piatkow - 3:30 pm on Oct 17, 2011 (gmt 0)

Have you ever tried to find an independent hotel? Unless you already know the name and location you will usually have the first page of the SERPS swamped by booking sites giving you a choice of chain hotels miles away from your preferred destination. Frustrating though it may be for affiliate marketers I can understand why hoteliers may try and game the system to actually get found through Google, even if at one remove.