instrumental tactics
A hotel marketing blog for
serious hotel marketers.

Can video answer the most important question in hotel marketing?
What are you really selling? That’s the single most important question in hotel marketing. Just like Apple doesn’t sell computers and Disney doesn’t sell rides, you don’t sell room nights.

The forgotten tool of great hospitality marketers.
For luxury hotels and resorts looking to leverage their past guest data, few mediums have the potential to provide a more surprising and frankly more delightful brand touchpoint.

The hotel website you didn’t know you had.
What was once no more than a simple directory listing with a link back to your website is now Google’s central hub for your hotel, aggregating reviews, pricing, even things to do nearby.
Latest Stories

The dirty word in hotel website design.
For many hotel marketers, the words stock photography are synonymous with cheesy smiles and terrible lighting. But in the right hands, stock can be so much more.

So who’s in charge of your OTA strategy these days?
The decision to list with an OTA results in a series of cascading decisions you’ll need to make about how best to leverage them. With that said, who owns the OTA strategy for your hotel?

Three powerful marketing automations you should be using
Email is one of the few digital marketing tools that delivers on the promise of automation. Here are three simple automations that produce powerful results.

Is Promoted Hotels Google’s Christmas gift to hoteliers?
Meet Promoted Hotels: It’s Google’s latest metasearch ad unit. And it’s available to any hoteliers currently running metasearch advertising.

Need to overhaul your meetings product? There are some people you should talk to.
Looking to overhaul your meetings and groups product? Before you do anything, talk to the people who know it best.

Metasearch advertising just got a lot more complicated
Not quite sure the difference between an OTA and a metasearch engine? That’s okay. It’s getting pretty confusing.

Zoom in on that zip code: Get the “billboard effect” without the billboard cost
Getting hotel guests to take advantage of great amenities is one thing, but introducing your product to locals who may or may not know your restaurant or spa even exists requires another strategy entirely.

The other Social Dilemma facing hoteliers this budget season.
Advertisers, too, have fallen victim to the ever expanding costs of managing and maintaining their social media marketing efforts. With every new platform that hoteliers embrace comes a host of associated marketing costs.

Want to increase wedding business? It just takes one great photo.
One great photo can seal the deal. One bad photo (or, worse, no photos at all) could be the deal-breaker on a $34,000 piece of business.