Immerse yourself in whispered tales and timeless beats, as the ambiance transports you to a bygone era reserved for top shelf A-listers. An air of intrigue awaits those who dare to discover this hard-to-find haven.
The Hospitality Sales Trust Signals Brands Can't Afford to Ignore
Some of the best salespeople in hospitality are sitting at home right now, unseen and unused, costing their companies real revenue.
Not because they lack skill.
Not because the product isn't good.
But because the buyers they're trying to reach have already done their homework, formed an opinion, and quietly moved on, all without ever sending a single reply.
That's the uncomfortable reality Cory Falter, host of the InnSync Show, is determined to surface.
He recently sat down with Byron Bunda, Sales Manager at RoomMaster, to dig into why online presence has become the most under-leveraged sales asset in the hospitality industry, and what brands need to do before they become invisible.
The Decision Happens Long Before the Demo
Imagine a hotel group is evaluating a new property management system. Before their VP of Operations books a single demo, they've watched an unedited training video on YouTube made by a guesthouse owner in Wales. They've read through Reddit threads where hoteliers give their unfiltered take on every platform they've used. They've cross-referenced Hotel Tech Report, skimmed Capterra reviews, and quietly formed a shortlist.
By the time a salesperson gets on a discovery call, that buyer is already 80 percent of the way to a decision.
"By the time they actually get into the traditional sales process, the discovery call, the demo, they've already really formed such a strong impression," says Byron. "It's just about solidifying whatever research they've gathered on their own."
This isn't a new phenomenon; it's an accelerated one.
The information asymmetry that once gave salespeople their edge, being the primary guide through a complex buying process, has largely eroded. Today's hospitality buyer has access to infinite resources before they ever engage with sales. The salesperson who assumes they're still the main source of information is playing a game that already ended.
Marcus Sheridan, who literally wrote the book on content-driven sales, They Ask, You Answer, has tracked this shift for years. The companies that win aren't the ones with the slickest pitch decks. They're the ones who answered the buyer's questions before the buyer even thought to ask.
Trust Isn't Built in the Inbox Anymore
Referrals still matter. Word of mouth still matters. But what's changed is what happens after the referral.
Cory says, "If someone says, 'Hey, Byron's fantastic, I met him at a trade show, product seems fantastic,' that sounds amazing. But I'm finding myself going home, doing my due diligence, and vetting Byron and RoomMaster online to find out if he checks off on that conversation we had in person."
That vetting happens on LinkedIn, on Google, on review platforms, and increasingly through AI tools that aggregate and synthesize everything a brand has put into the world. Or failed to.
This is where EEAT comes in: Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. Originally a Google framework for evaluating content quality, EEAT has quietly become the invisible scorecard buyers apply to every brand and salesperson they research. They may not know the acronym. But they immediately feel its absence.
"It used to be that you had a lot more success getting people to respond to your email or pick up the phone," Byron explains. "But nowadays, as technology advances, people are just getting more and more inundated with outbound messaging. So when it comes time to actually engage, one of the most important things is not just who is showing up in my inbox. It's who do I already know is trustworthy and reputable."
That opinion forms passively. Every time a potential buyer scrolls LinkedIn during a coffee break and sees your name, reads your take on a topic, or notices that you haven't posted in three months, a judgment is being filed away. Subconsciously. Quietly. Permanently.
Hiding Your Pricing Is No Longer a Strategy
Few things expose a brand's trust deficit faster than refusing to talk about price.
The old logic made sense: complex, enterprise-level deals require custom quotes, and putting numbers online invites misinterpretation.
Fair enough.
But the response to that complexity has often been to provide nothing at all, forcing every prospect onto a Zoom call before they get a single data point. Buyers have noticed, and they've found workarounds.
"If you're just trying to force everybody onto a Zoom meeting before you give them a single number, they're not gonna be pushed around like that," Byron says. "They're just gonna go to whatever ChatGPT told them, whatever they saw in a Reddit post that's eight years old, and they're gonna use that information because you weren't helpful."
The irony is that the vacuum a brand creates by staying silent gets filled anyway, just not by the brand. AI tools will surface a number. Reddit threads will surface a number. A SaaS product now exists specifically to help buyers figure out what other buyers are actually paying for competing SaaS products. That's not speculation. It's already happening.
"I've seen companies get themselves in trouble where somebody says, 'Wait a second. I was online and found out that this other hotel has half as many rooms as we do and they're getting a way better price,'" Byron recounts. "'What's up with that?'"
The answer isn't to pretend pricing doesn't exist. It's about leading the conversation rather than getting caught avoiding it. A starting range, a tiered framework, and a clear explanation of what drives cost variability: these aren't concessions; they're trust signals. Brands that publish them own the narrative. Brands that don't hand it to a 2017 Reddit thread.
Consistency Is the Compound Interest of Credibility
Even the best content strategy falls apart without consistency. And in hospitality sales, inconsistency is everywhere.
Pull up the LinkedIn profile of the average hotel tech sales rep, and you’ll likely see the same pattern: long gaps between posts, occasional company resharing, and very little original perspective.
"Most of the time when I look at another rep's LinkedIn profile, the last time they posted was over a month ago, and most of the time it was just a repost of something from the company's own page," Byron observes. "Even if you just get into a cadence of having a post once a week, that's a good place to start."
The temptation for salespeople new to content creation is to chase engagement, the selfies, the shout-outs, the posts that get thirty-seven likes and feel validating. But that engagement is largely coming from other salespeople, not from the VP of Revenue Management at a regional hotel group who is quietly deciding whether to put your product on their shortlist.
"My highest performing posts were the ones about being an AE in tech sales," Byron admits. "But then I came to this realization: I'm not selling to other reps. That water cooler banter may be good for likes, but it's not helping position me as an expert to the VP of revenue management with a hotel group."
The lurkers are real. They just don't announce themselves. Byron received a detailed direct message from a VP of IT who had read an article he'd written, told him it was insightful, said it reflected his own experience, and then went on to buy. The public reaction to that article had looked like a dud.
"Don't stop just because you didn't get the dopamine rush of a lot of likes on your posts," he says. "You don't know what actual signal is being received on the other end."
What Hospitality Salespeople Can Actually Do Right Now
None of this requires becoming a full-time content creator or hiring a production crew. It requires specificity and a willingness to be useful in public.
Cory's recommendation is simple: write down the top five questions your prospects ask, or the five problems they keep describing, and start creating content around those.
A LinkedIn article that answers one of those questions in depth, published once a month, becomes a searchable, credible signal of expertise.
Each article can be broken into shorter weekly posts. A short video walking through one key point, filmed on a phone while walking, adds the human layer that written content alone can't replicate.
"There's a psychological element," Cory notes. "People tend to trust people more when they put themselves out there on video. Your audience begins to know you and recognize you as an authority in that space."
Byron's approach for the upcoming HITEC conference in San Antonio illustrates the principle well. Rather than simply sharing an invite to the Lone Star Social, an event RoomMaster is hosting for independent hoteliers, the more powerful move is to answer what independent hospitality actually means to you. What have independent hotels taught you? What does it feel like to stay in one versus a branded chain? The event gets promoted, but the content comes from a real place.
"Rather than some scripted marketing message, it's something you can speak from the heart," Byron says.
That distinction, scripted versus genuine, is exactly what buyers are scanning for. Regurgitated press releases get scrolled past. Actual opinions from someone with skin in the game get read, shared, and remembered.
When Two Products Are Equal, Trust Wins
Here's the scenario that ties everything together. A hotel group has narrowed their search to two PMS platforms. Similar pricing. Similar feature sets. Both have decent reviews. Both have responsive sales teams.
What tips it?
"When they get down to those two options that are priced similarly and can largely give them the same functionality, what ends up tipping the scales is that trust signal, that authenticity," Byron says. "To the salesperson, the contract is the end. But to the customer, that's only the beginning."
