The hospitality data platform: What it means and why hotels should care

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March 25, 2026 by

The hospitality data platform: What it means and why hotels should care

Every hotel marketer knows the challenge. There’s more data than ever, but it lives everywhere and connects nowhere. Media reports sit in one dashboard. Booking data is stored in another. Benchmarks arrive by email. Guest behavior is buried in CRMs. The result is a fragmented view that makes decision-making harder than it should be.

The hospitality data platform changes that. It is more than a reporting tool. It is an intelligent infrastructure built to unify the information that drives performance—media, bookings, operations, and market insights—into a single, connected ecosystem.

This is the difference between visibility and intelligence.

When data is fragmented, opportunities slip through the cracks. Without unified insights, a property might overspend on paid search while missing retargeting opportunities. Multi-property groups can struggle to see where one hotel is outperforming another. And without accurate channel attribution, bookings may be credited to OTAs that could have been direct.

A hospitality data platform eliminates that disconnect. It gives hoteliers a complete, actionable view of performance across every level of their business.

What a hospitality data platform enables

See the whole picture
Access every layer of performance, from individual campaigns to portfolio-wide insights, in one centralized view.

Benchmark with confidence
Compare performance against market peers, property types, and channels using real-time hospitality benchmarks.

Respond faster
Spot shifts in demand early, adjust campaigns automatically, and align spend with the channels that drive profitable bookings.

Forecast smarter
Use predictive intelligence to anticipate demand instead of reacting to it after the fact.

More than connection—activation

A hospitality data platform does not replace your agency, booking engine, or CRM. It amplifies them. It brings each system into a connected framework where data powers every decision.

When media, revenue, and guest data work together, the conversation shifts from “what happened last month” to “what will happen next—and how can we act on it?”

This is what turns information into intelligence and strategy into growth.

Why it matters now

Competition from OTAs is rising. Media costs continue to climb. Guest expectations are evolving. Hoteliers who rely on disconnected systems will fall behind, while those who invest in unified data will lead.

A true hospitality data platform allows hotels and resorts to move from fragmented reporting to proactive performance management. It empowers teams to make faster, smarter decisions—and to increase direct bookings with clarity and control.

The future of hospitality intelligence

The hospitality industry doesn’t need more tools. It needs better connections between them. That’s what the hospitality data platform delivers: one source of truth, purpose-built for hotels, management companies, and partners who want to understand not just what happened, but what to do next.

It is the foundation for how hospitality marketing, media, and data will work together in the years ahead. And it is how GCommerce is helping hotels turn data into growth.

Ready to unify your marketing data and uncover the insights driving your next direct booking? Connect with GCommerce to learn how our Hospitality Data Platform brings intelligence, transparency, and performance together for hotels and resorts. Get in touch today.

The role of color psychology in hospitality marketing

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March 24, 2026 by

How color shapes guest perception and decision-making

First impressions in hospitality are formed within seconds, often before guests are consciously aware. From a digital advertisement to the hotel lobby, people start evaluating their surroundings almost immediately. Color plays a major role in this process, serving as a powerful tool for shaping guest expectations and experiences.

What is color psychology, and why it matters

Color psychology studies how different colors influence our emotions, perceptions, and behaviors. In marketing, colors can guide attention, communicate brand values, and influence decisions. For hospitality brands, color choices go beyond decoration—every shade used in rooms, websites, or marketing materials shapes the guest experience. When chosen thoughtfully, colors can help guests feel comfortable, inspired, or excited, depending on the brand’s goals.

Emotional engagement is at the heart of hospitality marketing. Research shows that visual cues, especially color, strongly affect purchasing decisions. For example, marketing scholar Satyendra Singh found that color can be used to stimulate appetite, lift mood, calm guests, and even make wait times feel shorter. In practical terms, the colors guests encounter in a restaurant, spa, or hotel room shape how they feel and influence their next actions.

Emotional associations of common colors

Certain colors consistently trigger emotional responses that hospitality brands can strategically leverage.

