Award Announcements Are Not Content: The Hotel Marketing Trap
The one question I'd put on every hotel content calendar
Sometimes I look at hotel content and think it's fantastic, if the target audience is another hotelier. Hotels sometimes create content based on what people inside the industry will appreciate, and the traveler it was meant for keeps scrolling.
So before your next post goes live, ask yourself one question: "Would an actual guest care?"
Why hotels fall into it
When you work in a hotel, you live inside the product. You know the renovation budget, the ownership priorities and the brand standards, and how much work went into that award. I spent years on the hotel side, so I understand why those things feel important. The traveler scrolling Instagram has none of that context. They're thinking about their vacation, the anniversary, the weekend away, or where they're going to eat tonight.
Then you add approval layers. Hotel marketing can pass through marketing, sales, the GM, ownership, corporate brand teams and sometimes even legal. Every layer can be reasonable on its own, but by the time everyone has removed the thing they personally don't like, the personality can be gone. A piece of content can earn a round of applause in the Monday marketing meeting and still do absolutely nothing for the guests you're trying to reach.
Hotel news is where the story starts
With an award, the instinct is to put a badge on the graphic and announce that we're thrilled and honored. Great, but nothing in that post tells a guest why they should care.
I'm not saying never post an award. The subject is only the starting point, and the job of marketing is to translate it. If your restaurant wins an award, show me the dish I now need to try, or introduce me to the chef. If you hire an incredible new GM, tell me what that person's arrival is going to do for me as the guest.
Renovations can be very exciting content, and guests would love a time lapse or a pre and post look at where their money is going. Where it goes wrong is the hotel version of the announcement: "We're excited to unveil a multimillion dollar transformation featuring refreshed guest rooms and elevated design." That tells me what the hotel did. The guest version tells me what changes for the person staying there, like better workspaces, larger showers, quieter rooms and more space for the family. Soundproofing means a better night's sleep.
- "Stop treating hotel news as finished content and start treating it as raw material for a guest story."
- "The person approving the marketing is not automatically the person that we're marketing to."
- "The image gets my attention for a second. The story gives me a reason to remember the hotel."
- "Beauty is an ingredient in the strategy. It can't be the entire strategy anymore."
Beautiful photos are the baseline now
Beautiful photography still matters, especially in luxury. It used to be a differentiator, and today it's the baseline, because everyone has a great camera in their pocket and every luxury hotel has access to talented photographers. A technically perfect photo of a bed may satisfy the brand team, but there are tens of thousands of technically perfect hotel photos online. A gorgeous pool shot can still work if there's a human moment in it, or a caption that gives me a reason to picture myself there.
What to change in your next content meeting
If you're a GM or owner, change the order of the conversation. Before anyone says "I like this" or "I don't like this", ask who the post is for, what you're trying to accomplish, why that audience should care, and what evidence led the team to the creative choice. Asking why it will work gets you further than asking whether the logo can be bigger.
Your hotel isn't for everybody, either. Content made for families traveling with kids, honeymooners, business travelers or food driven travelers is fine, and the more you can niche, the better. If you can't say why the intended guest would care, don't throw the idea away. It just means you haven't found the story yet.
To judge what's working, look at audience behavior. Ownership calling a post beautiful doesn't count, and neither does another hotel marketer commenting "oh, I love this". The signal is whether the people you want to reach are sharing, saving, clicking and visiting the website. If a less polished but more human piece consistently gets shared and saved, that's information.
If the answer to "would an actual guest care" is no, don't kill the subject straight away. Ask what would make them care, because that's where the creative work begins.
We go through all of this in the full episode. Watch on YouTube or listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
Calvin and the Revpar Media team build hotel marketing that drives bookings, from social media management to influencer campaigns.
Book a 30-minute callFull transcript
Calvin Tilokee Here's an uncomfortable question for hotel marketers. Who are you actually marketing to? Because sometimes I look at hotel content and think, this is fantastic. If the target audience is another hotelier. Your guests don't care about your hotel the way you do. They care about what your hotel can do for them. So before your next post goes live, ask yourself one question. Would an actual guest care? I'm Calvin Tilokee and this is Socially Awkward. When I say hotels are marketing to other hoteliers, I mean we sometimes create content based on what people inside the industry will appreciate rather than what will make a potential guest stop. And like in care, we know how hard it is to win the awards.