That last line is worth sitting with. The buyer knows that signing a contract starts a relationship, not ends one. They're evaluating whether they believe the salesperson will still be there, still be honest, still follow through once the commission is paid. Online trust signals are the only preview of that future relationship available before the contract is signed.
"You can tell somebody till you're blue in the face that if you sign the contract, I'm gonna stick with you and we're gonna accomplish all these things," Byron continues. "But it's actually the trust you've built up with those signals that's gonna make the person either believe you or not."
Cory's own results back this up. Speaking invitations from the San Diego County Lodging Association and HSMAI LA came directly from his content output. New client conversations are now arriving via DM, with prospects citing specific videos or articles as the reason they reached out. The pipeline isn't coming from cold outreach. It's the cumulative weight of showing up consistently, saying something worth reading, and letting buyers find their way into the conversation on their own terms.
That's not a marketing strategy. It's a long game. And in hospitality, where relationships have always been the currency, it turns out the internet is just a bigger room.
And why most hotels won't make the shortlist before they even know it exists.
Hotel sales teams have a problem they don't know they have.
It's not that planners are choosing competitors.
It's that their property isn't making it to the conversation at all.
The shortlist is being built before the RFP goes out, before a salesperson picks up the phone, and increasingly, before a human being is involved in the decision at all.
Meeting planner David Moore, founder of Moore Style Events, a boutique firm specializing in biotech and tech events, is one of the people helping build it.
He sat down with Cory Falter on the InnSync Show to break down exactly how AI has changed his sourcing workflow and what hotel sales teams need to hear, whether they're ready to or not.
The Old Way Took Hours. The New Way Takes Minutes.
Not long ago, sourcing a venue meant opening ten browser tabs, logging into Cvent, cross-referencing maps, and hoping that the information posted on a hotel's website was accurate and specific enough to answer the actual question being asked.
Moore's team works with clients who run technically demanding events. A lot of their client equipment is large. For biotech events, especially, that means one non-negotiable requirement: can you drive a car into the venue?
"Sourcing that has been huge for us," Moore said. "Lots of hotels have venues that are on second floors that don't have elevator access, or maybe don't have a door that's large enough in their ballroom or convention space."
Cvent doesn't have a filter for that. Neither does HopSkip, which Moore calls his preferred traditional platform. What AI can do is take a 10-point criteria list and cross-reference it across properties in minutes, surfacing options that would have taken hours to find manually, or might never have surfaced at all.
The speed advantage compounds. Clients call with a city and a timeframe. Moore's team needs to respond fast with smart options. "We have 10 criteria that we can then put into an AI system," he said, "and we can get that information much faster and turn it around to our clients much faster."
That turnaround used to take days. Some of it still does, on the hotel's end.
"Three Miles From the Convention Center" Doesn't Mean What You Think It Means
Distance is one of the most consistently misleading pieces of information in hotel marketing copy.
Three miles sounds manageable. Three miles through Vienna at 11 p.m. after a conference dinner, looking for a private room that seats 50 and stays open late, is a different experience entirely.
Moore’s team recently faced that exact scenario. They needed “a restaurant that is open late, that has a private room, that is near the hotel, that can host 50 people.” In the past, that meant spending an hour with Google Maps. With AI, Moore said, the same search can happen in minutes.
AI doesn't just accept the stated distance. It plots locations, accounts for transit, checks proximity to airports and train stations, and validates what "close" actually means on the ground.
Floor plans, room dimensions, ceiling heights, load-in access, internet infrastructure: these are the specifics that determine whether a venue is viable. Hotels that publish vague or incomplete information about these details aren't being humble. They're being invisible.
Falter shared a story that should make every hotel sales professional uncomfortable. He was referred to an insurance agent by a trusted friend. The referral was strong. The relationship behind it was solid. Before picking up the phone, Falter ran the agent through ChatGPT.
"Their online reputation did not match with what my friend told me about them," he said. "It changed my mind. I ended up not using this particular agency and went in a completely different direction based on what ChatGPT told me."
A warm referral, killed by a digital footprint. Or rather, by the absence of one.
This is already standard practice in service industries where expectations are high and mistakes are expensive. Six-figure event contracts fall squarely into that category. Meeting planners are already vetting hotels, sales teams, and AV crews using AI before reaching out. Moore's team does it explicitly: "We'll vet them on AI as much as we can, and then go to LinkedIn, find their mutual connections, and see if any of those are ours."
What AI is pulling when vetting a hotel team: LinkedIn activity, review patterns, published commentary, and industry presence. Not just what a hotel says about itself, but what the broader internet says about it, which is a harder thing to manage and much harder to fake.
A SEMrush analysis of 325,000 unique prompts across ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, and Perplexity found that LinkedIn was the second-most-cited source in AI-generated answers, behind only Reddit. Separately, research from Profound ranked it the most-cited domain for professional queries. That's not a soft metric. That's the algorithm deciding whether you exist.
Moore put it plainly: "I honestly don't understand hotels that are not on LinkedIn."
The Referral Isn't the Finish Line Anymore
The word-of-mouth referral used to be the gold standard, and it still carries weight. But it no longer closes the loop.
What's changed is the verification step. Buyers don't just receive a referral and act on it. They confirm it. They triangulate. They ask AI whether the enthusiasm matches the record. And if the record is thin, or worse, contradictory, the referral loses its power.
For hotels, this changes the calculus around sales effort. A salesperson can build a strong relationship at a conference, exchange cards, follow up perfectly, and still lose the business if the property's online presence doesn't support the story being told in person. "If your online reputation does not match up with what you show up offline," Falter said, "it's all for naught."
The properties with detailed websites, active sales teams on LinkedIn, published thought leadership, and genuine response to online reviews are building trust signals that AI reads and reports. The ones that aren't are generating silence, which AI interprets as a reason to keep looking.
Put the operational details online. Not in a PDF. Not in a sales kit that lives in a shared drive. The information needs to be crawlable and findable: room dimensions, door widths, AV infrastructure, internet capacity, proximity data that's actually accurate. If your ballroom can fit a 7-series through the loading dock, say so online. That specific detail is the kind of thing that builds a shortlist.
Hotel teams also have a workaround available even when their own websites fall short. A salesperson who publishes consistently on LinkedIn, including venue-specific details and differentiators, is creating content that AI can surface. Falter is direct about this: "As a seller, you could go online on LinkedIn and start talking about that as a differentiator."
Speed matters more than hotels typically treat it. Moore's clients expect answers fast. Not 24 to 48 hours. The comparison he draws is to e-commerce: Amazon has trained buyers not to wait. An RFP that goes unanswered for two days in a world where AI can generate a ranked shortlist in two minutes is a sales process operating in the wrong decade.
Finally: the team is part of the product. A venue that checks every box but has no visible, credible sales team online is a risk. Moore's team vets the humans behind the hotel the same way they vet the hotel itself. Planners want to know who they're calling before they call.
Catching Up to a Process That Already Left
The planners who are using AI well aren't doing anything exotic. They're answering the same questions that have always mattered in venue selection: Does it fit? Is it close enough? Can we trust the team? The difference is that those questions are now being asked and answered before anyone sends an email.
"Did you Google that?" used to be the standard. Moore laughed about the shift: "Now we say, 'Did you run that through AI and see what you could find?'"
For hotel sales teams, that shift is already in motion. The shortlist is being built right now, with or without them. The properties that show up are the ones that have made themselves legible to the tools doing the sorting: specific, credible, visible, and fast. The ones that haven't are getting filtered out before the conversation starts.
Not rejected. Just never considered.
Your Website Is Either On the Shortlist or It Isn't
Everything David Moore described points to the same root problem. Most hotel sales teams don't have a system that makes them findable, credible, and specific enough to survive an AI-generated shortlist.
