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An updated 7th edition of Hospitality Digital Marketing Essentials: A Field Guide for Navigating Today’s Digital Landscape is here to prepare you for hospitality marketing in 2025. This new edition is perfect for practitioners studying for CHDM certification or aiming to enhance digital strategy. Below is an excerpt from the new guide chapter 7: Rich Media.
Storytelling comes to life with rich media, and the better the story, the stronger the connection is made between hotel and consumer. Travelers rely on rich media to inform themselves, help plan itineraries, and give them the confidence to make their lodging purchases. Today’s rich media options are extensive, addressing the needs of all types of properties and budgets. A typical portfolio of rich media production includes video, 360° virtual tours, interactive floor plans, 3D schematics, digital photo slideshows, and virtual reality.
AI-driven tools are revolutionizing rich media, offering automated video editing, personalized content recommendations, and interactive experiences that can engage guests more effectively. As you consider your options, you should also consider the growing popularity of short-form video on platforms like TikTok and Instagram Reels that offer hotels a powerful way to engage potential guests with bite-sized, visually compelling content. The type of media chosen depends on your hotel’s marketing objective and budget.
Best Practices
To make the most impact, hotel videos must be thoughtfully crafted and strategically executed. The following best practices will help ensure your video content is authentic, relevant, and engaging—driving both emotional connection and measurable results.
Make It Authentic
When everything is available at the click of a mouse, having a clean and comfortable hotel product is not always enough to drive action. Creating authentic videos that capture the human element of your brand allows travel shoppers to connect on a personal level. This connection builds trust and drives action. Do not be afraid to go on camera and welcome your guests in the same way you would welcome them when they arrive at your hotel.
Make It Relevant
With customers in control, irrelevant video is at best ignored and at worst will create a negative impression when viewers feel their time is wasted. Video that works shares compelling stories that resonate with the audience. Respect viewers’ time and provide them with actionable content. If you cater to young families on leisure travel, show them how their stay at your hotel will enhance their vacation. If you cater to business travelers, show them how their stay at your hotel will add to the success of their business trip. A good gut check could be: if you were the customer, would you find your video interesting and compelling enough to prompt action?
Make It Engaging
Creating authentic videos that capture the human element of your brand allows travel shoppers to connect on a personal level. This connection builds trust and drives action. Leveraging user-generated content (UGC) and collaborating with influencers can amplify your hotel’s story, creating a more authentic and relatable connection with potential guests.
Make It Short
Online shoppers have short attention spans. As such, considerable effort and thought must be put into developing the story that you want to tell and how you will do it. Short videos (best practices suggest 15-30 seconds) force you to think creatively and distill your value proposition down to its very essence. Is it engaging from the start?
Read more best practices and expanded content across all 8 sections of the book to reflect the major shifts in digital marketing since the last edition.
This 7th Edition is authored by Holly Zoba, CHDM and Dan Wacksman, CHDM, CRME who co-teach HSMAI’s popular Hospitality Digital Marketing Essentials course and who are both past chairs of HSMAI’s Marketing Advisory Board.
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HSMAI’s Certified Hotel Sales Leader (CHDM) certification is a professional certification created by hoteliers for hoteliers, demonstrates your proficiency, upgrades your skills, and helps you to better understand how digital marketing intersects with your areas of responsibility. It shows your employer and your professional community that you’re committed to advancing your knowledge, skill set, and expertise.
Any questions? Contact HSMAI Director of Education & Certification, Kathleen Tindell.