The Best of Socially Awkward: 5 Hospitality Marketing Pros
Hospitality marketing best-of: Calvin Tilokee replays the strongest Socially Awkward moments on standing out, direct bookings and moving up.
Susan Barry of Hive Marketing explains why no traveler books on thread count. Alex Husner and Annie Holcombe compare hotel and vacation rental marketing, Calvin Stovall walks through his ICONIC framework, and Dury Kim of InnVentures admits moving up takes politicking.
You'll leave with a reason to make content that looks different from your comp set and a plan for turning OTA guests into direct bookers. A round of hotel pickup lines with Susan Barry closes it out.
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.
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Calvin Tilokee Hey, Calvin Tilokee here. For today's episode, we're doing something a little different and bringing together some of the best moments from the Socially Awkward podcast. We're talking about what it really takes to stand out in hospitality, from creating better content and telling stronger stories, to driving direct bookings, building your career, and making sure the right people know who you are. And of course, we've thrown in a few lighter moments too. Let's start with Susan Barry, founder of Hive Marketing from episode seven. We got into something that comes up all the time in hotel marketing. Everyone says they want to stand out, but when the content actually looks different, that's when people start getting nervous. Here's that conversation. I've struggled.
With some of our clients of trying to do unique content things outside of the box. Yes, we did something with for a luxury hotel, but we did it with a TikToker, right? He's really cool, fun, you know, reals. And she did a fun dance. He kind of real in the room. And the metrics were astronomical. 300 followers within like a week, 50,000 views within. Wow. You know, insane. But they didn't like it because it was too juvenile.
Alex O. Husner & Annie Holcombe It's not on brand for them.
Calvin Tilokee I'm like.
Alex O. Husner & Annie Holcombe But who decides what's on brand? Like, what are you gonna do then?
Calvin Tilokee I kind of feel.
Alex O. Husner & Annie Holcombe Like I have an old lady, por TI. I mean, come on.
Calvin Tilokee Right now. Who wants to see that, right? Yeah, but I kind of feel like your audience will dictate what they want to see. That's kind.
Alex O. Husner & Annie Holcombe Of really good point. Yes.
Calvin Tilokee You know, like, your social media pages aren't for you. It's not your taste. It's for your audience. Right.
Alex O. Husner & Annie Holcombe And then I would say the question is those 300 new followers, how many of them booked.
Calvin Tilokee I'm going to say probably not a lot because they force us to stop doing enough of that content. You know what I mean? I feel like if we had stayed on that trail at least every week or two, put something, that's what they came for. Right. They're like, oh, wow, this is a cool, fun hotel when I'm a young girl in the city. This is what I'm going to be doing on a Friday night. I want to see more of this. And then we're posting about, you know, 303 account pillows and then like.
Alex O. Husner & Annie Holcombe Right.
Calvin Tilokee For this, you.
Alex O. Husner & Annie Holcombe Know, and nobody is I mean, I you know, this is a good point about all these brands because even the sort of distinguishable luxury brands talk so much about their amenities and their sort of features, like, we have this, we have this, we have this, the thin slicing of that. Who cares? Like you have 300 thread count. We have 350. Promise you there is no traveler making a decision based on the thread count of the pillow. They're making a decision on their loyalty program location and how the brand makes them feel, or how they anticipate it's going to make them feel when they're staying there. And I'll tell you what. People are booking luxury hotels. If they're not rich because they want to feel rich, they want to feel fancy and excited.
And getting ready to go out in a luxury hotel. Is that feeling?
Calvin Tilokee Yeah, yeah. And that's gotta come across in your content. And it doesn't come across because you post, you know, a moody picture of the beach, right?
Alex O. Husner & Annie Holcombe Or some vase on a coffee table in the lobby. Who cares?
Calvin Tilokee Let's not do it for me. I have never, never stayed at a hotel or worked at a hotel and was like, wow, that artwork isn't. That I should stay here.