That's what Lure Agency's WINS Method addresses. A hospitality-first framework that starts with a four-session workshop, then gives your team the tools and support to execute it consistently.
The “W” alone is worth the conversation. If your website isn't answering the questions planners are feeding into AI, you're already filtered out.
How One Simple Form Change Drove 50% More High-Converting Direct Leads
Hotels have a friction problem.
Not the kind you fix with a renovation budget or a rebrand.
The kind that lives inside your RFP form, your response time, your website's blank stare when someone shows up with a question and leaves with nothing.
The kind that quietly empties your event pipeline while you're busy wondering why leads have dried up.
Cory Falter, founder of Lure Agency, has spent years studying how independent hotels win and lose meetings and events business. Don Barnett, Director of Sales and Marketing at LondonHouse Chicago, has lived it from the other side.
Together, they make a convincing case that the industry's biggest conversion problem has nothing to do with rate, location, or the hotel down the street.
"It's not your comp set," Barnett says. "What we're competing with is every other buying experience that meeting planners have now."
He means Amazon.
He means the checkout experience so smooth you barely notice money leaving your account.
He means a world where someone can order a Queens of the Stone Age vinyl record from their phone and have it on their doorstep by dinner.
That is the benchmark your RFP process is being measured against, whether you like it or not.
You're Not Losing to the Marriott. You're Losing to Expectations.
Intake flows that assume every person landing on your meetings page already knows what attrition means, has firm dates locked in, and is ready to submit a complete brief before anyone picks up the phone.
That assumption is wrong about half the time.
Cvent's own planner guides acknowledge a whole category they call 'occasional or part-time corporate planners,' people whose job titles range from executive assistant to marketing manager, who organize events on an ad-hoc basis.
Lure Agency's data across client properties suggests this group may account for as much as half of all inbound meeting inquiries
They're executive assistants, office managers, and department heads who had the job handed to them when their company decided not to rehire a dedicated meeting planner after COVID.
They have a boss who wants an executive sales retreat for a hundred people in Chicago. They have no idea where to start. And they are stressed.
Falter calls her Sally Sue.
Sally Sue lands on your website. She is looking for basic answers, a sense of who she'd be working with, some indication that this hotel understands her situation.
Instead, she finds a form with 50 fields asking for information she does not have.
No team photos. No FAQs. No pricing framework. Just the form.
She bails.
"That's how it's happening so often," Falter says. "And we know this because lack of traffic on hotel websites is not the problem. It's when people go to the website, they're not seen, and they're met with friction."
The traffic is there. The intent is there. The opportunity evaporates at the exact moment the hotel puts process ahead of the person.
What a Shorter Form Did to Lead Volume for LondonHouse Chicago
LondonHouse Chicago tested something simple.
They kept their existing detailed RFP form live on the site and added a second, much shorter option. Name, contact information, and one open field: how can we help?
That month, leads increased by 50%.
Not by redesigning the website. Not by launching a new campaign. By giving people a low-barrier way to raise their hand.
"We've reduced that friction of needing specific information," Barnett explains, "and now people can reach out with more general stuff, which is leading to more conversations and being that trusted advisor that people are looking for."
This matters more than most hotel sales teams realize, partly because of the volume impact and partly because of what those leads actually convert at.
Third-party RFPs submitted through platforms like Cvent are distributed to dozens of hotels simultaneously. The average conversion rate on those sits between 3 and 5%.
Direct inquiries coming through a simple website form, the ones where someone reached out specifically to your hotel, convert at 35 to 55% in Lure Agency's research across their client properties.
The math is uncomfortable. Teams spending hours crafting proposals for Cvent leads who win at 4% are ignoring a channel that wins at 10 times that rate because they haven't made it easy enough for that channel to exist.
There is also the commission question. Direct inquiries are not commissionable. Every piece of business that walks through your digital front door without a third-party intermediary is margin you keep entirely.
"It's almost like you're pushing them out the door and forcing them to go through somebody else," Falter says, "when they're already through the doors of your hotel."
Speed Is a Strategy, Not a Courtesy
Once the lead comes in, the clock is ticking faster than most hotel teams appreciate.
Meeting Broker analyzed response patterns across thousands of RFPs and found that 72% of the time, the first hotel to respond wins the business.
Not the cheapest.
Not the most luxurious.
The fastest.
Barnett took that data seriously. He set a team goal of responding within four hours. LondonHouse now averages 4 hours, down from a comp set average of 5.3 hours, and ranks first in their market for both conversion rate and awarded business value.
"If you're waiting till the next day to get back to somebody," Barnett says, "there are already probably 10 hotels that are way ahead of you, and you're not even going to be in consideration. And it doesn't even matter how good your rate is at that point."
Speed signals something beyond efficiency. It tells the planner that this hotel is organized, attentive, and likely to execute the event the same way.
Friction in the booking process, whether it shows up as a clunky form or a slow callback, plants a seed of doubt about what the event itself will feel like.
"Friction kills confidence," Barnett says. "If your process to book business is complicated or messy, you're going to lead them to an assumption that the event execution might be that way as well."
That reputational effect compounds. Planners talk. "One person's experience is another person's proof," Barnett notes, "and if it was very difficult to work with you, they're gonna text three of their colleagues and say this hotel is a real pain to work with."
Five Things That Remove the Friction Before Anyone Picks Up the Phone
The short form is the starting point, but it is not the whole picture.
Falter and Barnett outline a set of changes that work together to reduce skepticism and convert interest into booked business.
A short contact form on the meetings page.
Not instead of the detailed RFP, alongside it. Give people a way to start a conversation without requiring them to finish it in one sitting.
A deep FAQ hub.
Not spa hours and restaurant reservations.
The actual questions a first-time event planner asks at midnight: What is attrition? What does AV typically cost? What's included in a room rental? AI can help generate this content, and it also makes the site more visible in the kind of conversational, question-based searches that now dominate how people research venues.
On that note, a blog post that answered questions about LondonHouse's rooftop buyout was the origin point of a roughly $50,000 lead that came through Google search. The planner found the blog, got their questions answered, and filled out the short form. That is content doing sales work.
Team pages with real faces.
Knowing who you'll be working with reduces the perceived risk of reaching out.
A sales manager's headshot and a two-line bio does more trust-building than any award logo on the homepage. If your executive chef has a personality, show it.
Video testimonials.
Written reviews are fine. Video testimonials do something different. Watching a real planner describe a successful event at your property collapses skepticism in a way that a star rating cannot.
A pricing framework.
Not a rate card. Not a promise. A range, a starting point, a sample event breakdown that gives someone a realistic sense of whether they're even in the right ballpark before they invest time in a formal inquiry.
Hotels that are willing to have this conversation openly signal trustworthiness. Hotels that hide every number behind a form submission signal the opposite.
What Happens When the Friction Goes Away
LondonHouse operates in what Barnett describes, with characteristic understatement, as two seasons: busy and crazy busy.
The conversion data backs that up. A 10 to 14% conversion rate on third-party RFPs in a market where the norm is 3 to 5%. Direct inquiry conversions multiples higher than that. A response time benchmark that the comp set hasn't matched. And a lead that traced back to a blog post.
But the most durable outcome is harder to measure. It is the planner who had such a smooth experience the first time that the next time they have a meeting in Chicago, they skip the RFP process entirely and call Don directly.
"I loved working with this hotel," Barnett describes. "If I have a meeting in Chicago, I'm calling Don first because it was so easy to work with him. And that's a real thing. Some people just decide they want to work with this person from now on."
That is not a conversion. That is a relationship that bypasses the entire competitive process, indefinitely.
The industry has spent years treating friction as a feature, a way to filter out unserious inquiries and gather clean data upfront.