  • Red
    • Red conveys energy and urgency, making it popular in dining spaces and promotional messaging.
  • Blue
    • Blue communicates calm, trust, and reliability—qualities often seen in hotels, resorts, and wellness brands.
  • Yellow
    • Yellow evokes warmth and optimism, drawing attention when used thoughtfully.
  • Green
    • Green aligns with nature, wellness, and balance, which is ideal for eco-focused properties or spa areas.
  • Orange
    • Orange signals friendliness and enthusiasm, making it effective for calls to action.
  • Purple
    • Purple suggests luxury, creativity, and exclusivity, making it a fitting choice for premium experiences.
  • Neutral tones
    • Neutral tones like white, gray, and black convey simplicity, sophistication, and timelessness.

However, the emotional impact of colors can vary based on culture, context, and audience. It’s important to select colors that will connect with your specific guests.

Using color psychology across digital marketing channels

Color isn’t just for physical spaces; it plays a vital role in digital marketing, too. Social media ads can stand out with high-saturation warm colors, while display banners benefit from high-contrast combinations that draw attention to key messages. Websites and email campaigns often use a single accent color for calls to action, guiding guests to book or engage without disrupting brand cohesion.

Many think color psychology requires a full rebrand. In reality, it works best by enhancing existing brand colors.

Hospitality marketers can boost results by introducing accent colors, using lighter or darker shades for contrast, and applying complementary colors in digital campaigns without altering physical spaces. For example, a brand with cool blues and grays can preserve its calm, trustworthy feel while adding a warm accent CTA color to increase engagement 

Color psychology applications in hospitality environments

  • Hotel lobbies and guest rooms
    • The lobby is often a guest’s first physical point of contact with a brand. Warm accent colors can energize the space and make it memorable, while cooler tones encourage relaxation and a sense of luxury. Guest rooms typically feature soft blues, greens, or neutral shades, creating a calm environment that aligns with expectations for comfort and rest.
  • Restaurants and dining spaces
    • Dining environments benefit from warm colors that stimulate appetite and encourage conversation. A well-chosen palette can even influence how long guests stay and how much they enjoy their meals, subtly enhancing both satisfaction and revenue.
  • Spas and wellness areas
    • Spas and wellness centers usually favor muted blues, greens, and neutral tones. These colors create a sense of cleanliness and serenity, helping guests relax and recharge. Even small touches, like towel colors, artwork, or amenity packaging, can reinforce the desired experience.

Best practices for applying color psychology to your hotel marketing

To get the most from color psychology in hospitality:

  • Keep colors consistent across physical and digital touchpoints to strengthen recognition.
  • Consider cultural nuances, as the meanings of colors can vary between audiences.
  • Make designs accessible, ensuring sufficient contrast and clarity for all guests.
  • Balance neutral and accent colors to avoid overstimulation.
  • Test and refine color choices over time to see what resonates most with your audience.

Color is one of the quickest and most effective ways to influence how guests perceive and respond to your brand. When used thoughtfully, it can enhance the guest experience, reinforce brand identity, and boost marketing effectiveness, without changing the brand’s fundamental look. By understanding how color shapes emotions and decisions, hospitality marketers can create spaces and campaigns that feel natural and engaging, creating lasting connections with guests. 

If you're ready to learn about how your property's branding can be conveyed through digital marketing, reach out to experts at GCommerce today!

Commonly asked questions about color physology hotels

What colors work best for hospitality brands?

The best colors depend on the brand and guest experience you want to create. Blue and green are often used for calm and relaxation, purple for luxury, yellow for warmth and optimism, and neutral tones for sophistication and simplicity.

Where should hospitality brands use color psychology?

Color psychology should be applied across both physical and digital spaces, including hotel lobbies, guest rooms, restaurants, websites, email marketing, social media ads, and booking engines to create a consistent brand experience.

Do hospitality brands need a full rebrand to use color psychology?

No, most hospitality brands can apply color psychology by introducing accent colors, adjusting contrast, or using complementary colors in digital marketing without changing their entire brand identity.

How to rank your hotel higher on Google

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March 16, 2026 by

Getting your property to the top of the search engine results page (SERP) can increase traffic to your website and net more direct bookings. Google understands that users are most likely to use their search engine and click on results when they can trust they’ll find what they’re looking for, whether it’s an ad or an organic result. To get your property to the top of relevant searches, you need to implement strategies that show Google that your site has exactly what its users want: helpful, reliable, quality, people-first content. 

