Meet the Founder
I have spent 25 years getting hotels found, filled and growing. Now I do it for the ones I truly believe in.
My name is Valérie. I am a hotel marketing consultant specialising in independent hotels, serviced apartments, aparthotels across the UK, Europe and beyond. I have launched and pre-opened more than 20 properties, turned around hotels and held every senior commercial role on the way. This is not something I fell into, it is something I love, every single day.
Continents: UK/Europe, Middle East and Africa
Clients maximum at any one time
Hotels & Serviced Apartments pre-openings
+ Years in hotel Sales and Marketing
The Story behind the Hotel Marketing Playbook.
It started long before the consultancy did.
I have been in hotel sales and marketing since before the online booking was a thing. I have worked in the UK, across Europe, in the Middle East and Africa. I have launched hotels before a single room was built, turned around properties and built marketing functions from nothing at head office level. I have been in every kind of revenue and commercial meetings, had every kind of difficult conversation with General Managers and spent enough time looking at data to know immediately when something is off and what to do about it.
For 24 years I gave everything to one company. I built, grew, hit my KPIs year after year and I loved the work across the multiple brands. In 2025, a company restructure happened.
“It was a shock. And then, fairly quickly, it turned out to be the best thing that has ever happened to me.”
Because it gave me the freedom to do the work I actually love, for the hotels I actually want to help, in exactly the way I believe it should be done. No internal politics, no red tape, no conflict of interest. Just me, fully invested, working with independent hotels and serviced apartments that deserve exceptional marketing and are ready to do something about it.
That is why the Hotel Marketing Playbook exists.
The pattern I kept seeing, hotel after hotel.
After so many years in hospitality, I have seen every kind of challenge a hotel can face. But the same core issues keep showing up and they are almost always fixable.
Chasing trends before fixing foundations
Hotels investing in expensive new technology, the latest AI platform, the next big distribution channel, while the basics are still broken underneath. The ideal guest is not defines. The website does not convert as it should. GBP has not been touched in 18 months. New tools do not fix broken foundations, they amplify them.
Marketing without a commercial anchor
When marketing, revenue and operations are each pulling in a different direction, you end up with beautiful campaigns that deliver the wrong guests at the wrong rate. Commercial alignment is not complicated but it does require someone who understands all three functions, which is rare.
OTA dependency that nobody has a plan to fix
Most independent hotels know their OTA commission is too high. Very few have a structured, long term plan to shift a portion of that volume to direct. It is almost always achievable. It just needs the right foundations and the right method. Six months of focused effort changes the picture significantly.
How I actually work.
Every hotel, aparthotel, serviced apartment is different. Every engagement is different. But there are four things that are always true about how I work, regardless of the property or project.
I get into the detail before I touch the strategy.
I cannot build a big picture strategy if I do not understand your systems, your data, your team and your resources. So I always start there. Not with a slide deck of generic recommendations. With your actual numbers, your actual channels and your actual situation.
I tell the truth, even when it is uncomfortable.
If something is not working, I will say so. If a decision has been made that is costing you money, I will explain why and what to do instead. You are not paying me to validate what you are already doing, you are paying me to help you do it better.
I treat your hotel like it is my own.
I do not manage your account from a distance and send a monthly report. I am in the systems, in the data and in the conversations. I am invested in your results the way an employee is invested but without the politics, the overhead or the notice period.
I choose who I work with.
I take on a maximum of three clients at any one time. That means I am selective. I only take on hotels where I genuinely believe I can make a difference and where the owner, general manager is open to honest feedback and willing to commit to the process. My moto has always been when there is a will, there is a way and that works in both directions.
I follow the DIRECT Playbook Method.
There is no shortcut to sustainable direct revenue. But there is a method.
Ready to take the next step?
There are three ways to work together. All of them start with an honest conversation.
Embedded Marketing Partner
I join your team for a fixed number of hours each month and take full accountability for the wok. Hands on. Results focused.
Fixed monthly retainer. Minimum 9 months.
Fractional Marketing Director
Senior marketing leadership and strategy for your team, a few days a month. No full-time cost.
Fixed monthly retainer. Minimum 9 months.
Visibility Audit
A full review of your hotel’s online presence with a clear, prioritised action plan. The most common starting points.
Starting at £1500. One fixed fee.
FAQs about working with me
How is working with you different from hiring a hotel marketing agency?
1
The biggest difference is that I have actually worked inside hotels. I have been in Sales Director, the Digital and Marketing Director, the pre-opening lead. I understand what it is like to be in a revenue meeting where the GM is under pressure, to manage a marketing budget that is half of what you need and to deal with an OTA that keeps undercutting your rate. Most agencies have never had some experience. They understand marketing in general. I understand hotel marketing specifically, which is completely different. I also work with a maximum of three clients at any one time, so you are never one the many accounts being managed by an account manager. You get me, directly and completely invested.
What kind of results can I expect from working with you?
2
Every hotel is different, so I do not make promise about specific numbers before I have seen and studied your situation. What I can tell you is what has happened with properties I have worked with. A chain of apartment hotels grew their direct revenue by 10% in 8 months. That came from fixing foundations, aligning the commercial team and rebuilding their paid and organic channels properly. Not from a big campaign spend. For most independent hotels, the biggest gains come from elements that are not optimised but fixable: the Google business profile, the website conversion rate, the OTA positioning, the direct booking incentive and the content. These are not expensive to fix, they just need the right attention.
Do I need a big marketing budget to work with you?
3
No. Some of the most impactful work I do costs very little to implement. Fixing your Google business profile, rewriting your website copy, improving your OTA positioning, setting up proper tracking so you know what is actually working, these are not big budget items. They are foundational tasks that most hotels have never done properly. Where budget is needed for paid media or campaigns, I will tell you exactly what is realistic for your property and your market and I will never recommending spending money that I do not believe will turn a clear result.
How quickly will I see results?
4
Some things move quickly and some things take time. Fixing your google business profile can improve local visibility within weeks. Rebuilding paid media campaigns can show improved results within the first month. SEO and GEO takes longer, typically three to six months before meaningful organic growth is visible, but it compounds over time in a way that paid media does not. That is why all my ongoing engagements are a minimum of 6 months. Quick fixes exist and I deliver them but sustainable revenue growth requires time and proper foundations.
Do you work remotely or do you visit the hotel?
5
Both, depending on the engagement. For Fractional Director of Marketing work I always visit the property in the first month to meet the team, understand the operation and get a feel of what the data cannot tell me. For embedded work we agree upfront what the right balance of on-site and remote looks like for your hotel. For the Visibility Audit, everything can be done remotely and delivered within two to three weeks subject to accessing all the data required to conduct the audit. I am based in the UK and will travel across Europe or the USA for the right engagement, so geography is rarely a barrier.
How do I know if I am ready to work with a hotel marketing consultant?
6
If you are reading this page, you probably already know something needs to change. The most common sign is that you have tried a lot of things, spent money and are not sure what is working or why. Another sign is that OTA dependency is growing and you do not have a clear plan to reverse it. You do not need to have everything figured out before you get in touch. The discovery call is exactly for that. We talk, I listen and I give you an honest view of whether and how I can help. There is no commitment at this stage, just an honest conversation between two people who care about hotels.