Picture trends as the cool kids at the hospitality party, setting the vibe for the entire gathering. When we talk about hospitality trends, we're basically discussing "what's hot and happening" in the world of hotels and travel. Hospitality trends are evolving patterns and changes within the hospitality industry, reflecting shifts in consumer behaviour, technology, design, and service offerings. So, why should hoteliers pay attention to hospitality trends?

Trends serve as a compass guiding hoteliers through the ever-evolving hospitality landscape. Embracing these hotel trends means staying attuned to shifting guest preferences, technological advancements, and industry innovations. Hoteliers who strategically adapt to hotel trends can differentiate their properties, offering guests unique and appealing experiences that set them apart from competitors.

In short: Knowing and taking trends into account is key to making your hotel more appealing, attracting more guests and ultimately generating more revenue. That's why today we're giving you an insight into four important trends for sustainable hotels in 2025.

In 2025, it's no longer just about stylish sun loungers and new cocktail creations (although those have their place too, of course 😊). More and more travellers are looking for experiences that inspire them and help them grow personally – that's transformative travel, where relaxation and personal growth go hand in hand (SiteMinder, 2024). Imagine your guests not only packing their suitcases after staying at your hotel, but also taking away new insights from mindfulness workshops, creative retreats, or authentic cultural experiences.

This makes your hotel an (insiders') tip for all those who want more than just a break and are looking for more than just a vacation. Who wants to "just stay overnight" when you can gain something for your personal development apart from unwinding? Show your guests that they've come to the right place – for everything they need and for what they perhaps haven't even realised yet they were looking for.

3 steps your hotel can take to fulfil the desire for transformative guest experiences:

• Workshops and retreats: Offer themed retreats that focus on personal development, such as mindfulness or creativity workshops.
   
• Involve the local community: Integrate local and regional elements into your offering, for example, traditions, customs, recipes, art, etc., to offer guests authentic and transformative experiences.
   
• Exchange and networking: Encourage exchange between guests through networking events or joint activities that enable your visitors to learn from each other and network.

In 2025, the travel industry will become increasingly inclusive, especially within the neurodiverse spectrum (Lemongrass, 2024). This means: more offers tailored to the needs of neurodivergent people. Neurodivergent? These are people whose neurological development and functioning are unique in some way and differ from others. This includes, for example, people with autism, ADHD, or other neurological characteristics (HelloBetter, 2022).

This kind of diversity often requires special attention – and this is where hotels have the opportunity to stand out. Special services that make neurodivergent guests feel welcome and safe make all the difference. Whether through quiet retreats, a clear and well-organised daily structure, or specially trained staff – catering to these needs, hotels create a welcoming atmosphere that attracts not only new, but more importantly, loyal guests.

3 steps your hotel can take to attract neurodiverse people:

• Sensory-friendly spaces: Design certain areas of the hotel, such as rooms or lounges, with calming colours, subdued lighting, and minimal acoustic disturbances. Provide noise-cancelling headphones or eye masks to create a tranquil and relaxing environment.
   
• Customised itineraries: Develop packages or offers that cater to the needs of neurodivergent guests. This could include providing detailed information about the surroundings, low-stress activities, and the possibility to customise schedules for maximum flexibility.
   
• Staff training: Provide training for your team to raise awareness of neurodivergent needs. This includes dealing with different communication styles, sensitivity to sensory overload, and the ability to respond individually to guests' wishes and requirements.

Sustainability on the plate will be a real game changer in 2025: more and more diners are making sure that their food not only tastes good, but is also sourced environmentally friendly and ethically responsibly (Mintel, 2024). Sustainable menus are therefore no longer just nice to have, but often a decisive factor when choosing a hotel. Many travellers want to minimise their ecological footprint without sacrificing indulgence – and preferably dine just as they would at home.

Hotels focussing on local, seasonal, and sustainable ingredients therefore certainly have a competitive edge. According to Booking.com's Sustainable Travel Report (2024), 75% of travellers intend to travel more consciously and sustainably in the next 12 months – and the menu is a major contributing factor.

