A resort marketing strategy costs you in two currencies, and the cash is the smaller one. The bigger bill is the stretch of weeks when rooms sit empty because nobody decided who the resort is for. The other is the owner or manager hours it takes to decide that, write it down and check whether it worked. Price the strategy in those hours and in unsold nights first. Then decide how much ad money, software or outside help is worth adding.
Why the empty-room bill comes before the ad bill
A resort sells a stay that people plan long in advance and compare against other places. That makes the first job a decision rather than a campaign. Which guests do you want more of, in which weeks, and what would make them pick you over the next property? If you cannot answer that in a sentence, ad spend will simply buy you more of whoever clicks.
A small search with a sharp seasonal peak
The whole cluster around this topic is modest: about 70 searches a month combined, spread across 6 different phrasings. The main phrase, resort marketing strategy, ran from 10 a month in September 2025 to 70 in May 2026. That suggests who is searching: mostly owners and managers planning ahead, not guests. Interest also swings with the calendar, so your own bookings probably do too.
Pick the weeks you most want to fill
Do not try to market the whole year at once. Choose the stretch where empty rooms hurt most, such as shoulder weeks, midweek or a quiet month. Then write one target: more direct bookings for that stretch, more weekend packages, or more group inquiries. A single target tells you what to post, what to bid on and what to count.
Start with guests who already stayed
Past guests are the cheapest audience you will ever reach, because they already know the place. Gather their emails with consent, send a simple note ahead of your slow stretch and give them an easy reason to rebook directly. For more on this, see the guide on marketing strategy for the hotel industry.
Make the booking path easy to follow
Look at your website the way a guest planning a trip would. Can they see rooms, rates, what is nearby and how to book without hunting? Does the booking button work on a phone? Fixing this costs hours, and it raises the return on every channel that sends people to the page.
Where each cost lands
| Piece of the strategy | Mostly costs | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| Choosing target guests and weeks | Owner hours | Can you state it in a sentence? |
| Past-guest email | Hours, plus a modest tool fee | Direct bookings that followed |
| Website booking path | Hours or a developer's time | Do visitors reach the booking page? |
| Paid search or social ads | Cash and ongoing attention | Booking inquiries per dollar spent |
| Tracking and reporting | Setup time | Can you tie a stay to its source? |
Count bookings before you buy traffic
Before any ad money goes out, make sure you can see which channel a booking or inquiry came from. Otherwise you will be guessing at results, and guessing is the most expensive habit in this business. If you are weighing paid search for a small property, the guide on whether hotel PPC is worth it walks through that decision.
Choose channels you can keep up
A channel done steadily beats three done in bursts. Pick the one or two where your target guests already look, whether that is search, email or one social platform, and give them a regular slot on the calendar. Add another only when the first one runs without strain.
Where an outside team earns its place
Hiring help is optional. It tends to make sense when ads are running but you cannot tell which ones lead to bookings, or when tracking is broken and no one on staff has time to fix it. An agency can set up measurement, run paid campaigns and report on bookings so your hours go back to the guests. If you do bring someone in, give them your target weeks and guests first, so they work from your decision rather than making it for you.