Bed and breakfast marketing without a budget

GuestJourney editorial team, edited by Alon Shkuri

Published 2 November 2026 · 8 min read

Gigi stands on a rainy window ledge next to a blank sign, camera in hand

Bed and breakfast marketing without a budget means putting your hours where a guest is already looking: your Google profile, your own site on a phone, the people at your breakfast table and the neighbours who get asked for a bed. It fits in a first month of four short jobs. And if you sell through Booking.com, you already have a marketing bill. You pay it after each stay.

Merel runs De Linde, a bed and breakfast with four rooms, and she does not do marketing. She has told her sister Anna so at three birthdays in a row. No budget, no time, and no wish to film herself making an omelette.

This Sunday Anna, who runs Hotel Kadeloft, asks what the last Booking.com invoice said. Merel finds it under the fruit bowl. Anna takes a pen and works out the year on the back of the envelope: €4,161.

"That is your marketing budget," she says. "You just spend it after the guest has gone."

Merel, De Linde, Anna and Hotel Kadeloft are made up, and so is that €4,161: 50% occupancy, €95 a night, 40% through Booking.com at 15%.

Merel still has no money to spend up front. She does have a phone and a breakfast table, and she gives it a month.

Week 1GoogleShe reads her own profile as a stranger would, fixes the link and adds daylight photos.
Week 2Her siteShe opens it on her phone and fixes what stops a booking.
Week 3BreakfastShe asks every guest how they found her, and asks for a review.
Week 4The neighboursShe walks to three doors and sends one email to past guests.

Merel's first month. About an hour a week is our estimate, not a measurement

The order is ours. It starts with what a guest sees first and ends with the people who already know her. This is the small version of a marketing strategy for a small hotel.

Week one: the page a stranger reads first

Google's Business Profile is free. Merel searches for De Linde on her phone and goes through what comes up:

The website link. Does it go to her own site, or to a platform page? She changes it to her own.
The description. Does it say what she has, in the words a guest would use? Four rooms, a garden, ten minutes by bike from the station.
The photos. Are they hers, in daylight, with the bed made?
The reviews. Has she answered the last ones? Here is how to respond.

Google says you cannot request or pay for a better local ranking. It names relevance, distance and popularity as the main factors, and says complete details and more reviews can help. Posts are not on that list. An update still shows a guest that someone is home. Google bars hotel businesses from offers and discounts in posts, so check how Google lists you and read what you can post.

Week two: your own site, on your own phone

A guest you win in the other three weeks can end up on this page. Of the 10 B&B sites we opened on 1 November 2026, 3 did not fit a phone screen, 2 showed a room price on the homepage and 3 had a phone number or email in the first screen. Ten is a small number and no market figure, but those are the things to look for.

Merel changes three things and leaves the design alone. The page fits. A price is on it: from €95 for two, breakfast included. And the number can be tapped, for the guests who would rather call. Her Book button goes to her own booking page, not to a platform.

Week three: ask at the breakfast table

You see every guest at eight in the morning, and asking costs nothing. Merel asks two things while she pours the coffee.

The first is how they found her. She keeps a tally on a sheet by the coffee machine, and after a month it looks like this:

Merel's tally after a month. Made up, to show the idea
How they found De Linde	Stays	Paid commission?
Searched on Booking.com, had never heard of her	7	Yes
Knew the name, then booked on Booking.com	3	Yes
Google, then her own site	5	No
Been before, or told by a friend, booked direct	7	No
The restaurant or the tourist office	2	No

The seven are what the commission buys, and we would not begrudge it. The three are the ones to go after: they knew her name and still cost her €14.25 a night. She got that from a sheet of paper.

The second question is whether they would leave a review. Google says you can ask customers to visit a link or scan a QR code, so a small card on the table will do. Offering anything in return, a discount or a free coffee, is strictly prohibited. Ask everyone, not only the guests who seem happy, and never press anyone to write it at the table.

Week four: the people who send guests

The Dutch Chamber of Commerce names three routes in its guide for B&B owners: work with the local tourist office, attractions and restaurants; make sure visitors to a local event know they can stay with you; and refer guests to other B&Bs when you are full. All three cost a walk.

We would start with one question: who in your town gets asked for a bed? For Merel that is the restaurant on the corner, the wedding venue up the road and the B&B across the village that is also full in May. She brings a card with her web address, and she asks what people ask them. A referral from a neighbour can reach your own site with no commission on it.

One email to people who already slept here

Mail rarely, and only if you are allowed to. Dutch law and the UK rules let you email your own customers about similar services if you got the address in a sale, and gave them a free, easy way to refuse when you collected it and in every message after. Check your own country. If in doubt, ask for permission when they book.

Guests from Booking.com are different. Its terms, clause 2.8.3, say you may not use the contact details it gives you for unsolicited messages, and that you cover any fines that follow. Give those guests a card at the door with your web address instead.

What is it worth? If 5% of Merel's revenue moves from Booking.com to her own page, she keeps €520 a year in commission. That is about 36 nights, before her own booking and card costs. Real money for four rooms, and no revolution. Anyone who promises you the whole €4,161 has not looked at your tally.

After the first month: one hour, on the same morning

Answer the week's reviews, and put one photo or update on Google.
Change what is out of date on your site: a closed week, new breakfast times.
Read the tally. Is the row you worked on growing?
Once a season, send that one email.

Instagram is fine if you enjoy it. Post when something happens, send people to your own site, and judge it by your tally rather than by likes.

What costs nothing, and what only looks free

Costs nothing but your time

A Google Business Profile, and answering its reviews
Free booking links on Google, at no cost per click, if your booking engine connects to them
A card on the breakfast table with a QR code for reviews
A tally sheet by the coffee machine
Cards at three neighbours, and sending overflow across the village
Your own photos, in daylight

Only looks free

A listing with nothing to pay up front. You pay commission per booking on Booking.com: at De Linde, €14.25 a night.
Airbnb's fees. Most hosts on its single fee pay 15.5%, and most on the split fee it is phasing out pay 3% while the guest pays a fee on top. Check which is yours.
Genius. Not a direct fee, says Wise, but you fund a discount of 10% to 20%. On €95, that is €9.50 to €19.
A free night for a local creator. In a quiet week it costs breakfast and laundry. In a busy week it costs €95.
Posting every day. Half an hour a day is 182 hours a year.
A free website plan. Ask whether it runs on your own domain name, and what it takes to leave.

None of those is wrong. A guest like the seven on Merel's sheet is worth €14.25 to her, because she would never have met them. Just put the cost on the same sheet as the rest.