Walk into almost any hotel boardroom and ask, 'What’s your strategy?', nine times out of ten, you’ll hear some version of: 'Fill the rooms', that’s not a strategy, that’s an output target.

It’s the equivalent of a restaurant saying its strategy is “serve as many plates as possible.” It tells you nothing about who you’re serving, why they should choose you, or how you’ll make them want to return.

Roger Martin, one of the world’s most respected strategy thinkers, is crystal clear: strategy starts with the customer. In our world, that’s the guest.

And here’s the truth most hotels avoid — if you don’t build your strategy around a clearly defined guest segment, you’ll end up chasing anyone and everyone. You might fill rooms, but you’ll never fill hearts or build loyalty.

The One Strategy That Works in Hospitality

A hotel only needs one strategy:

Find and target the guests you can deliver the most value to — and make them so satisfied they can’t wait to recommend your hotel to others and return.

That’s it. Everything else is tactics.

Why? Because when you know exactly who you’re for, you can design every touchpoint — from marketing to housekeeping — to serve them better than anyone else. And when you do, you win twice: higher guest satisfaction and higher profitability.

Guests Change — So Should You

Guest needs aren’t static. What delights them today might bore them tomorrow. That’s why strategy can’t be a once-a-year PowerPoint — it must be a living, breathing process that evolves as guests do.

The goal isn’t to meet expectations. It’s to exceed them with positive surprises that make them talk about you, post about you, and book again without hesitation. That requires paying attention, listening, and adapting — continuously.

The Guest Journey: Your Tactical Framework

With the strategy set, the guest journey becomes the perfect way to organize your tactics:

1. Attract – Find the Right Guests

Tactic: Identify where your ideal guests are, understand what they value, and position your hotel to speak directly to them.

• Define your ideal guest profiles using both demographics and psychographics.
• Align marketing channels to where these guests naturally spend time.
• Craft messaging that speaks to their motivations and emotional triggers.

2. Capture – Convert Interest into Bookings

Tactic: Use the proper channels and offers to convert interest from your target audience into direct bookings.

• Optimize your direct booking engine for simplicity and trust.
• Offer exclusive direct booking perks that matter to your target guests.
• Balance pricing between perceived value and profitability — not just market averages.

Continue to read about the tactics for the remaining stages of the guest journey here.