What LondonHouse demonstrates is that friction filters out far more than it filters in. It filters out Sally Sue, who is stressed and flexible and has already decided she wants to call one or two hotels directly instead of blasting an RFP to forty. It filters out the planner who just wants a rooftop for midweek in August and doesn't need to fill out a form to check whether you have it.
The hotel that makes it easiest to say yes wins the business. Not sometimes. According to the data, most of the time.
Behind the Numbers
LondonHouse Chicago works with Lure Agency, and the results in this article came directly out of applying The WINS Method™to their meetings and events sales process.
The short form, the FAQ hub, the blog that turned into a $50,000 lead — none of it is accidental.
If your hotel is leaving business on the table, The WINS Method™ is where to start. Click below to learn more.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Boulder, CO — April 28, 2026 — Lure Agency has partnered with Laundris to expand adoption of its AI-powered linen management platform, designed to give hotel operators real-time visibility into inventory, usage, and loss.
As operators face rising labor costs, ongoing supply chain challenges, and increasing pressure to do more with less, linen management has quietly become one of the most overlooked drivers of profitability. The partnership is focused on helping Laundris expand market awareness, educate operators, and accelerate adoption of a smarter, more data-driven approach to managing one of hospitality’s most expensive operational assets.
“Most operators don’t realize how much money is tied up in linen until they can actually see it,” said Mark Nordick, CEO of Laundris. “We’re giving them real-time visibility into where their inventory is, how it’s being used, and where it’s being lost to help them make faster decisions and stop unnecessary spending. Partnering with Lure allows us to tell that story in a way that truly resonates with the people responsible for performance.”
Laundris uses RFID technology to track linen usage, reduce loss, and optimize par levels across hotel operations. The result is a clearer picture of inventory, fewer unnecessary purchases, and measurable cost savings that directly impact the bottom line.
Lure Agency will support Laundris through its WINS Method™, aligning website, messaging, content, and sales efforts to support growth. The focus is not just on awareness, but on building trust and driving qualified conversations with hotel ownership groups, operators, and asset managers.
“Laundris solves a problem that’s been hiding in plain sight for years,” said Cory Falter, Partner and CEO at Lure Agency. “When you give operators visibility into something as fundamental as linen, you’re not just improving efficiency—you’re unlocking real dollars. Our role is to make sure the right people understand that, quickly.”
For hotel owners and management companies, linen is a significant and often under-measured expense. Without accurate tracking, properties may overstock inventory, experience loss, and rely on time-consuming manual processes.
This partnership positions Laundris to lead a shift in how the industry approaches linen management—moving from reactive counting to proactive, data-driven decision-making. For operators, that means tighter control, less waste, and more predictable operating costs.
About Laundris
Laundris is an AI-powered linen management platform designed for the hospitality industry. By combining RFID technology with advanced analytics, Laundris gives hotel operators real-time visibility into linen inventory, usage, and loss—helping reduce costs, improve efficiency, and eliminate guesswork from daily operations. Learn more at laundris.com
About Lure Agency
Founded in 2012, Lure Agency helps hospitality brands turn clicks into connections and connections into conversions. By blending science and soul, the agency bridges the gap between sales and marketing with strategies that drive measurable revenue and lasting relationships. Through its proprietary WINS Method™, Lure empowers hotels and hospitality vendors to attract the right buyers, build trust at scale, and win more business in an AI-driven world. Learn more at lureagency.com
Real B2B Partners Build Capability, Not Dependence
The marketing agency world is undergoing a massive identity crisis.
Gone are the days when clients happily handed over bloated retainers and waited patiently for mysterious “deliverables” to show up.
Trust has thinned.
Results are questionable.
And with AI now capable of generating blog posts, ad copy, and even strategy snippets, agencies stuck in execution mode are on borrowed time.
Tom DiScipio, Managing Partner at IMPACT, recently joined Cory Falter and Susan Tucker on the INNSync Show to talk about where the agency model is headed and how the smartest teams are swapping task lists for transformation.
Why Just Doing the Marketing Isn’t Enough Anymore
Let’s address the silicon-skinned elephant in the room: AI is doing what agencies used to bill for.
“We have this looming technology, AI, that is rapidly advancing both in production… and execution,” said DiScipio. Content creation, campaign building, even performance reporting; it’s all being handled faster and cheaper by machines.
So where does that leave agencies?
Spoiler: not in a good place if they’re still clinging to the old playbook.
Clients don’t need another vendor. What they need is a coach. A trusted advisor. Someone who teaches them how to build internal systems that last long after the agency contract expires.
“Agencies are battling two different fronts right now,” DiScipio explained. “More noise in the marketplace and the next stage of AI… human action in technology format.”
Translation: if your agency’s value is “we write blog posts,” you’re toast.
The Shift From Doing to Guiding in Hospitality Marketing
IMPACT saw the writing on the wall and flipped the model.
Instead of handling clients' marketing, they teach companies how to build their own in-house engines.
But it’s not just a free-for-all of webinars and playbooks—they built a system.
A literal system.
DiScipio referenced IMPACT’s new book Endless Customers, the evolution of Marcus Sheridan’s They Ask, You Answer. It packages five years of lessons into a repeatable framework clients can follow.
“When we first started our coaching program, it was a little bit more freeform,” said DiScipio. “As we evolved, we put into place process and structure.” Think EOS or Scaling Up, but for marketing and sales alignment.
“It’s truly changed our business,” said Tucker. “People can see the clear path moving forward.” Cory added, “As of this week, we beat out three other agencies… they said, ‘We really like your WINS method framework.’”
The kicker? We weren’t the cheapest bid. But we were the only ones offering a branded methodology.
As DiScipio pointed out, “AI Agentic loves branded processes.”
In a landscape crowded with cookie-cutter offerings, having a name for your approach can be the difference between being a vendor and being the choice.
Defining Success: When Clients Graduate
The goal at IMPACT isn’t client dependence ... it’s client graduation.
They use what’s called an Endless Customer Score, a metric that tracks a client’s progress in implementing their system. Hit an 80, and you’re ready to fly solo.
“Some folks will stay on… Michael Jordan had a coach, right?” said DiScipio. “But that’s how we measure success. Every 90 days, we look at the score.”
This isn’t just about deliverables, it’s about building internal capability. Cory and Susan echoed the value of onboarding alignment sessions and long-term strategy planning to get clients to that point.
As Cory put it, “This is a transformational experience, not a transactional one.”
A Real Partner Shows Up on the Scoreboard
There was one area where Cory pushed back on the “train them to do it without you” approach. In some cases, being the most consistent part of the client’s team is the value.
“We’re the most consistent thing they’ve had,” Cory said. “We care too much sometimes.”
DiScipio didn’t disagree. Whether the execution stays in-house or with a trusted partner, what matters most is that agencies drive transformation—not just check boxes.
And when the system works? It really works.
“One of our salespeople sent a pricing article we created,” recalled DiScipio. “The buyer said, ‘You’re the only one who taught me anything. I want to go with you.’”
Stop Siloing. Start Selling Together.
Marketing and sales still don’t always get along. But in the new model, they don’t have a choice.
“When both teams are collaborating and aligned around revenue as the single objective,” DiScipio said, “marketing is in service of sales, because sales is the voice of the prospect.”
That’s the new structure: one team, one mission ... revenue.
Susan recalled IMPACT’s concept of a “revenue team” and how it changed her thinking. And for those in hospitality, Cory pointed out the emergence of “commercial strategy” roles that combine sales, marketing, and revenue management into one function.
That’s not a trend—it’s the blueprint.
One Final Nugget: Solve for the Human
With so much noise, so much tech, and so many checklists, DiScipio closed with a powerful reminder.
“At the end of the day, these tools and algorithms are solving for us. They’re solving for the human,” he said. “So if you can aim your energy towards the human… the tools will eventually look at you as the resource.”
