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Weekly Brief: March 9, 2026
A delayed send this week, as the bi-annual time change throws me for a loop yet again.
Lots going on in the news, but from a hospitality lens, some things to keep an eye on include the government shutdown and how it’s impacting travel (particularly spring break travel) and global flight cancellations as conflicts in the Middle East escalate.
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Marketing Briefs
Did You Know?
Trending news, marketing news, and reports:
Marriott Hotels Are Secretly Selling Rooms Up To $450 Cheaper On Airbnb—And Corporate Can’t Seem To Stop Them // View from the Wing & Christian Hyland
Expedia Spring Travel Outlook // Expedia
Marketers Report Highest Rates Of AI ‘Brain Fry,’ Report Finds // Search Engine Journal
Should You Use Images When Pitching Journalists? // BuzzStream
How to build an AI SEO strategy that outlasts tactics // Growth Memo
Meta Has A New Way To Measure Social Engagement (Because Clicks Don’t Cut It) // AdExchanger
Google announces a rollout of 30-second, unskippable YouTube ads, in addition to the existing 6-second and 15-second ads. // Windows Central
How Google Picks Which Sentences to Cite in AI Mode — Reverse-Engineering 42,971 Citations // Hack MD
Why A/B Testing Your Emails Is (Mostly) Useless — And What to Test Instead // We Are Astral
Programming & Activations
Four Seasons Hotel San Francisco Introduces “Urban Reset,” a Sleep-Focussed Wellness Add-On for National Sleep Month // Four Seasons
Puerto Rico hotels see rising demand as 'Bad Bunny effect' helps elevate island’s global profile // CoStar
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Industry Updates
Agency News
Persephone Social signed as social agency of record for The Unbound Collection by Hyatt
P-22 named PR agency of record for Explora
Job Postings & Career News
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What is the 5.15
Leading luxury hotel marketing across resorts and task force marketing roles over the past 15+ years led me to begin publishing The Hotel Marketing 5.15 in 2025 as a way to help keep clients up to date on hospitality marketing news and activations. I am always available for coffee chats, networking, and to discuss project-based assignments.
Based on a communication method developed by Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard, the 5.15 is a weekly format designed to synthesize key insights in 15 minutes or less and be read in five minutes. This newsletter applies the same principle to hotel marketing: concise, actionable trends and opportunities curated for industry professionals.
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