6 hotel marketing trends &
how properties can prepare

In the wake of the pandemic, hotels saw surging demand in 2023 with record-high ADRs. In 2024, this growth began to level off, requiring hotels to adjust their marketing strategies – managing increased price sensitivity with rising traveler expectations. 

In 2025, these trends will continue, and hotel marketing managers must be creative to attract and retain travelers – finding ways to drive demand and incremental revenue beyond just room sales. 

To stay competitive, hotels need to focus on strategic personalization, leveraging guest data to create meaningful connections and harness AI-powered marketing to enhance efficiency. At the same time, shifting search behaviors and evolving traveler preferences mean that marketing strategies must remain agile. 

From the departure of traditional search methods to the rise of the Commercial Trinity, hotels must understand and adapt to these shifts to streamline initiatives and tailor their marketing strategies, all while delivering valuable guest experiences.

This article explores six of the latest trends in hospitality marketing that are driving change across the industry and how properties can prepare. 

Trend 1: AI-powered marketing takes center stage 

From custom chatbots, and advanced automation agents to innovative hotel technology, artificial intelligence (AI) and Generative AI are now an everyday essential in marketing. As of today, 69% of marketers have integrated AI into their marketing operations, and the travel industry is among those leveraging its capabilities for enhanced personalization and efficiency. 

For hospitality businesses, AI helps optimize segmentation and targeting, automates communication, and enables data-driven decision-making. The rise of generative AI tools has made it easier than ever for marketers to create high-quality content and adjust strategies in real-time. 

However, over-reliance on AI can lead to credibility issues, as travelers quickly detect inauthentic content or generic automation. AI should enhance—not replace—human creativity and genuine guest engagement.

How hotels can prepare 

Hotels must understand the power of AI and invest in the right tools to optimize marketing effectiveness. Here are just a few ways that AI can help hotels in 2025: 

• AI-driven dynamic pricing and dynamic forecasting – using AI to analyze market trends and competitor rates to adjust pricing strategies in real-time. 
• Personalized guest communication – using AI to analyze booking history and guest preferences to tailor marketing campaigns. 
• Conversational chatbots – using AI-powered virtual assistants and messaging platforms to provide instant and personalized responses to guest inquiries. 
• Improve staff training and enablement – using multi-modal AI to process and analyze data to make recommendations fast.
• Content creation – using generative AI to help in crafting social media captions, ad copy, and emails to create high-quality content at scale.

Trend 2: The rise of the Commercial Trinity

Traditionally, hotel revenue management, sales, and marketing teams have existed in silos, working separately from one another, each focusing on individual objectives despite being closely interconnected. That is, revenue managers optimize pricing and distribution, sales teams drive group and corporate bookings, and marketing managers increase brand awareness and demand. 

While these departments have always been interconnected, misalignment often led to inefficiencies, missed revenue opportunities, and inconsistent messaging. 

However, a major shift is underway towards a more unified, data-driven approach known as the Commercial Trinity. This strategy integrates revenue, sales, and marketing teams under a single commercial strategy, ensuring they work together to maximize revenue, capture demand, and enhance satisfaction. 

How hotels can prepare

To fully harness the power of the Commercial Trinity, hotels must adopt the right technology and processes to break down silos. This includes: 

• Appointing a Commercial Leader – designating a Commercial Director or cross-functional leader ensures that revenue, sales, and marketing teams collaborate under a unified strategy. 

• Investing in an integrated tech stack – adopt a unified property management system, customer relationship management system, revenue management system, and more to provide real-time visibility into commercial data. 

• Enhancing collaboration – establish regular strategy meetings to discuss and brainstorm on pricing strategies, promotions, and demand trends. 

• Leveraging real-time data – revenue and sales data should inform marketing strategies, allowing teams to create target campaigns based on guest behavior and demand. 

• Establishing shared KPIs – aligning teams requires common goals, including total revenue per available room (TRevPAR), cost per acquisition (CPA), and direct booking conversion rates. 

By integrating technology, data, and collaboration, hotels can move beyond fragmented operations and fully embrace the Commercial Trinity. 

Trend 3: Personalization meets ROI

As travelers increasingly seek tailored expectations, personalization has shifted from a competitive advantage to an industry expectation. Despite long-term structural shifts towards direct bookings, many hotel brands have yet to fully embrace targeted guest advertising via highly personalized content. 

McKinsey found that personalization strategies can lead to a 10-15% revenue lift and hotels that fail to leverage guest data risk falling behind. Data-driven marketing enables hotels to capture traveler intent, refine messaging, and create hyper-relevant campaigns that resonate. 

How hotels can prepare 

To capitalize on the benefits of personalization, hotels should:

• Leverage guest data – utilize business intelligence and CRM systems to collect and analyze guest data, including booking history, preferences, and feedback. 

• Implement targeted campaigns – develop marketing campaigns that target specific segments identified through data and AI analysis. 

• Enhance guest experiences – use data to tailor on-site experiences and upsells, including personalized messages, custom room amenities, and exclusive offers. 