Forget gaming the algorithm. Serve the buyer. Serve the human.
Don’t Be the Doer. Be the Difference.
If you’re still selling content calendars and keyword packages, your clock is ticking. The agencies that will thrive aren’t “doing marketing” because they’re building machines, training internal teams, and systematizing strategy into scalable models.
They’re not vendors. They’re visionaries.
The question is: which one will you partner with?
Curious how we can help? Reach out below. 👇
FAQs about Hospitality Marketing Agencies of the Future
1. What’s the difference between a traditional agency and an advisory agency?
A traditional agency typically executes marketing tasks—blog writing, ad campaigns, social media posts—on behalf of the client. An advisory agency coaches internal teams to build and manage these capabilities themselves, focusing on systems, strategy, and long-term independence.
2. How do I know if my agency is stuck in the “vendor” model?
If your agency mostly delivers assets with little strategic input, rarely pushes back or challenges your thinking, and doesn’t teach your team how to own your marketing internally, you’re likely in a vendor relationship. True partners guide transformation, not just transactions.
3. What is the Endless Customer Score and how does it work?
Developed by IMPACT, the Endless Customer Score is a framework used to measure a client’s maturity and readiness to own their inbound marketing strategy.
4. Why do branded frameworks like “They Ask, You Answer” or “The WINS Method” matter so much?
Branded frameworks give your process structure, credibility, and scalability. They signal to clients that you have a proven system, not just a bag of tactics. As Tom DiScipio noted, even AI recognizes and rewards branded processes—it’s a strategic differentiator.
5. What about execution services within a coaching/advisory model?
Yes … but execution should support the larger goal of client enablement. Agencies can still assist with production, but the focus shifts to empowering clients to eventually take the wheel. The real value lies in teaching them how to drive the system with minimal support.
How a Small Team, Big Vision, and Lure Agency’s Strategic Push Turned a Quiet Retreat into a Repeat Guest Magnet
Wingspread isn’t just a meeting venue, it’s a memory-maker, a team-bonding catalyst, and apparently, a place people just can’t quit.
With an 80% repeat group rate, this Wisconsin-based executive retreat has quietly mastered the art of hospitality that keeps guests not only satisfied but genuinely delighted.
What followed was a candid, insightful peek into how a small property with no initial sales team turned into a return-guest magnet, and how marketing, tech, and a heavy dose of heart helped them get there.
Who is Wingspread Retreat & Executive Conference Center?
When Wingspread launched in 2018, they didn’t have a sales team.
Or a marketing team.
Or a database.
Or, frankly, much name recognition.
“It was just a handful of people that started this project from the ground up,” Heather explained. “The biggest challenge was: Who is this? Where is this place? What are they up to?”
It wasn’t an identity crisis; it was an identity creation.
Building a brand for a lesser-known but architecturally stunning venue meant introducing the world to its unique charm, step by strategic step.
And that meant calling in reinforcements.
Crafting Wingspread's Story and Getting It Seen
Enter the Lure Agency, the brains behind the operation that helped Wingspread find its voice and project it into the right spaces.
“You guys are so good at being in touch with the industry, on the pulse,” Heather noted. “Every property has a story. And I think they were looking to you guys to help guide not only where to put that story out, but help with the crafting of it.”
Cue things like the Meet the Team video, a heartfelt, beautifully executed snapshot of the Wingspread culture that Heather calls “the best piece I’ve done professionally in a long time.”
The impact was immediate: “I played it for our staff… and they were all like, ‘Oh my gosh, that was so good, Heather.’ It went a long way internally. And we’ve gotten a ton of views externally.”
Automation, Intelligence, and Actually Useful Emails
While many sales directors get stuck in an endless loop of meetings, admin work, and MOD shifts, Wingspread found a way to keep its outreach humming even when Heather’s time was maxed out.
That secret weapon? A lead scoring portal, smart CRM integrations, and what Susan Tucker calls “touchpoint emails.”
“Lead prospecting can get shelved,” Heather admitted. “With you guys sending out a monthly touchpoints to our contact list … it keeps us top of mind without me really having to do anything.”
But this isn’t your typical inbox spam. With a 48% open rate and a 25% click rate (industry benchmarks are 25% and 5%, respectively), Wingspread’s content is clearly resonating … largely because it’s not always selling. It’s helping.
As Cory put it, “You don’t always have to be selling when you continue to send prospects helpful, insightful, educational content, the sales will follow.”
The Secret Sauce? People, Not Pillows
While Wingspread may boast beautiful design (yes, that Frank Lloyd Wright pedigree), it’s the people who bring guests back again and again.
“We have an 80% repeat group percentage,” Heather shared. “And they always talk about how well taken care of they feel when they leave… There’s this sense of family here.”
That human touch permeates everything, from curated menus based on your team’s dietary needs to thoughtful white-space moments built into meeting agendas.
Even their survey results regularly name-drop individual team members: “Whether it’s the driver, the breakfast server, the CA who helped tweak the presentation … they mention people by name.”
When you’re at Wingspread, you’re not customer #253. You’re a guest. And the team remembers you.
A Bespoke Retreat Experience That Actually Means Something
Too many venues slap “custom” on a standard PDF menu and call it a day. Not here.
“We don’t hand you a menu and say pick chicken or beef,” Heather said. “Everything’s curated. Your experience is curated by us, for you.”
The approach even extends to the land itself. With an on-site garden, locally sourced honey, and menus that change seasonally (yes, even in Wisconsin winters), Wingspread doesn’t just talk sustainability or locality; they live it.
The Johnson Foundation, which owns the property, has been hosting meaningful campus conversations since the 1960s.
Today, that legacy continues, with built-in moments of pause, even in high-stakes board meetings.
“We talk about white space a lot,” Heather explained. “Take 15 minutes. Let people get up, go outside. Breathe. Come back. That’s where the magic happens.”
What Other Properties Can Learn from Wingspread
It’s tempting to think you need a massive marketing budget or a huge team to create an unforgettable guest experience.
Wingspread proves otherwise.
With a tiny but mighty staff, smart automation tools, and a marketing partner who pushes them out of their comfort zone, they’ve built something lasting and magnetic.
“Every hotel has this underworld,” Heather said, referencing the often-invisible support staff. “But that whole world up there wouldn’t exist without the world below.”
Cory nailed it in the closing: “A lot of hotels and resorts are missing out… The team is who delivers the experience at the end of the day.”
Want Repeat Business? Get Real.
If you’re in hospitality and wondering how to get more group business, you might not need flashier amenities or shinier emails.
You might need to get real.
Get human.
And yes, get help telling your story in a way that feels personal, not promotional.
As Heather put it best: “You help us define what our story is… and we tell it better with you.”
Turns out, when you put people first — both your guests and your team — the return rate speaks for itself.
Curious if Lure Agency can help your hotel group sales team? (Psst: We can). Let's connect >> Or learn more when you click below.
Q&A
1. What makes Wingspread different from a typical hotel or conference venue?
Wingspread offers a boutique, curated experience that puts people first. Unlike traditional hotels, Wingspread only hosts one or two meetings at a time, ensuring every guest feels genuinely cared for. From customized menus to nature-infused white space breaks, the experience is intentionally personal — not transactional.
2. How did Lure Agency help Wingspread improve group bookings?
Lure Agency brought strategy, structure, and storytelling to the table. They helped Wingspread define its identity, create compelling content (like the Meet the Team video), implement automated lead scoring tools, and maintain consistent, non-salesy communication through high-performing touchpoint emails.
3. What is lead scoring, and why does it matter for hospitality sales?
Lead scoring helps prioritize which prospects are showing the most intent to book, based on their interactions (like visiting the sales page or downloading materials). For a small sales team like Wingspread’s, it’s a time-saver and revenue booster — allowing them to focus on the warmest, most qualified leads.
