Impact of Brand Performance on Hotel Growth

While hotels in India are negotiating their next agency contract, The Leela Palaces, Hotels and Resorts launched a private wine label. For most of India's modern hospitality history, the hotel itself was the brand, and everything inside it was a service. The chef cooked, the bartender poured drinks, and the property took the credit. Marketing was an annual photoshoot stretched across twelve months of social media, and hotels treated the internet the way they treated the lobby flowers. Something the agency would handle. Then the audience changed faster than the industry expected. - Guests started following the chefs - Bartenders pulled bigger crowds online  - The restaurants became more recognisable Once hotels noticed this, three things happened quickly: → In-house social and content teams started replacing standing agency retainers, and the agency relationship moved from execution to strategy. → The metrics in boardrooms shifted from ADR and occupancy to repeat behaviour, brand recall, and what guests carried home with them. → Premium hotels stopped describing themselves as properties and started describing themselves as brands. That last shift is what made Turya possible. We work with Grover Zampa Vineyards at Black Cab, and seeing The Leela come to them with this idea rather than to an FMCG partner or a global wine house told me everything about how Indian hospitality is now thinking about itself.  A hotel saying it has built enough brand equity for guests to buy its point of view in a bottle and carry it home is a fundamentally different business than one selling rooms by the night. The hotels that will lead Indian hospitality over the next decade are the ones that figured this out early. The rest will spend a long time catching up.

“Your reputation is your currency in hospitality — but do you know which score truly reflects it?” Many hotels proudly showcase their Net Promoter Score (NPS), which measures how likely guests are to recommend them. It’s a useful indicator of loyalty, but here’s the catch: NPS comes only from surveys and a fraction of guests actually fill them out. Now compare this with the Reputation Performance Score (RPS). RPS compiles ratings and reviews across OTAs, Google, and TripAdvisor — the exact places where future guests are making their booking decisions. Think of it this way: • NPS tells you what guests say in a survey. • RPS shows what guests publish to the world. That’s why top luxury hotels and global brands rely on RPS as a KPI — because it directly impacts RevPAR, booking conversions, and online competitiveness. If you’re in hospitality, ask yourself: • Are you focusing only on surveys (NPS)? • Or are you also tracking your real reputation (RPS), the one every future guest sees?

Most hotels are fooling themselves. They talk about “brand” but what they really mean is logo, colors, maybe a tagline on their website. That’s not a brand, that’s wallpaper. Running a hotel is easy compared to building a brand. Running a hotel is checking the boxes, making sure payroll clears, keeping the lights on, hoping housekeeping doesn’t fall behind, praying reviews don’t tank you on TripAdvisor. That’s survival. But survival is not success. The real winners build brands. A brand lives in the psychology of your guest. It’s not about what you say, it’s about what people feel and repeat to their friends. Operations get you through the week. A brand gives you pricing power, loyalty, and leverage when everything else collapses. When you have a true brand, you can sell out faster and charge more while your competition is cutting rates. Guests forgive mistakes when they love your brand. They defend you online when trolls attack. That’s the moat. The problem is leadership. Too many leaders worship occupancy and RevPAR like they’re the finish line. That’s not strategy, that’s addiction. You cannot spreadsheet your way to loyalty. You cannot nickel-and-dime your way to an emotional connection. Yet this is the cycle most hotels live in, chasing numbers while ignoring the only thing that multiplies the value of those numbers: the brand. Tactical advice: Stop treating social media like a chore. Stop outsourcing your voice to someone who doesn’t even understand hospitality. Your Instagram feed is not decoration, it is your storefront. Every post is a chance to earn trust or lose it. Use video, not just pictures. Show faces, not just lobbies. Let your employees be the stars, because people connect with people more than marble floors. Invest in storytelling. Build a library of content that shows your DNA, not just your rooms. Tell stories about your chefs, your housekeepers, your local partners. If you want to build a brand, you need to stop hiding behind generic campaigns and start being human. Psychological advice: Understand that your guest makes a decision in seconds. Their brain decides whether you are trustworthy before they even see your rates. A brand that makes them feel something will always win over a property that just lists amenities. Trust is built through repetition. Loyalty is built through emotion. People do not stay loyal to properties. They stay loyal to the way properties make them feel. If leadership cannot understand this, if they think they are in the room business, they are finished. Hospitality is about memory, not square footage. Running a hotel will keep you afloat. Building a brand will make you untouchable. The first path makes you replaceable. The second path builds empire. And most leadership today is too scared, too lazy, or too stuck in old ways to make the leap. Which side are you on. --- If you like the way I look at the world of hospitality, let’s chat: scott@mrscotteddy.com

