16 hotel marketing ideas: A guide for 2025

Traveler habits shift, as do tech trends and what’s popular on social platforms. To stay ahead in 2025, hotels need fresh, creative marketing strategies that boost visibility, drive engagement, and speak to the right audience. 

Build lasting guest relationships and keep your property in demand with a clever hotel marketing strategy. This guide includes actionable ideas for filling rooms and helping your hotel stand out.

What’s hotel marketing?

Hotel marketing is the act of promoting your hotel's features and availability. A marketer may use strategies like social media campaigns, SEO optimization, email newsletters, or special promotions to attract guests.

While there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to hotel marketing, most successful hotel marketing campaigns include a mix of the following:

• Online and offline promotions: Use social posts, email campaigns, and traditional marketing methods, like trade shows and events, to get the word out.
• Loyalty programs: Offer rewards or perks to encourage guests to book with you again.
• Reputation management: Encourage guests to leave positive reviews, and stay active online to build a strong reputation.
• Competitive pricing strategies: Sometimes, having the best price is a strategy in itself. Adjust your rates depending on demand and what’s happening in the market.

16 hotel marketing ideas to consider

To vary your marketing strategy and reach more potential customers, consider adopting a few of these strategies.

1. Implement a website chatbot

A chatbot makes guests’ experiences easier by answering questions immediately, helping with bookings, and suggesting personalized options. Having a fully optimized and knowledgeable chatbot on your hotel website may also reduce the time your staff spend answering questions.

2. Work with influencers

When trusted influencers recommend your hotel, it encourages people to follow your social media accounts. You get access to these influencers’ large audiences, and you can integrate your community with theirs. These new viewerships may contain demographics your other marketing strategies don’t usually reach.

3. Set the right tone and voice for your brand

Determine your hotel’s brand voice and use this consistently across all marketing materials so your target audience can quickly recognize your content. 

Make sure this tone of voice speaks to your target audience—so if your guests are busy professionals, match this, and if they’re chill holiday-goers, use that tone. This way, your audience will feel like your hotel aligns with their vibe and preferences. 

To find your brand voice:

• Define your ideal guest: Are they luxury travelers, families, or budget-conscious tourists?
• Craft messaging that evokes the right emotion: What do you want to convey—relaxation, exclusivity, convenience?
• Have a consistent communication style: Some common styles include formal and polished, casual and friendly, or playful and quirky.

Once you establish your brand voice, ensure it’s reflected in all touchpoints, like your website, social media, emails, and guest interactions.

4. Build a user-friendly website

A good hotel website should be easy to use, load quickly, and simplify booking. It also must work well on mobile devices, as many travelers will be booking and checking in on the go.

A great example to emulate is IHG brands, like Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza. Their websites offer voice-command navigation, keyboard shortcuts, and easy-to-read layouts—making booking a stay hassle-free for all travelers.

5. Optimize your SEO strategy

A good SEO strategy helps your hotel rank higher on search engines like Google, meaning more people will find your website when looking for places to stay. It also makes your content more visible on popular social media sites like Instagram and Facebook.

To boost your SEO, focus on:

• Having a directory page on your hotel website that links internally
• Using a descriptive, on-brand domain name
• Conducting keyword research and integrating popular terms into your web and social copy
• Adding keyword-related hashtags to social content
• Using tools like Semrush and Ahrefs to conduct front and back-end SEO audits

6. Invest in professional photography and video

High-quality visuals are essential for attracting guests, as many people want to see where they’ll be staying before they commit. Showcase your best features, like deluxe rooms and hotel-branded amenities, through stunning photography and videos.

The Ritz-Carlton uses high-end photography and video storytelling to showcase its luxurious rooms, gourmet dining, and spa experiences, so guests know exactly what to expect. Their Instagram features beautifully shot images that entice potential travelers, communicating everything available to enjoy.

7. Optimize your Google Business profile

A complete and up-to-date Google Business profile increases the size of your hotel’s online footprint and helps guests find key details like location, contact info, and reviews. As part of your visibility strategy, consider enhancing your hotel’s profile with a Property Spotlight, one of Engine’s cost-effective features that helps your property stand apart from the competition.

8. Implement a strong social media strategy

Actively engage on platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok to showcase your space and interact with potential guests. 

