Choosing a hospitality marketing agency: 12 questions to ask before you sign
What to ask a marketing agency before you sign: contracts, who owns what, how results are reported, and the red flags venue and restaurant owners should know.
The short version
- Ask every agency to report in inquiries, tours and bookings by source, not impressions and clicks, and to show results for businesses like yours with dates and sources.
- Google says no one can guarantee a number one ranking. An agency that promises one, or claims a special relationship with Google, is telling you something about itself.
- Most marketing is billed monthly (78% of SEO providers in an Ahrefs survey), so the real contract questions are how you leave and what you keep: the domain, the site, the Google profile, the ad accounts and your leads.
- If the agency answers your inquiries for you, ask how fast. In one study of 2,241 companies, 23% never replied to a web inquiry at all.
In this post
Most agency pitches look alike: a deck of logos, a promise of more leads, a monthly fee. For a wedding venue, a restaurant or a golf club, the difference between a good agency and an expensive one shows up later, in whether the calendar fills and in what happens if you want to leave. These twelve questions bring that difference out before you sign. We are an agency, so read our own answers at the end with that in mind, and ask us the same questions.
Before you talk to anyone
Write down your own numbers, so every agency is measured against the same baseline:
- Inquiries a month, and where they come from
- How long it takes your team to reply to one
- Tours, tastings or walk-throughs booked, and how many happen
- Bookings a month, and what an average booking is worth
- What you spend now on listings, ads and any agency
If you do not have them, that is the first job for whoever you hire. Our ROI calculator shows what a few more tours a month would be worth to a venue.
Questions about results
1. What will you report, and how often?
Google’s own guide to hiring an SEO tells you to ask how the agency measures success. For a hospitality business the answer should be inquiries, tours and bookings, by source, every month. Impressions, clicks and followers can be reported too, but they are not the result.
2. What have you done for businesses like mine, with dates?
Ask for named examples, the date window for each number and where the number comes from: Search Console, Google Analytics, the Business Profile, the CRM. “We tripled leads for a venue” without a name, a period or a source is a slogan.
3. What should I expect in the first 90 days, and in a year?
This is another of Google’s suggested questions. A good answer separates what moves fast (ads, reply speed, the Google profile) from what takes months (rankings, reviews, AI answers).
4. Do you guarantee rankings?
Google states that no one can guarantee a number one ranking on Google. An agency that does, or that claims a special relationship with Google, has told you what you need to know.
Questions about the contract
5. How long is the contract, and how do I leave?
Monthly billing is the norm: in Ahrefs’ survey of 439 SEO providers, 78% charged a monthly retainer. What varies is the term, the notice period and what happens to the work in progress. Get both in writing.
Source: Ahrefs, survey of 439 SEO providers, 2024 (opens in a new tab). SEO work only; ad budgets are separate
6. What do I keep if we part ways?
This is the question most owners forget. Agree in writing that these belong to you, are set up in your name, and stay with you:
- The domain name, and the website’s files and logins
- Ownership of your Google Business Profile, with the agency added as a manager
- The ad accounts and their history
- Google Analytics and Search Console, with the agency given access
- Your contacts, inquiries and lead history in the CRM, exportable
- The photos, video and designs made for you
7. Who pays the ad spend, and can I see it?
The ad budget and the agency’s fee should be two separate numbers. Ask whose card pays the ad platforms, and for your own access to the ad accounts, so you can see the spend and results without asking.
Questions about the team
8. Who will do the work, and how do I reach them?
Ask who your contact is, who actually builds the pages and runs the ads, and how you reach them: a ticket system, an account manager, a direct line. Then ask how quickly they usually reply.
9. If you answer our inquiries, how fast, and who answers at night?
Speed decides a lot of bookings. When Harvard Business Review sent a web inquiry to 2,241 US companies, 37% replied within an hour and 23% never replied; the companies that tried within an hour were nearly seven times as likely to qualify the lead as those that waited even an hour longer. Venues and restaurants get many inquiries in the evening, so ask what happens to one sent at 10 pm.
Questions about fit
10. Do you know my kind of business?
An agency that sells to plumbers and law firms can run ads, but a wedding venue, a restaurant’s private room and a club’s outing calendar each sell in their own way. Ask how many clients like you they have, and to speak to one.