Alex O. Husner & Annie Holcombe Now, what would be cool is if the artwork told the greater story of the hotel. So you did an art tour in a real or whatever, where you're like, this artist is local. And because we are so focused on the local experience, we picked a local audience. You know what I mean? Like, that makes more sense.
Calvin Tilokee Yeah. If it tells us.
Alex O. Husner & Annie Holcombe What other people. Everybody just listen to us. We should just boss these hotels around.
Calvin Tilokee This is exactly what I've been saying. Now, you know I don't get it. But, you know, I think, you know, going back to the original point, it's it's like. Well, what Calvin Stovall said was people are afraid to stand out, and it just hit me like a ton of bricks. I was like, that's that's the issue. It's like we're we're unique in luxurious hotel, but we want to post like everyone else. How are you going to stand out in a sea of, you know, a city like New York, LA, any of any big city, but there's thousands of hotels that and people are getting bombarded with content constantly.
Alex O. Husner & Annie Holcombe Yes.
Calvin Tilokee Not just hotel content. Everything else that they've, you know, curated the algorithm to show them. And we're just going to post the same crap and look just like every other hotel in your comp set and every hotel in your city, and you think this is going to work somehow, right?
Alex O. Husner & Annie Holcombe It's not a magic trick. It's so funny when I'm making content. So one of the things I do for my clients is we make LinkedIn content for them. And I very deliberately like to use sort of classy, bright colors or like. Shocking sizes of text. Or do you know what I mean? Things like that. Because the strategy is to stop the scroll so that someone will read your message, your personal taste and a strategic objective are not the same thing. It's like, if you don't like the color teal, that's okay, because everything on LinkedIn is cornflower blue. So if I have a bright, crazy looking green, that's going to stop the scroll and get somebody to read your message.
Calvin Tilokee Hey, quick question for you. When was the last time your hotel social media actually brought someone through the door? If you can't answer that, it might be time to rethink your approach. At RAF media, we don't do marketing for the sake of marketing. Every strategy we build is designed to drive measurable results. More bookings, more visibility, more revenue. We've been on the operations side and we know what matters. 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 today's conversation. That was Susan Barrie. And I think the big takeaway there is pretty simple. If your content looks like everybody else is, you're probably giving people no reason to stop.
Now let's switch gears. In episode nine, I sat down with Annie Holcomb and Alex O Husker, co-hosts of the Alex and Annie podcast. We got into the differences between hotels and vacation rentals, especially when it comes to marketing, distribution, and getting guests to book directly. The switchback gears a bit and just get into the conversation about vacation rentals versus hotels, right? You know, we kind of touched on some of that earlier in the conversation. How would you say marketing the two assets are different or are they different?
Alex O. Husner & Annie Holcombe I think they are for sure. I, I think that vacation rentals brings a lot more complexity really, in every level, that if you're marketing a hotel, I mean, normally there's you could have a number of room types, but you are marketing a room type. And so you as a revenue manager, you get to play Tetris with the boards and move things around to be able to maximize the revenue there versus with the vacation rental. You know, you can't do that if somebody is booking a specific unit for the decor and the view and everything else, you can't move around. How Annie and I really connected early on was there's a lot of the condo resort type properties in Myrtle Beach and in Florida, where any is and I mean all across the country, but that these are their condos or condo resorts, that they are owned by homeowners.
So they're vacation rentals, but they're marketed like a hotel, that they have the front desk and they have the F and B, and they, you know, they do, you know, events and conferences and things like that. And so they really operate really in that kind of in between of hotel and vacation rental. And that industry has really had a lot of challenges because they're not fully one or the other. And the technology that's vacation rentals doesn't totally work for them. And the technology that's hotels doesn't totally work for them. And then you throw in Verbo and Airbnb and they have to be on those channels. But if they're on a hotel based software, they those don't connect. And so it's like they've got to use, you know, beyond their, their booking system, a different kind of a channel manager for that inventory that really still is not geared towards vacation rentals, but it's what connects with their hotel PMS, the pools, and, you know, the other things that you have there versus in a vacation rental, you know, it is a either it's a standalone property, a home, or it's a condo, but you don't have control over the amenities. So there's I think it's you know, I don't know that either is easier. I think they're just different. But I think vacation rentals can be a lot more nuanced. Yeah. And I think the thing that's interesting in vacation rental space also is there's there's a story that can be told with a vacation rental that you can't tell with a hotel.