Delicious sustainable options not only appeal to your guests' palates, but also to their environmental awareness – and that's a significant bonus!

3 steps your hotel can take to do something good for the planet with sustainable dining options:

• Design sustainable menus: Offer vegan and vegetarian options in your hotel restaurant or at breakfast (at least two per category: starter, main course, dessert). Present this menu on your website or mention that you offer vegan and vegetarian options!
   
• Be transparent: Inform your guests about the origin of ingredients. Focus on transparent communication by explaining how and where the food is produced and/or what its ecological footprint looks like. You should also integrate this information into your website.
   
• Offer cooking classes and workshops: Organise workshops or cooking classes where guests learn how to cook more sustainably themselves. This not only creates a unique experience, but also promotes awareness for sustainable nutrition and food handling.

Travellers increasingly want to take a virtual tour of their future holiday destination before they book – and this is where you come in! Virtual experiences not only facilitate the booking process, but can also boost your sales considerably. According to the unterwegs digital travel magazine, a full 78% of respondents attach great importance to being able to get a visual impression of the property and ambience before booking.

This is your chance to present your hotel in the best possible light, intrigue people, spark anticipation, and thus generate more bookings. How, you ask? Create a digital holiday experience on your website and on social media that gets your potential guests in the holiday mood online!

3 steps your hotel can take to generate more bookings through virtual experiences:

• Offer virtual tours: Create 360-degree videos that allow potential guests to navigate through the rooms, lobby, restaurants, and other key areas of your hotel. Be sure to highlight different angles and details so guests get a full feel for the atmosphere and style of your hotel.
   
• Use social media: Share interactive insights from your hotel with short videos and live tours on platforms such as Instagram and Facebook. Use Instagram stories or reels to present special offers and events or grant a peek behind the scenes. Encourage your followers to ask questions or take part in surveys to increase engagement.
   
• Make your hotel website an experience: Turn your hotel website into an experience for visitors. Integrate elements such as virtual tours, image carousels, and informative pop-ups that guide guests through the various offers. Make sure that navigation is intuitive and user-friendly so that visitors can quickly find the information they are looking for – be it on room rates, amenities, or special events. This not only makes people want more, but also ensures that they stay on the hotel website longer, gain trust, and book!

Our MAdvice at the end: Desire for spontaneous adventures is on the rise! More and more travellers are booking holidays last-minute. Take advantage of this trend by offering last-minute deals and attractive last-minute promos – to perfectly cater to the thrill of the unplanned or late planners!

We hope that this short glance ahead has provided you with empowering ideas and sustainable inspiration. Let's work together to make hotels even more innovative, sustainable, and future-proof. Thank you for joining us on our journey to shape the hotel industry of tomorrow.

Here's to a year full of new opportunities and great sustainable experiences!

At MAp, we start every (sustainability) project with Purpose. It is the golden thread running through and connecting all other elements. And the sustainable steps your hotel takes reflects what your overall Purpose is.

But let’s be clear about what your Purpose actually is: Purpose is the reason your hotel exists – its overall WHY. It is the derived meaning that comes when you know that you created something that you believe matters – to yourself, to others, to society. Be aware, Purpose does not entail earning a Profit. It must go above and beyond making money and be broad, humanistic and socially-engaged, linking your hotel to a greater good. Your Purpose will be your guiding compass to making this world a better place and growing your business, at the same time.

WHY Purpose matters

• Brings you clarity and clarity = power
• Creates a culture of innovation
• Attracts the right people (guests, employees, partners) for your hotel
• Builds resilience through turbulent times
• Delivers personal satisfaction to the hotelier

1. Discover your personal Purpose
2. Define your hotel’s Purpose
3. Embed your Purpose into your hotel business
4. Prioritise your sustainability activities based on your Purpose: People, Planet or Profit
5. Activate your Purpose – because Purpose is a verb, not a noun!