Google is invested in serving technically sound, quality landing pages that match the context of a user’s search. Users trust Google to deliver highly relevant search results full of landing pages that are easy-to-navigate and give them the experiences they’re looking for. Maintaining this trust with its users is crucial for Google to keep its status as the most reputable and highly trafficked search engine in the world. With over 90% of the global search engine market share, demonstrable user trust is precisely what allows Google to attract its customers: the advertisers. 

At the end of the day, the real people providing value to your business are the same ones providing value to Google. So, to rank higher in Google search results, your site needs to demonstrate that it is precisely what those very real people you’re targeting are going to Google to look for.

Take a three-pronged, people-first approach to improve your search engine ranking.

  1. Ensure that your site has strong technical health.
  2. Optimize your site for helpfulness, reliability, and quality.
  3. Provide search engines and AI bots with signals for the context of the site.

Ensure that your site has strong technical health

Before Google can show your site, it needs to establish that the users it shows your site to will have a good experience. Users are more likely to lose confidence in search results when they experience page errors, slow page load speeds, difficult site navigation, and other technical errors from pages they’ve been served by Google, diminishing their trust in the search engine. To protect user trust, Google prioritizes serving sites devoid of major technical errors.

Keep your site free of major errors like the ones listed here to make certain that search engines and AI bots can reach your content.

  • Fix broken links and page errors like 404s.
  • Ensure search engine crawlers and AI bots are not blocked.
  • Maintain a clear, logical site structure with internal links and updated sitemaps.
  • Improve mobile friendliness and site speed.
  • Hide outdated content from the SERP.

A healthy site devoid of technical errors gives Google confidence that it’s serving users with a solid landing page experience and relays to AI systems that the information on the site is likely to be valuable and authoritative. Ultimately, Google sees sites with strong technical health as reliable for its users.

Optimize your site for helpfulness, reliability, and quality

At the heart of it, people go to Google to be connected with sources that are helpful, reliable, and get to the gist of their query. Design and optimize your site with the experience of the very real people that patronize your business in mind. Doing so will signal to Google that your site provides quality to users. 

Try these suggestions to improve your site’s content by optimizing for a people-first experience.

  • Use human-centered content and conversational, natural-sounding copy.
  • Expand content depth to provide helpful answers for your prospective guests.
  • Publish content surrounding your local area and particulars about your business.
  • Build itineraries and travel guides for people planning to visit your area.
  • Add thorough FAQ content, including a dedicated FAQ page, Q&A sections on key pages, and applicable schema markup.

Everything you do to your site should improve your user’s experience or make it easier for them to find your content. Google rewards sites that are more likely to be relevant, helpful, and appealing to users by pushing them to the top of search results.

Provide search engines and AI bots with signals for the context of the site

Optimizing for search engines/AI and for a people-first experience are complementary pursuits. You can provide signals directly to search engines and AI bots to tell them about your site and the content on your page. While implementing these signals, it’s important to center people-first practices to not sacrifice page quality. 

Give AI bots and search engines rich, contextual signals by using the following methods:

  • Practice traditional SEO strategies with a strong keyword focus and page element optimization.
  • Implement schema markup across your site and on FAQ content.
  • Regularly update the information on your social media accounts and local listings to ensure accuracy and clarity.
  • Practice PR-minded online behaviors by engaging with content about your property on social media, in forums, and across the web.
  • Keep an active online presence by responding to reviews in a timely manner, making use of Google Business Posts, and posting regular, unique content on social media and on your site.

Rich, contextual signals help search engines and AI bots to interpret your content with clarity and understand its relationship to user queries. By explicitly providing these signals, you make it easier for Google to match your property with relevant searches. These signals greatly incentivize Google to place you at the top of searches coming from users who are more likely to convert.

Is this approach still applicable with AI searches?

Yes, a people-first approach is still applicable in the age of AI. Google has even said so itself in its Google Search SEO documentation, “You can apply the same foundational SEO best practices for AI features as you do for Google Search overall: making sure the page meets the technical requirements for Google Search, following Search policies, and focusing on the key best practices, such as creating helpful, reliable, people-first content.” 

