HOTEL BUSINESS REVIEW
JUNE FOCUS: Sales & Marketing

Hotel Marketing 2.0

By Allison Handy Senior Vice President, Sales & Marketing, Prism Hotels & Resorts | June 2022

As the hotel industry continues to transition away from the financial stresses and operational upheavals of COVID to a more stable post-pandemic position, owners and operators are taking stock and working to embrace to a new normal.

As always, marketing remains essential. Hotels are clearly still taking pains to acknowledge in their marketing the health protocols they have implemented to ensure guest safety and wellness, reassuring guests that every precaution is being taken to safeguard their well-being.

But this message has gone from front and center to fine print.

Aside from that obvious point of emphasis, however, how else have marketing strategies evolved at a time when, for better or for worse, the industry has changed in seemingly indelible ways-and when the market looks very different than it did just a few short months ago? What new marketing strategies, tactics, priorities, and emerging best practices are helping hotels stand out in a fast-changing market?

Understanding what is working now for leading properties and hotel management teams is critically important. Not just because of the necessity of bolstering bottom lines and spurring growth in the near term, but also because it can potentially provide a glimpse into the future of the industry: giving industry professionals a better idea of what the mid- and long-term marketing landscape will look like for many years to come.

Grab the Funnel

Traditionally, top-of-funnel marketing has always been driven by the brands. Prior to COVID, the standard structure was for the brands to stimulate the desire for travel and put their brand front and center-and then for that to filter down to individual properties, which had the responsibility to capture that demand at their individual hotel. But during COVID (and in the immediate post-pandemic period), that dynamic shifted in a profound way. When elective travel stopped cold turkey, brands took a big step back and individual properties were forced to actively engage at the top of the funnel.

Hotels looking to maximize their marketing efforts and stay competitive recognized that they needed to actively create the need for people to travel. No longer can they just capture the business that was flowing their way like the good old days, but rather, hotels need to inspire people to travel to their hotel in the first place.

While a temporary problem and solution, growing numbers of hotels have experienced the success that can result from this shift in the marketing model and it has remained even as travel has rebounded.

That has played out in several ways and across different segments. We are seeing a continuation and evolution of the successful Work from Anywhere campaigns that first took off in the heart of the pandemic-essentially encouraging remote workers to dream about the prospect of a simple change of scenery: why work from home when you can work poolside at a hotel and enjoy a quick swim in between calls or at the end of your workday? Scenic imagery in general-and pool imagery specifically-remains a pivotal piece of the marketing puzzle, with lots of hotels leading with pool imagery and even marketing programs inviting parents to bring their kids to swim in the pool clearly targeting families looking for a safe and much-needed change in routine.

We've seen this evolve as of late to more creative workspaces as it has become more and more acceptable to work remote and even in vacation destinations. In the group space, we are seeing successful properties inspiring meetings with outdoor events, using marketing language and promotional imagery highlighting outdoor event space and pointing out additional perks like attached meeting rooms, free outdoor welcome receptions, and other extras. Perhaps a zoom meeting was planned but the ideation of an easy, safe outdoor event through the right marketing can stimulate that decision to switch to in-person. For bookers looking to plan corporate events after an extended period of down-time, that can be an appealing proposition: much more so than a dowdy ballroom, without any lingering concerns about group events indoors.

As the worst and most disruptive impacts of COVID continue to wane, and as growing numbers of travelers start traveling again, brands are starting to reengage with marketing. But hotels remain very involved. This new dynamic has largely stayed in place, and properties are training and executing their own top-of-funnel marketing initiatives. Going forward, it will be fascinating to see if (and for how long) that shift persists.

Inspire the Why

To be able to successfully operate in that top-of-funnel space as described above, hotel owners and operators have had to learn how to "inspire the why.", and not just the where. It simply is not enough to just say you are going to orient your marketing efforts in ways that motivate people to travel to your hotel, like the days of the past-you must have the specific skills and execute the strategies required inspire why they should travel to your hotel in order to make that happen. That starts with being more intentional and thinking critically about how specific words and images inspire prospective travelers and guests.

In an industry space that has traditionally been extremely focused on numbers and metrics and market segments, becoming skilled storytellers and creating messaging and materials that get people to dream and inspire them to travel does not usually happen overnight. It requires training: developing new skillsets with marketing teams and potentially bringing in outside experts to facilitate that process. It also requires information: you have to teach your people to understand the why before they can inspire the why. There are a number of ways to gather that information, but one of the most effective is to go right to the source – fish where the fish are: consider asking each and every guest why they are traveling upon check in.

You can acquire valuable information using this simple guest engagement and learn things that will surprise you and will almost certainly inform your marketing efforts to stimulate demand and capture more of it. One of our own properties, for example, found that a much higher percentage of guests than we had suspected were staying at the hotel in question as part of a golf vacation, so we knew to pivot our content to lead with information about golf trips, access to golf, and the golf experience at our hotel.

