Your 2027 Marketing Budget Won't Save You If You Skip This Step
A guest perspective from Laurean Sahilices, The Hotel Marketing Lady
It's that time of year. Finance is circling. Someone's already sent a spreadsheet with last year's numbers and a note that says "please update by the end of month."
And so begins another budget cycle, one where most hotels will spend hours debating line items without ever stopping to ask the one question that actually determines whether any of it works.
We asked Laurean Sahilices, hotel marketing strategist and founder of The Hotel Marketing Lady, to share how she helps hotels approach this season differently. Her take is equal parts refreshing and a little uncomfortable, because, she's right.
The Problem with How Hotels Build Marketing Budgets
Here's what Laurean sees every fall, at properties of every size and flag:
"Owners and commercial leaders review last year's spreadsheet. A few costs go up, a few come down, a new agency gets added, another subscription appears. But very few stop to ask the one question that actually matters: what does marketing need to achieve commercially?"
That's the root of it. Most marketing budgets aren't built around a destination, they're built around habit. Last year's spend becomes this year's baseline, and the whole exercise becomes a negotiation over percentages rather than a strategic conversation about growth.
Before you decide how much to spend, Laurean says, get clear on what success actually looks like for your property. Are you trying to increase direct bookings? Protect your ADR? Reduce OTA dependency? Attract a higher-value guest? Grow demand in a specific feeder market? Are you a hotel that has been operating for years, or a brand new build, or planning a renovation?
All of these scenarios impact budget planning.
"Because if the commercial objective isn't clear," she puts it bluntly, "your marketing budget becomes a list of expenses, not a growth strategy."
Marketing isn't a cost center. It's a commercial investment and every dollar should support the direction of the business.
Why Positioning Has to Come First
Here's where it gets interesting and where a lot of commercial planning goes sideways.
Even when hotels do start with commercial goals, they often skip a step: figuring out who they're actually talking to, and why that person should choose them over everywhere else.
Laurean learned this lesson in one of the most dramatic settings imaginable: leading marketing for a luxury resort in the Maldives, home to an award-winning underwater restaurant. Fine dining beneath the ocean, seven-course tasting menus, sharks and sea turtles gliding past the glass while guests ate.
The question wasn't how to market it, it was understanding what was actually being sold.
"Do you think guests were paying for the food? Of course. But that's not what justified the price. They were paying for something they couldn't experience anywhere else. A story they'd tell for years. A unique memory they created with someone they loved."
That's the positioning insight most hotels miss. Guests don't buy rooms. They don't buy breakfast buffets or free parking. They buy experiences that become memories and perceived value is built long before someone ever hits "book."
Positioning is what makes premium pricing defensible. Without it, you're competing on price by default, and no budget can fix that.
What Standing Out Actually Looks Like
So you know your commercial goals. You've done the positioning work. Now what?
This is where a lot of hotel marketing still falls short, not in strategy, but in execution. Laurean's diagnosis: too many hotels are still trying to speak to everyone, which means they end up reaching no one.
She calls it "the shift from selling rooms to creating resonance."
And it starts with five things:
1. Define your brand voice. Are you bold and adventurous? Quiet luxury? Family-focused fun? That answer shapes everything downstream.
2. Know your ideal guest inside-out. What do they value? What frustrates them? What kind of escape are they craving? Not in general, very specifically.
3. Lead with emotion, not just logic. Think less "what we offer" and more "how we make you feel."
4. Build a narrative that connects. One that speaks directly to the person you most want to attract and makes them feel seen before they ever arrive.
5. Be consistent. One powerful story told over time builds trust, authority, and long-term demand. Consistency isn't boring. It's how brands get remembered.
"The most iconic hotel brands aren't shouting louder than others, they're connecting more deeply."
And that's the work that makes a marketing budget worth spending.
What to Take Into Budget Season
If there's a thread running through everything Laurean shared, it's this: the order matters.
Get your positioning right. Then set your commercial goals. Then build the budget that supports both. Do it in any other order and you're just spending money on noise.
This season, before someone sends you that spreadsheet, or if they already have, take an hour to answer the question Laurean keeps coming back to: Why would someone remember us?
Everything else flows from there.
Laurean Sahilices is a hotel marketing strategist and the founder of The Hotel Marketing Lady, where she works with hotel owners and commercial teams to build marketing strategies that actually connect to business outcomes. You can find her work and her Hotel Marketing Briefings at thehotelmarketinglady.com.
At Affixify, we're always looking for the sharpest minds in hospitality to share what they know because better-informed hoteliers make better decisions, and better decisions are what great properties are built on. If you're looking for a consultant or marketing strategist who actually gets the commercial side of this business, our marketplace is a good place to start.
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