Travel demand spans several generations, but the wants and needs of all these hotel guests often differ from one generation to the next. The marketing approach from third-party management companies at the property level has to be all-encompassing and accessible to all ages to drive the most bookings.
Kiley Watkins, director of digital marketing and strategy at Island Hospitality Management, said the company's marketing approach isn’t one-size-fits-all but focuses more on individual hotels. The messaging will be different depending on the travel mix the property usually receives.
“First and foremost, it’s truly understanding the property, and then understanding how the property can cater to that specific audience that they are targeting,” she said.
It's critical to factor in that hotel brands have different marketing goals than hotel management companies do.
Cory Chambers, chief commercial officer at Hospitality Ventures Management Group, said brands push aspirational travel in their marketing that is meant to create intent to travel. Once that intent is there, the marketing is then done at a more regional level, where management companies can step in and try to capture bookings for specific hotels.
The messaging from management company marketing is mostly driven by the type of demand they’re trying to capture, which can then inform the generations they’re targeting, he said.
“If it’s leisure families, maybe it’s more millennial-driven. If it’s leisure holiday, it might be more baby boomers. It really just depends,” he said.
While brands certainly do their fair share of marketing, it’s less about a specific property and more about spreading a positive brand image overall.
“Hilton and Marriott do an awesome job promoting a brand, but they’re promoting their hundreds and thousands of properties. Our goal is to have someone stay at our Hilton that might be different from another Hilton down the street,” Watkins said.
Marketing Options
Most marketing at the property level isn’t necessarily targeted toward a specific generation, but it’s rather a cohesive message that can entice all ages to consider the hotel.
“It’s a broad marketing plan between the [generations] but we’re trying to offer diverse amenities,” said Jennifer Maxwell, regional director of sales at Raines. “We focus on the shared values and figure out what can span across all the generations and that’s what we publish. We try to be diverse and inclusive with our imagery.”
Maxwell said providing guests with options is key to attracting each generation. This could come in the form of providing a mobile key and check-in option, which appeals to younger travelers, while also continuing to provide front-desk assistance, which appeals to older travelers.
Although there isn’t necessarily a focus on any specific generation when it comes to hotel marketing, millennials — people born between the years 1981 and 1996 — are loosely the main age range that's targeted.
Maxwell said Raines likes to highlight its wellness options, such as property partnerships with Peloton, to drive interest among younger travelers. Staying up to date on technology trends such as using QR codes and having a relevant social media profile also can lead to interest from millennial and Gen Z travelers, Watkins said.
Marketing for baby boomers is more geared toward sleep and relaxation amenities, since they typically have more discretionary time and money available and have longer lengths of stay, she said.
In terms of the best marketing platforms for attracting younger generations such as Gen Z or millennials, social media is “definitely” top of the list, Watkins said. Sites such as Facebook allow for targeted ads that can focus on a specific audience, profile or demographic.
The key to having a successful social media presence is to be genuine and authentic while having a consistent message spread across each platform used, she said.
“If we are a hotel that is walking distance from the beach, making sure that’s broadcast, whether it be on a Facebook ad, whether it be on our website, whether it be in email marketing, whether it be on Google — whichever platform someone is going to, the same information is relayed,” Watkins said.
Chambers said that social media is “an important component of our marketing,” but warned that its impact on sales isn’t the easiest to quantify. Its purpose is more to have a point of reference for potential guests who have already come across the property through a different source first.
Although having a presence on a platform such as Instagram to highlight the amenities and layout of a specific property helps with driving intent to travel, it’s rare to get a booking directly from it and is hard to track when it does.
“It’s often difficult to monetize the investment in social media,” Chambers said. “You do have to promote yourself within those social media channels in order for those channels to expose you to buyers. If you’re a business listing and you’re not buying advertisements, it would be very difficult for you to be served up to or to be viewed by a customer who wasn’t specifically looking for you.”
In today’s climate, having a solid reputation online can be one of the best tools for driving bookings, Watkins said. Guests are encouraged to leave reviews on their social media accounts so that potential travelers can see an authentic, word-of-mouth description of their experience.
“No matter what age is traveling, no matter what group, it comes down to reviews and what people are saying about the hotel. No matter what your interest is or who you are, at the end of the day you want verified sources,” she said.
AI Coming Next
Artificial intelligence and machine learning has already been used for years in deploying spend, but its impact on marketing in the future is still yet to be determined, Chambers said. Companies such as Expedia have rolled out chat bots to answer questions and give recommendations to potential guests.
AI won’t completely change how a guest books their travel, but it could help with messaging and accessibility for customers down the line, he said.
“It’s to be determined on if and how and when that will be at the forefront at the point of sale,” Chambers said. “How much will AI help [buyers] on [their] travel-making decision, and how much will it help the brands garner competitive advantage and drive preference? That’s TBD.”