The Socially Awkward Podcast | Strategic Marketing for the Hospitality Industry

Commercial strategy in hospitality only works when revenue, sales, marketing, distribution, and operations stop protecting departmental agendas and start operating from one shared goal. Dury Kim, SVP of Commercial Strategy and 2025 HSMAI New York City Revenue and Distribution Executive of the Year, defines the modern commercial role as something much bigger than pricing, forecasting, and inventory...

Hotel revenue and marketing teams that operate in silos keep losing because neither side truly knows who their actual guest is. Calvin Tilokee, founder of Revpar Media and a former hotel revenue manager of 20 years, fixes that with his "lobby lizard" method: direct, on-the-floor guest research that builds a single commercial strategy both teams can execute together. He argues that postin...

Hotel social media managers are making luxury brands invisible by copying the same polished formula every competitor uses.  Calvin Tilokee, hotel marketing strategist and host of Socially Awkward, argues that playing it safe is now the highest-risk strategy in hospitality marketing. Drawing on a real influencer campaign that drove 50,000 reach and 500-plus website visits in two weeks despite clien...

Hospitality leaders spend millions on marketing but still fail to deliver the experience the guest expected. The failure mode is treating the brand promise as separate from employee engagement, which means pouring money into acquisition while the actual guest experience falls flat and indistinguishable from competitors. Calvin Stovall, Chief Experience Officer at Iconic Presentations and author of...

What happens when vacation rental marketers stop fighting hotels and start fighting invisibility? In this episode of The Socially Awkward Podcast, host Calvin Tilokee sits down with Annie Holcombe and Alex O. Husner, co-hosts of the Alex and Annie Podcast, for a witty, practical, and very real conversation about hospitality marketing, vacation rental strategy, hotel competition, direct bookings, a...

What happens when a hospitality marketing podcast stops being strategic for a minute and leans all the way into beautifully niche hotel chaos?  In this episode of The Socially Awkward Podcast, Calvin Tilokee welcomes back Susan Barry for the inaugural hotel pickup lines battle, a spring themed showdown packed with hospitality humor, hotel industry inside jokes, and the kind of wordplay only hotel...

Why do so many hotel brands create content that looks polished, but still does not convert? In this episode of The Socially Awkward Podcast , Calvin Tilokee sits down with Susan Barry, founder of Hive Marketing and host of Top Floor , for a witty, insightful conversation on hotel marketing, hospitality branding, hotel social media strategy, and what actually makes content work. Susan brings decade...

Something has shifted in hotel marketing, and you can feel it. In a landscape where every property can publish polished visuals, aesthetics alone are no longer enough to stand out—or to convert attention into bookings. Research increasingly shows that social media now plays a meaningful role in how travelers choose destinations and plan trips, making performance-led storytelling a commercial neces...

The hospitality industry is in the middle of a structural shift toward commercial leadership. Titles like “commercial leader” and “commercial strategy” have gone from buzzwords to necessities as hotels face tighter margins, rising distribution costs , and increasingly fragmented demand . Post-pandemic recovery , accelerated digital marketing spend, and a surge in new supply have forced owners and...

In 2019, travel and tourism contributed a whopping 10.4% of global GDP — a figure that vanished almost overnight when the pandemic brought the world to a standstill. Today, the industry has clawed its way back to that same share of the global economy, but travelers have changed. They no longer settle for polished marketing campaigns; they crave stories that feel lived-in, voices they can trust, an...

Sustainability is no longer optional in hospitality—it’s the expectation. A recent Booking.com report found that 84% of global travelers now prioritize making their trips more sustainable, raising the bar for hotels worldwide. Yet too many properties are still relying on the basics—like towel reuse cards or energy-saving reminders—that guests increasingly see as table stakes. Enter Ecodrive, a pla...

The hospitality industry has weathered enormous shifts in the last five years, from pandemic‑era shutdowns to evolving guest expectations. Although hotels are projected to add over 14,000 employees in 2025, staffing levels are still well below pre‑pandemic (2019) figures. For hotel professionals, visibility and adaptability are critical, not only in operations but in how they share expertise. YouT...

Influencer marketing is rapidly changing, and many hotels are still figuring out how to tap into its full potential. As travelers demand more authentic and relatable content, the pressure is on for hotels to adapt their marketing strategies. But with skepticism around the true ROI of influencer partnerships, it’s more important than ever for brands to learn how to create meaningful, long-lasting c...

The hospitality industry is under mounting pressure to modernize to meet guest expectations for seamless, tech-driven experiences and also develop leaders who can drive that transformation. According to Rackspace Technology, only 28% of travel and hospitality companies qualify as “AI leaders”— those aligning strategy, compliance, and training with real-world deployment. Another 28% remain in a pas...

As the hospitality industry emerges from years of pandemic-driven upheaval, leaders are iv As the hospitality industry emerges from years of pandemic-driven upheaval, hospitality leadership is evolving to meet new challenges. Leaders are looking for new ways to retain staff, elevate guest satisfaction, and drive revenue without burning out their teams. One trend gaining traction is the power of “Y...