Online Share of Attention Explained: The KPI Hotels Have Been Missing

The surprisingly simple KPI hotels have been missing (and will soon wonder how they lived without)

Let’s be honest.
Hotels have a lot of KPIs.

STR. ADR. RevPAR. Occupancy. Pacing. Forecasting.
If hotel metrics were Pokémon, you’d have the full collection.

But somewhere between “rooms sold” and “how much did we make,” there’s a metric that quietly shapes everything else… Yet no one tracked it for decades.

Welcome to Online Share of Attention… The KPI hiding in plain sight.

WHY THIS MATTERS NOW.

Travelers are no longer wandering through 27 pages of Google results like it’s 2009. They want fast answers, not research projects.

So now they ask:
⭐️ “Where should I stay in Nashville?” (AI assistant)
⭐️ “Hotels near the convention center” (Google Maps)
⭐️ “Best boutique hotel Scottsdale” (non-brand search)
Or they just scroll OTAs like they’re browsing Netflix

In these little micro-moments, travelers sort hotels into two buckets:

✨ “Ooh, interesting…”
❌ “Never saw it, never will.”

If your hotel isn’t visible right there, at the top of the funnel, you’re not just missing clicks. You’re missing attention… and attention is the currency of bookings.

This is where Online Share of Attention comes in.

SO… WHAT IS ONLINE SHARE OF ATTENTION?

In plain, human language:

Online Share of Attention is the percentage of guest discovery your hotel captures before anyone clicks, books, or even lands on your website.

It’s how often you show up when someone is deciding which hotels deserve to be in the running.

Think of it like this:

If the digital world is a hotel lobby, Online Share of Attention is whether you’re the feature attraction or the quiet corner table no one realises is there.

WHY IS MATTERS MORE THAN EVER!

The guest journey has changed dramatically. People no longer “look around.”

They ask.

❓ They ask AI.
❓ They ask Google Maps.
❓ They ask OTAs.
❓ They ask their phones while juggling boarding passes, headphones, and a latte they definitely didn’t need.

These channels don’t show everything.
They show the top few options.

And if you’re not one of them?
You don’t even make the shortlist.

Visibility is the new availability.

WHAT DRIVES ONLINE SHARE OF ATTENTION.

Here are the four pillars that determine whether you’re:
A) A digital celebrity, or
B) A hotel screaming into the void.

1. Search (SEO / Organic Coverage)

Do you rank for the terms people use in real life?
Not “Hotel Brand Name Downtown,” but things like:

“Pet friendly hotel Seattle”
“Romantic weekend getaway Napa”

If your SEO is only branded, you’re basically waiting for people who already know you.

2. PPC & OTAs

Are OTAs outbidding you on your own brand name?
Because that happens more than anyone wants to admit.

Visibility here determines who gets attention first and who pays commission second.

3. Maps & Directories

Google Maps has become the new “top five hotels in the area.”
Your presence here can make or break consideration.

Fresh reviews matter.
Photos matter.
Attributes matter.

(And no, outdated pool hours are not a vibe!!)

4. AI Search & Answer Engines

AI is not the future. It’s the now.

When travelers ask, “Where should I stay in Miami?” the AI tools provide a tiny handful of hotels. IIf you’re not mentioned? You’re not in the game.

Online Share of Attention rolls all four into one clear measure of how discoverable you are.

🏆 WHAT HIGH SHARE OF ATTENTION LOOKS LIKE.

These hotels typically enjoy:

• More direct bookings
• Less OTA dependence
• Better comp-set rankings
• Faster recovery during algorithm shifts
• More resilience during slow markets

Basically: they get chosen more often because they’re seen more often.

🛑 WHAT A LOW SHARE OF ATTENTION REVEALS

If your Online Share of Attention is low, you might notice:

• OTA costs creeping up
• Google Maps traffic mysteriously flat
• Competitors showing up in AI answers and “best of” lists
• Your PPC spend climbing just to stay visible
• Non-brand search traffic… not existing

This is a discoverability issue. You can’t book who you can’t see.

Why the industry never measured this

Because honestly, it used to be impossible.

Every platform lived in its own silo:
– Google
– OTAs
– Maps
– Directories
– AI engines

Agencies reported in 17 different formats.

Operators had different standards.

Brands had inconsistent visibility by region.

There was no single KPI that answered the question:

“How much attention does this hotel actually get in its market?”

Until recently.

✨ THE MINDSET SHIFT ✨

Hotels have always asked:
“How many rooms did we sell?”

The modern question is:
“How many travelers saw us in the first place?”

Because:
Visibility → drives consideration
Consideration → drives intent
Intent → drives bookings

Visibility is not a vanity metric.
It’s the upstream force driving every downstream outcome.

🔮 WHERE THIS IS GOING

AI tools are becoming the traveler’s first stop.
Not Google.
Not OTAs.
AI.

These tools mention a handful of hotels repeatedly.

That means:
🏆 The winners will keep winning
🛑 The invisible will stay invisible

Online Share of Attention tells you exactly which direction you’re heading.

Hotels that understand and optimize this metric now will own the next decade of digital discovery.

WANT TO SEE YOUR ONLINE SHARE OF ATTENTION?

You can now measure it clearly, consistently, and at the local level.

If you want to see where your property stands — and whether you’re the star or the plant in the lobby — you can get your free benchmark here:

Schedule a demo or just learn more about DMscore here: https://bit.ly/DMscoreHotel