Being visible is relatively easy. Being remembered is harder. Being chosen is harder still.
Hospitality businesses have more ways than ever to reach potential guests: Instagram, TikTok, Google, paid advertising, influencers, email, reviews, booking platforms, local partnerships. All of these channels can put a hospitality business in front of thousands of people.
But visibility alone does not create preference. A restaurant can reach 50,000 people and still have empty tables. A leisure concept can produce beautiful videos while potential visitors still have no idea why they should actually go. A hospitality brand can post every day without building meaningful recognition.
The challenge is therefore no longer simply how to get attention. The more important question is: what happens after we get it? That is where hospitality marketing strategy becomes important.
What is hospitality marketing?
Hospitality marketing is the process of attracting guests, communicating the value of an experience and influencing people to visit, book, reserve, purchase or return. It can include brand strategy, positioning, social media, content creation, photography and video, SEO, local SEO, websites, paid advertising, email, reviews, partnerships, influencer marketing, loyalty and customer retention.
Hospitality marketing can apply to restaurants, boutique accommodation, hotels, resorts, holiday parks, wellness concepts, beach clubs, leisure businesses, experience providers and hospitality venues. Although those businesses sell different products, they share one important characteristic: they all sell an experience. And experiences are difficult to communicate through features alone.
People rarely choose hospitality businesses based only on features
Consider how someone chooses a restaurant. Technically, they need food. Yet people do not simply select the restaurant that provides the highest number of calories for the lowest price. They consider atmosphere, cuisine, company, location, occasion, reputation, service, identity and feeling.
The same principle applies throughout hospitality and leisure. A couple does not book a wellness weekend because they desperately need access to a sauna, they want to switch off. Friends do not visit a beach club because they need a chair near the sea, they want an afternoon together. A family does not visit a leisure attraction because they need something to fill exactly four hours, they want to create a memory. A guest does not always buy the facility itself. They buy what that facility allows them to experience.
The product may be tangible. The reason people choose it is often emotional.
Strong hospitality marketing understands both.
1. Start with the experience you want to own
Before deciding what to post, ask: what should people associate with us? This sounds simple. In practice, many businesses struggle to answer it. A restaurant might say "quality food." A leisure venue might say "fun for everyone." A hotel might say "personal hospitality." None of these statements are necessarily wrong, but they are broad enough for hundreds of competitors to say exactly the same thing.
Positioning is therefore not simply about describing what you offer. It is about creating a distinct place in the mind of the customer. Ask what type of experience you should become known for, what feeling belongs to your brand, why someone would recommend you, why someone would choose you over an alternative, and what you want people to remember.
At Beyond Your Stay, this is one of the first areas we look at before thinking about content. Because content can amplify positioning, but more content cannot compensate for positioning that was never defined.
2. Understand what your guest is actually trying to achieve
Demographics only tell part of the story. Knowing someone is 32 years old tells you less than understanding why that person is considering your business. A 32-year-old might be planning a first date, organising a family dinner, searching for a weekend away, celebrating an anniversary, meeting friends, travelling for business, or looking for something to do on holiday. Same age, completely different intent.
A useful hospitality marketing strategy therefore looks beyond demographics, considering motivations, occasions, expectations, frustrations, concerns, decision criteria, desired outcomes and barriers to purchase. That knowledge immediately improves the content. Instead of showing a table and writing "come and enjoy dinner with us," you can communicate the occasion that table enables. Instead of simply promoting a wellness facility, you communicate the feeling of finally slowing down. Instead of promoting an attraction only through its rides or activities, you show the family experience surrounding it.
3. Sell the feeling, not only the facility
Hospitality marketing often becomes overly product-focused. Restaurants show dishes. Hotels show rooms. Wellness businesses show saunas. Leisure businesses show attractions. There is nothing wrong with showing the product, potential customers need to know what you offer. But when that is all you show, the customer has to imagine the entire experience themselves.
Strong hospitality content does some of that work for them. Do not only show the cocktail, show the first drink of a summer evening with friends. Do not only show the hotel bed, show someone opening the curtains in the morning. Do not only show the spa, show the moment someone finally puts their phone away. Do not only show the restaurant interior, show what happens when the room is alive.
Do not only show what is there. Show what it feels like to be there.
Features tell people what exists. Experiences give them a reason to care. The best hospitality marketing communicates both.
4. Map the customer journey before choosing your content
People rarely move directly from "I have never heard of this business" to "I am booking right now." There are usually several steps in between, and understanding them makes hospitality marketing significantly more effective.
