Public relations has always played a central role in how hotels shape their reputations and attract guests, but the strategies behind successful PR campaigns continue to shift. As guest preferences evolve and new technology influences how travelers discover and engage with brands, hotels need to embrace new approaches to stay visible and credible. In 2025, transparency, personalization, and creative storytelling will be at the core of the most effective hotel PR strategies.
Here’s a look at the key PR trends that will shape the hotel industry in 2025, and how hotels can leverage them to stay visible, relevant, and trusted.
Sustainability Storytelling Shapes Hotel PR Strategies
Sustainability has moved from a nice-to-have feature to a core element of a hotel’s public image. Guests are actively seeking eco-conscious accommodations, and hotels that authentically communicate their sustainability initiatives are seeing both reputational and financial benefits. According to Booking.com’s 2024 Sustainable Travel Report, 76% of travelers say they want to stay at sustainable properties, and 43% are willing to pay more for environmentally responsible stays.
Hotels are moving beyond internal green initiatives, embedding sustainability into their media outreach, influencer partnerships, and guest communications. From zero-waste programs to carbon-neutral stays, sustainability storytelling is becoming a powerful tool to capture both guest interest and positive media attention.
True Story PR works with hotels to transform sustainability efforts into compelling narratives that attract media coverage and position properties as leaders in responsible tourism.
AI and Automation Enhance Hotel PR Efficiency
AI and automation are becoming essential tools in hotel PR, helping teams improve efficiency, streamline media outreach, and monitor brand reputation in real time. AI-powered tools help PR teams track sentiment across digital channels, spot emerging trends, and personalize outreach to journalists and influencers.
According to Muck Rack’s 2024 State of PR Report, PR pros using AI tools save an average of 3.5 hours per week on media research and contact list building, giving them more time to focus on storytelling and relationship-building. (Source)
The challenge for hotels will be ensuring that automation enhances, rather than replaces, authentic relationship-building with media and influencers.
Personalized PR Messaging Replaces Mass Outreach
Research continues to reinforce the fact that tailored outreach delivers better results than mass-distributed press releases. The most successful hotel PR campaigns in 2025 will focus on personalized messaging, tailoring pitches, story angles, and press trip invitations to match the specific interests of individual journalists, influencers, and outlets.
Personalization goes far beyond adding a name to an email. It involves aligning pitches with a journalist’s recent work, editorial focus, and audience preferences. Tools like Propel PRM and Muck Rack’s advanced contact insights help PR teams track these details and fine-tune outreach.
True Story PR helps hotels craft personalized outreach strategies that match the right story with the right media contact, increasing placement rates and ensuring coverage reaches travelers most likely to book.
Micro-Influencers Drive More Authentic Hotel Promotion
More hotels are turning to micro-influencers — those with 10,000 to 100,000 followers — to deliver authentic, high-impact content to engaged niche audiences. According to Influencer Marketing Hub’s 2024 Benchmark Report, micro-influencers generate 60% higher engagement rates than larger influencers.
PR teams play a crucial role in identifying micro-influencers whose content aligns with a hotel’s brand, values, and audience. Coordinating hosted stays, balancing creative freedom with brand messaging, and amplifying influencer content across owned and earned channels are all ways PR helps maximize these partnerships.
Owned Media and Experiential PR Gain Traction
Hotels are no longer just relying on third-party media for coverage. In 2025, expect more hotels to act as their own media brands, launching in-house content platforms like blogs, digital magazines, video series, and podcasts to control their stories directly. This owned media approach allows hotels to create evergreen content that supports SEO, social media, and PR efforts simultaneously.
Paired with content creation, experiential PR activations — like pop-up experiences, themed suites, and influencer-hosted events — create visually compelling moments that both press and guests want to share. Experiential activations can also support user-generated content (UGC) campaigns, encouraging guests to post their own content during and after their stays. Hotels that actively reshare guest content across their social channels, websites, and email marketing reinforce credibility and build stronger connections with future travelers.
Proactive Crisis Management Protects Hotel Reputations
Building a strong reputation means preparing for challenges, not just celebrating wins. Hotels that create detailed crisis communication plans before issues arise are far better equipped to maintain guest trust and minimize reputational damage. According to McKinsey & Company, 40% of consumers expect a response from brands within an hour, and 79% expect a response within 24 hours.
Preparation is key to meeting those expectations. Establishing pre-drafted messaging, clear internal workflows, and comprehensive media training allows hotel teams to respond quickly and confidently during crises. True Story PR helps hotels design adaptable crisis communication strategies that ensure responses are not only fast and transparent, but also aligned with the hotel’s brand voice and long-term reputation goals.
Community-Focused PR Strengthens Local Connections
Hotels are strengthening community partnerships and using them to power PR campaigns that spotlight charitable initiatives, cultural events, and hyper-local experiences. These efforts not only resonate with travelers seeking deeper connections to the destination, but they also enhance the hotel’s reputation within the local community, building goodwill that extends far beyond the guest experience.
Final Takeaway
Hotel PR in 2025 will be shaped by personalization, innovation, and authentic storytelling. From sustainability narratives and micro-influencer collaborations to AI-powered outreach and rapid-response crisis communication, the most successful hotels will be those that adapt to both evolving traveler expectations and media trends.
True Story PR works with hotels to adapt their PR strategies to these emerging trends — combining industry expertise, creative storytelling, and data-driven strategies to help hotels secure meaningful media coverage, build guest trust, and drive direct bookings. Hotels ready to evolve their PR approach to match 2025’s opportunities should reach out and partner with True Story PR to stay ahead.
