How to incorporate public relations
into your marketing strategy

Making a name for your independent property can be challenging in a world of branded hotels. One advantage hoteliers have is their uniqueness and dedication to delivering exceptional guest experiences, something that can be amplified with the help of public relations (PR).

Read on to learn more about the importance of public relations for hotels and the different types of outreach opportunities to include in your marketing efforts.

Hotels can strategically leverage public relations touchpoints to boost business during the low season through special promotions and beat out competitors during the high season based on credibility built on media outlets.

Successful public relations campaigns require creativity, and often, hotels turn to PR agencies or PR professionals to help execute these efforts. However, even if you run a small independent property, you can still incorporate public relations into your in-house marketing campaigns to gain visibility for your property.

6 public relations initiatives for hotel marketing

While other marketing strategies are built around getting the word out about your hotel property and brand, a public relations strategy aims to maintain a positive reputation for your business and brand recognition as a whole. Thus, the tactics used in a PR strategy will vary from a hotel marketing plan. Some examples of hospitality PR include:

1. Media coverage

Is your property hosting a community event or celebrating a milestone like opening a new on-site bar? A timely event or significant story could be attractive to local news stations and newspapers, especially if the topic is relevant to the local community or includes a human-interest aspect. Positive, newsworthy stories will help your brand connect with your target audience. Be sure to prioritize media relations, meaning establish relationships with local news outlets, making them aware of your unique selling proposition and impact on the community so that when something happens in relation to your property, they’ll be the first to report on the story.

2. Promotions

Are you looking to boost business during the low season or attract hotel guests to stay at your property during an event? Hotel brands will often use PR to announce upcoming deals or promotions. Social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok can be used to help spread the word and increase the reach of your campaign.

3. Speaking opportunities

Securing speaking opportunities for hotel management at hospitality industry conferences or relevant podcasts that cater to your target market is a great way to create brand awareness and establish yourself and your hotel as thought leaders in the industry. See if any trade shows or events are happening near you or even some you’re willing to travel to and participate in. Speaking spots can also create excellent networking opportunities and partnerships.

4. Apply for awards

The hotel industry is full of award opportunities, and winning often helps bring free publicity to your hotel and brand. You can start by searching for local associations that host award ceremonies or small, locally-sponsored awards within your city or state and work up to more prominent nominations.

5. Press events

Hoteliers can host media press events to showcase new attractions or renovations. These events provide a great opportunity to network with local media personnel and even influencers and introduce your property’s offerings to them and their audience.

6. Press releases

You can also try putting out a press release to make announcements about things like new hires, ways that you’re giving back to the community, or changes that you’ve made to improve the guest experience.

Creating a PR plan

The first step in creating your hotel marketing PR plan is to assess local opportunities available to you. Put some time into researching events, podcasts, and awards to leverage. If you don’t have a dedicated PR team to do the legwork for you, make sure you set aside time on your calendar to proactively search for PR opportunities once a month or so. Remember, your PR plan should include creative tactics to get travelers to visit your property all year long.

The public relations plan you design is only as good as the follow-up communication strategy that drives it. Ensure that you are responsive to contacts that reach out to you and have a press kit ready with materials like your property’s history, a list of awards and press mentions, high-quality images, logos, headshots, contact information, and any other resources that reporters or publishers may need to complete a story about your property. Today, it’s common to have your press kit available online as part of your website.

While most of your energy should be spent finding proactive PR opportunities, recognize that sometimes bad reviews and negative stories happen. Include a section in your plan on how to quickly and constructively react to negative press. How you respond to unfavorable situations involving your business could ultimately define your brand in customers’ eyes. Creating a crisis communication plan can be beneficial for your staff to understand the chain of contact and how to address specific talking points.

Free (& low-cost) PR resources

A great PR plan doesn’t necessarily require a significant investment. There are many free or low-cost resources you can use to jumpstart your PR plans, including:

HARO (Help A Reporter Out) – The HARO website connects journalists with news resources and breaking stories submitted by website visitors. You can register as a news resource on the site, and journalists will contact you to let you know if they’re interested in using you or a story you submitted. For example, if you run a ski chalet, reporters may reach out and contact you at the start of the ski season.

Google Alerts – You can set up Google Alerts to receive an email notification whenever new references to your property are used online based on specific keywords – for example, your hotel name. This is an easy way to track where your property is being mentioned on the internet so you can better share and manage the mentions you receive.  

Listen Notes — Listen Notes is ‘like Google, but for podcasts’ and includes a classified ads section where users can search for podcasts that are in need of guest speakers. Here, hoteliers can search for any travel, hospitality, or hotel-related podcasts on the hunt for guest speakers.

PitchRate – PitchRate is a free PR tool that sends media requests directly to your inbox. If you feel the request is a fit, you can simply send a pitch to a journalist through the platform.

Mention – Mention allows you to monitor your hotel’s mentions across social media, forums, blogs, news, and website reviews to help you understand and respond to your brand’s online presence.

Canva – Use Canva’s completely free platform to help design your press kit. It comes with beautiful templates, making creating each element of your press kit easy.

3 examples of Hotel PR

Puri Garden Hostel

Getting featured on a Top X Places to Stay on a credible news site is a huge win for any hotelier. Puri Garden Hostel in Ubud was recently featured as the top hostel on The Times’s list of 8 of the best hostels in Bali. This article called out Puri Garden’s “glorious sunlounger-lined pool” and “happy hours, live music, movie nights, restaurant, organized day trips, and free yoga classes that make socializing easy.” 

Paintrock Canyon Ranch

Paintrock Canyon Ranch was featured in Travel + Leisure due to its unique lodging style: Luxury Ranch meets Safari-style Tents, Fly Fishing, and a Private Chef. This property was able to catch the attention of a credible news outlet and got a feature-length story highlighting the brand and guest experience. 

Duke Phillips, the Founder of Ranchlands, is quoted saying, “The goal is for guests at the Paintrock Canyon Ranch to leave with a deep understanding of the rich history of the area and the important role that ranching plays in restoring our natural resources while exploring nooks and crannies that only a few people have ever seen.”

30 Stays, 300 Days at Mariott Bonvoy

30 Stays, 300 Days at Marriott Bonvoy: Mariott launched a TikTok competition in search of 3 new TikTok correspondents to travel to all 30 of its hotel brands over 300 days. Using the hashtag #30stays300days, content curators submitted TikToks answering the question ‘how has travel shaped you’ and ‘why are you the best person for the job’.

Brian Povinelli, Senior VP of Brand, Loyalty, and Portfolio Marketing, said, “we’re excited for our TikTok correspondents to embrace the transformative power of travel and showcase Mariott Bonvoy as the vehicle to explore the world through this once-in-a-lifetime experience.”

This campaign acts as both a creative recruitment campaign, as well as an opportunity for prolonged PR content. The content curators that they hire will be sharing their experience over the next 300 days, with many viewers following along on the adventure of a lifetime.

Generating visibility and new business 

Hotel public relations is a highly effective hotel marketing tool for generating visibility and new business for your property or brand. Use PR as a way to creatively tell your brand’s story and connect with your target audience on a human level. Start by researching what other hotels are doing as part of their strategy, and create a personalized plan for your business. Leverage free tools and resources to get you started and continually add to your plan as you are exposed to new opportunities.