10 Gifts Hotel Marketers Want For The Holidays

‘Tis the season to create your holiday wish list.

However, a hotel marketer’s wish list is unlike any other. Instead of asking for a new car or the latest tech toy, what you secretly hope Santa brings are all the assets you need to hit budget in 2017.

So… deck the halls with these top wishes from every hotel marketer’s holiday wish list:

1. Presidential Policies That Maintain Current Demand and Today’s Steady Economy

After two years of presidential election anxiety and uncertainty, hotel marketers are crossing their fingers that President Elect Trump and his policies will work in the hotel industry’s favor. Despite the controversial rhetoric during campaign season, we hope Trump’s long-standing and famed career in real estate will serve us well during his time in office, with issues like immigration reforms that positively impact our employees, foreign trade agreements that benefit our supply chain, or promised tax relief.

2. More Legal Injunctions Against Airbnb

Earlier this month, Airbnb officially backed off a lawsuit they had against New York City and the city’s new strict regulations targeting certain Airbnb hosts. The new rules impose fines up to $7,500 for hosts illegally renting out multiple units. This settlement comes after Airbnb walked away from another lawsuit earlier this year, attempting to block San Francisco’s law that required hosts to register with the city. Other cities had kept a close eye on these cases, since the outcome would potentially shape their own battles against Airbnb. Plus, AHLA created model legislation for local governments to use in their own short-term rental measurements. These events leave us with renewed hope for more rulings against Airbnb in the future.

3. More Awareness of the Benefits of Booking Direct

We all have Marriott and Hilton to thank for setting up a strong foundation for the rest of the hotel industry in our battle to regain bookings from OTAs. Their high-profile marketing campaigns, like Hilton’s “Stop Clicking Around,” intrigued audiences and raised awareness about the benefits of booking direct. Now that the stage has been set, our hope is more and more hotels will follow in their footsteps and start their own clever campaigns (no matter how small) to regain market share, plus offer more creative perks to entice guests to book direct.

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