Now, I say that, you know, there are some of these hotels that some of the brands have that are like the historic buildings where there's something, there's a story around it, but every vacation rental has a different a different look feels. It has some history to it in some respects. A property manager and I always said this when I was, I was like, if you look at a property manager and they have 500 properties there, they have 500 different general managers that they're working with, 500 different marketing minds that are involved in the conversation, 500 different beliefs in how the rates should be set.
You know, policies should be. And so a manager has to kind of like wrangle everybody in and find commonality to be able to market it, but then go into the, you know, go all the way granular and say like, well, this property is going to fit this guest who wants this experience at this time, you know, this way, whereas a hotel can be somewhat generic. So I think that there, you know, I feel that marketers in the vacation rental space are a lot more savvy than hotels because there is so much complexity there.
Calvin Tilokee Yeah, yeah. No, I think that's a very good point. So where where do you guys see the vacation rental business going in the near future? You know, asking the question kind of on the the premise, you know, with, with hotels, hotels have marketed themselves very differently over the past, you know, 5 to 10 years, people getting a lot more active on social media, Instagram, TikTok, if they if they really, you know, courageous. Where do you guys see things changing or how has it changed over the recent years?
Alex O. Husner & Annie Holcombe I think that, you know, as far as the timeline of things are like how different parts of that we all struggle with have hit us. You know, there's the airlines and then there's hotels and there's vacation rentals and there's tours and activities. And, you know, with the airlines dynamic pricing and what that did to the industry. Same with hotels. And then for, you know, for hotel, for hotels in particular, direct bookings and making sure that they needed to keep the bookings outside of the OTAs as much as possible. You know, and then that hit the vacation rental side. And it's like all those things have kind of trickled down those four sectors. And, you know, for the companies that have been doing vacation rentals for a long time, like the one that I was at, we knew there were no OTAs back in the day.
I mean, we I think our website launched the first version of it was like in 2000, but, you know, it wasn't until probably the 20 tens or so that really online bookings became a big part of the business, that it was mostly phone and it was print and magazines and things. But the, you know, the and B for us are for sure the two biggest channels. We can't be anti OTA because one, we're never going to beat them. So guys will join them. And two, you know, let them go, go out there and spend all the money on on Google and everything else. And as long as you're set up to get your fair share of the bookings, when somebody lands on that channel, then that's great.
And the way, you know, Annie and I, she is more distribution, I'm more marketing. But we both really understand that they go together, that if you get a guest from one of the OTAs, your job as the marketer is to make sure that next time they come back, they book direct. And I think, you know, that's that's something we've known forever. But in our industry now, you've got the newer companies and people that have come into it post-Covid that they didn't even think about direct bookings because there was such an influx through the OTAs that they didn't have to worry about it. Well, now fast forward. And, you know, Airbnb in particular, that continues to make different policy changes that can really, you know, fundamentally change how you operate, either as a individual host or a company on the platform.
And it's it's risky. So when you put all your eggs in one basket, you really are setting yourself up for a bad situation. So there's been a lot more interest now, you know, in the last year or so of people trying to get into doing direct bookings. But at the end of the day, you know, the cost to do direct bookings and have that as a strategy. It's not like those bookings are free. I mean, the price you pay to have a marketer that can run that and you know the time that it takes and the budgets that it takes for paid like it's there's an SEO, I mean, there's a lot to it. But I think a lot of companies just they get on one side or the other and they fixate on it.