Finish the renovation. Recruit those executives and get the perfect architectural shot. So those things feel inherently important to us inside the industry. But the traveler scrolling Instagram has none of that context. They're thinking about their vacation, their business trip, the anniversary, the weekend away, or where they're going to eat tonight. This is the distinction that I want hotels to start making. A piece of content can earn a round of applause in the Monday marketing meeting, and still do absolutely nothing for the guests that you're trying to reach. The goal of marketing is not to prove to other hotel people that we understand hotels. It's to make the traveler understand why our hotel belongs part of their life or part of the trip.
And why is this such an easy trap for hotels to fall into? Because when you work in hotels, you live inside the product. You know the renovation budget, the ownership priorities, the brand standards, the awards, admissions and how much work went into any particular initiative. Naturally, those things become important to you. Then you add approval layers, and the safest content is often the easiest content to get everyone to agree on. I understand that because I spent years on the hotel side. The danger is assuming that the guest has the same relationship with our hotel that we do. They don't. A GM may be fascinated by a new leadership appointment. A revenue person may care about a repositioning, a designer may care about the thread count or renovation. But the guest is asking whether consciously or not.
What does this mean for me? If we never answer that question, then we're just talking to ourselves. Hey, real quick before we continue. If you're a hotel owner or GM who's been told you need social media, but every agency you've tried just doesn't get hospitality. We hear that a lot at RF, PA, media. We're not a generic marketing agency. We come from hotel operations. We understand RF, PA. We understand ownership, and we build campaigns around what actually converts for your property. If that's something you're looking to solve right now, scan the QR code on screen or hit the link in the show notes. Now back to the show. So some examples of content that hotels think is important but guest may not care about is awards hotels winning award.
And the instinct is put a badge on the graphic and announcer. We're thrilled and honored. Great. But why should a guest care? The same thing happens with executive appointments, corporate milestones, design terminology, and generic beauty shots. We know why those things matter internally, so we assume their importance is self-evident externally. Even room photography can fall into this trap. Technically, perfect photo of a bed may satisfy the brand team, but there are tens of thousands of technically perfect hotel photos online. What's the story? Who is this room for? What happens here? Why should I imagine myself in it? None of these subjects are automatically backed content. The mistake is stopping at the announcement or the image instead of translating it into relevance for the traveler.
So am I saying that hotels should stop talking about awards or renovations or leadership changes? Of course not. I'm not saying never post an award or nobody wants to see a renovation. Renovation in particular can be very exciting content. If you can do time lapse and pre and post renovation, guests would love to see that. They would love to see where their money is going and the change in the fact that people care about the property enough to renovate it and make it beautiful for them. I'm saying the subject is only the starting point. The job of marketing is to translate it. If you want a restaurant award, don't just tell me that you want it. Show me the dish that I now need to try. Introduce me to the chef or explain why dinner here is worth building into my trip. If you renovated the rooms, don't lead with the amount, spend or design vocabulary.
Most people don't understand that. Show me that the new layout gives my family more space. The soundproofing means a better night's sleep or the balcony changes the way I experience the destination. If you hired an incredible new G.M. or chef, tell me what that person's arrival is going to do for me as the guest. The internal fat can stay. We just have to finish the sentence. And here's what that matters to you. So what does this actually look like in practice? Before I approve a piece of content, I want to ask a few simple questions. Who is this actually for? Why would that person stop scrolling? What's in it for them? Is it useful? Entertaining? Surprising? Emotional? Aspirational?
And when they move on, what do I want them to remember? The key is that would an actual guest care is not the same as would everybody care? Your hotel is not for everybody. If the content is specifically useful to families traveling with kids or honeymooners, business travelers, or food driven travelers, that's fine. In fact, that's better. The more you can niche, the better. I would rather make something highly relevant to the right audience than vaguely acceptable to everyone. And if you can't articulate why the intended guests care, that doesn't necessarily mean we throw the idea away. It just means we haven't found the story yet. So, for example, take a renovation announcement the hotel version might be. We're excited to unveil a multimillion dollar transformation featuring refreshed guest rooms and elevated design.
