Broken promises. Misleading metrics.

Sabine Filoni's recent article nails half the attribution problem — hotels are paying Google and Meta for customers they already won through their own marketing. Last-click attribution has turned into an expensive shell game, and the industry keeps playing.

But there's a bigger issue hiding in plain sight, and it's costing hotels even more than wasted ad spend.

Here's what I mean: most hotels measure marketing success at the reservation and move on. But that booking isn't revenue yet — it's just a promise.

The guest who books direct and cancels three days later? You just paid acquisition costs for zero dollars. The guest who came through a "high cost" Google ad, spent $500 at your restaurant, and rebooked for next quarter? Your marketing dashboard says that channel lost money.

This happens because the data lives in three places that never talk to each other. Your PMS knows about reservations. Your POS knows about restaurant and spa spend. Your marketing platform knows about clicks and bookings. But nobody's connecting the dots from first click all the way through to actual revenue and repeat business.

So hotels aren't just paying for guests they already own — they're making million-dollar budget decisions based on half the story. They're cutting channels that drive profitable guests and doubling down on channels that drive cancellations.

The hotel teams that figure out how to track the complete journey — from first touch to checkout to lifetime value — won't just save money on wasted ad spend. They'll be making decisions based on what guests actually do, not just what they promise to do.

That's a fundamentally different way to run a commercial strategy. And right now, most of the industry is leaving it on the table.

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