The social dimension of sustainability, People, deals with the impact your hotel has on the society for which and in which it operates. It’s about being a good host, a helpful neighbour, a quality employer and partner, a responsible and reliable brand – while serving the direct and indirect needs of your stakeholders.

And who are those stakeholders? While there are many stakeholder groups involved in making a hotel project a success, in this blog post, we focus the action steps on four key groups that your hotel has a major impact on: 

• Your guests
• Your employees
• Your partners
• Your local community

Unfortunately, the hospitality and tourism industry has not always had a good reputation when it comes to its social impact. On a bright note, though, as the industry touches every human on earth in one way or the other, there is so much opportunity to positively contribute to the lives of your guests, your employees and partners, and your local community – now and in the future.

WHY People matter

• Only teamwork makes the dream work
• Money always comes from People
• People will make or break your brand

1. Achieve a 50/50 balance between men and women in your management
2. Give equal employment opportunities to People already residing in the local community
3. Give equal management positions to People already residing in the local community
4. Offer employment opportunities without discrimination by gender, race, disability, religion and more
5. Offer management opportunities without discrimination by gender, race, disability, religion and more

You may also download our free guide on how to write inclusive job ads here. 

We know that many hoteliers are aware of how closely connected their hotels are to their surrounding environments. However, the relationship between hotels and Planet is not a healthy one; hotels create enormous negative impacts on the environment all along their lifecycles.

Therefore, the ultimate goal of environmental sustainability is to minimise your hotel’s environmental impact on the region and the Planet at large through the following key elements:

• Energy
• Waste
• Food
• Water

By tackling these elements holistically, hotels are able to limit their environmental impact and achieve carbon neutrality. And by implementing smart environmental measures they realise significant savings too – a win-win!

WHY Planet matters

• There is no Planet B
• If you put Planet over Profit, your Profit will grow healthy as well
• Act now to environmental regulations – or react later

1. Compost bio waste
2. Plant a biological garden
3. Cook to order and eliminate the buffet
4. Make smaller food portion sizes
5. Donate extra food

Learn more about the topic in our free waste guide. 

We won’t argue: Profit is important. Without it, your hotel will cease to exist. But what is also important is that the Profit earned is:

• Achieved in a sustainable way = not at the cost of People and Planet
• Distributed in a sustainable way = used to secure your hotel’s operationality in the future while also making this world a better place

Money is the lifeblood of your business, but it is not your reason for being – that’s what Purpose is for. But how can you pursue your Purpose if you are not profitable and financially strong?

That’s the paradox: organisations that only exist to earn a Profit don’t last long. But organisations that don’t prioritise Profit can’t survive long enough to fulfil their Purpose. In other words, in the context of sustainability: it’s hard to be green when you’re in the red!

WHY Profit matters

• Profit allows for progress in your business
• Profit enables you to uplift, empower and better serve your stakeholder groups
• Profit makes the world a better place (when you share it with the world)

1. Donate a share of your Profit
2. Create an employee donation scheme
3. Match employees’ donations
4. Create a guest donation scheme
5. Match guests’ donations

As you see in the following illustration, defining a hotel’s positioning is an essential part of every hotel concept we create at MAp Boutique Consultancy.

Once we know what your hotel’s unique Purpose is, and for which People your hotel exists, we embark on defining your hotel’s unique position on the MAp.

Our hotel clients always get excited about this hotel positioning exercise. But, there is a small “downer” you should know: even if we strive to achieve a clear and unique hotel positioning, ultimately it is not us who decides what the hotel positioning is. The hotel positioning is defined by your People, above all, your guests, and this implies that your control over your hotel positioning is limited.

This triangle is called the “Strategic Triangle” that serves to identify long-term business advantages or, as we call it, success potential. Sometimes it is also called the 3C Model, showing the tension field and interplay (therefore we use a triangle) that consists between Customer, Competitor and Company.

And: hotel positioning is the image (place) you own in the minds of your guests, when they compare your hotel with the hotels of your competitors.