If housekeeping disappears for one day, your brand disappears with it. No check-in speech can save a dirty room. No apology can fix a smell. No five-star logo can hide inconsistency. Guests forgive slow service and waiting; they never forgive poor housekeeping. What Most Hotels Get Wrong Many hotels treat housekeeping like a cost center instead of a strategic function. That mistake shows up as understaffing, unrealistic productivity targets, and a reactive approach to cleaning and maintenance. Housekeeping is the last line of defense between your brand promise and the guest experience. Housekeeping is the only team that: • Enters the guest’s most private space • Protects health, not just perception • Upholds standards without supervision • Works hardest when the hotel is silent Most guests will never meet housekeepers. Every guest will judge their work. The Real Test of Cleanliness Great leaders don’t ask, “Is the room clean?” They ask, “Would I let my family sleep here tonight?” If the answer is no, you don’t have a housekeeping problem — you have a leadership problem. What Housekeeping Actually Needs Housekeeping doesn’t need motivational posters. It needs operational decisions that reflect its strategic role. Proper staffing ratios Understaffed teams can hit quantity targets through sheer effort, but quality collapses. Fair, workload‑based staffing prevents burnout and protects standards. Quality and efficient tools and products Providing the right equipment and cleaning agents speeds work, improves outcomes, and reduces rework. Fair wages Compensation matters. For example, in Kuala Lumpur the minimum living wage is often cited around RM 3,100; wages that don’t meet local living costs undermine retention and morale. Leaders who understand their impact Leaders must show respect, appreciation, and practical support. Recognition without resources is empty. Planned time for deep cleaning and preventive maintenance Daily room turns are only part of the job. Spring cleaning, preventive maintenance, and asset care extend the life of furnishings, reduce long‑term costs, and preserve guest perception. The Business Case When housekeeping wins, the hotel never has to make excuses. When housekeeping fails, no marketing budget can save you. Room sales are the highest revenue source for most hotels; protecting that revenue means protecting housekeeping standards. Investing in housekeeping protects reputation, revenue, and the people who make both possible. Call to Action for Hotel Leaders Treat housekeeping as a strategic function, not a line item. Invest in staffing, tools, fair pay, and leadership that understands the stakes. Do that, and you protect reputation, revenue, and the people who make both possible.

Why smart investors build brands and not just buildings. Hotels that define the brand before design is locked and budgets are frozen outperform those that don’t. Why? Because demand is formed before opening, not after. By the time a hotel opens, the market has already decided: - whether it’s relevant - who it’s for - and what it’s worth paying for When brand comes after the build, predictable problems follow: • Positioning is constrained by existing architecture • Messaging defaults to generic categories (“luxury”, “wellness”, “lifestyle”) • Marketing explains features instead of creating preference • Pre-opening demand relies on paid media and OTAs When brand is defined first, the mechanics change: • A clear target audience before a single room is designed • Design decisions aligned with demand, not trends • Pre-opening content that builds familiarity and intention • Faster ramp-up at opening with lower acquisition costs This matters more than ever. Guests don’t discover hotels at the front desk. They discover them through feeds, recommendations, AI summaries, and peer signals. If the brand isn’t clear before the hotel exists, the asset opens but demand lags. The building is the hard asset. The brand is what stabilises rate, reduces dependency on intermediaries, and compounds value over time. Investors who treat brand as an early-stage decision, not a marketing phase, build stronger assets. How early does brand typically enter your development process?

Are We Diluting Hotel Brands in the Race for Growth? I recently stayed at a global hotel chain while attending an industry event. Given it was a famous luxury brand, I genuinely looked forward to the experience, both as a guest and as someone always curious to take away practical learnings. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. This was an older asset that, quite frankly, felt off brand from both a service and hardware perspective. A few examples stood out immediately. The bedside control panel was confusing and almost impossible to operate in the dark. The bedside water bottle cap couldn’t be replaced once opened. How is that practical or hygienic? An old school alarm clock sat on the bathroom vanity instead of beside the bed. Why? At checkout, I was told I couldn’t store my luggage unless I was a returning guest. I’ll spare you the details of the ridiculously long breakfast queues. What really caught my attention, though, was what I heard at the event itself. Many attendees shared similar experiences and disappointment was a common theme. Then, surprisingly, a representative of the brand explained that this was a franchise hotel and that they had very limited influence over how it was managed. That’s when the penny dropped. From a guest’s perspective, why should managed versus franchised even matter? Guests pay the same rate, carry the same expectations, and book purely on brand promise. And let’s be honest, how is a guest supposed to know whether they’ve booked a managed or franchised hotel anyway? It made me reflect on a bigger question. How many brands are quietly eroding their own brand equity in the pursuit of growth? How often are growth KPIs blinding us to the long term cost of diluted experiences? This experience reinforced something I strongly believe. Protecting the brand is everything. Without it, all we’re left with is an experienceless shell to sell and that’s a race to the bottom. I’m genuinely curious to hear from others in the industry. How do you protect your brands while continuing to grow? And are we, at times, prioritising unit count over guest trust?