Moxy Hotels (by Marriott) excels at this, using Instagram Reels to showcase their vibrant, modern atmosphere. They also share staff profiles, guest experiences, and user-generated content to keep engagement high.

9. Use email marketing to drive direct bookings

An email list lets hotels send personalized deals, booking reminders, and loyalty updates to new and returning guests. Collect the current emails of new and returning guests during the booking process and guarantee that your email marketing contains up-to-date information about the hotel. 

10. Target business travelers with differentiated services

Business travelers are often on tight schedules, meaning they value convenience and opportunities for productivity. So promoting your hotel’s dedicated workspaces, high-speed Wi-Fi, and business-friendly amenities can attract more corporate guests.

CitizenM Hotels takes this tactic, marketing themselves as the ultimate hotel for business travelers. They offer 24/7 workspaces, meeting rooms, and fast, free Wi-Fi, highlighting these features across their marketing materials.

11. Adapt to the season

Different times of year offer different travel opportunities, so elements of your marketing strategy should change with the season. For instance, dynamic seasonal pricing helps hotels stay ahead by changing rates based on demand, events, and seasons to make more money.

12. Conduct demographic research

Understanding traveler profiles means you can speak effectively to each audience. For example, you may monitor booking demographics and change your deals based on traveler data. If you find more people traveling alone during a certain time of year, offer more packages for solo travelers.

13. Host special events

Special events like wine tastings or yoga retreats can attract guests looking for unique experiences and also get people talking, boosting word-of-mouth marketing and social media exposure. 

For example, 1 Hotels are known for their sustainability focus. They host eco-friendly workshops and nature-focused wellness retreats that set them apart and create buzz on social media.

14. Partner with local businesses

Collaborating with nearby businesses, attractions, and tour operators creates mutually beneficial promotions that strengthen community connections.

For instance, many hotels collaborate with local restaurants and wellness studios to offer exclusive guest perks. Promoting attractions outside your hotel allows you to leverage the appeal of your entire community, not just your specific building, to drive bookings. 

15. Analyze your competitors’ strategy

Keep an eye on competitor marketing to find gaps you can fill and effective strategies you can also implement. Check out their pricing, deals, and guest engagement to see how you stack up—and where you can improve.

16. Monitor metrics and implement changes

Tracking key performance indicators (KPIs) like website visits, social media activity, and conversion rates helps you see what's working and what can be improved. Luckily, platforms like Partner Hub give you access to these metrics and more, making tracking easy.

Best practices of successful hotel marketing

Here are some best practices to keep in mind as you’re developing your marketing plan:

• Be consistent: Make sure all messaging matches your brand and gives guests accurate and compelling information every time.
• Stay updated on industry trends: Keeping up with technological developments, like the adoption of AI chatbots, helps your marketing stay fresh and relevant.
• Use analytics: Looking at your internal data helps you tweak pricing, services, and marketing for better results by giving you information about exactly what kind of people book a stay.
• Engage with guests authentically: Replying quickly to reviews and messages shows you care and helps build trust.

Boost your hotel marketing strategy with Partner Hub

Crafting and implementing a content marketing strategy isn’t easy—let Partner Hub simplify hotel digital marketing for your team by providing powerful tools for campaign management, market analysis, and performance tracking. Join Partner Hub for free today, and get $100 in ad credit when you run your first marketing campaign.

FAQs

What role does sustainability play in hotel marketing?

Many travelers now consider sustainability when choosing where to stay. Hotels can promote eco-friendly efforts like using solar energy, saving water, offering locally sourced food, and cutting down on waste. Highlighting green certifications or partnerships with sustainability groups can also build trust and keep guests coming back.

What are some low-budget marketing ideas for independent hotels?

Here are a few ways independent hotels can maximize their marketing impact:

• Social media development and influencer partnerships
• SEO-optimized blog content
• Local collaborations with tour companies and restaurants
• Email marketing for past guests
• User-generated content and guest reviews

What emerging technologies are shaping hotel marketing?

AI-driven chatbots, virtual tours, mobile check-ins, and hyper-personalized guest experiences can transform your marketing strategy. Hotels using these technologies might improve bookings and guest satisfaction.

How do hotels measure marketing success?

Hotels track success using key performance indicators (KPIs), such as website traffic, conversion rates, direct bookings versus OTA bookings, social media engagement, and guest reviews.