Google’s foundation of user trust has not changed. Neither has what the search engine considers to be a relevant, quality landing page. As such, a people-first approach is the best method to reach the top of relevant searches.

In your pursuit to rank your site higher on Google, the team at GCommerce Solutions is here to help. We can provide additional resources, audit your site to find how it currently matches up, and offer thorough, practical solutions to reach your goals, whatever they may be. Tell us what goals you’re pursuing, and we’ll find a way to help you achieve them.

The importance of guest sentiment and reviews in driving local SEO success for hotels in the age of AI

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March 12, 2026 by

Customer reviews and star ratings have long been critical for local businesses, including hotels, shaping visibility in search results and influencing potential customers’ choices. While traditional search remains important, AI-powered tools such as Google AI Mode, Gemini, Perplexity, and ChatGPT are changing how reviews influence decision-making. 

Reviews no longer simply appear on a listing. They are analyzed, summarized, and highlighted, and play a direct role in influencing user perception. As customers increasingly discover businesses through AI-driven searches, ratings, and customer sentiment carry more weight than ever.

Why reviews and ratings matter in AI search for hotels

Positive reviews and high-star ratings boost your hotel's visibility in the local map pack, AI responses, and other search results, helping businesses stand out in competitive markets. Reviews act as digital word-of-mouth, giving potential customers confidence in their choices. AI tools amplify this effect by analyzing a wide range of customer feedback to determine which businesses to feature and provide users with an overview of customer opinions. Beyond search visibility and credibility, reviews provide actionable insights to guide business improvements. By using this feedback to make meaningful changes, businesses can earn better reviews and higher ratings over time.

Where your hotel’s reviews show up

Reviews and ratings appear across multiple platforms and features within the search engine results page. On Google, they appear on Google Business Profile and in organic search results. Sites like Yelp, TripAdvisor, and industry-specific platforms continue to build credibility through additional customer feedback. Reviews can also appear on official websites, online travel agencies, directories, Wikipedia, news sites, and in public conversations on social platforms such as Reddit. More recently, short-form video reviews from TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram have begun appearing in both traditional search results and AI-generated summaries. 

Businesses with higher ratings and positive feedback are more likely to be highlighted in AI-generated summaries. Google AI Mode, for example, may categorize businesses by rating and often displays clickable Google Business Profile cards showing both ratings and the number of reviews. ChatGPT can also pull top-ranked hotels or restaurants from third-party lists and awards, helping users quickly identify highly rated options.

Here are a few examples of hotel reviews appearing within search results:

Google Business Profile

Local map pack within Google search

Local map pack within Google Maps

AI Mode results showcasing review content

AI Mode cards featuring Google Business Profile

Why more quality reviews matter for your hotel in the age of AI

Increasing the number of high-quality, relevant reviews not only improves your hotel's credibility with potential guests but also strengthens its visibility in AI-powered search results. 

According to Google’s tips to improve your local ranking on Google, local search rankings are influenced by three primary factors: relevance, distance, and prominence. 

Prominence refers to how well-known a business is, and includes factors such as the number and positivity of reviews. As highlighted in Hospitality Net’s, "From Keywords to Conversations: The Ultimate Guide to Generative Search for Hotels," guest reviews are central to AI-generated rankings and should be actively managed to improve positioning across platforms like Google Search Generative Experience (SGE), ChatGPT, and Perplexity.

How to increase your hotel’s review count

A few key strategies to increase review count include:

  • Encourage customer feedback: Ask satisfied customers to leave a review shortly after a positive interaction while the experience is still fresh in their mind.
  • Simplify the process: Share direct links to Google or industry-specific platforms in follow-up emails, receipts, or text confirmations. The easier you make it to leave a review, the more likely people are to follow through.
  • Use signage and reminders: For in-person businesses, display QR codes at checkout counters to make the process seamless.
  • Give incentives with caution: Discounts, loyalty points, or giveaways can encourage participation, but must be used carefully and always within platform guidelines to avoid penalties or flagged reviews.

