Marketing activity is rarely absent in hotels.
Campaigns are running.
Content is being posted.
Agencies are delivering.
Reports are circulating.
And yet, performance stalls.
Not because marketing isn’t happening
but because activity has replaced direction.
The illusion of progress
In many hotels, marketing looks busy on the surface.
There’s always something going live.
– A new promotion.
– A refreshed visual.
– Another channel being added.
This creates the appearance of momentum.
But activity alone does not move the business forward.
It only creates motion.
Progress requires alignment.
Where performance quietly breaks down
The issue I see most often is not effort. It’s misalignment.
Marketing activity is rarely anchored to:
- clear commercial priorities
- shared leadership direction
- defined decision-making frameworks
This is especially common in new hotel openings, where execution often outpaces strategic clarity.
I’ve written before about why so many hotels struggle in their first year and it rarely comes down to effort.
Instead, teams respond to urgency.
Occupancy dips → push an OTA campaign
Stakeholder pressure → increase visibility on social
Competitor activity → react quickly
Each action makes sense in isolation.
Together, they dilute impact.
Over time, this creates noise, not results.
This is also where misalignment between revenue and marketing quietly compounds.
When commercial priorities aren’t clearly shared, marketing activity responds to pressure instead of intent.
I recently explored this dynamic in a conversation with a former GM and revenue strategist, Christine Malfair, looking at how these disconnects show up long before results decline.
When these marketing & revenue operate in silos, effort increases but impact weakens.
Opportunities are missed.
Decisions become reactive.
But when alignment is clear, behaviour changes quickly.
Focus sharpens.
Commercial intent becomes easier to execute.
Why this shows up most in lean teams
In hotels with lean structures, marketing often operates without senior guidance.
Execution happens faster than alignment.
Decisions are made tactically, not strategically.
Teams work hard, but without a unifying direction.
This is not a capability issue.
It’s a leadership gap.
Without clarity at the top, even strong execution struggles to convert effort into performance.
This distinction becomes especially visible in areas like SEO, where visibility is often prioritised without a clear commercial lens.
I’ve written previously about how SEO supports direct bookings when it’s aligned with strategy, not treated as a standalone tactic.
What aligned marketing actually looks like
When marketing is aligned, activity becomes intentional.
Every action supports:
- a clear commercial objective
- a defined positioning
- a shared understanding of what matters most
Teams stop guessing.
Agencies execute with purpose.
Decisions become easier, faster, and more confident.
Momentum builds not because there is more activity,
but because there is less noise.
The leadership question that changes everything
The shift begins with one question:
Is our marketing busy or is it aligned with what the business actually needs right now?
Clarity does not slow teams down.
It focuses them.
And focus is what turns marketing activity into commercial impact.
If this distinction feels familiar, the first step isn’t more execution.
It’s understanding where misalignment is quietly limiting performance.
I created a short self-assessment to help hotel leaders identify whether marketing activity is supporting commercial priorities or compensating for missing clarity.