But really, in today's day and age, I think somewhere in the middle is the healthy mix that you've got both sides running simultaneously.
Calvin Tilokee There's a lot more complexity in vacation rentals than people sometimes realize from there. I want to bring you to a conversation from episode ten with Calvin Stovall, Chief Experience Officer at Iconic Presentations. We were talking about hotels that might not have the biggest budget or the flashiest property, and the question was, how do you still make people care? I get the question a lot. Hey, you know, we don't have this big, beautiful hotel. We've just got a insert economy brand here near the airport. You know, how do we be successful without marketing and on social? And my answer is always, you have people, you have stories there. What are your suggestions on how brands can can leverage their that people in the stories in the market.
They're really.
Calvin Stovall Your brand ambassadors. You know, I think that any way that you can highlight stories, people love stories, they're memorable. And so any way that you can highlight stories, employee stories, guest stories. Guess that had experiences in your hotel, anything like that video or or anything that makes it look to add some soul to your property could work. I just think that just having a person sitting in a lobby with nothing attached to it really doesn't move me. But if you have a story behind it, a nice video. You can even have other employees doing video support. You have your boys do it. You know, it just I just think if you want to stand out, you gotta do something different.
I think people are afraid of being different. It's like everybody else is doing it. I want to do it. But you can't. You gotta be the black sheep and the flock of black sheep. You gotta. You gotta be able to stand out or you or you'll stand by and and and you just won't be able to to do this. Not like in my iconic framework. You mentioned the word authentic. And so in my economy framework, I've, I created it to really help people think about how to be iconic. And it's stained growth and be, you know, maintain presence for years and years to come. And I just created this simple formula. And if if you could do it because you got to do them all or it doesn't work.
So my first one, the first quadrant, is to be unique, which is what we're talking about right now. And at that whole thing is being able to stand out from the crowd. Then really it talks also about your why and your purpose. What is your what, why do you do what you do and that, and that's where the whole uniqueness comes in. And then the second quadrant is to be authentic, which you just talked about, you know, and but I talk about it also in the fact that you got to be authentic self, but also having empathy. Can you walk in your customer shoes and really understand where they're coming from? If you're leading people, you know, being transparent and humble, that's all in that quadrant.
And then the next quadrant is to be passionate. I'm a big passion person, Calvin, and if you if you can, you just I believe you can accomplish so much with passionate people. And if everybody's passionate about taking care of the guests, you're going to be far ahead, trust me. And so and if you're leading with people, if you're leading with vigor and vitality, you're excited that's going to bleed into your team. That's going to bleed into the customer experience. Trust me, it will. I think people mirror and emulate what they see from their leadership. And if you coming in every day with awards, me attitude and all of that, it's not it's not going to help your team and it trust me, the customer will feel it. And then the last one is to be consistent.
And that is around really focusing on what matters most, but more importantly, never becoming too comfortable or complacent because sometimes success Calvin can become a barrier for innovation. I believe sometimes we get comfortable and we just we're riding it through. And so, but you always gotta you always gotta be looking at what's coming next, what's going, you know, staying on top of technological trends, consumer changing tastes, all of those things are critical. So I talk about that in a, in a packaged into a keynote. But I'm very serious about all of the pieces in there, because if you can get that stuff right, you're going to be you're going to be good. Everybody has their own approach and a different way of doing things, but I just I just believe that so many people are afraid of standing out.
Everybody let's do let's do what everybody else does. So we seem like we're we're in this box.
Calvin Tilokee But yeah.
Calvin Stovall About my former boss. No box out the box.
Calvin Tilokee On to the next conversation. In episode 13, duri Kim, SVP of Commercial Strategy at inventors, talked about moving up in hospitality and what actually helped someone break into senior leadership. And as you'll hear, doing good work is only part of it. What advice. Would you give future. Hospitality leaders who want to move into executive commercial roles?