How to improve your hotel’s review ratings

High review ratings are closely tied to high-quality customer interactions. Delivering exceptional customer experiences will earn positive feedback and improve your rating. Thoughtfully responding to reviews by thanking customers for praise and addressing concerns in negative reviews can also improve sentiment and overall ratings. 

Our recommendations for how to respond to Google reviews may help your hotel utilize strategic responses that boost both ratings and search visibility. 

Local SEO and review management

Local SEO extends beyond guest reviews. AI tools and large language models (LLMs) evaluate both your hotel’s online listings and guest sentiment when determining visibility. Accurate, consistent listings across platforms like Google Business Profile, Yelp, and TripAdvisor build authority, while actively managing and responding to reviews helps strengthen your presence in AI-driven results. 

Read AI in hospitality marketing to learn more about optimizing local listings.

Conclusion

Reviews and customer sentiment are more important than ever for local SEO, especially in the age of AI-powered search. Actively managing your review rating by encouraging reviews, responding thoughtfully, and using feedback to improve business operations can enhance your hotel’s credibility, improve search visibility within both traditional and AI-powered results, and influence customer choices from the very first moment of search. 

Integrating review management into your marketing strategy is essential for staying competitive in today’s local and AI-driven search landscape.

To learn more about reviews, Local SEO, or AI-powered search, reach out to GCommerce today. 

Women who inspire us through data-driven hospitality marketing

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March 10, 2026 by

Women’s History Month is one of our favorite times of year. It offers a moment to pause and recognize the meaningful contributions women make across industries and communities, including the impact they bring to GCommerce every day.

This year, we spoke with members of our female leadership team about their career journeys. They shared the moments that shaped their paths, the challenges they navigated, and the milestones that helped define where they are today.

In the conversations ahead, you’ll learn how each leader arrived in their current role and the advice they offer to others building their own careers. Their stories are a reminder that there is no single path to leadership. Every journey is different, and each one holds the power to inspire.

To celebrate Women’s History Month, we invite you to hear directly from the women helping lead GCommerce forward.

Each leader of the GCommerce team will be answering the following questions:

👋 Introduce yourself and share a bit about your role in hospitality marketing.

🔎 What is one core belief you hold about using data to guide marketing or commercial strategy within a property or portfolio?

📈 Can you walk us through a practical example of how data has informed a decision you’ve made around property visibility, guest targeting, or channel performance? 

🤔 Looking at that experience, what is the biggest takeaway for hoteliers who want to take a more performance-driven approach to hospitality marketing?

🚀 How does that takeaway connect to the way GCommerce approaches data, performance, and accountability in hospitality marketing today?

❤️ Is there a woman who has mentored you along the way that you would like to recognize? How has her guidance shaped your career, and how do you aim to pay that mentorship forward to others?

Click on the links below to see what each leader had to say.

Meet the female leaders of GCommerce Solutions 

Erin Fischer, Director of Marketing

"I think something very important when it comes to analyzing data for marketing decisions is to look at it with a grain of salt and use your campaign context to help guide those strategies. Oftentimes, we see people get stuck on one or two metrics within a report that might look good or bad at face value.

However, without the additional knowledge of campaign details or critical on-property performance, it can be hard to paint the full picture and understand whether or not a campaign is actually successful. In fact, it’s also important to review multiple reports as they all tell a different story, and when you combine all of this together, that’s when you can really craft a solid marketing strategy based on data."

Read more here
Lisa McGivney, Vice President of Marketing

Lisa McGivney, Vice President of Marketing

"You can’t rely on a single report or platform to tell the full story. In digital marketing, we work across numerous channels and platforms, and each gives a window or helps provide hints towards the greater story.

It’s important to break down these silos of data, come together as a team of experts across areas of marketing, and put the story together to identify opportunities, roadblocks, and ways to problem-solve to help our clients meet their business goals and objectives."

Read more here
Abby Rosenberger, Director of Account Services

Abby Rosenberger, Director of Account Services

"One core belief I have is that data should keep us focused on what truly matters. It’s easy to get caught up in vanity metrics, but the real power of data is in helping us understand what’s actually driving long-term success.

