I get a message from a prospect who wants to start working with me, but their current web agency is demanding an outrageous fee just to exit the contract. Second time this week. The last one? €100,000.
One. Hundred. Thousand. Euros.
As if we were negotiating a hostage release.
I won’t dwell on this Red Brigades–style exit strategy. The real issue is the original sin: the moment the contract is signed. That’s where the deception begins.
What all these agencies have in common is the so-called commission-based model. They sell it as proof that they “work for results.” And that’s exactly where the monumental nonsense lies.
Hotels feel clever. They’re convinced that paying a percentage somehow forces the agency to perform. It’s the same naïveté as believing a fox will turn vegetarian if you lock it inside a henhouse.
Because if you pay me on conversions, I will work only on conversions.
I won’t touch demand generation.
I won’t build brand, awareness, or consideration.
I won’t invest a cent in top- or mid-funnel activity.
I’ll fish where the river is already full — the last mile — because that’s where commissions pile up.
The hotel believes it has trapped the agency in a virtuous pact (“Now they’ll have to prove they’re good! We got them!”).
Reality check: in many cases, the agency simply runs brand protection campaigns in Exact Match on two or three profitable markets, sets everything up in ten minutes, and then lives off the rent for years.
Naturally, the hotel never gets access to Google Ads.
No keyword list.
No CPC data.
(Which, by the way, goes directly against Google’s own policies — just to be clear.)
Smoke.
Mirrors.
And a very expensive illusion.
Simone Puorto
