Most hoteliers hire a communications agency at the worst possible time: when they’re already running late. The opening is fast approaching, or the peak season has got off to a slow start, or a new competitor has opened on the same street and is everywhere. Rushing leads to bad decisions, and bad decisions in communications are costly, because results take months to materialise and mistakes take just as long to rectify.
This text is designed to help you make the right choice, whether you’re pressed for time or not. It isn’t a list of reasons to hire us. It’s what we would ask if we were the ones hiring an agency for a hotel.
Firstly, understand exactly what you’re buying
There is often confusion between public relations, press relations, marketing, social media management and advertising. Agencies contribute to this confusion, because it’s easier to sell a vague package than to explain what each service actually does. Public relations, in the case of a hotel, is primarily about ensuring the hotel features in credible outlets: articles by journalists, recommendation lists, press trips, and coverage in media that the travel audience reads and trusts. It is not the same as paying for adverts.
The difference is that an editorial recommendation carries more weight with those deciding where to stay than any advert, and it works differently: you don’t buy space, you earn attention. Before requesting proposals, decide what you need. A hotel in the pre-opening phase needs to build its reputation from scratch. An established hotel with low occupancy at certain times has a demand problem during specific periods. A hotel with good occupancy but reliant on booking platforms has a problem with its own brand. These are three different challenges, and none can be solved with the same approach.
The questions that distinguish a good agency from a bad one
When you sit down with an agency, pay less attention to what it says about itself and more to what it asks about your hotel. An agency that starts by talking about the awards it has won is simply selling itself. An agency that starts by asking who your guests are, where they come from, how much they spend and why they chose your hotel rather than the one next door is trying to understand the problem before proposing a solution. Ask these questions and listen carefully to the answers.
- Which journalists and media outlets do they actually know in the travel sector? A communications agency that genuinely specialises in tourism has genuine relationships with journalists, travel editors and national and international media outlets. Ask for specific examples of coverage they have secured, not just figures on the number of press releases sent out. A thousand press releases sent out are worth nothing. An article in a publication that your guest reads is worth a great deal.
- How do they measure results? This is the question that troubles weaker agencies the most. Media coverage can be measured, but it must be measured judiciously: qualified reach, the relevance of the outlet to its audience, and the link between what was published and what actually happened in terms of occupancy. Be wary of anyone who only talks about the number of news stories or advertising equivalence – a metric that survives because it produces big numbers, not because it tells the truth.
- Who manages my account on a day-to-day basis? Many agencies introduce their partners at the sales meeting but hand the work over to trainees. Ask who the person in charge is, how much experience they have in the sector, and how many accounts they manage at the same time. A senior professional managing six accounts will deliver more value than a dedicated junior who is still learning the ropes.
- Do they work with my direct competitor? It isn’t necessarily a problem, but you need to be aware of it. An agency representing three hotels in the same city and in the same market segment has a conflict of interest that will come to light the day a good sales opportunity arises and they can only take on one.
- What do you expect from me? An honest agency will tell you that the work isn’t all theirs. You need access to the management, timely information, the chance to visit the hotel, decent photographs, and quick responses when a journalist wants to book a stay. If the agency promises results without asking for anything in return, it’s making promises it won’t be able to keep.
Warning signs
There are recurring patterns in agencies that disappoint. Promises of guaranteed results. No one controls what a journalist writes. Anyone who guarantees coverage is either lying or paying for it in secret, and neither scenario is in your best interests. The same proposals for everyone. If the proposal you’ve received could have been sent to any hotel in the country, it has been. A serious proposal starts with your specific case, not with a corporate presentation on the agency’s history. A focus on quantity. Agencies that sell volume – more press releases, more social media posts, more of everything – are selling activity, not results. What counts is what that activity produces.
Vague language. When a proposal is full of words like ‘innovative’, ‘distinctive’, ‘tailor-made solutions’ and ‘360-degree strategy’, it’s usually because there’s no substance beneath them. Ask them to translate each of these expressions into concrete actions. The silence that follows speaks volumes.
Price and what it means
A boutique hotel’s marketing is paid for via a monthly retainer, with rates varying according to the scope of the work, the experience of the team and the level of ambition. Be wary of both the cheap and the expensive options without a clear explanation. A low price usually means little time is devoted to your account, work carried out by those just starting out, or a model that only works if the agency has dozens of clients paying very little. An unexplained high price usually means you’re paying for unnecessary overheads without receiving commensurate results.
What you should look for is clarity on what you’re getting for your money. How many hours, what sort of staff, what specific deliverables each month, and what targets for the quarter. An agency that cannot explain this does not know what it is selling.
How to make the decision
Ask for proposals from two or three agencies, not eight. Comparing too many proposals leads to choosing the cheapest or the most attractive one, and neither is a good reason. During the discussion, pay attention to three things. Whether they understood your problem before proposing solutions. Whether the people you’ll be working with inspire confidence, because you’ll be spending a lot of time with them. And whether the proposal is tailored specifically to you or is simply a template with your name slotted in. Ultimately, choosing a communications agency is more like choosing a partner than selecting a supplier. You’ll be sharing sensitive information, relying on their work during difficult times, and judging them by their results over months, not weeks. It’s worth taking your time.
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A Message in a Bottle is a communications and public relations agency based in Lisbon, specialising in tourism, hospitality and lifestyle. We work with boutique hotels, rural tourism and hospitality brands in Portugal and through an international network of independent agencies. If you’re considering your hotel’s communications strategy and would like a no-obligation chat, please get in touch.
