Website analytics for hospitality: how to measure what your website brings in

Why measure, and what exactly?

Most owners know from their gut whether an evening went well. Very few know whether the website played a part. This is not about big data analysis but about simple questions: Do new guests find my place through Google? Do they call or book online? Is the new lunch menu on the website worth it? Did the post about our seasonal goose weeks bring anything?

For a venue, the website is not an end in itself. Its success shows in guests walking through the door. That is why actions are the best key figures: a call, a direction request, a booking, a click on the menu, an order, an enquiry for a party. Pure visitor numbers are only the start of the chain. 2,000 visits a month are worth little if nobody finds the opening hours; 300 visits with 40 bookings are a success.

The key figures that matter for venues

Not every figure deserves your attention. The overview below shows which key figures are meaningful for restaurants and hotels and where to find them. What matters is the comparison: with the previous month and, because of the seasons, with the same month last year.

Depending on your business, add your own figures: clicks on the booking link for a hotel, form enquiries for catering, online orders for a takeaway. Pick no more than five figures that you look at every month.

Performance data in your Google Business Profile

For most venues, the Google Business Profile is the most important source. Many guests decide right in Google Maps without opening your website. What they do there is shown in the Performance section. You reach it by searching for your venue while signed in or by opening your profile in Google Maps. According to Google, performance data is only available for verified profiles, and only the metrics that apply to your business appear.

• Views: how many people saw your profile in Google Search and Maps. According to Google, each person counts at most once per day.
• Searches: the terms your profile appeared for. Google says they are updated at the start of each month, with a delay of a few days.
• Calls, directions, website clicks: the direct actions. Google's help says repeated taps and cancelled directions are not counted.
• Menu: clicks on menu content, meaning photos of the menu, the menu editor and links to the menu.
• Bookings and messages: bookings through a connected booking provider and conversations through the messaging feature, if you use them.

Pay special attention to the search terms. If they are mostly your name, these guests already know you. If terms like “breakfast”, “pizza” or “lunch menu” appear together with your town, new guests are finding you through what you offer. If an important offer is missing completely, check your categories, your menu and the copy on your website. The guide to local SEO explains how to become more visible for it.

Setting up and reading Google Search Console

Google Search Console is a free tool from Google for website owners. It shows which searches your website appears for, how often it is clicked and whether Google finds errors. It runs on Google's side and sets no cookies on your website. Setup usually takes a quarter of an hour, and your web agency can do it for you.

The most important report is called Performance. It shows four values: clicks, impressions (how often your page was shown in the results), the click-through rate and the average position. Under “Queries” you see the search terms, under “Pages” the individual pages. Google hides very rare queries for privacy reasons, so the list never adds up to the full total.

Useful for venues: many impressions but few clicks on a page often mean that its title and description do not convince in search. Test how your page looks there with the Google preview. The Core Web Vitals section helps with your website's loading speed, the notes on rich results with structured data.

Privacy-friendly web analytics and cookie banners

Search Console and your Google profile show what happens before the visit. What guests do on your website, such as which pages they open or how often they tap “Book a table”, is measured by a web analytics tool. This is where data protection comes in.

In Germany, § 25 TDDDG (formerly TTDSG), and in Austria, § 165 (3) TKG 2021, state that information may only be stored on or read from a visitor's device with consent. The exception is what is strictly necessary for the service the visitor asked for. Statistics cookies usually do not fall under it. If personal data such as IP addresses is processed, the GDPR applies as well. So anyone using a classic analytics tool with cookies usually needs a cookie banner with a real choice, and the statistics only count the guests who agree.

For a venue a lean solution is often enough: tools that work without cookies, shorten IP addresses and process data in the EU, or self-hosted statistics with your own host. Whether that really requires no consent depends on the specific setup. Have your agency or a data protection adviser check it, and name every tool in your privacy policy. General information is available from the WKO (Austrian Economic Chamber) and the IHK (German Chambers of Commerce).

Attributing bookings, calls and enquiries

The most valuable figure is often not in an analytics tool at all, but in your reservation book. An online booking system shows how many tables were booked through the website, the Google profile or partner platforms, often with date and party size. Look at this report every month, broken down by source.

• Phone: When guests book by phone, briefly ask “How did you hear about us?” and note the answer with a short code in the reservation book.
• Enquiry forms: Parties, catering and vouchers often come in by form or email. Count the enquiries per month and how many of them were booked.
• QR codes: Your own link with a UTM parameter on the table stand shows how often the digital menu is opened in the venue.
• Promotions: Create a separate page for an event or seasonal offer, and you will see in Search Console and web analytics how well it performs.

The monthly check in 30 minutes

Statistics only work when you draw conclusions from them. Set a fixed date, for example the first Monday of the month, and enter the figures in a simple table: one row per month, one column per key figure, plus a column for notes such as “new lunch menu online”, “company holiday” or “terrace opened”. After a few months you will see which measure made a difference.

Do not expect smooth curves. Weather, school holidays, public holidays and the season shape the figures in hospitality heavily. A beer garden has different numbers in July than in November. That is why comparing with the same month last year is often more meaningful than comparing with the previous month. The guide to the online marketing plan shows how to turn your findings into a plan for the year.