I build & manage unique hotels with the highest returns in hospitality. Learn how to grow your vision and go from commodity STRs to boutique hotels.
Why pretty content works for them (not you)
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Modern Hospitality Playbook: The two content types every operator should know, and how to tell which one your property actually needs. I hear some version of this whenever I talk to operators: “I’ve been posting consistently. I get some views. But I can’t connect any of it to actual bookings.” It’s one of the most common places operators get stuck. And usually, the problem isn’t what they’re posting or how often. It’s that they picked a content type without asking the one question that decides it: what kind of property am I actually marketing? THE WRONG WAY For a long time, we treated content like one thing you either did well or did badly. Find a stunning shot of the property. Drone overhead, golden hour, maybe a model in the pool. Add a caption. Post it. Or invest in a full videographer shoot, get polished b-roll, and put it out consistently. The thinking: if the content is beautiful enough, the bookings will follow. For some properties, that’s exactly right. At Onera Wimberley, our units are compelling enough that 99% of what we post is cinematic property content. It cuts through. It gets massive reach. The viral potential is so strong we have no problem at the top of the funnel. So this isn’t a case against cinematic content. It’s a case against running the wrong type for the property you actually have. Because here’s what trips operators up: A treehouse, a safari tent, a glass cabin over a canyon does a lot of the work for you. The property is the hook. Point a good camera at it and you can ride cinematic content a long way. But a more traditional short-term rental or boutique hotel often can’t carry a feed on looks alone. Run cinematic-only content on a property that isn’t inherently one-of-one, and you get pretty posts that quietly stall. The content isn’t the problem. The property-content match is. (And most operators never stop to ask which type their property is built for.) THE PLAY There are two content types worth knowing. They’re not rivals. They’re complements, and the right mix depends on your property. Type 1: Cinematic storytelling. These posts lead with the property. Motion in the first frame. Location and audience cues in the first three seconds. A viewer placing themselves into the experience. “Couples escape, two hours from Austin.” “Dog-friendly cabins in the Smokies.” “Wake up to this every morning.” Spoon Mountain Glamping is an excellent example of this. Notice the cues. Even cinematic content works because of context, not just beauty. The romantic getaway. The Texas Hill Country. The view someone is already daydreaming about. When your property is visually compelling on its own, this type can do almost everything: reach, virality, and conversion. It’s all we run at properties like Wimberley because it’s all those properties need. Type 2: Market-focused content. These posts lead with travel value, not property features. Not “look at our treehouse.” More like:
Alila Marea Beach Resort is a great case study of this. As part of the Hyatt Boundless Collection, it's less of a one-of-one stay and more of a polished, traditional hospitality experience. The property is in the video. It shows up in the location. But the hook is about the destination, not the stay. This is the lever you pull when the property can’t carry a feed on looks alone. It’s how a more traditional short-term rental or boutique hotel manufactures reach. You borrow the pull of the destination to get in front of the next 10,000 people who should be following you but aren’t. So which content strategy do you run?
Most operators land somewhere in the middle and need a deliberate mix, not whichever type they defaulted into. Now here's the posting cadence that makes it sustainable:
When a trial post catches, that’s the hook you bring to a full shoot. When it doesn’t, you learned something for $0 instead of $3,000. THE PROOF We’ve been running content this way for years across the Oasi portfolio (including Spoon Mountain and Alila Marea!). 130M+ views across managed accounts. But views are the wrong number to anchor to. Here’s the number that actually tells the story. Google Analytics at Onera reports that organic social drives less than 2% of bookings. Our post-booking guest survey says over 60% of guests found us through social media. Those are not the same number. Analytics dashboards (GA4, Adobe, the platform-side tools) can’t see what the demand engine actually does. They credit the last click and miss the months of watching that came before it. A guest sees one of your posts. They follow. They watch your reels for three months. They book during a vacation planning session six weeks later, typing your URL directly into their browser. Google Analytics calls that “direct traffic.” The guest calls it “I found you on Instagram.” At Onera Wimberley, one cinematic reel drove 1.7M+ views, 7,596 link taps (319% above the prior week average), 184 nights booked, and $78,400+ in direct bookings. That property’s units are compelling enough that cinematic content alone cut through and got that reach. The point isn’t that one type beats the other. It’s that Wimberley’s property fit the type we ran. Match the content to the property and the demand engine starts working. THE TAKEAWAY Two content types. One question decides the mix.
Look at what you’ve been posting, then look at your property honestly. The gap is usually the type you’ve been forcing. Ben Wolff Founder, Oasi & Modern Hospitality Accelerator |
Ben Wolff | The Unique Stays Guy
I build & manage unique hotels with the highest returns in hospitality. Learn how to grow your vision and go from commodity STRs to boutique hotels.
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