4. Why is Wingspread’s repeat group rate so high?
Simply put: the experience is unforgettable. From staff that guests remember by name to custom-curated agendas and locally sourced meals, every detail is designed with care. Guests don’t just host events there — they feel something. And that feeling brings them back.
5. Can smaller properties without big marketing budgets replicate Wingspread’s success?
Absolutely. Wingspread is proof that smart tools, great storytelling, and the right partner can make a major impact — even without a large team or budget. With Lure Agency guiding strategy and automation, Wingspread was able to punch way above its weight.
The Smackdown Between Code and Creative
In the blue corner: Brad Brewer, tech whisperer and champion of structured data.
In the red corner: Sarah Stahl, content strategist and storytelling evangelist.
And in the middle? Cory Falter and Susan Tucker, refereeing the biggest hospitality debate of 2025… Agentic Search.
This wasn’t just another roundtable chat.
The InnSync Show turned into a digital duel, with code and creativity squaring off to answer one key question: How do hotels stay discoverable in a world ruled by AI search engines?
Welcome to the era of Agentic Hospitality, where websites aren’t just digital brochures, they’re conversational, data-rich experiences that talk back.
Agentic Search for Hospitality
AI Search Isn’t Coming. It’s Already Here.
Let’s get something straight: SEO isn’t dead. It just graduated.
Or as Sarah Stahl put it, “SEO has gone through puberty, it’s getting married, it’s about to start having some kids.”
We’ve grown into the Agentic era, where search engines are no longer typing-and-linking assistants; they’re full-blown concierges.
We’re no longer talking about static keyword stuffing.
We’re talking intent-matching, preference-learning, and conversational retrieval.
That means how you show up in AI-generated search results depends on more than a keyword; it depends on how your site talks to a bot… and whether it speaks in schema.
Brad Brewer made it clear: “A single webpage becomes both documentation and API. It becomes a presentation layer and a data layer, and that’s what’s changing today.”
Translation: your website isn’t just for humans anymore. It’s for the machines that introduce you to the humans.
Most Hotel Websites Are Flat. Literally and Figuratively.
If hotels were people, most of their websites would be that guy at the party talking about his thread count.
They list amenities. They show empty rooms. They avoid emotion like it’s a resort fee.
“Most hotel websites… all say the same thing,” said Cory Falter. “They’re all talking about the same features, amenities, thread counts. It’s all flat, and it can’t pair my personal preference to my choice.”
That’s a problem. Because ChatGPT and Gemini aren’t just scanning your metadata, they’re interpreting your brand.
And if your content can’t signal emotion, identity, or experience, you’re not even in the game.
The OTA Dependency Is a Trap
Hotels have gotten cozy with OTAs (Online Travel Agencies). Maybe too cozy.
Sarah says, “They haven’t really changed their M.O. in 20 years. It’s time for them to grow up and move out of their parents’ basement.”
Hotels that rely exclusively on OTAs are feeding their revenue, and their future discoverability, to third parties who don’t care about their booking, just a booking.
Worse, most of them don’t even know if they’re breaking even.
And while OTAs spike their fees, hotels keep assuming someone else will handle discoverability.
But Agentic search demands direct visibility, which requires investment in both data structures and brand clarity.
Code Without Emotion, or Emotion Without Code?
The heart of the debate came down to this: what matters more: storytelling or structure?
Brad says, “Without the code, how do you put your pretty pictures out in front of the user?” He even threw the gauntlet down: “I will build a blank website with data, and I will capture more traffic and bookings than your most beautiful webpage ever.”
Shots fired.
Sarah conceded a key point: “Out of 10 properties I audited, only one popped up in ChatGPT search. That one had consistent PR coverage for five years.” The others? Beautiful, yes. But invisible to bots. “They had all those creatives… but no structure.”
The conclusion: creative gets you remembered, but code gets you seen.
Deep FAQs, Not Fluffy Fillers
Let’s talk about one of the most powerful (and most overlooked) tools in your arsenal: FAQs.
No, not your “Are pets allowed?” boilerplate.
We’re talking about deep FAQs that answer hyper-specific, long-tail questions AI models are trained on.
Questions like:
“Can I charge my EV at this hotel in London?”
“How far is the glamping tent from the lake, and is fishing gear included?”
“Are there gluten-free options at the complimentary breakfast?”
Brad adds, “Google is creating those pages. If you don’t answer those questions, someone else (or something else) will.”
And with AI pulling answers from your site only 5% of the time, as per the MuckRock study Sarah cited, that one shot better count.
Your Website Is Still Home Base
Despite the rise of AI-native interfaces, the panel agreed: your website is still the home base.
Brad: “Every prompt is personalized. It knows who Cory, Susan, and Sarah are… But the transaction is still going to happen on brand.com.”
If you let third-party apps — including ChatGPT plugins and OTA integrations — own your user experience, you’re handing over your identity and your margin.
Instead, give users a reason to come to you:
Build conversational interfaces into your site
Integrate schema markup that machines can understand
Offer humanized content that people actually enjoy reading
Add video testimonials, team intros, and real-life storytelling
Susan adds, “Create content that doesn’t just say things, but does things.”
Both sides agreed on one thing: it’s not code or creative.
It’s code AND creative.
Structured data unlocks discovery. Human storytelling drives conversion.
As Sarah said, “We’re building for a couple years ahead based on what consumers are doing now.” And as Brad reminded us, “Teach your customer how to come and have a conversation with your homepage.”
AI is learning what humans want. It’s time hotels do the same.
The Best Advice for 2026
If you’re a hotelier wondering where to start, take this advice from the trio:
Sarah: “Start with basics. Structure, schema, storytelling. Stop being scared.”
Brad: “Make your website natural language search ready. Let it talk back.”
Susan: “Build helpful content. Be a resource, not just a reservation engine.”
And from Cory? Add more humanity. “AI is literally telling us: you need to be more human. Technology is saying that.”
Let that sink in.
Hotel Sellers, The Next 6 Months Could Change Everything
2025 has been a wild ride for hotel sales … and not the kind that ends with a room upgrade.
Between AI anxiety, ghosting clients, and email blitzes that fall flat, sellers are navigating a shifting landscape where the old playbook feels dated and dangerous.
So what’s actually working? What’s breaking? And more importantly, what’s next?
The result? A conversation that’s part therapy session, part strategy summit, and part tough love.
Hotel Sales Marketing Tips
First, the Buzz: What’s Lit Up in 2025
Hotel sales had some glow-up moments. Here’s what got people talking.
Buzz #1: AI is Here and It’s Already Sending Emails for You
The buzzword of the year is still AI—and not just the “vague headline on LinkedIn” kind. We’re talking real tools making real impact.
Nicole Quessenberry is seeing it firsthand, “ZoomInfo now has an AI feature where you can directly email clients from the platform… Google Gemini is great for searching live RFPs looking for hotels.”
But here’s the twist: most hotel sellers don’t know how to implement any of it.
“We get hit with ads and posts,” she said, “but no one really tells us how to actually use it.”
The takeaway? AI isn’t optional anymore. Sellers who lean into it (even just a little) are already moving faster and smarter than the ones waiting for a webinar to walk them through it.
Buzz #2.: Visibility is the New Pipeline
For Celeste Berke, the buzz hits differently. It’s about sellers finally realizing that existing isn’t the same as showing up.
“They think just because they’re with a big brand—Marriott, Hilton, whatever—that they’ll magically appear on a planner’s radar,” she said.
Spoiler: they don’t.
Using simple AI searches during training, Celeste shows hospitality sellers exactly how invisible they are. The reaction? Total deer-in-headlights energy. Many still rely on a dusty contact list and a few email blasts to carry them through the quarter.
