Data Points are Everywhere
A belated post as Mother’s Day weekend was spent traveling between statewide hockey tournaments, staying in plenty of hotels, and watching two of my three kids, aspiring 10- and 8-year-old hockey players, explain new memes, say the wildest things imaginable, and play their hearts out in the sport that has quietly taken over most of our year. Hospitality has always been my first passion, but my appreciation for hockey grows with every practice, game, and new dent in our garage door as slap shots are perfected. I’ve even started tracking data points, including calculating my 8-year-old goalie’s shots on goal vs save percentage after every game. If a hockey rink resort ever opens, I’d likely work there for free in exchange for ice time.

AI ROI
Daniel Murray of The Marketing Millenials dives into how to track AI ROI beyond “it saves time” in his latest newsletter: track efficiency (cost per asset, revision cycles, agency spend offset), quality (a/b win rates, SEO lift, engagement delta), and revenue (conversion rate, lead quality, lift), as well as recommendations for data tests to help you identify what’s working and what tools aren’t (or where you’re missing a tool). Read more in his latest newsletter.

LinkedIn Voices - Hospitality Edition
Ashkhen Gevondyan recapped the Marriott Q1 Earnings Report last week, highlighting the main areas of their successful performance, which didn’t come from room rates or occupancy: franchise fees, co-branded credit card fees, and a record pipeline that will help generate additional fee income. Their core advantage is predictable, high-margin fee income and limited capital tied up in real estate.

Christian Hyland wrote about the technology companies you should be watching - not Mews or Cloudbeds, who are making headlines as they continue to raise success capital, but HotelKey, who has signed deals with Hilton, IHG, BWH, and more to co-develop infrastructure that will blend and update the outdated internal PMS in place.

Hotel Marketing 5.15 Reader to Meet
This comes back next week, with a backlog of intros to write for some amazing readers! I’ve had the chance to catch up and meet some readers over virtual coffee chats the past two weeks; if you’d like to be featured in an upcoming edition or have a new project or announcement to share, I’d be happy to feature you as well.

Thanks for reading.
Quick ask: will you forward this to one person in your network who might be looking for a new job, looking to break into hospitality marketing, or likes to scan the latest updates each week? That is how most readers find us.

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News from the agencies that hotel marketers trust and work with. If you have new client wins as an agency with a hospitality-focused client and want to share them here, email me at [email protected].

Leading luxury hotel marketing across resorts and task force marketing roles over the past 15+ years led me to launch The Hotel Marketing 5.15 in 2025 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.