This paper's aim is to help hospitality management executives and graduate students to understand and to develop marketing expertise in the small hotel sector.
Case studies for three hotels illustrate some major marketing challenges for the small hotel sector. Marketing activities are characterized by non‐marketing, inexpert marketing, implicit marketing, and sophisticated marketing categories. These categories are adapted specifically for the small hotel sector.
Some hotels fall into a distinct category, while other hotels span multiple categories depending on their involvement level in various marketing activities (e.g. marketing intelligence, or promotion).
Training exercises highlight specific marketing issues relevant to small independent hotels. Using the model, benchmarking suggestions are developed based on the hotel's marketing activity level. These exercises help practitioners to recognize this sector's diversity due to a wide spectrum of marketing styles and approaches employed by SME owner‐managers within the hospitality sector.
