I tell hotel owners that a press release is a filing, not a campaign. A hotel PR plan built around releases misses most of what moves bookings, because travelers meet a hotel through booking sites, editorial lists, reviews and AI answers long before they read anything the hotel announces. A stronger plan spends its effort where the decision happens: third-party credibility, direct-booking reasons, review depth and facts an AI engine can quote.

What would I tell a hotel owner who wants a press release?

I would ask what a stranger would do after reading it. If the answer is nothing, the release is a filing and should be treated like one: short, factual and posted to the hotel's own newsroom. Then I would move the effort to the places a traveler looks, which are the booking page, the review feed and the AI answer.

That is where the next guest decides, and it is where most hotel PR plans have no presence at all. The rest of this guide shows what to build there.

Why does a press release not move hotel bookings?

A press release does not move hotel bookings because it speaks to journalists who rarely cover a new menu, a renovated lobby or a general manager appointment, and it never reaches the traveler who is comparing three rooms on a booking site. Releases have a job. They record news, give reporters a clean source and feed the hotel's own newsroom. They are a poor main strategy.

My view is that a release is a filing, not a campaign. A campaign needs a reason for a stranger to care, a third party willing to say so, and a place where the traveler will see it at the moment of choice. Most hotel announcements fail the first test. The hotel is proud of a renovation, but nobody outside the building has a reason to care about it.

The wider problem is where the booking happens. The 2026 State of Independent Hotels Report from Cloudbeds, released on March 25, 2026 and built from 90 million bookings across 180 countries, found that online travel agencies supplied 63.4 percent of independent hotel bookings in 2025. In some markets the figure approached 80 percent. A plan that never reaches the booking site is working on the wrong side of the funnel.

How much of the booking decision does a hotel actually control?

A hotel controls less of the booking decision than most owners assume, and the share has been shrinking for years. The same Cloudbeds report found that OTA cancellation rates reached 21.8 percent, more than double the 10.6 percent rate for direct bookings. Independent hotels also lost ground on rate and revenue in 2025, with global occupancy down 0.6 percent, room rates down 5.8 percent and revenue per room down 5.4 percent, according to the report.

Europe shows the longer trend. In the European Hotel Distribution Study 2026, direct bookings made up an estimated 51.3 percent of European hotel room nights in 2025, down from 57.6 percent in 2013, while OTAs rose from 19.7 percent to 29.9 percent over the same period. The same study, as reported by To Vima, found that Booking Holdings accounted for 68.8 percent of European OTA bookings and Expedia Group for 16.6 percent. Two companies sit between the hotel and most online travelers.

These are surveys and samples, and they should be read that way. The Greek findings in that coverage came from an unweighted sample of hotels, not a full census. Still, the direction is consistent across sources: the hotel's own announcements are a small share of what a traveler sees.

The practical lesson for a PR plan is simple. If the traveler meets the hotel on a booking site, then the reviews, the photos, the awards and the editorial mentions that appear there are the real public relations work. Those assets are earned from other people, not issued by the hotel.

What should a hotel PR plan include instead?

A hotel PR plan should include five things in place of a calendar of releases: a story worth telling, a third-party credibility layer, a review program, a direct-booking reason and a crisis plan. Each one has a different owner and a different measure of success.

What is the story worth telling?

A hotel needs one idea that an editor can repeat in a sentence. It might be a place, a person, a tradition or a surprising fact about the building. The idea has to be about the guest or the destination, not about the hotel's own pride. If a writer could drop the hotel's name and the sentence would still make sense, the story is about something real.

What is the third-party credibility layer?

The third-party layer is the set of independent voices a traveler trusts: travel editors, guidebooks, award lists, local food and culture writers, and recognized review platforms. This is where I would put most of the earned-media effort. One credible mention in a respected travel publication will do more than a dozen releases, because the traveler sees it while comparing options and because AI engines draw on those sources when they assemble an answer.

What is a review program?

A review program treats guest reviews as a public record, not a customer-service chore. It means asking satisfied guests at the right moment, answering every review in a steady voice, and fixing the problems the reviews point to. A traveler reads the reviews before the press coverage, and the reviews decide whether the coverage is believed.

What is a direct-booking reason?