Inspiring the why does not just require changing how you talk in your marketing efforts-but where you say it. Social channels and platforms are particularly rich sources of inspiration for potential travelers, and increasing your social spend and the sophistication of your social content is an important piece of the marketing puzzle in this industry moment.

Revenue Optimization

As hotels continue to emerge from the shadow of the pandemic and get busier seemingly by the day, their priorities start to shift from doing everything possible to get people in the door to becoming more strategic and thoughtful about how to manage that demand and capture rate. There is a growing focus on ADR right now, and a push from successful properties to refocus on profit optimization. With strong demand and so many dates of compression, savvy revenue teams are moving to direct their marketing resources toward their most profitable channels. It is less of a shotgun approach aimed at every channel, and more of a precisely targeted focus that reflects current market realities and the return to a keener level of focus on profitability by channel.

Those revenue optimization contributions from the marketing side are much easier to implement when Sales, Marketing, and Revenue is all functioning as a single team. When your goals, targets, and incentives are all aligned, your strategies can be, as well, and properties with a synergized collaborative commercial team will be able to adjust to shifting conditions more efficiently and act in a speedier and more coordinated manner as demand changes over time. At the property level, the industry has always been about sales first. But it feels like we are moving into a new paradigm, where there is now much more of a balance between sales and marketing. Perhaps as an acknowledgement of that shift, brands seem to be getting better about providing marketing training for members of their sales team.

Capture Ancillary Spend

One of the many ways in which hotels have changed over the course of the pandemic is becoming much more adept (out of necessity) at capturing ancillary spend when guests didn't want to venture out and about: allowing hotels to drive guest utilization of outlets, resources, and amenities within the hotel or resort. Many guests have become more comfortable with this and have rediscovered the convenience of going to a resort and simply staying there, taking advantage of on-site dining and other in-house amenities. Hotel owners and operators have responded by offering more incentives to keep them there such as hotel or resort credits as part of promotional packages; these credits can be used in the spa, restaurant, gift shop, market, etc. Marketing priorities should reflect that shift and highlight both the amenities and the programs designed to help guests make use of them.

Grouping up

There is an interesting dynamic playing out right now in the group space. Group demand is quite strong, but bookings are taking place in very short windows relative to pre-pandemic norms. In many cases, events that would have been planned weeks, months, or even years ahead of time in the past are now being finalized just days in advance. Presumably driven by planners' desire to wait until the last minute to make sure their event will still be taking place, this trend likely will not be sustainable for much longer as booking volumes continue to increase.

On the marketing side, industry professionals need to get out ahead of the coming shift and recognize that they need to be educating customers that availability is shifting rapidly from what they've been used to over the past two years, and marketing for longer booking timelines. In other words: at this moment in time, they should no longer be marketing for next month, but for the fall).

Bolster your team

Finally, it is important to realize that with bookings on the rise and many hotel owners and operators recognizing the need to make a correspondingly significant shift in their marketing approach, building a bigger and better marketing team is a necessity. Some properties are already ahead of the game, having moved quickly to take advantage when many talented and experienced marketing professionals were furloughed or laid off in the early days of the pandemic. Those hotel owners and operators with the foresight to invest in their marketing teams early find themselves in an advantageous position relative to their more cautious competitors.

The figurative bottom line is that the literal bottom line has long been dependent on the quality of the people on your marketing team. At a time when seemingly everything else has changed or is in the process of changing, that foundational truth remains.

Main Image: El Conquistador Tucson, a Hilton Resort located in Tucson, Arizona. The resort combines beautiful natural landscapes, a myriad of local attractions, 45-holes of championship golf, 31 tennis courts, four onsite restaurants and bars, recreational facilities and more than 107,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor function space.

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We can be reached via telephone, email, or online at our contact page. When you visit our site we do not log any information regarding your domain or email address. Information Sharing: We do not share user information with any third parties other than via press release distribution as described below.

Hotel Newswire is a newswire service that distributes press releases on behalf of our users. If you decide to submit a press release for distribution through our system we will transmit your entire press release including any personal information therein contained to our media contacts and online distribution points including search engines. This is the only redistribution of your information that we engage in. Your submission of press releases through our system indicates consent with this policy. The information we collect during your registration process is used to notify users about updates to our service and inform users of any special events hosted by Hotel Newswire. This information is not shared with other organizations for commercial or non-commercial purposes.

Cookies: Our system requires the use of cookies to enable the user to log back into our website to access information from the newswire, without having to log in each time using the required username and password.

If you do not want to receive email from us in the future, please let us know by following instructions included in our communication with you. Users who supply us with telephone numbers online may receive telephone contact from us regarding their account, or informing them of new products and services available on the HotelExecutive website. If you do not wish to receive such telephone calls, please edit your account and remove your phone number from your account profile. This can be done from your user account menu.

Ad Servers: We do not partner with or have any relationship with any ad server companies. From time to time, we may use customer information for new uses not previously disclosed in our privacy notice. If our information practices change at any time, we will post the policy changes to our website to notify you of these changes and provide you with the ability to opt out of these new uses. If you are concerned about how your information is used, you should check back at our website periodically.