No brand is strong enough to save a seller without presence.
In a world where planners shop like consumers, visibility = viability.
Buzz #3: Video: The Sales Tool Most Sellers Are Still Afraid Of
Susan Tucker brought the data to back up what marketing pros have been shouting into the void for years: get on camera.
“This year, we had clients really lean into video. And the numbers are ridiculous! Collectively across all our clients LinkedIn and YouTube channels, impressions are up 185% and engagement is up 54%.”
Not glossy brand videos.
Not drone shots of the rooftop pool.
Actual humans. Talking. About their space, their team, and their value.
It’s not just vanity metrics either. Celeste shared this, “A planner said, ‘I saw your video and it sparked me to reach out.’ That’s the direct impact of visibility.”
Even Nicole, relatively new to video, said, “Every time I send one, I get a response. Ghosting disappears when they can see you.”
Video that features a person is the bridge between real life and online.
Buzz #4: Warm Prospecting with Predictive Lead Scoring
Cory Falter’s buzz? It’s part ‘right now,’ part ‘finally happening.’
Predictive lead scoring isn’t new to other industries … but in hospitality, it’s just starting to turn heads.
“It blows sellers away when they see how much more efficiently they can spend their time,” Cory said.
Here’s how it works: platforms track digital breadcrumbs like link clicks, page views, and time on site.
That activity is scored and stacked in your CRM so sellers can start their day with a ranked list of opportunities, highest intent to lowest.
Translation? No more aimless prospecting. No more “just checking in” emails to people who haven’t even clicked.
Sellers know exactly who’s hot and who’s not.
“They no longer have to cold prospect or wonder if someone’s going to pick up the phone,” Cory said. “It’s right there. Ranked. Actionable.”
And here’s the kicker: this strategy has been used for years in SaaS and tech. Now that it’s finally finding its way into hotel sales, the sellers who embrace it will run circles around those still stalking reader boards.
Now for the Burn: What’s Still Broken
With all that buzz, there’s bound to be a few hangovers. And 2025 had no shortage.
Hangover #1: Outreach That Still Talks About the Ballroom
Celeste’s biggest frustration? Sellers who are sending cold emails packed with self-serving nonsense.
You think your need dates or happy hour are going to move the needle? They don’t. If your outreach is all about you, it’s hurting your brand.”
And yes, we’re still getting these emails.
One hotel seller thought “stacked chairs in the corner” were a selling point.
Hangover #2: Ghosting After the RFP
Nicole dropped a reality check that every seller can relate to: “I get an RFP, respond within 24 hours, and then… crickets. Weeks later—’we’re ready to move forward.’ No communication between. It’s wild.”
And what’s worse? They come back with redlines and a demand for concessions.
There’s no win here. It’s demoralizing and inefficient.
Hangover #3: Resistance to Change Will Wreck You
Blockbuster said no to Netflix. Now they’re a trivia question.
“That’s what happens when you resist change,” Susan said.
The marketing team is still begging sellers to try video. Sellers are still scared of LinkedIn.
Meanwhile, AI is literally rewriting RFPs, and planners are bypassing forms completely.
If your answer is still “this is how we’ve always done it,” you’re already behind.
Hangover #4: Hiding on LinkedIn Is Costing You Real Business
Let’s call it what it is: lurking. Cory called out hotel sellers who treat LinkedIn like a spectator sport.
“Most sellers post about MPI events on LinkedIn, but won’t actually show up in LinkedIn,” he said. “Meanwhile, their ideal prospects are active, sharing insights, asking for advice, engaging in real-time.”
The reality? LinkedIn is the new networking floor, and it’s open 24/7.
The people you’re hoping to run into at trade shows? They’re already out there, posting, watching, and shortlisting.
And the sellers who are building personal brands, sharing video, offering insights ... they’re not just getting noticed, they’re getting booked.
“It’s mind-blowing how few hotel sellers are actually showing up to the conversation,” Cory said.
Visibility isn’t a nice-to-have anymore. It’s sales survival.
The Bounce-Back: What’s Actually Working
Now, let's talk about what's actually working.
Direct Group Inquiries are the New Gold Rush
Forget the 30-field RFP form.
Cory Falter sees the shift in real time. “Planners—and non-professional planners—are skipping the RFP altogether. They’re submitting direct group inquiries through the website, and they’re converting at 30 to 50%.”
Compare that to 3-5% conversion rates from third-party leads?
It’s a no-brainer.
But most hotels aren’t even tracking this data, and many don’t realize those inquiries are coming from actual buying signals.
The Sellers Who Win Will Be Advisors, Not Order-Takers
Want to stand out? Don’t pitch the product. Solve the problem.
“Planners aren’t looking for square footage,” Celeste said. “They’re looking for someone to make them look good to their boss.”
That starts with being visible, being valuable, and showing up as someone worth listening to. You can’t automate trust.
Personal Brands are the Armor Against Obsolescence
Transactional sellers are being phased out. (Read that again.)
AI will handle your availability.
It’ll write your proposals.
It’ll predict who’s most likely to book.
If all you do is respond to RFPs, your job is on the chopping block.
The sellers who thrive in 2026 will be the ones with personal brands: those who show up online, share value, and build a reputation as a trusted expert in their space.
“LinkedIn is the biggest MPI event of the year,” Cory said. “And it happens every day. Yet most hotel sellers are completely MIA.”
So What Now? You’ve Got a Choice in Hotel Sales & Marketing
You can:
Keep sending feature-filled emails that get deleted.
Keep waiting for RFPs while competitors collect direct inquiries.
Keep lurking on LinkedIn while others build personal brands that book.
Or you can:
Send a 30-second video that gets a reply.
Use AI to work smarter, not harder.
Build visibility so you’re top of mind when the planner is ready.
The One-Word Non-Negotiables for Hotel Sales 2026
Let’s leave you with a few power words from our panel:
Nicole:Wow – “How can I wow my client, my content, and my own goals?”
Celeste:Journey – “Progress over perfection. Just start.”
Susan:Clarity – “Cut through the noise and make it make sense.”
Cory:Trust – “It’s the new currency. Lose it, and you’re done.”
2025 gave us buzz, burn, and bounce-back moments.
But what happens next is up to you.
Are you building trust, showing up, and adapting fast enough?
Because AI won’t wait. And neither will your buyers.
What Hit, What Missed & What’s Next
The only thing more overused than stock hotel lobby photos in 2025?
The word “AI.”
But before we pour one out for another year in hospitality tech, let’s rewind with some of the sharpest minds in the business.
The Buzz: More Self-Service and Way More Personal Branding
While the AI boom didn’t catch anyone off guard this year, its speed did.
Zoe Koumbouzi summed it up: “We’ve moved on at light speed within our industry… between AI tools and then giants like MEWS going on acquisition sprees.”
Jacki Brown, on the other hand, felt the excitement plateau. “Honestly, nothing really stood out to me this year,” she admitted.
And when Jacki, who lives and breathes hotel tech marketing, says that, you pay attention.
Instead, she championed the basics: “I like to go back to the fundamentals and make content that resonates.”
Susan Tucker highlighted a quiet revolution that’s gaining traction: empowering users with self-serve tools. ROI calculators, interactive pricing guides, and resource-rich web pages are giving buyers the clarity they crave.
“When a user comes, it’s so easy for them to make a decision to book a call,” she explained.
Meanwhile, LinkedIn became the unofficial conference room of the industry.
Zoe’s personal branding radar pinged big: “People are so much more active and there’s so much more storytelling. I absolutely love it.”
And Cory? Still buzzing about agentic search with tools like ChatGPT driving buyers through the entire funnel solo. “80+ percent of what was sales is now marketing,” he said.
Translation: if vendors don’t evolve, they’re invisible.
The Hangover: Content Without Soul, E-Blasts with Zero Flavor
If 2025 gave us a high, it also gave us a collective marketing migraine.