Now that you understand what hotel positioning is, let’s walk step-by-step in how we at MAp define a hotel’s unique positioning. The fact is, we are experiencing a crowded marketplace. Therefore, we aim to achieve a hotel positioning that:

• Focuses on relevancy
• Focuses on differentiation from competition
• Is credible and attainable
• Finds a place on the MAp where you / your services are the only answer for a specific someone Now as the last sentence implies, to create your unique hotel positioning you MUST DEFINE for WHOM you are working / WHO this specific someone is.

Only if you have your defined buyer personas ready (= your target guests) you can answer an important question: How do you find your unique position on the MAp? Therefore, if you haven’t defined your buyer personas yet – now’s the time to do it!

Next, you have to know on which MAp to position your hotel. When working with clients, we like to use a simple and effective positioning matrix. For the purposes of this blog post, let’s keep it simple, and that means you should decide if your MAp is i.e. boutique luxury hotels, family hotels, boutique city hotels, etc.

Once you have defined in which segment to position your hotel, most often you’ll realise that you’re not the first to do so! Even if you’re tapping into a growing market and seeking to serve your specific audience better than your competitors, our MAp advice is to keep digging and to add a further niche into the mix. And, of course, to strive to add something new and exciting to the segment and the hospitality landscape at large. 

Once you’ve defined your position on the MAp, it’s time to put it down in words. You can do so by crafting a hotel positioning statement. We’ll give you MAp’s positioning statement as an example.

MAp Boutique Consultancy

TO… Innovative investors and boutique hoteliers that need direction, empowerment and support in getting their ventures off the ground, levelling up and setting a strong foundation for growth

MAp IS… the leader in developing and empowering sustainable and innovative hotels and brands

THAT… makes hotels matter by creating a better future for People and Planet.

What’s yours?

TO… __________________________ (target audience / buyer personas) ________(your hotel) IS… __________________________ (your position on the map) THAT… __________________________ (what you will do for your target audience / buyer personas)

And another blog post comes to an end. Maybe we can summarise what we’ve learned today about hotel positioning best with a quote from Simon Sinek:

“In order to stand out, we have to know what we stand for.”

We hope that after our time together, what YOU stand for is much clearer. And if not, please do not hesitate to contact us in order to find your unique hotel positioning on the MAp.

When crafting hotel websites for new openings, there's a fundamental principle we at MAp adhere to every time: step-by-step. Why? Because each hotel launch comprises a multitude of distinct elements and puzzle pieces that gradually come together over time. This dynamic often means that launching a complete hotel website right from the start is rarely feasible.

On the other hand, the time constraint underscores the importance of swiftly launching your hotel website. This urgency is driven by the necessity to initiate your hotel sales and communication activities, while also configuring essential programmes and systems—many of which are intricately linked to your hotel website.

The first step to tackle when launching a new hotel is to create a landing page. A landing (or launch page) is a simple page where you present the main information about your new hotel opening. It gives you a first presence in the World Wide Web and offers People the chance to learn more about your hotel, contact you or register already for your hotel newsletter.

However, this doesn’t mean your landing page needs to be simple. It’s important to be meticulous about using the right brand design, presenting your hotel in the best light (i. e. with beautiful renderings), and telling your unique story in an emotional way.

Once your hotel landing page is online, and hopefully is already attracting attention and enrolling potential guests, employees and partners to your newsletter, you have to work on the following tasks and elements:

• Full hotel website: Create a unique website design that matches your hotel positioning and speaks to your defined target audience. Also make sure that your tone of voice matches your hotel brand and that you clearly communicate why guests should stay at your hotel in a compelling and emotional way.
• System and programmes: Start working early enough on all the other programmes that are connected with your hotel website. Be those your correspondence manager system, the property management system, channel manager, newsletter tool, etc. While your hotel landing page is online, you can organise the set-up and do the testing in the background.

