Marketing

📰 Accor's 2024 campaign for Paris 2024 Olympics highlighted Kauli Vaast's Seine surfing and garnered 5 million views, boosting brand visibility. Pierre & Vacances' humorous 2024 campaign solidified its family holiday leadership by enhancing brand perception. Hilton's ‘10-Minute TikTok’ broke records with 6.5 million views, 35% subscriber growth, and a 93.5% positive sentiment, attracting over 100,000 new members. Campaigns significantly increased engagement and brand positioning on social media platforms.

📈 STAAH SwiftBook's integration with Google Booking Links is boosting direct revenue for thousands of properties globally. When? 2025. Where? Worldwide. What? The integration enhances visibility on Google Hotel Search, allowing hotels to present direct booking links alongside OTAs. How? By sending real-time rates and availability from SwiftBook directly to Google's search results, bypassing intermediaries and commissions. Why? To increase direct, commission-free bookings and control over the customer journey, solving common challenges faced by hoteliers in digital visibility.

📈 In 2025, Koko Global Hospitality partnered with D-EDGE for a data-driven digital marketing campaign to enhance online visibility and streamline bookings. The strategy leveraged Metasearch Marketing on Google Hotel Ads and Trivago, Display Advertising with banner ads, and Search Engine Marketing for prominent property search results. The D-EDGE booking engine provided a mobile-optimized experience, converting traffic into direct revenue and improving the customer journey.

🌍 OTAs are surpassing general search as a travel resource. Year-over-year, generative AI usage has doubled. More travelers are booking through indirect channels to compare options for the best prices. Traditional payment methods, such as credit cards, remain popular for bookings and in-destination packages. Social media plays a growing role in travel planning, with Instagram as the top influencer across key markets and YouTube leading in content consumption.

💬 Jun 11, 2025: Hospitality marketing is evolving with "dark social," which includes private shares through WhatsApp, email, and DMs, labeled as "Direct" traffic in analytics. A Refine Labs study reveals a 90% attribution gap between analytics and actual influence. Private recommendations drive faster bookings with higher trust. Ignoring dark social risks misattributing conversions and missing referrals. Hotels can respond by creating shareable content, using social listening, and training staff to capture word-of-mouth insights.

🏨 Earlier this year, visits to Four Seasons Resort Koh Samui's website rose by 596%, with availability checks up 767%, driven by the third season of "The White Lotus" filmed at the resort. Similar trends were observed in Maui and Taormina, locations for previous seasons. A survey revealed 88% of Millennials viewing "The White Lotus" have a positive outlook on Four Seasons, with 71% eager to visit. Millennials and Gen Z make up 57% of the Four Seasons guest base.

📅 Hotel Royal Hoi An in Vietnam partnered with STAAH to address a digital infrastructure gap, improving direct bookings. Within weeks, STAAH’s booking engine contributed 25% of weekly bookings, while their Get Google feature attracted nearly 30% of direct bookings. The onboarding process took two weeks. The hotel now thrives with enhanced visibility and control, offering seamless guest experiences. The integration significantly improved the hotel's digital distribution strategy.

📊 Boutique hotel GMs face challenges juggling 12 roles, including guest experience and revenue management, without corporate or digital agency support. A poor digital presence, such as a subpar website and Google Business Profile, impacts guest perception and visibility. Despite the lack of resources, optimizing these digital assets can boost direct bookings. A well-structured website and optimized profile are crucial for trust and rankings, offering a potential solution for overstretched GMs seeking better online visibility.