By integrating guest data, hotels can create detailed and personalized marketing campaigns that drive bookings and generate new revenue streams. 

Trend 4: Authentic content and influencer marketing drive engagement

With the creator economy projected to reach $480 billion by 2027, the push for authentic content, short-form videos, and influencer marketing tools is here to stay. 

Skift slates influencers as the next power brokers in travel. Travelers are especially receptive to indirect marketing efforts through influencers, tour operators, and online travel agencies (OTAs) like Tripadvisor. 

Social media platforms like TikTok continue to play a crucial role in enhancing the online presence of hotels and properties via user-generated content. Instagram takes social media marketing one step further by transforming the guest journey using integrated booking features and targeted advertising for specific demographics. 

Combined with reviews and testimonials, these tactics have the ability to significantly influence engagements and conversions across the hotel industry, as well as impact guest travel decisions and touchpoints.

How hotels can prepare 

To leverage the power of content marketing and influencers, hotels should consider the following:

• Collaborate with relevant influencers – establish partnerships with influencers whose audience aligns with your target audience.

• Encourage user-generated content – create campaigns that motivate guests to share their experiences on social media.

• Utilize short-form video – develop engaging short video content showcasing your unique features and guest experience and share these videos on TikTok and Instagram. 

• Integrate authentic reviews – highlight genuine guest reviews across your marketing channels to build trust. 

Trend 5: The departure of traditional search

Search is rapidly changing and bringing into question the use of traditional channels. For example, Google’s Gemini acts as a high-quality research assistant, using advanced reasoning tactics and context capabilities to help searchers understand highly technical topics.

The hospitality industry is no exception, with travelers leveraging AI assistants (like ChatGPT or Gemini) and OTA travel planners (like Romie and TripGen). These conversation interfaces help travelers answer questions like:

• Where should I travel this summer? What’s the best area to stay?
• What are the coolest hotels in the area? The most affordable ones? 
• What should I do while I’m visiting? Can you suggest a 3-day itinerary? 

Hoteliers can expect this to develop even further with the evolution of Generative AI agents. These tools act on behalf of the traveler throughout the booking process, reserving via the most optimal channel to ensure the user receives the best value towards:

• Pricing
• Loyalty programs
• Incentives
• Cancellation policies
• Additional conditions 

For hotels, it’s important that your property is suggested in search results or else you risk the loss of website traffic and bookings through both direct and indirect channels. 

How hotels can prepare 

To stay on top of traveler booking habits and new SEO practices, hotels should:

• Optimize for AI search engines – ensure your hotel’s information is up-to-date and accessible to AI tools. This includes maintaining accurate data on pricing, availability, amenities, and policies. 

• Improve content for AI summaries – spend time creating a frequently asked questions section on your website covering key topics like loyalty perks, hotel room upgrades, and local experiences. Also consider writing posts like best hotels near [landmark] or coolest hotels in [location]. 

• Invest in conversational chatbots – implement AI chatbots on your website and booking platform to provide instant, personalized responses to potential guests. 

• Enhance guest reviews  – AI models favor highly-rated properties with recent reviews so ensure you have a reputation management strategy in place. 

• Get featured on travel sites – easier said than done, but try to get featured on trusted sources like Skift, Lonely Planet, and Travel Blogs to increase your likelihood of being suggested by AI engines. 

Trend 6: The upsell revolution

The travel industry is witnessing a growing wealth divide. While luxury segments are expanding, many travelers are facing economic constraints due to inflation, leaving them with less funds to splash out for their next trip. Despite this, guests are still looking for personalized, luxury travel experiences. 

Respond to this shift by selling more than just rooms, with personalized upsells, add-ons, and a la carte services for guests. The upsell revolution satisfies your guests’ cravings for personalized experiences without breaking the bank, especially when provided with options to pay for the services they want (and forgo ones they don’t), like breakfast or early check-in.  

This approach not only enhances guest experiences but helps hotels increase revenue. According to Accenture, upselling can lead to a revenue increase of 10-30%. 

What’s more, hoteliers can leverage multi-modal AI to empower staff upselling, both in-person and throughout your hotel website. By simultaneously processing and integrating various types of data – such as images, text, and guest preferences – multi-modal AI can assist staff in offering personalized upsells both in-person and through digital platforms.

How hotels can prepare 

To capitalize on the upsell revolution, hotels should: 

• Implement personalized upsell strategies – utilize guest data to offer tailored upsells and services that align with individual preferences via targeted email marketing and messaging campaigns. 
• Integrate upsells into your booking engine – ensure your booking engine supports add-ons, making it easy for travelers to add extras to their reservations.  
• Leverage multi-modal AI tools – adopt AI-powered systems (like Cloudbeds Intelligence) that can process and integrate various data types to assist in upselling. 
• Train staff in upselling techniques – equip your team with the skills and knowledge to effectively present upsell options.  

Navigating the future of hotel marketing

Hotel marketing today is being driven by AI advancements, shifting guest expectations, and new search behaviors. To stay competitive, hotels must embrace innovation while maintaining authenticity, leveraging AI to enhance personalization, optimize search visibility, and create seamless guest experiences.