Discovery
Someone encounters your business for the first time, through Instagram, TikTok, Google, a recommendation, an influencer, an article, advertising or a collaboration. The objective here is usually attention and relevance.
Interest
The person wants to understand more. They may visit your profile, browse your website, look at your menu, watch additional videos, check opening hours, look at photographs or read reviews.
Consideration
Now your business is being evaluated against alternatives. Is it worth the price? Does the atmosphere fit the occasion? Can we park nearby? Is it suitable for children? Are there vegetarian options? What happens if it rains? Is the experience actually as good as it looks?
Conversion
The customer decides to reserve a table, book a stay, buy tickets, contact the business or visit. At this point, unnecessary friction can directly cost revenue.
Experience
Now marketing has to deliver on its promise. If your content promises intimate, personal hospitality but the real experience feels rushed and impersonal, the brand promise breaks.
Advocacy
After a positive experience, customers can become part of your marketing, through reviews, recommendations, user-generated content, repeat visits, social sharing and word of mouth. The customer journey therefore gives you much more useful content ideas than simply following weekly social media trends.
5. Build hospitality content around clear pillars
Consistency does not mean posting the same thing over and over again. It means repeatedly reinforcing the same strategic direction. Content pillars help create that consistency.
Imagine a restaurant positioned around long evenings, local food and genuine hospitality. Its content pillars could include food and craftsmanship (dishes, ingredients, seasonal products, preparation, techniques), the people (chefs, hosts, founders, suppliers, personal stories), atmosphere (real evenings, guests, details, service, memorable moments), local story (producers, neighbourhood, history, surrounding area), knowledge (recommendations, cooking insights, wine pairing, staff expertise) and occasions (date nights, celebrations, business lunches, evenings with friends).
The brand now has dozens of possible content ideas, yet they all strengthen the same positioning. That is much stronger than creating random posts simply because a particular sound is trending.
6. Give every social media platform a purpose
Hospitality businesses often publish the exact same content on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and LinkedIn. Operationally, that is easy. Strategically, it is not always the best approach.
Instagram can work particularly well for visual identity, inspiration, brand storytelling, community, social proof and experiences.
TikTok
TikTok can be useful for discovery, personality, entertainment, relatable storytelling and reaching new audiences.
Facebook can remain relevant for local communities, specific demographics, events, existing audiences and remarketing.
LinkedIn is often underestimated by hospitality businesses. It can be valuable for founders, partnerships, company culture, employer branding, business events, B2B hospitality and professional storytelling.
The correct platform mix depends on the target audience and business model. The objective is not to be everywhere. The objective is to be relevant where being present actually matters. Read more about building a social media marketing strategy on the Journal.
7. Stop measuring every post by likes
Likes are visible, which makes them attractive, but they do not always tell you whether marketing is working. Imagine two pieces of content. Post A reaches 50,000 views and 2,500 likes, but very few profile visits. Post B reaches 12,000 views and only 400 likes, but 300 profile visits, 80 website visits and 12 reservations. Which post performed better? You cannot answer until you understand the objective.
That is why hospitality marketing needs to connect content to funnel stages and relevant KPIs: reach, impressions, watch time, shares and saves for awareness; profile visits, website clicks, menu views, engagement quality and branded search volume for consideration; reservations, bookings, enquiries, ticket purchases and revenue for conversion.
Do not only ask whether a post performed well. Ask whether this content performed the job it was designed to perform.
8. Create useful content, not only promotional content
Not every piece of hospitality content needs to directly promote the business. Useful content can give potential customers another reason to discover and trust the brand. A restaurant could create content around local food guides, chef tips, wine pairings, neighbourhood recommendations and seasonal ingredients. A hotel could create destination guides, weekend itineraries, local recommendations, travel tips and seasonal guides. A leisure business could publish things to do in the area, family day-out guides, rainy-day activities, seasonal recommendations and planning tips.
This creates value before asking for the sale. It can also support SEO: instead of only competing for people searching for your company name, you can become visible when they search for the questions surrounding the experience.
9. Make Google part of your hospitality marketing strategy
Social media receives enormous attention. Google still matters, especially when someone already has intent. There is a significant difference between someone casually watching a Reel and someone searching "best restaurants near me," "things to do in Eindhoven this weekend," "wellness weekend Netherlands," or "beach club The Hague." Those searches indicate that someone is already considering an activity, visit or booking.
