Has Hotel Marketing Forgotten About Sales?

Hotel marketing teams have become laser-focused on the leisure guest.
And that’s not a bad thing—direct bookings matter. Conversion rates matter.

But in that pursuit, something critical has been left behind: the sales team.

It tends to go like this: Marketing obsesses over every detail of the leisure guest’s experience:

• What does the ad creative look like?
• How fast does the website load?
• Is the booking path optimized?
• What does the confirmation email say?
• Are the pre-arrival and post-stay messages personalized?

Every touchpoint is analyzed, tested, and refined. But when it comes to group business? Crickets. Where’s the same level of care for meeting and wedding planners? Too often, Marketing acts like its job stops at leisure. Meanwhile, Sales is left to chase leads with outdated collateral, buried web pages, and generic email templates.

Sales needs more than just a brochure. They need:

• Group-specific website content
• Targeted campaigns for planners
• Fresh event photos and videos
• On-brand proposal tools
• Digital brochures that help sales teams sell

In short, they need Marketing’s support.

Marketing should be asking the same questions about group as they do about leisure:

• Is it easy for a planner to find the group info they need?
• Do we have strong visuals that show off our event spaces?
• Are we running campaigns that put us in front of the right planners at the right time?

Because here’s the truth...
If group business matters to your hotel, it deserves the same marketing muscle as leisure.

This isn’t about choosing one over the other. It’s about remembering that Sales and Marketing are on the same team—they always have been.