Dury Kim It's a lot of politicking, I'm not going to lie. Speaking in front of the right people and pressing on the right people, also ensuring that you're continuously growing as well and that you have strong enough voice to earn that seat at the table doesn't mean like complain all the time, right? But like, it does mean that you go above and beyond what your normal duties are. I think keeping that.
Calvin Tilokee Open for the job you want.
Dury Kim Right? It's like you can't say that's not my job as an executive, right? You say, okay, how can I help, right? Or what can I do to make this person's life a little bit easier? Because at the end of the day, the whole company as a whole has an agenda, right? You as a leader do not fit into that agenda. Then it's harder for you to get through that, like ceiling of executive or like corporate role, senior leadership level. I think that's also like one of the things I want to part is a lot of politicking because you have to, you know, you're good and you know you can do the job, but you have to finagle your way into it by doing a little bit above and beyond and being in front of people saying, you know, helping and imparting knowledge in the right places.
Calvin Tilokee Yeah, well, it's not just important that, you know, you can do the job. The people who are hiring need to know that you can do the job.
Dury Kim Yeah, it may look different for everybody. It may not be tomorrow and it may come in like a year or two, but like nurturing the relationship. And also having like, that open mind of like, perhaps we need to learn a little bit more of X, Y and Z to move up in my career. So like understanding what your, you know, opportunities are to so like a little bit of politicking, a little bit of further learning, a little bit of a going above and beyond.
Calvin Tilokee Yeah, absolutely. You know, one thing I do remember, you know, sometimes it's just simple as going to the happy hours, right? Because your, your bosses are going to be present.
Dury Kim Yeah.
Calvin Tilokee Just be present. Right. And I think people put a lot of negative connotation on that because some people take it too far right there. They're brown nosing and everybody can see through that. But that's not what we're talking about. It's just you want to be good and effective at your job. But a lot of people are. It's a competitive industry out there. People want to work with people that they know and people that they like. Yeah. And if you're if you're present at the events and the things that are going on with your, your senior leaders, they will recognize you. You have to be top of mind. It's very similar to it is marketing. Actually, it's not even similar to it is marketing brand.
You're marketing yourself and you need to be visible. It's the same reason people slap you. Watch an NBA finals and you'll see advertisement around the court. This because they're being visible. You know, the next time you're thirsty, maybe I should grab a Pepsi. I think I saw that somewhere recently. You know, that's it's the same mindset and it's the same tactic of just being visible around the people who are making a decision.
Dury Kim Like if you're a remote employee, you go show your face in the office when important people are around. Right. Like, yeah, is a small little things because it is a people forward business, right? Like and quite honestly, most leadership teams are a lot more people facing or like human facing than you would think. I know a lot of people are like going to hate that I say this. I'm not saying like going to the office all the time, right? But showing up when it matters. I think that's one of the good advice is I can give is like being in front of the right people at the right.
Calvin Tilokee Time, just like revenue management, putting the right man, the right person at the right time.
Dury Kim Now apply it to yourself.
Calvin Tilokee Exactly. Very good. That was Kim. And after talking about visibility, career growth, personal brand and all the serious stuff, I think we've earned the right to end on something a little more ridiculous. So for the last clip, we're going back to episode eight with Susan Barry. The concept was simple hotel pick up lines and try not to laugh. It went about as well as you'd expect. Hello and welcome to the inaugural hotel pickup lines. Some of you guys may be familiar with the format we're about to introduce. You may have seen him across social media, YouTube, Instagram and the like where people ask each other questions. Typically, they tell dad jokes and the other person has to try to not laugh.
And I am here with my good friend Susan Barry. Hello. Today we decided we're going to tell each other pickup lines, and the other person has to try not to laugh at them.
Alex O. Husner & Annie Holcombe The problem.
Susan Barry Is, Calvin, that I'm already laughing on the inside real bad.
Calvin Tilokee I'm kind of always laughing on the inside, so I think this would be pretty. This is going to be challenging for the both of us. I believe.
