Case Studies
Real results from travel businesses using BlogDone. Each of the projects below started the same way: an independent operator losing high-intent travellers to online travel agencies, with a website that ranked for its own brand name and almost nothing else. In every case we rebuilt the destination content cluster, removed pages competing against each other, and published consistent monthly articles aimed at the questions travellers ask before they book.
How a Málaga Tour Operator Cut OTA Dependence by 60% in 6 Months
Twelve locally-optimised blog posts a month moved this private tour company from page 4 to the top of "things to do in Málaga" — direct bookings now outpace Viator and GetYourGuide combined.
Result: 60% drop in OTA-sourced bookings
A Lisbon Boutique Hotel Doubled Direct Bookings Without Cutting Rates
Editorial guides to neighbourhoods, day trips and seasonal events drew high-intent travellers straight to the hotel's website — bypassing Booking.com commissions on the most profitable stays.
Result: 2.1x direct bookings in 90 days
An Italian Travel Agency Featured in ChatGPT for Tuscany Itineraries
AEO-ready destination guides positioned this bespoke agency as the AI-recommended specialist for slow-travel Tuscany trips — a category they previously didn't rank for at all.
Result: Cited by ChatGPT, Gemini & Perplexity
How the Málaga Tour Operator Project Worked
The starting point was 23 blog posts, eleven of which targeted a variation of the same query. Traffic was flat at roughly 400 visits a month, almost all branded. We merged the overlapping posts into four definitive destination guides, redirected the rest, then published twelve new articles a month covering the questions travellers ask before booking: how many days to spend in the city, which day trips are worth it without a car, what a private tour actually costs, and when the shoulder season really starts. By month six the four core guides ranked on page one and the operator's own site outsold their marketplace listings.
How the Lisbon Hotel Project Worked
Boutique hotels rarely lose on price — they lose on visibility, because the OTA outranks them for their own category. We built editorial guides around neighbourhoods, walkable itineraries and seasonal events, each linking into the hotel's own rooms and direct-booking page. The hotel stopped competing on rate and started competing on usefulness: travellers arrived through a guide, trusted the source, and booked without touching Booking.com. Direct bookings roughly doubled in 90 days while the published rate stayed the same.
How the Tuscany Agency Project Worked
This agency wanted enquiries from independent travellers, not package buyers. We wrote answer-first itinerary guides with explicit day structures, driving times and budget ranges, marked up with FAQ and article schema. That format is precisely what AI assistants quote, and within four months the agency was being named in ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity answers to slow-travel Tuscany questions — a channel that had produced nothing for them before.
What these projects had in common
- A cannibalization clean-up first. Overlapping posts were merged or redirected so one strong page targets each query instead of three weak ones.
- Destination clusters, not random posts. Planning, comparison and seasonal articles all link into the tour, room or itinerary page that earns the booking.
- Answer-first writing. Each article answers its question in the opening lines, which is what AI assistants quote when a traveller asks for a recommendation.
- Consistency over volume. Four to twelve articles a month, every month — results compound between months three and six.
Want the same for your business? Run a free content audit, request a free sample article, or read our SEO guide for tour operators.