Hospitality marketing glossary

Restaurant & hotel marketing terms, explained.

A plain-English glossary of the metrics and concepts that matter for growing a premium restaurant, café or luxury hotel in India — from ROAS and covers to RevPAR and direct bookings.

ROAS (Return on Ad Spend)

Revenue generated for every rupee spent on advertising. A 8.5x ROAS means ₹8.50 in revenue for every ₹1 of ad spend. It is the primary success metric for restaurant and hotel performance marketing.

Covers

The number of guests served (or meals sold) in a restaurant over a period. Filling covers — not likes or reach — is the true goal of restaurant marketing.

RevPAR (Revenue Per Available Room)

A core hotel metric: total room revenue divided by the number of available rooms. Direct-booking strategies aim to grow RevPAR by reducing commission leakage.

OTA (Online Travel Agency)

Platforms like Booking.com, MakeMyTrip and Agoda that sell hotel rooms and charge 15–25% commission per booking. Reducing OTA dependence keeps more revenue with the property.

Direct Booking

A reservation made on the property’s own channels (website, phone, WhatsApp) rather than through a commission-charging OTA. Direct bookings carry the highest margin.

CPL (Cost Per Lead)

The average cost to acquire one qualified enquiry or reservation lead through advertising. Lower CPL at the same lead quality means more efficient spend.

CPA (Cost Per Acquisition)

The average cost to acquire one paying customer or confirmed booking. A key efficiency metric alongside ROAS.

Geofencing

Targeting ads to people within a precise geographic radius — for example around competitor venues or affluent neighbourhoods like BKC and Bandra — to reach high-intent local guests.

Retargeting

Showing ads to people who already interacted with your brand (visited your site, viewed your menu, abandoned a booking) to bring them back and convert.

Lookalike Audience

An advertising audience built to resemble your best existing guests, using first-party data, so campaigns reach new people most likely to book.

First-Party Data

Customer data a business collects directly — emails, phone numbers, reservation history — which powers retargeting and lookalike audiences as third-party cookies disappear.

Meta Ads

Paid advertising across Facebook and Instagram (owned by Meta). The primary demand-generation channel for premium restaurants and hotels in India.

Local SEO

Optimising a venue’s online presence — Google Business Profile, local schema, reviews, citations — to rank in "near me" searches and map results.

Google Business Profile (GBP)

A free Google listing showing a venue’s hours, photos, reviews and location. A complete, active GBP is one of the strongest local-search and AI-recommendation signals.

GEO (Generative Engine Optimization)

Optimising content so AI assistants like ChatGPT, Google AI Overview and Perplexity cite your brand in their generated answers.

AEO (Answer Engine Optimization)

Structuring content in clear question-and-answer form so search and AI engines can surface it as a direct answer.

Full-Funnel Marketing

A campaign structure that moves a guest from awareness to consideration to booking, with tailored creative and audiences at each stage.

Attribution

The process of correctly crediting which ad, channel or touchpoint drove a booking, so budget can be allocated to what actually generates revenue.