Okay. Take out a pencil and paper. Draw a horizontal line across the page. At the left end of the line, write the word advertising. At the right end of the line, write the phrase word-of mouth. Now ask yourself the following question: As a hotelier, if you have the choice between running an advertisement for your hotel in the newspaper, or having the newspaper run a story on your property as an article, which would you choose? Of course, you would go for the article. After all, it would be free, right? But there is a more important reason for choosing the article. It carries far more credibility than your ad.

This is the power of three for hotel marketing. It is called publicity or public relations (PR) and it falls along the continuum between advertising and word of mouth. We all know that the most powerful form of promotion is a recommendation from others we trust. This is how we may decide to visit a hotel for the first time, see a movie, or try a new supplier. But absent a personal good word from family or friends, we look for a third party to help us decide whether ...