A LinkedIn post from a Cloudbeds PMS CEO, Adam Harris, calling out Mews for running Google ads under the “Cloudbeds” keywords quickly turned into one of the more active industry threads we’ve seen in a while. It didn’t stop there. Another PMS CEO, Stayntouch’s Jacob Messina, jumped into the comments, turning it into a very public back-and-forth that felt less like marketing chatter and more like competitive positioning playing out in real time.
The reactions were split. Some saw it as standard performance marketing, others called it deceptive. An agency eventually stepped in to take responsibility, which is rare enough to be notable on its own.
Fun fact, and one that might make some of you cringe… You can bid on a competitor’s brand terms, even if they’re trademarked. Google loosened the rules years ago and largely pushed enforcement onto the trademark owner. Translation: the auction is wide open.
Now, before everyone calls their lawyer, a quick reality check. You generally can’t stop someone from bidding on your name. That’s fair game. Where it crosses the line is if they try to pretend to be you in the ad copy or mislead the guest into thinking they’re the official site. That’s where you have some recourse.
If this sounds familiar, it should. OTAs have been doing this to hotels for years, bidding on your brand, showing up above you, and inserting themselves right at the moment of booking.
Different category, same game. And like it or not, if you’re not defending your brand in search… someone else probably is.
