instrumental tactics
A hotel marketing blog for
serious hotel marketers.

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.

The gap between revenue management and marketing is smaller than you think.
In order to close the gap, we need to understand what a successful collaboration looks like.

Which digital marketing tools and tech are eating away at your precious hotel marketing dollars?
When the budget gets tight—and let’s face it…the budget is tight—hotel marketers are forced to get rid of any marketing tools and tech that aren’t critical to driving revenue.

The buzz phrase you need to know this budgeting season
Every year, hotel marketers look at a blank media plan and ask themselves, “How much should I budget for digital marketing?” But is that the right question to be asking?