If you’ve ever felt pressured to slap 10% of your revenue into a vague marketing bucket, you’re not alone. Somewhere along the line, 10% became the default advice—but for boutique hospitality owners who care deeply about ROI, that number is too lazy and too loose.
Enter: The 6% Rule.
It’s not about spending less, it’s about spending smarter—specifically, funding marketing that drives direct bookings and builds long-term guest relationships. Not middleman platforms. Not overpriced print ads. Just focused, direct marketing that actually moves your business forward.
The 6% Rule is a strategic budget guideline that allocates 6% of top-line revenue exclusively to direct marketing efforts. Not general advertising. Not “brand awareness.” This is intentional spend tied to guest conversion and repeat stays.
Let’s be clear: this isn’t a shortcut or a quick fix. It’s a focused approach that gives you permission to stop guessing and start investing in what actually grows your business.
Here’s the nuance most conversations about marketing budgets miss:
Your marketing spend should shift with the phase of your business.
This phase-based approach keeps your budget grounded in reality—and aligned with actual business needs.
You’ve probably heard or read the advice: “You should spend 10% of your revenue on marketing.” But before you buy into that, check out: Before You Demand a 10% Marketing Budget, Read This.
The problem with 10% is that it’s not grounded in context. It assumes all businesses are in the same phase, with the same margins, and the same goals. That’s not the case for most boutique hospitality owners.
“More spend does not equal better marketing. Better focus does.”
If you’re running a direct booking business, your goal isn’t to compete with Marriott. It’s to build trust, stay top of mind, and get booked directly—on your terms, not a platform’s.
This 6% should go exclusively to marketing tactics that keep you in control of the guest relationship. Think:
In other words: anything that helps guests book with you, not through a third-party middleman.
If you’re unsure how to get started, this guide will help: Before It’s Too Late: The Direct Booking Playbook Every Host Needs.
Avoid letting your 6% get eaten up by line items that don’t actually bring guests closer to you. Examples include:
Remember: direct marketing is measurable. If you can’t see where the bookings are coming from, it doesn’t belong in your 6%.
Here’s what makes the 6% Rule so effective:
You’re no longer guessing what your marketing dollars are doing.
You’re choosing to fund direct guest acquisition, not hand your margins to platforms or pay for generic impressions.
Let’s say your property earns $250,000/year. That means your 6% direct marketing budget is $15,000.
That could fund:
ROI becomes trackable, testable, and real. And most importantly? You stay in control.
The point is to stop treating “10% of revenue” like it’s a law of nature.
Yes, there are solid articles and benchmarks that use the 10% guideline, and for some businesses it can be a reasonable starting point. But if your goal is more direct bookings, your marketing budget can’t just be a percentage… it has to be a system.
That’s why I like the 6% Rule: it funds the work that compounds—owned channels, owned data, and owned tracking—so you’re not guessing what’s working or donating dollars to “vibes.” Your spend should map directly to the tools that prove impact: CRM + email/SMS, conversion tracking, attribution, retargeting, landing pages, and the content engine that feeds them.
Because in this industry, trust is built one booking at a time. And the brand that wins isn’t the one shouting the loudest — it’s the one that can see the full guest journey, nurture it, and close it… without handing the relationship to a third-party platform.