What does the toilet paper say about your brand? More than you think. If you really want to understand how a company is performing, and where they have placed the guest in the equation, don’t look at the lobby, the website, or the brand book. Look at the toilet paper. Look at the soap. Because they always tell the truth. The Illusion of the First Year Every new hotel, restaurant, boutique, or “luxury” concept starts the same way: -soft, thick toilet paper -beautiful amenities from a premium brand -fresh flowers -curated details Everything starts with a WOW. In year one, everyone is proud, energized. Budgets are generous. Standards are high. Leadership is attentive. But excellence is not what you do once, it's what you sustain when things get tough. The Second-Year Reality Check You return a year later and suddenly: -the toilet paper is thin and rough -the soap is in a generic wall dispenser -the shampoo smells like a standard gym -the bottled water disappeared -the “luxury feeling” evaporated Why does this happen? Because when budgets tighten, many organizations cut costs where they think it won't matter. Those exact areas that shape perception, memory, loyalty, and willingness to return. Deloitte found that during economic pressure, 57% of companies cut spending on customer experience first, yet brands that maintain CX investment outperform competitors by up to three times during recovery. And it gets worse; they start firing first the people who serve the guest: the receptionists, the servers, the housekeepers, the sales teams. You want better financial performance, but you remove the people who create the experience that drives revenue. Great decision. When you cut the frontline, this is what happens: -waiting times increase -personalization disappears -service becomes transactional -staff is overwhelmed -frustration rises -consistency collapses And then leaders ask, “Why are our reviews dropping?” Because you removed the humans who make the experience possible and that erodes trust. When you downgrade the elements your guest actually touches, and remove the people who bring the brand to life, what you communicate is: You don’t understand luxury, perception and what creates emotional value and consequently revenue. You don’t understand long-term loyalty or the cost of inconsistency. So if you want to know the health of a brand, don’t ask for the P&L. Ask for the toilet paper. Ask how many people are still on the floor. If the paper is thin and the staff is gone, chances are: The culture is reactive. Leadership is disconnected and inmature. Priorities have shifted from value to survival. The guest has fallen out of the equation. The brand has entered the “mediocrity slide.” And once mediocrity enters through the bathroom… it spreads everywhere. So what does your toilet paper say about you? Because whether you like it or not, the smallest detail, and the humans behind it, are the loudest indicators of your strategic decisions.

Most luxury hotels do not lose positioning during renovation. They lose it during low-demand periods. And the dangerous part is: it rarely happens dramatically. It happens quietly. A slower booking pace appears. Forecast softens. Ownership pressure rises. Suddenly, the conversation changes. Not publicly. Operationally. “We need occupancy.” “Push visibility.” “Activate Genius.” “Run Meta campaigns.” “Open more OTA inventory.” “Maybe lower rates temporarily.” At first, nothing seems wrong. The hotel is still beautiful. The spa still smells of pinewood and essential oils. The suites still photograph perfectly. But something much more dangerous begins changing underneath: The guest mix shifts. And once guest mix shifts, the entire emotional architecture of a luxury hotel begins to change with it. The atmosphere changes. The spending behavior changes. The energy changes. The operational pressure changes. The service rhythm changes. Quiet luxury suddenly starts operating under mass-market dynamics. This is the part many hotels underestimate: Luxury hospitality is not protected by design alone. It is protected by positioning discipline. Because once a hotel starts training the market to wait for: -discounts -last-minute offers -OTA deals -mass visibility campaigns the brand slowly loses pricing authority. And pricing authority is one of the most valuable assets a luxury hotel owns. This is where underperformance truly begins. Not always in occupancy. But in: -ADR erosion -weaker direct relationships -lower ancillary spend -operational overstimulation -diluted guest alignment -reduced emotional exclusivity Eventually, the hotel still looks luxury… …but no longer feels rare. And investors notice this faster than many operators realize. Because sophisticated hotel acquisitions today are no longer evaluating only: -occupancy -RevPAR -location They increasingly evaluate: -guest quality -emotional differentiation -direct booking strength -positioning resilience -long-term pricing power -wellness identity consistency -brand gravity This is why true luxury strategy today is not: “How do we fill rooms?” But: “How do we protect long-term desirability while navigating temporary demand pressure?” The future of luxury hospitality will belong to hotels that understand one critical truth: The wrong revenue can become the most expensive revenue a hotel ever accepts. #LuxuryHospitality #LuxuryHotels #HotelStrategy #LuxuryTravel #HotelInvestment #HotelRepositioning #RevenueManagement #ADR #RevPAR #GuestExperience #LuxuryBranding #HospitalityConsulting #DirectBookings #LuxuryWellness #HotelDevelopment #LuxuryTravelTrends #HospitalityLeadership #AssetManagement #HotelMarketing #WellnessHospitality

