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Growing with SLK

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Amsterdam
Growing with SLK

Hospitality, Tourism & Retail Marketing Specialist. Sarah-Louise is here to help your business grow & blossom.

07/10/2026

What’s the connection between destination marketing and the visitor experience?

I asked a receptionist where the best place to go snorkelling was. He didn’t know because he wasn’t from the area. That’s understandable but it did make me think about how important destination training and local knowledge can be within tourism businesses.

Visitors don’t always distinguish between the hotel, the destination and the people representing it.

They simply ask:
Where should I eat? What should I see? What’s worth doing? Where’s the best beach?

Those conversations can shape their experience of the destination and that’s where marketing and visitor experience really connect. If your marketing promises visitors somewhere to explore, your team should feel confident helping them explore it.

30/09/2026

What happens in the first few moments when a guest arrives at a hotel?

You can think of arrival as a practical process: check-in, key, room number, done.

Those first moments are also when a guest starts to experience whether the promise they saw in your marketing matches reality. The atmosphere of the space, the way they’re welcomed, the questions they ask, the local recommendations they receive, the feeling they get when they walk through the door.

Research into multisensory hotel experiences highlights how sensory elements can shape the guest experience. Other research suggests that arrival and check-in can play a particularly important role in how guests remember their stay.

For me, this raises an important question: Does the experience your guest receives actually reflect the brand you’re marketing? A beautiful website can create the expectation but when the guest walks through the door, the experience becomes real

Ive explored this idea further in my latest article:
Hotel Marketing: Why the Guest Journey Doesnt End at Booking (link in bio)

Research referenced: Sensehacking the Guests Multisensory Hotel Experience, exploring how sensory experiences can shape the hotel guest journey.

28/09/2026

My brother visited me in Amsterdam and we were chatting about his stay. This got me thinking... When was the last time you test-booked your own hotel through an OTA?

Your guests need a joined-up journey. When OTAs, automated tools, and hotel systems talk over each other, the guest gets trapped in the middle.

For example:

Duplicate check-in forms
Dead-end chatbots
Disappearing post-stay bills

Marketing makes the promise, but fragmented tech destroys the experience before check-in even happens.

Swipe through to see why auditing your OTA guest journey is the easiest fix for guest satisfaction before check-in.

22/09/2026

Does anyone else struggle to come back to normal life after a few days like this?

A lovely stay at in Tuscany near Florence.

14/09/2026

The guest books. Job done, right? Not quite.

A booking is actually the point where your marketing promise starts becoming a real experience. From the confirmation email and pre-arrival communication to the welcome, the room, local recommendations, checkout and what happens after the guest leaves, every interaction contributes to how they experience your brand.

This is why I think marketing and guest experience can’t be treated as completely separate. Your marketing creates the expectation and your guest experience delivers it. What happens afterwards also influences whether a guest remembers you, recommends you, leaves a review or comes back.

I’ve explored this idea in my latest article. I look at the journey from discovery and consideration through to booking, pre-arrival, arrival, the stay, departure and post-visit engagement.

Read the full article - Hotel Marketing: Why the Guest Journey Doesn’t End at Booking
(Link in bio)

11/09/2026

A little reminder that sometimes the best views aren’t the ones you planned for. 🌅

Sunset somewhere above Porto. One of those completely unexpected travel moments that makes you glad you looked out the window.

10/09/2026

Your hotel isn’t being judged on price alone. When people shop for hotels online, it’s easy to assume that price is the deciding factor.

Research from Cornell University suggests the decision is much more complex.

Hotel shoppers initially pay attention to things like:

→ The hotel name
→ Images
→ Price
→ Location
→ Ratings

When they look more closely, they start comparing the bigger picture.

Such as user-generated photographs, descriptions, amenities and, importantly, reviews.

Guests aren’t simply asking:
“Is this hotel affordable?”
They’re also asking:
“Does this feel like the right hotel for me?”

This is something I think is particularly important for independent hotels. You don’t always have to compete on price and your marketing can help guests understand what makes your hotel different and why the experience offers value.

However, the promise needs to feel consistent. Guests are looking at the whole picture.

If your images suggest a premium experience but the reviews tell a different story, guests notice. If your location is unclear, your website is difficult to use, or your descriptions don’t help someone imagine their stay, you’re making the decision harder.

Your marketing isn’t made up of individual pieces. Your photos, website, reviews, location, pricing and messaging all work together to create an expectation. That’s why your website matters so much.

I’ve explored this idea and the wider hotel guest journey in my latest article:

Hotel Marketing: Why the Guest Journey Doesn’t End at Booking (Insights article link in bio)

Research referenced: Cornell University research into online hotel shopping.

08/09/2026

Imagine waking up to this…

That feeling of “I want to be there” is exactly what tourism and hospitality marketing should create.

Great hotel marketing isn’t just about selling a room. It’s about selling the feeling, the destination and the experience waiting on the other side of the booking.
It all starts with a story worth telling.

07/09/2026

We often talk about the guest journey as if it ends when someone clicks “Book.”

But that’s actually where something important begins.
A guest might discover your hotel through Instagram, find you through Google, read reviews, visit your website and finally make a booking.

At that point, the marketing has technically “worked.”
But then comes:
→ The confirmation email → Pre-arrival communication → The welcome at reception → The room → The recommendations from your team → Checkout → The follow-up email → The review → And, hopefully, the next booking

Every one of those moments shapes how a guest experiences your brand.

And every one is an opportunity to deliver on the promise your marketing made.

I explored this in my latest insight:
Hotel Marketing: Why the Guest Journey Doesn’t End at Booking

Because great marketing shouldn’t just get someone to book. It should make them glad they did.

Read the full article on my website (link in bio)

29/08/2026

The Southern West Coast of Portugal is one of my favourite places. For the first time I took my camera and tried to capture its essence 📸

Fishermen on the cliffs 🎣🐟🐠🐡

Colourful beach houses

Cliff top walks and ocean views for miles

Beach life ⛱️🐚

Van Life at one with nature ☘️

Surfers & fishermen. Where ancient traditions meet new

Summer evenings 🌅

Children’s playground

Mother nature & family days

No crowds, just you and the ocean 🌊

Unique people

Hi it’s me.. behind the lens. Sharing with you one of my favourite places 🇵🇹

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Amsterdam

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