In 2019 and before, demand generation was a cornerstone of any marketing strategy — regardless of hotel size, location, or price bracket. Now, everything has changed. Even satisfied guests may not be able to come to your property. Not because they don't want to, but because they can't.
The Old Playbook Is Obsolete
Demand generation, in simple terms, was your message to the public: here is a problem, and here is how our product solves it. Your hotel's segmentation was broken into multiple customer groups — leisure, corporate, groups, medical tourism — and to each group you delivered a tailored message about your solution.
If they were satisfied with your solution, they would come to you.
That model depended on one assumption: that your audience had the ability to act on their interest. International travel restrictions, health and safety concerns, corporate travel freezes, and policy changes have stripped that assumption away entirely. Demand generation campaigns targeting guests who cannot travel are not just ineffective — they are a waste of resource that could be deployed elsewhere.
Starting From Scratch
The first step is to discard your old demand generation campaigns entirely and start over. That means re-defining your niche and re-working your segmentation from the ground up.
Your city centre hotel's niche is no longer corporate travel. Your secluded island resort's niche is no longer honeymooners from international markets. The key is to adapt — to accept the new reality and begin re-imagining your business model and the solutions you offer within it.
If domestic travel is all or most of what you can realistically capture, then find a way to alter the solutions that were primarily targeting international visitors.
"Promotions and discounts are not going to create new demand. But a new idea will."
Rethinking What You Sell
Desert safaris are not compelling for guests who have access to the desert every day. Ski packages do not resonate with local markets that live beside the slopes. Your traditional destination selling points may simply not apply to the audience in front of you right now.
The question shifts. Instead of "what can guests do in our city while staying at our hotel?" ask: "what can guests do at our hotel — or through our hotel — that they genuinely cannot do at home, three kilometres away?"
If your highest-selling product was your rooms, there are many other ways to create demand and generate revenue when occupancy is at floor level. Consider:
- A chef's table experience, arranged at the comfort of a guest's home
- Delivery from your signature restaurant to local residences
- Private home cooking classes led by your master chef
- Personal trainers and spa therapists delivering their services at home
- GYM equipment rental to hotel members who cannot visit in person
- Hotel rooms repurposed as private cinema experiences, sold multiple times daily with pre- or post-dinner
- Laundry and housekeeping services offered to the surrounding community
These are a small sample of the hundreds of ideas that can generate real revenue while the industry waits for travel recovery. The principle behind each one is the same: meet your audience where they are, not where they used to be.
The Right Starting Question
If you, as an individual — working from home, locked down in your city for several months — were to honestly ask yourself: what do I miss about hotels? What would make me cross the street to use one right now?
That is precisely where hotels should start. Not by sending out another stay promotion or another discount. But by identifying the real, present desire — and building a product around it.
The opportunity is real. The demand exists. It simply requires a new lens to find it.