Hotels · Partnerships
Hotel brand partnerships: choosing a partner and writing the brief
What to ask a potential partner, what to put in the brief and how to decide whether to do it again. Includes a scorecard and an editable template.
What is a hotel brand partnership?
A hotel brand partnership is an agreement between a property and another organisation to create something together for guests, such as a cultural evening, a retail appointment or a dinner. Both sides contribute, and both have to deliver.
Before you approach a famous name, work out why your guests would care. A big logo won’t rescue an evening they had no reason to attend.
Download the partner-fit scorecard (CSV) · Download the partnership brief: Word · PDF · Markdown
Check the fit before you talk about formats
Start with the guest and the occasion. Then ask what this partner can bring that the hotel can’t: specialist knowledge, a host, access to a community or an experience guests won’t find elsewhere. If you can’t name it, you have a name you like and not yet a partner.
Score each area below in the scorecard: 0 for unresolved or no evidence, 1 for partial evidence and 2 for confirmed. Write the evidence and any open questions beside each score. Treat the total as a prompt for discussion, because a high score can’t make up for a permission nobody has granted or an event nobody can deliver.
| Area | Evidence to ask for |
|---|---|
| Guest relevance | A reason this audience would want to come |
| Contribution | What each side will provide, by name |
| Service fit | Agreed access, hosting and what guests can expect |
| Delivery | A named owner and a schedule that works |
| Permissions | Approved names, images and invitation channels |
| Follow-up | Who contacts guests afterwards, and how you will measure it |
Write a brief both teams can work from
Open with three things: why you are doing this, who it is for and what guests will experience. Then add the scope, timing, responsibilities, approvals and anything still undecided. Mark exactly where the hotel’s job ends and the partner’s begins, because that line is where things get dropped.
The format changes the detail. A retail appointment at a hotel needs a booking process, a suitable room and somewhere for early arrivals to wait. A cultural evening needs a host, access arrangements and approved programme notes. These are examples of formats, not Eva’s projects.
Agree resources privately with the people who can commit them. Announce dates, benefits and names only when everyone has signed off.
Plan invitations and introductions
Decide who invites whom and who answers the replies. Each team can use its own approved channels. Hosting an event together doesn’t give either side the right to the other’s guest records.
If a guest asks to be introduced, agree the least information needed to do it and who takes the next step. The clienteling guide has invented examples of how this works.
Settle photography, image use and follow-up wording before the event. If anything needs a specialist to check permissions, get that done before invitations go out.
Set a review date
Pick measures that match the brief: attendance against confirmed places, completed appointments, relevant enquiries, feedback from the teams, or whatever you asked guests to do. Note where each number comes from and the period it covers.
Then look at how it ran. Did guests know where to arrive? Could hosts answer the questions the invitation raised? Did anyone follow up? Fix the weak points before you agree to renew.
Questions about hotel collaborations
How can a boutique hotel choose a partner?
Start with your audience and what your team can deliver. A small collaboration with an obvious benefit for guests is easier to host and judge than a programme with several layers of approval.
Are sponsorship and partnership the same?
They can overlap. Set out who gives what in the agreement and don’t rely on the label. This guide covers planning, so have the contract terms reviewed properly.
What should be agreed before announcement?
The experience, the date, who delivers what, the names and images, how invitations go out and who follows up. Keep a visible list of whatever is still open.
Choose the next step
Once you know why guests would come and who you are working with, compare the activation formats. If the partner is a jeweller, read how a hotel and a jewellery brand build a partnership.
Eva ran partnerships across Harvey Nichols, Bloomingdale’s and Boucheron at Al Tayer Group, then led marketing, PR and communications at Mandarin Oriental in Dubai. For help shaping a collaboration, see her luxury brand partnerships advisory.
Hotel partnerships