October 14th, 2025

Read time: ~5 minutes

Welcome to our weekly chats navigating the future of hospitality!

Hospitality is changing faster than we have ever seen. Each week, I share insights and strategies to help you navigate the future of hospitality marketing, revenue management and the demands of the Modern Traveler.

Let’s craft the future of this industry together.

I've been thinking a lot about big hotel brands lately. Specifically, what owners are actually getting out of the deal.

Because when you break down what you pay versus what you get, the math stops making sense pretty quickly.

So let's dig into it. What value do big flags actually offer–and are they worth what you're giving up?

I think the answer might surprise you.

(Fair warning, this one's longer than usual. But it needs to be said.)

Why Properties Go Big Brand

Before we get into the problems, let's be fair about why hotels choose to work with major brands in the first place.

If you're 50%+ corporate or group business, the decision makes more sense.

A lot of corporate clients have to work with the big guys because of standards, size requirements, and loyalty programs. That's real, tangible distribution.

Big brands also help secure debt and sometimes equity. Banks and investors like the perceived "safety" of a recognized flag.

Is that based on actual performance data or just institutional comfort? Debatable. Should it work that way? Probably not. But it does.

Maybe they'll wake up in the next few years and realize independent properties with strong brands and direct booking engines are actually less risky, but we're not there yet.

And then there's the fear factor. Some operators just have no clue how to market a hotel.

They're terrified of branding, social media, content creation, all of it. So they think having the big brand handle it is better than doing nothing. Which, okay, I get it. But let's be honest—that's a terrible long-term strategy.

These are legitimate reasons in specific scenarios.

But if you don't fit into one of those buckets? If you're leisure-focused, design-led, experience-driven?

Then we need to talk about what you're actually giving up.

The Real Cost Nobody Calculates

Let's start with the most obvious one, the one that shows up on your P&L every single month.

Royalty and marketing fees run 5-10% on all revenue. Not profit. Revenue. Every dollar that comes through the door, whether driven by the brand or not, you're cutting a check for 10+ years.

But what does that do for your specific hotel? When they run national campaigns promoting the Hilton brand, how many incremental bookings does your property get from that?

Here's what I know works: taking those same dollars and investing them in video content.

Social media growth on Instagram and TikTok.
Meta ads that target your exact guest profile.
Google ads that capture high-intent searchers.

You'd probably see significantly better returns than generic brand advertising that promotes the parent company while your property stays invisible in the background.

But the upfront cost is even more brutal.

Before you even open as a branded property, you're looking at millions in CapEx just to convert.

New signage packages. Updated technology systems. Specific finishes and furniture to meet brand standards.

Most of this stuff doesn't actually impact the guest experience in any meaningful way. It just makes your property look like every other hotel in the portfolio.

Now imagine taking those millions and investing them differently.

Experiential amenities that become part of your story. Instagrammable moments throughout the property that guests can't help but share. Wellness features that differentiate you in the market. Content assets—think professional photography setups, video equipment…

That's where you'd actually see ROI that compounds over time instead of just checking boxes on a brand standards audit.

Then Come The Creative Handcuffs

This one frustrates me more than maybe anything else on this list.

No funny videos. No trending audio on Instagram. No freedom to test content formats or viral storytelling styles that your audience actually responds to.

You can't pivot quickly when you see something taking off. Can't bring any real personality to your content because everything has to fit into mandated tone guidelines, approved filters, even specific caption styles that were probably written by a committee ten years ago.

And creative approval bottlenecks turn a 24-hour social trend into a 4-week legal review. By the time you get the green light, the trend is dead.

The result? You're competing in a culture where velocity and personality win—where guests expect brands to feel human and responsive and fun—and you're forced to market like a bank.

Slow, corporate, generic.

But it gets worse when you look at what you can't see or control.

Big brands gate keep your customer data.

You have to use their booking engine. Their systems. Their rules.

You can't:

Drop your own tracking pixels on the booking confirmation page.
Set up UTM parameters properly.
Link conversions back to specific social campaigns or influencer partnerships.

This creates a huge limitation when you're trying to run performance ads.

Preventing you from:

Measuring what's actually working.
Building lookalike audiences from your best customers.
Retargeting people who engaged with your content.
Doing any of the things that make modern digital advertising effective.

So you pay them 5-10% for "distribution" while simultaneously losing the ability to measure and optimize your own marketing performance.

An objectively awful trade.

Brand Dilution Is The Silent Killer

Here's the part that doesn't show up on your P&L but destroys long-term value.

When a loyalty member books your property through the Marriott app or Hilton Honors program, they don't remember your property. They remember Marriott. They remember Hilton. They remember the parent brand.

They earn points with the big brand, not memories with your hotel.

Your brand becomes completely invisible in that transaction.

Your story doesn't get told. The unique aspects of your property, your design choices, your team's hospitality—all of it gets buried under the parent brand's identity.

And this compounds over time in ways that are hard to calculate but devastating to your business value. Every guest that books, every review that gets written, every social post that gets shared—it's all building equity for someone else.

Compare that to owning your own media channels…

Email lists that you can message anytime. SMS subscribers who opt in to hear from you directly. Social media followers who engage with your content and your story specifically.

That audience compounds. That relationship deepens. That equity stays with you. You don't have to rent access to your own customers.

Look, I don't want to act like big brands are always the wrong move.

If group business is crucial to your revenue mix—if you're doing serious corporate contracts where loyalty status and travel policy dictate booking decisions—then the math changes.
Yes, securing debt and equity is genuinely easier with a recognized flag attached. I think that's more about institutional bias than actual risk assessment, but it's the reality right now.
If you truly have no idea how to approach marketing and branding, then I guess having someone else handle it is better than doing nothing.

Those are the scenarios where big brands make sense. They're real. They're valid.

But they're also specific. And if you don't fit into one of those buckets?

You're surrendering creative freedom, losing direct customer relationships, and sacrificing the ability to measure what actually drives bookings to your property.

All to build someone else's brand instead of your own.

For most independent properties, that's just not a trade worth making.

Ready to have a team of experts running your marketing and revenue strategy?

At Oasi, we act as your outsourced Chief Marketing Officer and Chief Revenue Officer. Giving you executive-level leadership backed by a full team of specialists in content, social media, ads, email, SEO, and pricing strategy.

If you want to boost revenue and drive more direct bookings, we'd love to help.

Fill out an inquiry here and let’s explore how we can work together.

See you guys next week!

-Ben Wolff

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