Upon request we provide site visitors with access to all information (including proprietary information) that we maintain about them. Users can access this information by logging in to their account.

Security: We always use industry-standard encryption technologies while transferring and receiving user data exchanged with our site. We have appropriate security measures in place in our physical facilities to protect against the loss, misuse, or alteration of information that we have collected from you on our site. We do not store credit card information in our systems.

If you feel that this site is not following its stated information policy, you may contact us.

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Spring Break Fever: Prepping Frontline Hospitality Workers for Travel Chaos

By Carol Leaman, Co-founder, Axonify

Time off from school, warmer weather and a flurry of travel discounts drive millions of Americans to book vacations during spring break. And this year, changing vacation habits could see even more people booking getaways during this ideal travel time. Experts predict springtime travel is growing more popular as Americans begin to favor vacations in the months outside the busy summer season while also trying to prolong their trips. This is good news for the hospitality and tourism industries. However, an even greater influx of guests during spring break will inevitably add to the stress and pressure that frontline...

Amsterdam Manor Beach Resort Aruba: Where Warmth Meets Efficiency

By Jurgen Van Schaijk, Owner and Managing Director, Amsterdam Manor Beach Resort

Nestled along the pristine shores of Eagle Beach – the award-winning stretch of sand ranked the No. 1 beach in the Caribbean by TripAdvisor and consistently among the top beaches in the world – Amsterdam Manor Beach Resort Aruba is a boutique gem that seamlessly blends Dutch colonial charm with modern Caribbean comfort. Beyond its picture-perfect setting and distinctive architecture, what truly sets us apart is our deeply personal approach to guest service. From innovative digital tools to heartfelt hospitality traditions, every detail is intentionally designed to make each stay truly memorable. At Amsterdam Manor, hospitality isn’t just a department...

How a Training Professional Can Breathe Life Into Your Guest Service

By Merrick Dresnin, Chief People Services Officer, Cote Hospitality

In the highly competitive hospitality industry, the key to success often lies in consistently delivering guest experiences. To achieve this, resorts must go beyond simply creating standards. The standards must resonate throughout the operation. They must be deeply embedded in daily operations. The right training professional can ensure that standards are embedded and delivered. In this article, we will explore the impact the correct training person can have on the operation, and how they can achieve so much so successfully. As complicated as a training role can be, successful impact on a property's service delivery can...

What the Hotel Industry Can Learn from Liam Payne's Tragic Accident

By Kathleen Lin Hurtubise, CEO & Founder of AlohaHP, AlohaHP

The passing of Liam Payne at CasaSur Palmero Hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on October 16, 2024, is a tragic example for the hospitality industry to ensure that the safety of their guests remains a top priority. Reports of Payne’s death say that the singer fell from a balcony with worries that fainting and substance use may have contributed to this awful situation. As authorities work to find out more about the details of this tragedy, it is imperative for the hospitality industry to pause and reflect to ensure leadership efforts are in place to protect those who depend on...

Understanding Subordination, Non-Disturbance and Attornment Agreements (SNDAs)

By Wendy Hansen, Counsel, Eversheds Sutherland

At some point in the ownership lifecycle of nearly every hotel, the owner will seek debt financing – whether for construction, acquisition, recapitalization or renovation. The basic loan documentation will be consistent with loans for other commercial property types, typically including a promissory note, loan agreement, deed of trust or mortgage, assignment of leases, UCC-1 financing statements, and a subordination, non-disturbance and attornment agreement or “SNDA”. While the SNDA is a fairly common instrument in commercial real estate transactions and the underlying principles are the same, there are unique considerations when applied to a hotel financing. This article is...

Understanding Hotel Liability for Trafficking Allegations Under the TVPRA

By Shubhra Mashelkar, Partner, Weinberg Wheeler Hudgins Gunn & Dial

The hospitality industry is facing increasing legal scrutiny over its role in human trafficking. A key driver is the civil liability provision in the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA), 18 U.S.C. § 1595(a), which has led to a surge in lawsuits. Courts are now assessing when hotels and other businesses can be held liable for trafficking that occurs on their premises. As case law develops, industry leaders need to understand how these rulings are shaping their legal responsibilities.1. Context: The Evolution of the TVPRA and its Impact on HotelsThe Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA), enacted in 2000, was designed...

By Tracy Ford, Vice President Member Services, Wireless Infrastructure Association

We are a mobile-first society. So much so that when people are getting ready to book travel, they turn to their smartphone to find airline flights and hotel reservations, compare prices and check availability. Flights are booked and hotel reservations made through apps. Once travelers have landed at the airport, transportation to their destination is ordered via a mobile app. Upon arrival at the hotel, they might use their phones to check in, make dinner reservations and order cleaning services. Upon departure, they may use their app to ensure that their loyalty program points were successfully updated, the...

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By Allison Handy Senior Vice President, Sales & Marketing, Prism Hotels & Resorts | June 2022

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