Hospitality businesses should therefore consider local SEO, Google Business Profile, reviews, relevant landing pages, destination content, website structure, search intent, technical SEO and branded searches. Social media can help create demand. Search can help capture demand. Strong hospitality marketing connects both.
10. Use reviews as part of your marketing
Hospitality is highly dependent on trust. Customers cannot fully experience a restaurant, hotel, wellness concept or leisure activity before buying, and that creates uncertainty. Reviews reduce that uncertainty by answering whether the service was actually good, whether the experience matched the photographs, and whether previous customers would return.
Reviews should not be treated as something that simply happens in the background. Businesses can actively improve review generation by making it easy to leave a review, asking at the right moment, responding professionally, learning from recurring feedback and sharing relevant social proof. Good reviews do not only improve reputation, they become part of the decision-making journey.
11. Humanise the brand
Hospitality is created by people. Yet many hospitality brands remove almost every person from their marketing. The result can look polished, but also anonymous. Showing the people behind an experience can create trust, recognition, personality, emotional connection and differentiation.
This does not mean every employee needs to become an influencer. It can be subtle: a chef explaining why a dish exists, an owner talking about why they opened the business, a team preparing before opening, a host welcoming guests, a supplier delivering local ingredients. Those moments communicate something that an empty building cannot. They show that hospitality is being created.
12. Use storytelling to create differentiation
Hospitality businesses are surrounded by stories: the founder, the location, the neighbourhood, the building, the suppliers, the team, the traditions, the reason a particular experience exists. Those stories help build differentiation because they are difficult for competitors to copy.
A restaurant competitor may also serve good food. Another hotel may also have comfortable rooms. Another leisure company may offer similar activities. But they do not have exactly the same story. Good storytelling does not mean inventing dramatic narratives. It means discovering what is already meaningful and communicating it clearly. For restaurants and experience-led concepts, we go deeper into this in restaurant storytelling.
13. Make sure the marketing promise matches reality
There is one thing marketing cannot sustainably fix: a disappointing experience. In fact, excellent marketing can make that problem worse. If marketing creates extremely high expectations and reality does not deliver, disappointment increases.
Hospitality marketing therefore should not manufacture an artificial version of the business. It should uncover and amplify what is genuinely worth experiencing. The objective is not to make a business look better than it is. The objective should be to help more of the right people understand why this experience is right for them.
Hospitality marketing needs direction before it needs more content
More content can create more visibility. More advertising can create more reach. More platforms can create more touchpoints. But none of those things automatically create a stronger brand.
Strong hospitality businesses have something underneath their marketing: a clear understanding of who they are, who they want to attract, what their audience cares about, what they want people to feel, and how their marketing supports the complete customer journey. Only then does content become a strategic tool rather than another task on the weekly to-do list.
That idea also forms the basis of The Compass, the strategic approach we use at Beyond Your Stay to help hospitality and leisure brands determine their direction before deciding what content or marketing activity should come next. Because sometimes the answer is not more marketing. It is knowing where your marketing should be going.
Frequently asked questions about hospitality marketing
What is hospitality marketing?
Hospitality marketing includes the strategies used by hotels, restaurants, resorts, leisure businesses and other experience-led brands to attract customers, create preference, generate bookings or reservations and encourage repeat visits.
What is a hospitality marketing strategy?
A hospitality marketing strategy defines the target audience, positioning, brand message, customer journey, marketing channels, content approach and objectives behind marketing activities. It provides direction before individual campaigns or posts are created.
Why is social media important in hospitality marketing?
Social media allows hospitality brands to communicate experiences visually, create demand, build trust and reach potential customers before they actively begin searching. Its effectiveness depends on how well social media connects with the broader marketing strategy.
What type of content works best for hospitality brands?
Strong hospitality content often combines experience-led storytelling, useful information, people, products, atmosphere, social proof and content that answers potential customer questions. The right mix depends on the target audience and stage of the customer journey.
How can hospitality businesses attract more customers?
There is rarely one single channel that solves customer acquisition. Hospitality businesses can improve their marketing by combining clear positioning, strong content, social media, local SEO, reviews, an effective website, relevant advertising and a frictionless booking or reservation experience.
What is the difference between hospitality marketing and hotel marketing?
Hotel marketing specifically focuses on attracting and converting hotel guests. Hospitality marketing is broader and can include hotels, restaurants, resorts, wellness businesses, leisure concepts and other experience-led businesses.