The big day to make a big splash has come! And you should not waste the opportunity to make this launch event special. Some ideas to help you with your hotel website launch:

• Create a launch countdown on your social media channels
• Ask friends and partners to spread the word via their channels
• Send a newsletter to your contacts to make them aware that your new website is online
• Combine the hotel website launch with a real event
• Inform press and media about your website launch

Are you in the process of launching or opening a new hotel and are needing a stand-out hotel website? Then don’t hesitate to contact us, we’d be excited to bring your unique hotel online and out into the world.

As a hotel marketing agency, our initial step in any new collaboration is to establish a clear understanding of the dynamic landscape of marketing. It's essential to recognise that marketing has undergone substantial transformations over the past decades, adapting to changing consumer behaviours and technological advancements. Traditional marketing, the traditional method of developing, promoting and selling products or services, has been the cornerstone of marketing strategies for many years.

Initially focusing on the 4 Ps – Price, Product, Place, and Promotion – this approach has since evolved to encompass a broader spectrum and additional dimensions - like Physical Evidence, People, and Processes - forming what is commonly known as the 7 Ps.

However, it's crucial to acknowledge alternative perspectives in marketing. In 1973, Professor Koichi Shimizu introduced a paradigm shift with his innovative 7 Cs Compass Model. Unlike the company-centric focus of the Ps, the 7 Cs framework adopts a consumer-centric viewpoint, emphasising crucial elements such as Customer Value, Communication and Convenience (Carniel, 2022). This shift highlights the importance of aligning marketing strategies with the ever-changing needs and preferences of modern consumers.

For decades, the P and C models helped hotels and businesses to define their marketing mixes and align their marketing activities with their respective markets (as implied by the very term “MARKETing”).

However, it became increasingly apparent that the essence of traditional marketing began to veer away from its original intent – to glean insights from the market, develop products and services tailored to meet market needs, and enhance overall market value. Instead, there emerged a growing reliance on persuasion and manipulative messaging to compel consumers to purchase products or services.

Over the last decades, however, new marketing thought leaders have reshaped the definition and perception of marketing. Seth Godin (2019) defines marketing as follows in his ground-breaking book “This is Marketing”:

Marketing is the generous act of helping others become who they seek to become. Instead of selfish mass, effective marketing now relies on empathy and service. Marketing is not a battle, and it’s not a war, or even a contest. Marketing is the generous act of helping someone solve a problem. Their problem. Effective Marketing is about understanding our customers’ worldview and desires so we can connect with them. It’s focused on being missed when you’re gone, on bringing more than People expect to those who trust us. It seeks volunteers, not victims.

1. Clearly define your hotel marketing budget

As a hotel marketing agency, we always say: you need to invest some money to make more money. And this totally applies to hotel marketing, where strategic investments yield substantial returns! Unfortunately, it’s too often that small and independent hotels never take the time to create a marketing budget.

Therefore, our MAdvice:

• Define an annual marketing budget. As a rule of thumb, your hotel marketing budget should be between 8 and 12% of your hotel turnover.
• Define the return on investment you expect, e.g. how many new guests, the ADR, the occupancy rate, etc.
• And then, make sure to define HOW you will measure the ROI! Because, as we like to say to our clients: what you’re not measuring, you can’t optimise.

2. Hope is NOT a strategy

After defining your hotel marketing budget and your hotel marketing goals, it’s time to plan it out. Together with our clients, we start with a yearly plan and scheduling tasks, actions, outputs, per quarter. As a last step, we define top goals per month.

Our MAdvice: set monthly goals aligned with your quarterly goals. Be flexible about how you are going to reach them.

3. Don’t try to be everywhere – be specific

One of the biggest pitfalls we see hotels and small businesses fall into is trying to be “everywhere”. Let’s look at hotel social media to illustrate what we mean by this.

There are an array of social media channels out there, with every channel having its own rules, do’s and don’ts. All too often we see that hotel clients try to be on all of them, without realising that being specific and choosing the channels carefully, and planning the content out in detail on those important channels (= the channels your potential guests and clients are on), delivers much better results. Our guiding mantra at our hotel marketing agency is: Class over Mass!