In hospitality marketing, that means using data to inform smarter decisions that grow direct bookings and support sustainable performance for the property or portfolio."

Read more here
Lindley Cotton, President

Lindley Cotton, President

"One belief I’ve developed over the years is that data should make decisions clearer, not more complicated.

In hospitality, we have access to an incredible amount of information, but that doesn’t always translate into clarity. I’ve seen many situations where teams are looking at dashboards full of metrics but still struggling to answer the most important question: what should we actually do differently?

For me, the real value of data is when it reflects how guests actually behave. When the structure of the data mirrors the guest journey, patterns start to emerge and marketing decisions become much more intuitive. Instead of debating opinions, teams can focus on what the data is telling them about demand, visibility, and guest intent.

Over time, I’ve come to see good data less as a reporting tool and more as a way to bring alignment to commercial strategy. At the end of the day, data isn’t about numbers on a dashboard. It’s about helping teams make better decisions for their business and their guests."

Read more here

Women's History Month is an important moment to recognize the progress women have made while continuing the work toward greater equity in the workplace. It is a time to celebrate the leaders, innovators, and changemakers who are shaping industries, breaking barriers, and expanding what leadership looks like.

As we reflect on these stories and achievements, we also reaffirm our commitment to supporting and elevating women across every level of our industry. Their perspectives, expertise, and leadership play a vital role in shaping the future of digital marketing and the broader business landscape. By creating space for women to lead, collaborate, and thrive, we move closer to a workplace where opportunity and impact are truly shared.

Flywheel news | February 2026 hotel digital marketing news | GCommerce

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March 5, 2026 by
  1. ChatGPT ads spotted and they are quite aggressive

Some of the first ads have been spotted by U.S. users in ChatGPT, but the already look much different than the company originally envisioned. So far the ads are appearing after the very first prompt and not after lengthy conversions as many originally predicted. Instead, when a users asked “What’s the best way to book a weekend away?”, sponsored placements appeared immediately. This is important because it means OpenAI is treating these single prompts, not conversations, as viable inventory and a signal for advertisers on where to place budget. GCommerce will continue to monitor the emergence of ads on ChatGPT and direct recommendations from these findings. Read more.

  1. How to write AI Search optimized content for hotels

Getting your hotel’s content and brand included in generative AI answer engines for relevant prompts comes down to ensuring it’s crawlable, well-structured, answers questions concisely and directly, and is contextually rich. But how does your hotel produce or revise its content to ensure it’s best structured for visibility in AI search engines? Check out our guide for how to write content that is well optimized for AI search engines without ignoring the importance of traditional SEO, an essential part of brand success and bookings. Read more.

  1. The real risk of AI-generated content

The use of AI in every day tasks continues to be on the rise, and one of its biggest uses is with content creation. However, the evidence continues to show that low-quality AI content can tank your online visibility as Google and Bing continue to crack down through advanced detection algorithms. Essentially, using AI as a writing assistant is still fine and great, but publishing raw AI output without introducing a human element can backfire. When it comes to how to use AI content safely, it’s always recommended to focus on quality, never publish what AI gives you without editing and adding a human touch, insert your own insights and context to the content, and view AI as an assistant and not your replacement. Read the full report here.

  1. Improving AI search visibility: A practical action guide for your hotel

Like many other marketing channels, the factors that impact AI search visibility fall under a variety of categories and optimizations, requiring a comprehensive multi-channel strategy to achieve success. But don’t let that scare you! While AI search visibility isn’t an exact science, there are plenty of things you can do to improve your hotel’s standings. View our list of the most important actions to take when improving your AI Search visibility here. 

  1. Bing Webmaster Tools is rolling out an “AI Performance” report

Recently Bing Webmaster Tools announced that they are implementing a new AI Performance report, something huge that other major tech companies are not doing. Within the dashboard it’s reported that you’ll be able to see average cited pages, key phrases used when AI was used to generate an answer, a timeline of your citations activity, and page level citations. Why does this matter? As SEOs we can finally receive some data on how we show up in Bing’s AI features, and could potentially force other companies to follow suit. GCommerce will stay diligent as this feature rolls out and provide recommendations on best uses moving forward. Read more.

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