Every hotel chain in America is racing to get bigger. Choice Hotels International just got smaller on purpose. Then posted record profitability. Here's what nobody is saying out loud about what they actually did. Marriott International added 100,000 rooms last year. Hilton added 26,000 in a single quarter. Wyndham Hotels & Resorts is desperately converting properties after losing 22,000 overnight. The entire industry is playing the same game. More flags. More franchisees. More scale. Choice looked at that race and quietly decided not to run it. In Q4 alone they removed about 20 more hotels than they normally would in a quarter. Targeted exits. Properties pulling their average quality down. Franchisees not meeting the bar. Gone. Their US room count fell 2.9%. Here's what happened next. Adjusted EBITDA hit $626 million. Up 4% year over year. Record profitability. Global hotel openings up 14%. International portfolio revenue up 37%. Royalty rates expanding. Stock up nearly 15% since January while the S&P 500 sat flat. They shrank the system. The system got more valuable. This is not an accident. It is the same insight Wynn figured out in Las Vegas while Caesars Entertainment and MGM Resorts International were bleeding. You do not win by being everywhere. You win by being the version of yourself that the market actually pays a premium for. What Choice understood is something most franchisors refuse to admit. A bad hotel in your system does not just underperform. It drags everything. It lowers the average guest review score across the brand. It gives the next potential franchisee a reason to hesitate. It signals to travelers that the flag means nothing. Every underperforming property you keep is a tax on every good property you have. Wyndham learned this the hard way. One franchisee. One bad bet. 22,000 rooms gone overnight and a CFO out the door the same week. Choice made the cuts proactively. Deliberately. While everyone else was still chasing the next conversion deal. Most hotel chains measure success in room count. Choice is measuring something different. Royalty rate per room. Revenue per franchisee. Quality of the system, not the size of it. That is a fundamentally different business model disguised as the same one. Here is what this means for every hotel owner reading this. The era where a brand flag guaranteed you distribution is ending. AI is compressing discovery. Travelers are increasingly being sent to properties by algorithms that read reviews, analyze quality signals, and match guests to experiences. A mediocre property with a recognizable flag is not going to outperform a great independent in that world. Choice just bet their entire growth strategy on that thesis. They are building a smaller, sharper system and charging more for it. They are not the biggest brand on the highway anymore. They are trying to be the one worth stopping for. Which side of that line is your property on?

OTAs and distributors would rather you didn’t have a brand, Airbnb included. Amazon, thrives on generic products that fight for visibility in a sea of sameness. The more generic, the more companies need to spend in retail media. To the distribution world, a brand’s differentiation is a threat. BTW, subscribing is cool: https://lnkd.in/efM7t3vn But as a hotelier or brand owner: your greatest chance at independence, control, and long-term value lies in your brand. Not your logo. Not your latest website redesign. Your brand in the deeper sense, i.e. what guests experience, what they say afterward, how they feel about your team, the story you tells, the consistency of your service and communications. Your brand is your reputation made tangible. It’s what sticks after the campaign ends and the guests leave or your customer uses the product. Hotels that command loyalty, pricing power, and repeat business have clarity around their brand. They know what they stand for, and so do their guests. People don’t just stay there, they tell their friends. They don’t compare them; they return to them. Because they trust them. Every business has a brand, whether it’s crafted or accidental. The question is whether it’s clear enough to act as a compass, and strong enough to resist commoditization in that sea of sameness. Standing out isn’t about being weird or quirky for the sake of being different. It’s about becoming so clear and consistent in what you do that you rise above your category. That doesn’t take a massive budget. It takes observation. Identifying what you do better than the others. A bit of courage to tell that story. And a lot of repeated consistency. For hotels and businesses navigating the increasingly noisy, price-driven world of digital distribution, growing one’s brand isn’t a luxury. It is what puts you in the drivers seat of your distribution. Build it well, and it becomes your leverage. Build it poorly, and you’re just another replaceable room or product on the list. And check out the link in bio (you'll get the news earlier). With that, have a great first of May.