Public relations, online advertising, websites, SEO, sales, social media and email are all common forms of marketing used by small luxury hotels today; they are assembled in various mixes to form a hotel's marketing and communications plan.
 
These plans get the word out and hopefully generate the revenue that management and owners budgeted. Sometimes they do and sometimes they don't. Over the course of the past few years far too many have proven they don't.
 
So why are so many small luxury hotels missing the mark when hotel chains, casinos and even cruise lines are meeting goals? You might say it's because chains, cruise lines and casinos spend so much money on advertising, but that would be missing the real reason for their success.

For years these large competitors have invested multiple millions of dollars developing data warehouses and database systems that have allowed them to build strong customer relationship marketing (CRM) programs.

They now know their customers and prospects intimately and can reach out and communicate with them in a very personal, one-to-one manner, build relationships and know the value of these individuals over time. Simply put this drives sales.
 
These competitors have the ability to manage the customer lifecycle from awareness all the way through building repeat visitors and brand advocates. They are masters of the science of direct marketing, something few small luxury hotels are.
 
Their systems allow them to set up and automate communications, measure campaign ROI and continually refine their marketing communications to consistently increase marketing effectiveness.
 
Until recently, sophisticated yet affordable data warehouse and database systems were not available for small luxury hotels. Now they are.

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