The Challenge
Classic British Hotels now has a fantastic position in the UK hospitality market, they’re a handpicked collection of independent properties, each with its own character.
The challenge wasn’t initially just driving bookings; it was building brand awareness for a collection that deserved more visibility, while also competing on high-intent searches dominated by OTAs including Booking.com, Expedia, as well as national hotel chains.
When we first started working with them around four years ago, their social media presence was reasonably inconsistent and underutilised. As the relationship developed, it became clear that organic search and paid search needed to follow to really maximise results.
The Approach
Social media came first. Initially, the brief was to give the collection a consistent, aspirational voice across Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, spotlighting individual hotels, seasonal offers, and the kind of charm that makes independent hotels worth seeking out.
As the relationship expanded, we added organic search. The focus here was on the terms that matter commercially, broad category searches like “dog friendly hotels,” “sea front hotels,” and “country house hotels,” as well as building visibility for individual properties and locations within the collection. The strategy centred on optimising the technical SEO of the large site and creating and optimising content that could compete with far larger players.
Paid search was also added in to support both generic hotel searches and branded terms for individual properties, ensuring the collection captured bookings rather than bookers heading straight to the OTAs.
