BRENT MANNING

SEARCH + AI VISIBILITY FOR DIRECT GUEST REVENUE

YOUR BEST GUEST IS ALREADY SEARCHING.

OTAs, directories, and AI answers are catching them first.

I help independent hotels, wellness resorts, retreats, and destination brands find the demand they're already close to winning across Google, AI search, and answer engines, then turn it into a direct booking campaign: one offer, one page, one follow up path, measured in booked revenue. Former Head of SEO, Expedia ANZ.

Brent Manning
THE LEAK

Which high-value guest are you leaking?

Wedding couples Wellness retreat buyers Private group buyouts Spa and wellness stay seekers Shoulder season guests Past guests who would return Destination searchers who land on OTAs first

Every one of these is a search happening right now. The Sprint picks the one worth the most and builds the campaign aimed at catching it.

WHY AI PICKS ONE BRAND

Watch an AI answer get taken apart.

Keep scrolling.

best wellness retreat Byron Bay |
AI ANSWER

The standout picks are Big Chain Resort and the top entries from a "10 Best" listicle. Book early, they fill fast.

For a clean, quiet escape the standout is your property, cited for its spring fed pool, organic kitchen, and direct booking perks.

YOU'RE NOT IN IT
NOW IT'S YOU
COMPARISON PAGE
GUEST CONCERN PAGES
SCHEMA + ENTITY SIGNALS
INTERNAL LINK WEB
SOURCES AI READS

Your next buyer starts with a question.

AI answers with one name. It isn't yours.

That answer was built from parts. The winner has them.

Build the parts. The answer changes.

AI answers are built from parts.
I build the parts.

SEE WHICH PARTS YOU'RE MISSING
THE ENGINE

Search finds the money. Owning the guest keeps it.

01 · Public search and AI answers show where your best guests go instead of you. I see it before we ever talk.

02 · One offer, one page, into your own booking engine. The guest becomes your contact, on your own list.

03 · Email, WhatsApp, old enquiries, referrals. Repeat buyers cost nothing to reach.

How the whole model works
DOES THIS SOUND FAMILIAR?
  • +Your website gets traffic but bookings go through OTAs, and you're paying 18% for guests who searched for you by name
  • +Seekers type the exact retreat or stay you sell and land on a directory or listicle that charges you for your own guest
  • +Your content takes weeks to approve. By the time it's published, the season's over
  • +Your past guest list and old enquiries just sit there. Nobody has emailed them in a year
  • +A wedding, group stay, or buyout enquiry is worth months of room revenue, and nothing on your site is built to catch it
  • +You're spending $5K+/month on marketing you can't tie to a single booked sale
THE MATH

What just one win looks like.

You pay OTAs and directories to rent back your own guests. Here's what keeping just one looks like.

Boutique hotel

Just one booking a week coming direct instead of through an OTA, say a few nights at $300, skips the 15 to 18% commission and keeps $9K+ a year in your pocket. More than the engagement costs.

Hoteliers cite 15 to 18% OTA commissions · r/askhotels

Wellness retreat

One luxury retreat guest is a $5K to $15K booking, not a room night. Win one guest direct instead of through a directory and the Sprint is covered several times over. Illustrative math, your program price sets the real number.

Wedding / buyout

One serious enquiry for a wedding, group stay, or full buyout can be worth months of room bookings. That's the buyer who actually changes the month, and almost nobody builds a page to catch them.

THE WAY IN

The Revenue Sprint. One demand pocket to measured revenue in 30 days.

$1.5K TO $3.5K
ONE TIME · 30 DAYS

One revenue opportunity, one offer, one page, one follow up path, and a plain report of what it made. One recovered high value customer usually covers it. Continue monthly only if the first one made money.

SEE THE FULL MODEL
Previously
Expedia Hyatt Ovolo CrystalBrook Naumi Lonely Planet Sydney Airport
Expedia Hyatt Ovolo CrystalBrook Naumi Lonely Planet Sydney Airport
TRACK RECORD
40%+
Organic traffic recovered at Expedia ANZ
#1
Revenue channel: SEO at Expedia
20
Years in search. Through every core update
200K+
Monthly searches addressed for one brand, built solo
WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED

Expedia ANZ. Penalised site. Highest revenue channel in the business.

The problem Inherited a penalised site at the biggest OTA in the southern hemisphere. Organic traffic had cratered. Hotel partners, PR teams, and tourism boards all working in silos with no SEO coordination.
What I did Recovered 40%+ of organic traffic, then grew an additional 25% on top. Coordinated hotel partner teams, PR, tourism boards, and CSR projects into one SEO machine. Made every team's content work harder.
The result
SEO became the #1 revenue channel More revenue than paid search, more than display, more than affiliates. Organic search, the channel everyone else treated as an afterthought, became the biggest money maker in the business.
THE LAB · I RUN EVERY PLAY ON MY OWN REVENUE FIRST

Dorada.mx. 86 articles. 200K+ monthly searches addressed. One person, near zero ad spend.

My own store, not a client case study with the messy parts cut out. Content architected around the questions buyers actually type, catching them the moment before they buy. Every play that runs on your property ran on my own revenue first.

WHAT OPERATORS ARE SAYING OUT LOUD
"If you ever want to get sick, go look at expedia. I hate them SO GODDAMN MUCH!" Hotel operator · r/askhotels · 2023
"they mention all my competitors, but my brand doesn't even appear. I'm afraid of falling behind." Founder, on AI answers · r/WebsiteSEO · 2026