–40% more efficient per property.
FREE · NO COMMITMENT · 48HR TURNAROUND