Hotel marketing in 2025 has become more advanced — walking a property with purpose can open our eyes

After the challenging years of 2020 and 2021, we saw a promising resurgence in 2022 with the advent of ‘Revenge Travel.’ This trend, coupled with the addition of corporate and group business in 2023, and now the return of international business, paints a hopeful picture for the future. Despite the slow supply growth due to the lack of lender appetite during the COVID era and the current high interest rates, we can look forward to a full circle next year when interest rates drop and all market segments return to 2019 levels or beyond.

Hospitality Marketing in 2025

In 2025, every facet of marketing must be deployed as both guests and hotel companies have become way more sophisticated. Michael Porter has always been considered the dean of strategy. His “Porter’s Five Forces” allows a business to analyze its position vis a vis a competitive set or “rivalry” with forces from new entrants, buyers, sellers, and substitutes. An academic exercise that pinpoints a hotel’s competitive position is well worth investing time. What are the dynamics of hospitality industry competition? The hotel industry has undergone a significant change whereby every brand has a sub-brand designed, in theory, for every possible type of guest. These guests range from economy to extended stay to luxury resorts and everywhere.  

Today, we must focus on what type of guest we want for multiple reasons—one is price point, and another is guest type. Utilizing a combination of different channels, we should target the right guest for our property and, as revenue managers preach, “the right guest at the right time, at the right price, and via the right channel.” Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter allow us to promote our hotels and provide more personalized customer service than ever before. These social media profiles are a key element that impacts organic search rankings for our businesses. With the advent of digital marketing, we’ve seen a quantum shift from hospitality as an art to hospitality as a science. 

By laser-targeting guests, we can begin to develop customer equity. “Wow Customer Service” is truly the key to creating customer equity. A zero defects mindset will allow for one of the inferior service levels like basic service and, rather than that, provide “wow” customer service to ensure guests consider returning to our hospitality business. Whether the guest is interested in sustainability, great restaurants, nightclubs, sports, or walking trails, we can find something to enjoy about our properties.

Hotel Marketing is more than your “Marketing Department”

An up-to-date website that is easy to navigate and an optimized search engine is a good start. A clean parking lot with all lighting properly working provides an excellent first impression. Is our staff smiling with a cheerful greeting? Reservations must be in order—if we ask our front desk team member how many rooms are left to sell and they say, “I don’t know, let me check,” that is not good.  All staff should be well-groomed, well-informed, and have that “hustle” that says, what do you need? I am here for you! Guests at breakfast should be seated in an extremely clean and sanitized environment with hot food “hot,” cold food “cold.” Quick summary for operators:

• Optimize your website and social media channels
• Light up your parking lot – safety first!
• Train your front desk staff
• Smile!

What else are Hotel Owners and Operators responsible for?

A great place to check these days is our social media—do promotions make sense? Are they up-to-date with regular postings? After walking the property, do we see debris on the ground at the end of the day? Was everything in working order in the bathrooms and public areas? Do we feel like there is someone in charge? In other words, do we feel like there is a management presence that ensures the property is operating at peak effectiveness? Try it—politely ensure it is fixed if your retail shop is not stocked well and your bathroom soap dispensers are empty. This is normal, but not following up will leave the team feeling nobody cares.

Not only is the Head of Marketing responsible for keeping tabs on social media and the website, but having an active presence from operations and management will make sure the guests are happy, which of course leads to happy reviews. Great reviews on TripAdvisor can be a make or break for a large group committing to your hotel for 2025.

Check out these other articles to stay ahead of the curve

Transforming Hotels with Artificial Intelligence – Operators Who Ignore New Tech Will Be at a Severe Disadvantage

Hotel Owner Strategy for 2025 – Thinking of purchasing a hotel? Read this first.