Marketing Destinations, Not Products: Hospitality Playbook

Jordan recognized that no one decides to visit Durango because of his hotel—they decide to visit Durango, then look for accommodations. Instead of marketing room features, he markets the destination experience itself: mountain biking, fishing, skiing, hot springs. His content strategy includes filming outdoor adventures with drones and professional crews, positioning the hotel as an extension of the area's lifestyle rather than a standalone product. This shifts the marketing from transactional (book a room) to aspirational (live this experience).

Jordan explicitly rejects "stale images of clean rooms" because they don't evoke emotion or help guests picture themselves in the space. His strategy focuses on bringing influencers to create content showing real people using the facilities—sitting in cedar hot tubs, relaxing in common areas, experiencing the property. This content performs better because it tells a story and creates emotional resonance, not just information about amenities. The key insight: showing people having experiences is more compelling than showing empty spaces.

Rather than marketing equally year-round, Jordan focuses his marketing spend on shoulder and off-peak seasons. His logic: peak season guests will find the hotel regardless of marketing efforts, so the highest ROI comes from convincing people to visit during slower periods. He's implementing seasonal website modes (summer vs. winter) that completely reshape the property's presentation—shifting from hiking and mountain biking content to cozy fireplaces and nearby skiing. This tactical approach to campaign timing maximizes marketing efficiency.

Jordan treats staff training not as an operational necessity but as a core marketing strategy. Every employee is trained to provide insider local knowledge—the real hiking spots, not the touristy ones—creating a differentiated experience he calls "locals meeting travelers." This operational choice directly supports the brand positioning and creates word-of-mouth marketing. In an age of digital check-ins and automated everything, maintaining human touchpoints at the front desk becomes a competitive advantage and brand differentiator.

Jordan created a management company structure where revenue management, marketing, and bookkeeping are centralized across properties, while on-property operations stay lean. This allows one revenue manager to oversee multiple hotels and one general manager to potentially run two nearby properties. For marketers building multi-location brands, this model shows how to maintain brand consistency and marketing effectiveness while scaling without proportionally increasing overhead.

Jordan uses AI strategically for basic guest messaging (hot tub hours, check-in times), bookkeeping automation, and market research for property acquisitions. He runs prompts through multiple models (Grok, ChatGPT, Gemini) to get varied perspectives on market analysis and content creation. The key is using AI to eliminate repetitive work while preserving human interaction where it creates brand value—freeing up resources to focus on the high-touch experiences that differentiate the brand.