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Weekly Brief: December 29, 2025
Recapping 2025: 28 newsletters sent, supported 12 new hotels via Task Force, went back to the sanity (?) of working on one-hotel, onboarded 4 new-to-the-hospitality-industry-marketers, and worked towards actively expanding my network through weekly coffee chats and reaching out to give kudos whenever a post, story, or activation resonated with me. The biggest takeaways, work wise, for me in 2025 have been:
Talent is harder to retain, and attract. It’s been a consistent issue over the years, but working in Task Force roles the past three years, it was a bit more eye opening. Hospitality is a quick and, sometimes, chaotic industry, and it’s something you have to love in order to adapt to the chaos. Hiring new-to-hospitality hires without a mentor in place is generally a setup for failure, but working with leaner teams, a go-to point person for new marketing hires hasn’t always been a given in the past year. Even from tracking job postings for this newsletter, I see many of the same titles reposted 3 - 6 months later, and I’ve personally seen a handful of new-to-hospitality hires decide the job wasn’t for them within 90 days.
Here is a link to the always-being-updated Hotel Marketing Salary Tracker
Channel marketing continues to evolve. One of the constants this year was me explaining why certain channels were down YoY while revenue remained flat. AI, snippets, zero-based-clicks…the main takeaway was that the single sources of traffic that used to be dependable are, well, less dependable now. The pie remains the same, just more mini slices and taste-testing instead of the big slices of the favorites we were used to.
Tools of the Trade
Linked from TLDR Marketing, Simple Signature is an easy WYSIWYG email signature tool that allows you to format and share business email signatures. It’s a common request I receive, to create a new signature for everyone at the hotel to use, so I’m always looking for ways to streamline this process. I also use a word template, linked here, in case you’re looking for an easier way to share.
Thanks for reading.
☞ Know of a new-to-hotels marketer or a hotel marketer who was recently laid off? Forward this newsletter to them!
― Marketing Briefs ―
Did You Know?
Trending news, marketing news, and reports:
Prediction Consensus: Visual Capitalist Global Forecast Series // Visual Capitalist
How Much More Can the U.S. Travel Industry Take? // NY Times
5 major trends set to shape travel in 2026 // CNBC
Sporting Events Headline 2026 as Key Dates for Potential Hotel Demand // CoStar
The Hotel Media Review of 2025 - Zeitgeist of the Hotel Industry // Martin Soler
US hotel occupancy fell for 9th consecutive month in November: CoStar // Hotel Dive
The Best Growth Tactics of ‘25 // Growth Unhinged
Guernsey Unveils Bold Campaign to Transform Island into Year-Round Travel Destination in 2026 // TTW
U.S. Hotel Industry: 2025 Performance and 2026 Outlook // HVS
Canva 2026 Design Trends // Canva
2026 Marketing Calendar - Events // X for Business
2025 Hits Different: Trends for the New Year // PR Week
Why Google is Deleting Reviews at Record Levels // Search Engine Land
Visitor Passes Return To Airports // Your Mileage May Vary
From Skillcations to Shelfies: Travel trends in 2026 Will Emphasize Analog Experiences // CoStar
‘Metaphysical Wellness’ Is a Growing Travel Trend. Here’s Where to Try It. // National Geographic
Programming News
Funding, design plans move forward for video game-inspired Atari Hotel // CoStar
An annual tradition at Paws Up Montana ranch surprises guests with over-the-top gifts like Fender Telecaster guitars and ukuleles for the kids. // Robb Report
The First Underwater Wine Cellar in the British Virgin Islands Was Just Unveiled at Rosewood Little Dix Bay // Robb Report
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― Job Postings & Career News ―
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Looking Forward: Q1
Holidays & Activations
Jan 1 - New Year’s Day
Jan 19 - MLK Day
Feb 2 - Groundhog Day
Feb 8 - Super Bowl LX
Feb 14 - Valentine’s Day
Feb 16 - Presidents’ Day
Feb 17 - Lunar New Year (Year of the Fire Horse)
Mar 8 - Daylight Savings Time
Mar 17 - St. Patrick’s Day
Mar 20 - First Day of Spring.
Anchor seasonal menu changes and refreshed creative
Action: Map each moment, whether one of the above or one of the many celebratory days I left out, to either a revenue goal, content goal, or PR goal. Do not activate everything.
Travel Periods
Lunar/Chinese New Year
Mid-Winter Break (Feb - mid-west school break)
Spring Break - mid March - mid April (Easter falls on April 5 in 2026)
Conferences
TravMedia's International Media Marketplace | Jan 21 - 22 | New York, NY
Skift Megatrends | Jan 22 | New York, NY
Pre-Planning:
HITEC/HSMAI | June 15 - 18 | San Antonio, TX
Hotel Data Conference | Aug 5 - 7 | Nashville, TN
Things To Do - Hotel Marketer Edition
Audit Your Website for 2025 Mentions
Audit your website for outdated year references and any offerings that were set to expire (including Book By dates that can be extended).
Refresh homepage hero copy to reflect seasonality and current demand drivers.
Choose a handful of 3rd party sites to audit each month. I start by reviewing top referring sites in analytics and adding them to my list, then googling my hotel names and adding 3rd party sites that show up in the top 5 pages.
Review comp set across multiple channels, including social media, brand/vanity websites, and 3rd party sites (Expedia, GMB, Cvent, etc).
― 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 currently work remotely for Ka Laʻi Waikīkī Beach, LXR Hotels & Resorts.
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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