That tells me what the hotel did. The guest centered version asks what changes for the person staying there better workspaces, larger showers, quieter rooms, more space for family, or a stronger connection to the destination. The same applies to a restaurant award. Don't make the badge the whole story. Show me the chef, the dish, the atmosphere, or the experience that earned it. The award is credibility. The guest experience is the story. Stop treating hotel news as finished content and start treating it as raw material for a guest story. Okay, so how do you know whether a piece of content is actually audience first? The first signal is going to be audience behavior that whether I personally like the post or not, whether ownership says it looks beautiful and not whether another hotel marketer comments, oh, I love this.
What are the people we're trying to reach actually doing? Are they watching, sharing, saving, clicking, asking questions, visiting the website, searching for the hotel eventually? Are we seeing qualified demand? I don't think every post has to generate a booking that we can trace perfectly. Marketing doesn't work that cleanly, but there should be evidence that the content is creating attention, interest or intent amongst the right people. If the same type of content repeatedly gets ignored, that's information. If a less polished but more human piece consistently gets shared and saved, that's information to audience. First. Marketing requires the humility to let the audience tell us what resonates, instead of insisting that they should like what we made. So where does Beautiful Hotel photography still fit into this?
Beautiful photography still matters. I'm not arguing that hotels should suddenly start posting ugly content, especially in luxury. Visual quality helps communicate the product and sets an expectation. The difference is that beautiful photography used to be a differentiator. Today it's the baseline. Everyone has a great camera in their pocket, and every luxury hotel has access to talented photographers. So the question becomes what is the photograph doing beyond being beautiful? A gorgeous pool shot can still work, but can I feel the experience? Is there a human moment? Is there a point of view? Is the caption giving me a story, an idea or reason to picture myself there? The image gets my attention for a second. The story gives me a reason to remember the hotel. Beauty is an ingredient in the strategy.
It can't be the entire strategy anymore. A meaningful part of this issue has come from hotel approval, culture. Hotel marketing can pass through a lot of hands. Marketing, sales, the GM ownership, corporate brand teams, sometimes even legal. Every layer can be reasonable on its own, but collectively the process can reward the least objectionable idea rather than the most effective one. By the time everyone has removed the thing, they personally don't like, the personality can be gone. And I'm not suggesting that hotels abandon brand standards or start protecting the reputation of the property. Guardrails matter. But there's a difference between a real brand concern. And I don't personally like this. Leaders need to know which one they're expressing. If the target audience responds to something and it fits the strategy, the fact that one executive wouldn't personally click on it is not necessarily meaningful.
The person approving the marketing is not automatically the person that we're marketing to. If you're a GM and owner or commercial leader, what do you do differently in your next marketing meeting? In the next content meeting? I would ask leaders to change the order of conversation before saying, I like this or I don't like this. Ask, who is this for? What are we trying to accomplish? Why should that audience care? What do we know about how they behave? What evidence led the team to this creative choice? This creates a much healthier conversation because now we're evaluating the work against strategy instead of personal taste. A GM or owner should absolutely challenge a marketing team, but challenge them to explain the thinking.
Why will this work? Is a better question then can we make the logo bigger? I would also put would an actual guest care somewhere visible in the meeting. It sounds almost ridiculously simple, but simple questions can expose a lot of content that exists only because the organization feels obligated to post it. So what does this look like when a hotel gets it right? When a hotel gets this right, the first thing it earns is attention. And attention is the beginning of everything else. Relevant content is more likely to be remembered, shared, saved, searched for, and clicked. Over time, that creates familiarity and preference. When the traveler finally reaches the point of choosing between comparable hotels being the property they already know and feel something about absolutely matters.
That's why I don't see this as a conversation about vanity metrics. I'm not saying chase engagement just to make a dashboard look good. What I'm saying is marketing has the opportunity to influence demand. If nobody notices the content, it can't move them forward towards a website, the restaurant, the spa, or to make a booking audience for a storytelling connects creative marketing to commercial outcomes. Attention becomes interest. Interest becomes consideration, and consideration has the opportunity to become revenue. So if you remember one thing from this episode on one thing only, it would be the question is, would an actual guest care about the content that you're posting? Put it at the top of the content calendar, the creative brief and the approval meeting. Ask it before the award graphic.
The executive announcements, the room photo, or that beautifully written caption about being an urban oasis. If the answer is no, don't immediately kill the subject. Ask what would make them care? That's where the creative work begins. The content isn't for us, and we aren't trying to convince other hoteliers to book a room. We're trying to convince travelers our marketing should sound like we remember that.