11. How do you get reviews, and what won’t you do?
Reviews decide who gets the call: in BrightLocal’s 2026 survey, 68% of consumers will only use a business rated 4 stars or higher. The right answer is a steady system for asking real customers. The wrong one is anything bought or written by the agency, which the FTC’s 2024 rule bans.
12. Do you check where we show up in AI answers?
More of your customers ask ChatGPT and Google’s AI Mode for recommendations. Ask whether the agency checks, each month, which of your customers’ questions name your business, and what it does about the ones that don’t. Our guide to answer engine optimization explains what that work involves.
Red flags
- A guaranteed number one ranking, or a claimed special relationship with Google
- An unsolicited email promising page one; Google’s guide warns about these
- Accounts set up in the agency’s name, with no written promise to hand them over
- A long minimum term with no way out if results do not come
- Reports with impressions and clicks but no inquiries, tours or bookings
- Results with no names, no dates and no sources
- Any offer to buy reviews or post them for you
What a good monthly report shows
Whoever you choose, the monthly report should let you answer one question: what did this month’s spend bring in? These are the lines to ask for.
| Line | What it answers |
|---|---|
| Inquiries by source | Which search, ad, listing or profile brought people in |
| Time to first reply | Whether people heard back while they were still choosing |
| Tours, tastings or walk-throughs, booked and held | Whether interest is turning into visits |
| Bookings and their value, by source | What actually paid |
| Spend and cost per booking, by channel | Where next month’s money should go |
| Rankings for your core searches, and your Maps position | Whether you are being found |
| Questions where AI assistants name you | Whether you are in the answers |
| Calls and direction requests from the Google profile | Whether people who find you act |
How we answer these
Since you will ask us too, here is what is true of how we work today:
- Contract: month to month. You can cancel any time if it is not working.
- Reports: SEO clients get a report every month on rankings, traffic, the Google profile and where the business shows up in Google AI Mode and ChatGPT; ads are reported in inquiries, tours and bookings.
- Results: our case studies name the venue, the dates and the source of every figure.
- Team: every client gets direct access to our whole team through a dedicated group chat, and you can call us on (908) 670-0001.
- Who we work with: wedding venues, event spaces, restaurants and golf and country clubs. See everything we do.
- Price: the fee depends on your business and your market, and we set it with you on the strategy call.
Questions owners ask
How do I choose a marketing agency for my venue or restaurant?
Know your own numbers first (inquiries, tours, bookings, what a booking is worth), then ask each agency the same questions: what they report, what they have done for businesses like yours with dates, how long the contract is, what you keep if you leave, who does the work and how fast inquiries are answered. Choose the one whose answers are specific.
How much does a marketing agency cost?
It varies with the work and the market. For SEO alone, an Ahrefs survey of 439 providers found agencies charged $3,209 a month on average and the most common range was $501 to $1,000 a month. Ads add their own budget on top of the fee.
Do I need an agency that specializes in hospitality?
It helps. A venue, a restaurant and a club sell to people who compare several options at once and book on a deadline, so search, reviews and fast follow up matter more than they do for most businesses. Ask to see results for businesses like yours.
How long before marketing shows results?
Ads and faster replies can move tours within weeks. SEO usually takes months, and a wedding is often booked months after the first inquiry, so judge a campaign over a season, not a fortnight.
Sources
- Google Search Central, Do you need an SEO? (opens in a new tab): questions to ask an SEO, and warnings about guarantees and unsolicited offers
- Federal Trade Commission, final rule banning fake reviews (August 2024) (opens in a new tab): what the rule bans
- Ahrefs, SEO pricing survey (August 2024) (opens in a new tab): 439 SEO providers: billing models and monthly prices
- Harvard Business Review, The Short Life of Online Sales Leads (2011) (opens in a new tab): response times of 2,241 US companies to a web lead
- BrightLocal Local Consumer Review Survey 2026 (opens in a new tab): how consumers judge reviews and ratings
Client figures come from DPH’s reports for each client (Search Console, Google Analytics, Google Business Profile or the client’s CRM), with their dates where the report gives them, or from the owners’ own words. Every venue’s market and starting point is different.