The direct-booking reason is the specific, believable advantage of booking with the hotel itself. The Cloudbeds numbers give one: a direct booking is less than half as likely to be cancelled as an OTA booking. A hotel can also offer perks, flexibility or local access that a booking site cannot. The PR task is to make that reason visible in the hotel's own content and in the coverage it earns, so the traveler has a reason to leave the booking site.

What is the crisis plan?

Every hotel eventually faces a bad day: a safety incident, a data problem, a viral complaint or a labor dispute. A plan that names the spokesperson, the first message and the approval path before the day arrives protects every other part of the program. The crisis communications foundation covers the structure, and the sections below show how to put the pieces together.

How do AI answers change hotel PR?

AI answers change hotel PR because a traveler can now ask a chatbot for the best hotel in a city and receive a short list before visiting any website. The hotel is either on that list or it is not, and the engine builds the list from sources it trusts, not from the hotel's own announcements.

Research on this site shows how concentrated those answers can be. The hospitality AI visibility write-up reports that a small group of brands holds most of the citation share in the category, and the AI visibility research library collects the wider studies by industry. The consistent finding is that being named in an answer depends on independent coverage and clear, structured facts, not on how many press releases a hotel issues.

The practical response is modest. Make sure the hotel's own site states plain facts that an engine can quote: location, room types, amenities, policies and what makes the property distinct. Earn mentions in the publications and lists that engines already rely on. Check the major engines on a schedule and log what they say about the hotel, using the method in the AI visibility guide.

How should a hotel decide what to announce?

A hotel should announce news only when it passes a simple test: would a stranger care, and is there someone outside the hotel who will say so? A renovation passes if it changes the guest experience in a way a writer can describe. A new chef passes if the chef has a story. A general manager appointment usually does not pass, and that is fine. It can live on the hotel's own site and in a short note to local trade contacts.

This test saves time and builds trust with editors, who learn that the hotel's pitches are worth reading. It also frees effort for the work that does move bookings: building the story, earning the third-party mentions and keeping the review record clean.

What does a sensible first ninety days look like?

A sensible first ninety days has three phases, each with a clear output. The goal is a plan the hotel can keep running, not a burst of activity.

  • Days 1 to 30: audit. Read the reviews on every major platform, list the third-party mentions the hotel already has, and check what the main AI engines say when asked about the hotel and its neighborhood. Write down the gaps.
  • Days 31 to 60: build. Choose the one story, fix the factual pages on the hotel's own site, set up the review routine and write the crisis plan. Draft three pitches that each give a writer a reason to care.
  • Days 61 to 90: earn. Pitch the editors and list-makers who cover the destination, host a small number of writers or local voices, and measure what changed in mentions, reviews and direct bookings.

The measures should be plain. Count independent mentions, review score and response rate, and the share of bookings that come direct. Compare them against the starting audit. If the direct share and the review record improve, the plan is working. If only the number of releases grows, it is not.

Where does a press release still belong?

A press release still belongs in a hotel's toolkit as a record of real news and as a clean source for reporters. It works best when it is short, factual and tied to something a journalist can verify: an opening date, a verified award, a partnership, a closing or a safety update. It does not belong at the center of the plan. For the media side of that work, see media relations, and for sector guides across hospitality, travel, food and more, see the industry PR guides.

The broader picture of how communications works for destinations, hotels and airlines is in the role of PR in tourism and travel. Hotels that want help building the third-party layer and the direct-booking story can look at 5W's travel and hospitality PR practice.

Frequently asked questions

Are press releases useless for hotels?

No. Releases are a useful record of real news and a clean source for reporters. They are not a strategy on their own, because most travelers never read them and most editors skip routine announcements.

How much hotel booking happens through OTAs?

The share varies by market and hotel type. Cloudbeds reported that OTAs supplied 63.4 percent of independent hotel bookings in 2025, while a European distribution study estimated direct bookings at 51.3 percent of European hotel room nights. Both figures come from samples and should be read as estimates.

What is the most important PR asset for a hotel?

Independent credibility: reviews, editorial mentions and award lists. These appear where the traveler decides, and they are also the sources AI engines tend to rely on.

How can a hotel check what AI engines say about it?

Run a small, fixed set of traveler questions across the major AI engines on a schedule, such as the best hotel in the city for a given need, and log whether the hotel appears and which sources are cited. Repeat monthly and compare.

How long does a hotel PR plan take to show results?

Review improvements and direct-booking offers can show effects within weeks. Earned mentions and AI visibility usually take longer, often a few quarters of steady work.