Zoe’s big grievance? Bland branding. “Nobody is standing out. Everybody’s still doing their marketing in blue.”
Jacki wasn’t far behind. What’s painfully boring? “AI-generated content,” she said. “It’s just a slog… and then when you read something that’s not AI-generated? It’s incredible.”
Her diagnosis? We’re drowning in dull.
Susan’s headache was delivered straight to her inbox.
“I’m tired of generic e-blasts,” she says. “If I see one more ‘Dear Valued Partner’… people are missing out on opportunities to have a human touch.”
Spoiler: your email shouldn’t sound like it was written by a polite robot with access to Shutterstock.
Cory echoed the theme of disconnect—this time between offline energy and online effort.
“Thousands of people spending six figures on their booth,” he said. “Then… no investment online.” No content, no proof, no trust.
Vendors: the trade-show handshake only works if it’s backed by a compelling digital presence. Otherwise, you’re just a blurry memory with a branded pen.
Big Wins, Better Strategy, and Fresh Tactics
Not everything was doom and deletion.
Jacki scored major wins for her clients by going back to the root: “Complete repositioning, new messaging, updated branding, updated product set… doubled site traffic by Q3.”
Proof that bold strategic changes still work in a sea of sameness.
Zoe took a personal and tactical pivot, moving into more of an advisory role: “I’ve coached myself, when I was in that position… helping in-house marketers who don’t have anyone else to bounce ideas off.”
And in 2025, that guidance proved gold.
Susan is cooking up confidence tools for sales teams: “Custom GPTs that they can share with prospects, resources so that they can do outreach that’s not just ‘checking in.’”
Translation: don’t pitch—serve.
And at Lure, Cory and Susan continued to refine their WINS Framework: four repeatable tactics to help vendors increase direct inquiries, qualify leads earlier, and arm buyers with exactly what they need.
Oh, and they’re launching Sales on Tap, a gamified sales training community that’s equal parts fun, smart, and bold.
Cheers to That: What’s Your Brand’s Drink of Choice?
When asked what cocktail best represented their brand, the answers didn’t disappoint.
Zoe and Jacki both went Espresso Martini—classy, buzzy, and ready to accelerate. “I help wake up your go-to-market strategy,” Jacki quipped.
Susan went with a Science & Soul Spritz—a fizzy blend of data-driven strategy and heart-centered storytelling. And she reminded us that Lucy’s Lounge, Lure’s cocktail-themed marketing guide, is still one of her favorite projects.
Cory? Four years sober and sipping on a crisp, brand-true Corona NA—a nod to his SoCal roots and no-nonsense clarity. “It has that distinctive Corona taste… and no hangover.”
Planning, Reflection & Connection
When asked how they’re wrapping up the year, no one said “coasting.” Jacki is deep in Q1 strategy mode. Zoe is reflecting on what worked (and what didn’t) in her whirlwind of a year. Susan’s making the rounds, reconnecting with clients to make sure support is personal—not just project-based.
As Cory said, “Bad habits are hard to break. But breaking them is exactly what 2026 demands.”
What’s Next? More Bold, Less Boring
Hospitality vendors are standing at a marketing crossroads. Will you keep blasting generic e-mails into the void? Or start building real, resonant content that connects?
Will you hope trade show charm is enough? Or back it up with a digital footprint that builds trust?
Will you outsource your voice to a robot? Or use AI with intention—not as a crutch?
If 2025 taught us anything, it’s that differentiation is currency. And fundamentals—those unsexy but essential elements like clarity, branding, and trust—are your edge.
Now’s the time to wake up your strategy… and maybe pour yourself a Science & Soul Spritz while you’re at it.
Sales on Tap offers hotel sellers a fresh, actionable path to visibility, influence, and consistent revenue results.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:Boulder, CO / Denver, CO — November 19, 2025 — Lure Agency, along with hospitality sales trainer Celeste Berke Knisely, today announced the launch of Sales on Tap, a modern social-selling and visibility-building community created for hotel group sales professionals.
Designed to meet the demands of today’s planner-driven, digital-first buying environment, Sales on Tap blends ongoing training, live coaching, and peer community support to help sellers attract more qualified group business, without relying on traditional cold outreach.
Record-low lead volume, weaker pipelines, declining RevPAR, and increasingly competitive RFPs are forcing hotel sellers to rethink how they show up. The industry has changed. Planners are researching differently, buying differently, and forming trust long before they ever submit an inquiry. Sellers who rely solely on traditional outreach risk being invisible in the very channels that now determine who makes the RFP short list.
Sales on Tap equips sellers with modern visibility-building skills that strengthen pipeline creation, increase win rates, guarantee more base business, fill need dates, and reduce reliance on third parties and their commissions. This program helps hotel sellers control their own demand, rather than waiting for demand to come to them.
“Hotel sellers don’t need more theory—they need modern, actionable skills that convert,” said Cory Falter, Partner at Lure Agency. “Sales on Tap is built for the way planners actually buy today.”
A New Model for Hospitality Sales Training
Unlike conventional workshops that fade the moment the facilitator leaves, Sales on Tap delivers a continuous learning ecosystem that evolves with the industry.
Members gain access to:
A guided QuickStart program that helps sellers confidently post, prospect, and build their online presence.
On-Demand Learning Modules covering topics from personal branding to understanding the latest tech tools (and how to use them).
Live monthly coaching focused on real-world hospitality sales scenarios.
Plug-and-play templates, prompts, and tools designed specifically for hotel group sales.
A supportive, accountable community that helps sellers stay consistent.
Always-updated strategies rooted in what’s working right now.
“Most sellers know what they should be doing, but they don’t have the structure or support to do it consistently,” said Celeste Berke Knisely. “Sales on Tap gives them both. It’s a space to practice, grow, and build momentum with strategies that work in today’s hospitality landscape.
Built for Individuals, Teams, and Management Companies
Sales on Tap supports:
Individual sellers wanting to build a trusted, credible digital presence.
Group sales teams seeking alignment, accountability, and better results.
Management companies looking for scalable sales enablement across properties.
As part of the launch, hotel sellers can join the Sales on Tap community at no cost and gain immediate access to the QuickStart program, a simple, high-impact way to start modernizing their sales approach.
Designed for the Modern Era of Hospitality Sales
“AI is accelerating decision-making, but it’s also raising the bar for human connection,” said Susan Tucker, Partner at Lure Agency. “Sales on Tap helps hotel sellers blend personal presence with modern tools so they stand out in a crowded digital landscape.”
Sales on Tap is now open to hotel sellers, DOSMs, and management companies ready to upgrade their approach and drive consistent results through modern visibility building.
About Sales on Tap
Sales on Tap is a modern social-selling community built specifically for hotel group sales professionals. Through guided programs, live coaching, and plug-and-play sales tools, the community helps sellers build visibility, create meaningful conversations, and attract more qualified group business—all without cold calling. Learn more at salesontap.community.
About Lure Agency
Led by hospitality veterans Cory FalterandSusan Tucker, Lure Agency blends the “Science & Soul” of modern marketing, pairing analytics, strategy, and repeatable systems with genuine storytelling and human connection. The agency specializes in helping hotels, resorts, and destination brands elevate visibility, strengthen sales enablement, and generate more group business through social selling and strategic content programs.
About Celeste Berke Knisely
Celeste Berke Knisely is a nationally recognized hospitality sales trainer celebrated for her energetic coaching style and modern, no-fluff approach to revenue generation. With deep experience across hotel brands, luxury resorts, and management groups, she equips sellers with the mindset, skills, and confidence to succeed in a changing buyer environment. As Co-Founder of Sales on Tap, she brings her signature blend of strategy, storytelling, and social-selling expertise to hotel sellers nationwide.
