In Brief: Kimberly Erwin presents a comprehensive framework aimed at transforming fragmented hotel marketing efforts into a cohesive, dynamic strategy, thereby enhancing overall performance.
In most hotels, marketing is a patchwork of activity rather than a system of progress. Teams stay busy, but busy doesn’t mean effective. Hotels often rely on multiple vendors executing disconnected strategies, with no clear standard for how marketing should truly work together to drive revenue. This lack of alignment creates inefficiencies and missed opportunities. As leaders in hotel marketing, Lotus Marketing set out to solve this by creating a unified, strategic framework.
I brought this topic to a recent discussion of the HSMAI marketing advisory board, and I’ll be presenting it as a breakout on June 17th at the Commercial Strategy Conference. One comment framed the entire discussion: “Hotel marketing doesn’t have a universal standard of success, and it’s for a lot of reasons.”
That gap makes it hard to align owners, brands, and commercial teams around what drives revenue. The framework we introduced offers a structured way to evaluate marketing as a system. The intent is clarity around what to focus on first, then next, then continuously. The framework applies across hotel types, portfolio sizes, and complexity levels. In the marketing advisory board discussion, there was an emphasis that the model is about prioritization, not tactics. Teams often default to execution because it is easier to teach and measure, while strategy sequencing is harder and often skipped.
Step one is the foundation, defining who the hotel is and who it represents. This is where positioning lives, and, without it, everything becomes diluted. Trying to be everything weakens relevance, especially in an environment shaped by search engines and AI agents.
Next comes alignment. This connects the brand foundation to what commercial objectives are, and gets marketing, sales, revenue, and leadership working toward the same outcomes. When budgets and effort align with the revenue streams they are meant to support, paid activity stops masking deeper misalignment.
Expression is how the brand shows up across channels and touchpoints. Consistency matters because guests evaluate hotels everywhere. Websites, social channels, thirdparty platforms, and sales materials must ladder to the same goals, because fragmentation breaks trust and performance.
Immersion moves marketing from promise to experiences, like programming, activations, and onproperty moments that reinforce why guests remember the stay. This requires operational alignment, all teams need to understand the experience being sold and deliver it consistently. As we discussed in the meeting, this can be a point of tension when marketing promotes experiences that are not delivered consistently on property.
Finally, outreach comes last. Partnerships, community presence, media, advocacy and where the brand extends beyond the hotel. Without the earlier pillars in place, third parties cannot tell the story well. The sequence matters because compounding only happens when the base is solid.
The assessment tool turns the framework into clear, objective criteria. It benchmarks performance, surfaces gaps, and pinpoints where investment will have the most impact. The call confirmed that a shared marketing language would allow aligning commercial teams, building owner confidence, and positioning marketing as a strategic asset.
Recommended Reading and Viewing
Recommended Team Questions
- How closely does this methodology reflect current marketing practice?
- Which parts feel unclear to nonmarketing stakeholders?
- Where could this help benchmark portfolio performance?
- Where would implementation most likely break down?
Kimberly Erwin, Principal at Lotus Marketing, HSMAI Marketing Advisory Board Member Connect with Kimberly on LinkedIn.
Source: View the original article at HSMAI.