Our MAdvice: choose your channels wisely, be focused and deliver the best content you can. Quality always wins in the long-run.

As we highlighted earlier in this blog post, marketing encompasses seven key functions, often represented by the 7 Ps or 7 Cs. Let's delve into one of these functions in this concluding section: communication. Traditionally, marketing communication has been characterised as loud, paid, persuasive, and sometimes manipulative. However, if you aspire to elevate your hotel marketing for sustainable success, we at MAp advocate for one overarching principle: sustainability.

Sustainable Communication means you are communicating in a socially-responsible and ecological manner, with no negative impact to society, the economy and the Planet. The objective of Sustainable Communication is therefore to reduce the environmental and social footprint of communication activities and to make sure that all can profit from them.

We’re convinced that the future of marketing (AND hospitality) is sustainable, and you can learn more on this topic here. As always, we extend our gratitude for your commitment to #neverstoplearning.

After reading this blog post, we encourage you to engage in marketing endeavours that you take pride in – ones that address People's needs and contribute to creating a better world for everyone!

1. Create a hotel opening strategy starting at least one-year pre-opening

Having a hotel opening strategy in place early is crucial! At MAp, a hotel opening starts at least one year before the hotel opens and involves a wide range of areas, topics and tasks to consider.

• From refining the hotel concept and positioning,
• To creating and activating the hotel brand,
• To setting up a successful launch campaign including communication and sales channels,
• To searching for, identifying and onboarding the right partners,
• To producing offline and online communication tools and materials, etc.

The earlier your hotel opening strategy is in place, the better! There’s a lot of work to be done!

2. Create an action plan:

What, Who, When, How Once your hotel opening strategy is in place, make it as tangible as possible and define clearly:

• WHAT needs to be done,
• By WHOM (responsibilities),
• WHEN (time plan),
• HOW (aligned with the hotel’s values)

Make sure all partners are briefed accordingly and everybody has the tools and resources needed to make it happen.

3. Monitor, optimise, push

During hotel openings, often our role at MAp consists of aligning all partners, monitoring results, optimising processes, and above all, pushing through so that things happen when they are supposed to per the hotel opening plan.

Why is it crucial to have that one person or responsible party closely monitor the process? Because the closer the hotel opening comes, the more we can compare it to finalising a puzzle. And if one puzzle piece is missing, the other parts aren’t able to do their work.

After sharing with you our top three recommendations for opening a new hotel, let’s wrap this blog post up with the pitfalls we encounter most often during new hotel openings.

1. Running out of budget

Oh yes! You have budgeted well, but then, the closer you get to the hotel opening, the fewer the funds. Now the problem is that this hotel opening phase, the launch, is your only chance to make a first impression. So, if you’re not anymore able to run the campaigns, invest in the stylish website or bring on other partners, you truly miss a big chance, and this will hurt you in the long-run.

2. Required material is not available

How can you promote your hotel, if no renderings or photos are available? Or your key messages and pitchlines haven’t been created? We do agree that no hotel launch will be perfect and there will always be some missing pieces. But if essential basics, such as visual material, are missing, you won’t be able to push your new hotel in the market. Therefore, make sure to identify early enough what basics you need to launch your new hotel project successfully.

3. Construction gets delayed

We end this blog post with the most common pitfall when talking about new hotel developments. You’re set to open on date x, but construction gets delayed and all your great hotel opening ideas are becoming a mess. Therefore, we always make sure that we announce a concrete opening date as late as possible. For example, start by communicating Spring 2024, and communicate the concrete date of May 1, 2024 only when you know it’s an air-tight realistic and achievable date.

What else comes to your mind when talking about hotel openings? What are the pitfalls you have encountered during new hotel project launches? We are looking forward to reading your insights in the comments.

And if you are in the process of launching a new hotel and need some support, let us know – we are looking forward to hearing from you.