TL;DR: Boutique hotels sit on a goldmine of guest data but often overlook its full potential. This post will walk you through how to leverage both traditional and real-time insights to guide SEO and paid media efforts. The result? More direct bookings, better ROI, and less reliance on OTAs. — Beyond the Comment Card: Why Real-Time Guest Insights Are Your New Marketing Superpower Most boutique hotel owners, GMs, and marketers are battling a familiar foe: online travel agencies (OTAs). With deeper pockets and expansive reach, OTAs siphon off potential direct bookings, cutting into margins and weakening brand control. But there’s a hidden weapon hotels already own: guest data. Unfortunately, most hotels stop at collecting feedback post-stay, letting real-time behavioral insights go untapped. This post introduces a proactive marketing framework powered by guest data that predicts needs, personalizes experiences, and improves SEO and paid media performance. My promise? By the end

TL;DR: Post-purchase or post-booking surveys are a powerful yet underutilized tool for boutique hotels. By asking the right questions immediately after a guest books, you can uncover actionable insights that improve marketing performance, tailor messaging, and increase direct bookings. In this guide, we break down the strategy, tools, and questions that make post-purchase surveys a cornerstone of smart, data-driven hotel marketing. — Why Post-Purchase Surveys Are a Goldmine of Data for Boutique Hotels Your guests have just booked. They’re engaged, excited, and their decision-making process is fresh in their minds. That’s exactly why the post-purchase moment is one of the most valuable (and often overlooked) times to capture customer insights. Unlike post-stay surveys, which focus on satisfaction and experience, post-purchase surveys dig into why someone chose your hotel, what nearly stopped them, and what matters most to them before arrival. This intel allows you to fine-tune your messaging, better segment

TL;DR: Most boutique hotels focus on design, service, and branding, but ignore the strategic goldmine of customer research. By understanding how guests plan, book, and experience travel, hotel marketers can unlock insights that drive direct bookings, reduce reliance on OTAs, and build lasting guest relationships. This post breaks down how to get started and what to prioritize. — Why Customer Research Is Your Boutique Hotel’s Secret Weapon Boutique hotels like yours thrive on delivering personalized, memorable experiences. However, decisions about marketing, website content, and guest engagement are often made based on gut feel or assumptions. Customer research flips that on its head. It replaces guesswork with clarity, allowing hotel teams to market with precision and reach the right people with the right message at the right time. This is the purpose of marketing, right? More importantly, it helps shift the balance of power away from third-party booking platforms (OTAs), giving