Susan Barry Yes, you're funnier than me, so. But I'm doorkeeper than you, so I don't know. It's kind of an even match, I would say.
Calvin Tilokee I don't know. We shall see. You know, and we have to let the audience decide. So we're going to go round by round. Trying to pick each other up using hotel jargon. Some of them spring themed, some of them not.
Susan Barry Mine are all spring themed.
Calvin Tilokee Oh.
Susan Barry Maybe we should have an award for that best on theme.
Calvin Tilokee Maybe we should. I might have to improv some of these then.
Susan Barry I'm not laughing. You're laughing?
Calvin Tilokee We haven't started yet, so I can. I can giggle as much as I want.
Susan Barry Okay. Fair enough.
Calvin Tilokee All right. I am a gentleman. So, ladies. First round one.
Susan Barry Are you a banquet? Breakfast buffet? Because you are cantaloupe, honeydew and fine apple.
Calvin Tilokee That was good. That was good. Great delivery as well. They're very impressed with that one. I think if that's what we're starting with, I'm likely in trouble. Okay.
Susan Barry Except for I have control over my own emotions. Zero.
Calvin Tilokee We should also. I guess maybe the audience can tell us in the comments. We have to decide if you laugh at your own. Does that count?
Calvin Tilokee I can lean yes on that one.
Susan Barry I mean it's I think it's cumulative because you the laugh may come out after you deliver your online but it's been building for a while.
Calvin Tilokee Right. Might be in life and from the previous joke.
Susan Barry True fact.
Calvin Tilokee Hey girl you're perfect. So because you look quite unattainable.
Susan Barry It's not funny.
Calvin Tilokee Yeah. Sorry. It was just good.
Susan Barry Are you an unexpected fire alarm? Because you're lighting up my night.
Calvin Tilokee I tend to do that. Are you the free breakfast? Because I'm waking up early for you.
Susan Barry Are you the emergency staircase? Because you've taken my breath away.
Calvin Tilokee That happens to me quite a bit. I can't even walk up the steps of my house.
Susan Barry Indeed.
Calvin Tilokee Are you the hotel robe? Because I shouldn't take you home. But I am thinking about it.
Susan Barry Mal's good. You love her.
Calvin Tilokee Oh, I think we we got a score. One for you on that one.
Susan Barry Round one. Susan Barry.
Calvin Tilokee I was really hoping that one would would get it. I used a thermostat because I wanted to push your buttons.
Susan Barry Are you the guest room thermostat in the springtime? Because I'm sweating and shivering all at once.
Calvin Tilokee That is quality and realistic. That's. That's the best part.
Susan Barry True. You're not wrong.
Calvin Tilokee I hope you are a luggage cart because I'm bringing all my baggage.
Susan Barry Are you the executive committee meeting? Because I'm feeling relief now that you're over. That was my worst one.
Calvin Tilokee That. That was great from the beginning. Once you said executive committee meeting, I knew it was going to be good. I just. Yeah. That's good. Yeah. You're. You're hoping my butt on this one.
Susan Barry I think we're a 3 to 0.
Calvin Tilokee Yeah. This is a this is a it's a landslide here. Oh. All right, we got to break out the big guns. Let's see what I got here. Are you an Easter egg? Because I've been hunting for you. Yes, we got one. One.
Susan Barry That was so good. Oh my God. Oh, no, no, no, you have to stop.
Calvin Tilokee There we go. The dam is broken. Oh! Time for a comeback.
Susan Barry Stop laughing. Yep. Okay.
Calvin Tilokee Go. And that feels like the right place to leave it. A little strategy, a little career advice, and apparently, way too many hotel pickup lines. Thanks for checking out this best of episode of Socially Awkward. If you heard a conversation you want to dive deeper into. Go back and check out the full episodes. There's a lot more in each of these conversations that we couldn't fit into today's show. And if you enjoyed the episode, make sure you're following socially awkward wherever you listen or watch so you don't miss what's coming next. We'll be back again next time.
