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Hotel Marketing, Brand Strategy, and Direct Booking Essentials
A foundational path from hotel marketing strategy and positioning through digital visibility, channels, direct booking, content, social media, metasearch, CRM, loyalty, and reputation.
This collection contains 18 connected articles. Foundational concepts appear first so readers can build context before moving into operational and advanced topics.
What Is Hotel Marketing?
Hotel marketing is the work of understanding audiences and creating, communicating, and delivering credible reasons for guests and accounts to choose a hotel.
Marketing & Distribution · Brand PositioningWhat Is Hotel Brand Positioning?
Hotel brand positioning defines how a hotel intends to be understood and preferred relative to relevant alternatives by a specific target audience.
Marketing & Distribution · Marketing PlanningWhat Is a Hotel Marketing Plan?
A hotel marketing plan is a structured record of marketing objectives, audiences, positioning, channels, campaigns, budget, calendar, ownership, measurement, and review.
Marketing & Distribution · Digital MarketingWhat Is Hotel Digital Marketing?
Hotel digital marketing uses digital channels and experiences to attract, inform, convert, serve, and retain hotel audiences.
Marketing & Distribution · Demand GenerationWhat Is Hotel Demand Generation?
Hotel demand generation is coordinated marketing and sales activity intended to create or stimulate qualified awareness, interest, inquiries, and bookings for a hotel.
Marketing & Distribution · Marketing ChannelsWhat Is a Hotel Marketing Channel?
A hotel marketing channel is a route used to reach, communicate with, influence, or convert a hotel audience.
Marketing & Distribution · Direct BookingWhat Is Direct Booking?
A direct booking is a hotel reservation made through a hotel-controlled channel, such as its website booking engine, reservation phone line, call center, supported email process, front desk, or walk-in process.
Marketing & Distribution · Direct BookingWhat Is a Hotel Booking Engine?
A hotel booking engine is the guest-facing reservation technology that displays a hotel’s live offers and allows a traveler to complete a direct booking.
Marketing & Distribution · Search Engine OptimizationWhat Is Hotel Search Engine Optimization?
Hotel search engine optimization, or SEO, is the work of improving a hotel website’s accessibility, usefulness, structure, and technical clarity so it can be discovered and understood in unpaid search results.
Marketing & Distribution · Content MarketingWhat Is Hotel Content Marketing?
Hotel content marketing creates and distributes useful, accurate content that helps travelers, planners, accounts, and guests understand a destination, occasion, property, or hotel experience.
Marketing & Distribution · Social Media MarketingWhat Is Hotel Social Media Marketing?
Hotel social media marketing uses social platforms to communicate, build awareness, engage communities, support reputation, and promote credible hotel and destination experiences.
Marketing & Distribution · Metasearch AdvertisingWhat Is Hotel Metasearch Advertising?
Hotel metasearch advertising is paid or sponsored placement that displays a hotel’s rate, availability, and booking link within a metasearch comparison experience.
Marketing & Distribution · Online DistributionWhat Is Hotel Metasearch?
Hotel metasearch is a comparison experience that displays hotel information and bookable prices from multiple reservation sources, then sends the traveler to a selected booking provider to complete the reservation.
Marketing & Distribution · Reputation ManagementWhat Is Hotel Reputation Management?
Hotel reputation management is the coordinated work of monitoring, understanding, responding to, and learning from how guests and the public perceive a hotel.
Technology & Data · Guest and Account Data SystemsWhat Is a Hotel CRM?
A hotel customer relationship management system (CRM) organizes information and activity related to guests, prospects, companies, contacts, preferences, communications, and commercial relationships.
Guest Experience · Loyalty and RetentionWhat Is a Hotel Loyalty Program?
A hotel loyalty program is a structured membership program that recognizes eligible guest activity with benefits, points, status, offers, or experiences under published terms.
Marketing & Distribution · Online DistributionWhat Is an Online Travel Agency (OTA)?
An online travel agency (OTA) is a digital travel marketplace through which consumers can search, compare, and book travel products such as hotel rooms. For hotels, OTAs are third-party distribution and marketing channels that can provide visibility and reservations under agreed commercial terms.
Marketing & Distribution · Online DistributionWhat Is Hotel Rate Parity?
Hotel rate parity refers to consistency in the public price or offer displayed for a comparable hotel room across distribution channels, subject to the exact room, dates, occupancy, inclusions, restrictions, taxes, currency, and eligibility being compared.