India's hospitality category — wineries, resorts, boutique hotels, glamping properties — is squeezed between two pressures. OTAs charge 15-25% commissions for every booking they originate. Influencer-driven discovery has shortened consideration cycles to a single Instagram reel. DESENO Media Agency built SOMA Vine Village's organic Google Business Profile strategy to escape both pressures. Here's the playbook.
Key takeaways
- Most Indian hospitality businesses route 60-80% of their bookings through OTAs (Booking.com, Expedia, MakeMyTrip, Goibibo).
- GBP is free, owned by you, and shows up in three high-intent moments: searches for your property by name, 'near me' searches for the category, and Google Maps discovery.
- Pillar 1 — Listing completeness.
The OTA dependency trap
Most Indian hospitality businesses route 60-80% of their bookings through OTAs (Booking.com, Expedia, MakeMyTrip, Goibibo). The commission cost is the obvious problem. The bigger problem is that OTAs own the customer relationship — repeat visits, referrals, and lifetime value all flow back to the OTA, not the property. The way out is to build a brand and content moat strong enough that customers book direct.
Why Google Business Profile is the highest-leverage hospitality asset
GBP is free, owned by you, and shows up in three high-intent moments: searches for your property by name, 'near me' searches for the category, and Google Maps discovery. For SOMA Vine Village, DESENO ran a deliberate GBP optimization program — weekly posts, consistent geotagged photos uploaded by guests, structured Q&A responses, and active review velocity. The result was organic GMB growth that positioned SOMA as a destination of choice for premium consumers.
The five-pillar GBP strategy
Pillar 1 — Listing completeness. Every field filled (hours, attributes, services, products, menu, amenities). Pillar 2 — Photo cadence. 5-10 high-quality photos per week, geotagged, properly captioned. Pillar 3 — Review velocity and response. Every review responded to within 24 hours; a deliberate review-request program for happy guests. Pillar 4 — Q&A management. Anticipated FAQs answered by the business owner before customers ask. Pillar 5 — Posts and offers. Weekly GBP posts highlighting events, promotions, and seasonal experiences.
The direct-booking website that escapes OTAs
GBP traffic that lands on a poor mobile website still books through OTAs. DESENO rebuilt SOMA's direct-booking flow with three explicit goals: mobile-first design, clear rate-parity messaging, and a single visible CTA above the fold ('Book Direct, Save 10%'). Direct-booking lift was measurable within 60 days.
Influencer marketing as discovery, not advertising
For destination hospitality properties, influencer marketing is best treated as discovery infrastructure — getting your property into the consideration set of travellers who are 3-6 months away from booking. DESENO's approach: deep-relationship hosting of 4-6 high-fit creators per quarter (not 40 low-fit creators), with usage rights captured so the content fuels 6-12 months of social and paid amplification.
Content that compounds for the wine and F&B brand
Beyond the property, SOMA the wine brand needed its own content moat — within Indian regulatory constraints around alcohol advertising. DESENO's playbook: surrogate brand content (the vineyard, the people, the harvest, the food pairings), B2B trade communications (sommelier outreach, restaurant partnerships), and experiential moments (tastings, wine club events, harvest visits). All combined into a brand that prospects engage with for months before tasting the product.
If you run a hospitality property in India
Three actions for the next 30 days. (1) Complete your Google Business Profile to 100% — every field, every photo slot, every Q&A. (2) Start a weekly GBP posting calendar, even if it's just one well-photographed post per week. (3) Audit your direct-booking flow on mobile — count the taps from homepage to confirmed booking. If it's more than 4, you're losing 50%+ of intent.
