AI is revolutionising hospitality marketing through automation, personalisation, SEO, and intelligent content creation, driving quicker results for restaurants, hotels, and pubs.
It’s an exciting – and perhaps scary – time for many in hospitality marketing. From crafting compelling content to crunching complex data in seconds, AI tools are now deeply embedded in most marketing strategies.
According to Statista (2024), over 80% of marketers in the UK are already using some form of AI in their digital strategy, so we’re here to show you how AI is being used in hospitality, from examples to results and platforms worth trying for yourself.
How AI is being used in hospitality marketing:
- Email marketing automation: 97% of restaurant operators are either using or planning to adopt email marketing automation (TouchBistro 2024 Restaurant Industry Trends Report), supporting customer lists, personalised messages, optimised send times, and more.
- SEO and keyword research: AI helps to analyse top-ranking pages, identify high-impact keywords, and suggest content structures to improve visibility. Restaurants, hotels, and pubs can now compete more effectively in local and national search rankings with fewer resources.
- Social media post ideation and content creation: AI content generators help marketing teams brainstorm caption ideas, visual concepts, and even auto-generate image or video posts tailored to each platform. For busy hospitality venues, this means faster social calendars with less effort.
- Data analysis: From guest reviews to online bookings, AI tools analyse vast datasets to identify trends, forecast demand, and even suggest marketing strategies. This provides decision-makers with a clearer picture of what’s working – and what isn’t – without requiring a full-time data analyst.
- Taking meeting notes: AI transcription tools are now a common feature in marketing meetings, helping teams focus on the discussion while AI captures action points and summaries. For hospitality teams juggling multiple campaigns and locations, this means less admin and more focus.
AI in email marketing
AI is redefining email marketing in hospitality by automating personalised campaigns that engage customers and boost bookings. Whether you're running a boutique hotel or a busy restaurant, AI-powered platforms are helping teams deliver smarter, more timely communication that feels personal at scale.
From intelligent customer journeys to behaviour-based triggers and dynamic content generation, AI helps marketing teams send the right message to the right person at the
Matt Bowell (Brew Director):
"Pub and restaurant email marketing has long relied on automation for basic tasks like booking confirmations and event notifications, but AI is now revolutionising the field by enabling personalised menu recommendations, intelligent send time optimisation, predictive customer behaviour analysis, and real-time dynamic content delivery that adapts to individual customer preferences and visiting patterns."
How AI is being used in email marketing:
- Automated customer journeys: Set up intelligent workflows for welcome sequences, booking confirmations, and post-visit thank-you messages without manual intervention.
- Behavioural triggers: Trigger emails based on real-time user actions, such as abandoned bookings, menu views, or dormant accounts.
- Personalisation at scale: Use past booking and dining data to recommend dates, dishes, or offers relevant to individual customers.
- Optimal timing: AI platforms like Mailchimp and Klaviyo analyse user behaviour to send emails when they’re most likely to be opened.
- A/B testing automation: Continuously test subject lines, content types, and send frequencies to refine strategy without human effort.
Examples of AI in email marketing:
- Welcome email sequences for first-time diners or hotel guests with custom upsells or loyalty invitations.
- Birthday and anniversary automations with time-sensitive offers tailored to past spending habits.
- Seasonal menu promotion timing adjusted to peak engagement periods.
- Customer retention campaigns triggered after a certain period of inactivity.
Results of AI in email marketing:
- Up to 29% higher open rates when using AI-optimised send times (Source: RapidSuccessPartners).
- Conversion rates increase by up to 45% when emails feature personalised content and offers (Source: SEOSandwitch).
- Marketers save an average of 12 hours per week using AI automation vs. manual list segmentation and scheduling (Source: Arxiv).
- 79% of diners are comfortable with restaurants using AI in the reservation process, yet only 32% of operators globally are implementing it — highlighting a major opportunity for growth (Source: SevenRooms).
Best AI tool(s) for email marketing: MailChimp, Seventh Sense, & Klaviyo
How AI is being used in social media marketing
AI is transforming social media marketing in hospitality by accelerating content creation, optimising engagement, and simplifying campaign management across platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook.
From quick-service chains and contemporary pubs to boutique hotels, AI tools are helping marketers publish faster, post smarter, and interact more.
How AI is being used in social media marketing:
- Content ideation: Platforms like ChatGPT and Jasper.ai generate endless post ideas, captions, and campaign hooks tailored to your audience and tone of voice.
- Visual content creation: AI tools like Canva’s Magic Studio and Adobe Firefly assist in editing food and drink photos, creating on-brand assets, and enhancing imagery for each platform.
- Optimal posting times: AI analyses audience behaviour to recommend the best times to post for visibility and interaction, maximising every piece of content.
- Hashtag research: Tools like Flick and RiteTag use AI to suggest trending and niche hashtags, monitor their performance, and increase discoverability.
- Community management: AI chat assistants and social inbox platforms like Sprout Social offer suggested replies and sentiment tracking to maintain fast, consistent engagement with guests and followers.
Examples of AI in social media marketing:
- Event promotion across platforms using AI to tailor tone and visuals for each audience segment.
- Customer review response management with tools that draft thoughtful, on-brand replies to both praise and complaints.
- Seasonal campaign planning and execution using AI calendars that suggest ideal themes, hashtags, and publishing timelines.
Emerging uses for AI in social media marketing:
- AI-generated video content for TikTok and Instagram Reels: Automating short-form, brand-aligned videos from stills or prompts.
- Automated social commerce integration: Connecting products or reservations to posts and stories seamlessly.
- Predictive trend analysis: Identifies rising keywords, content formats, and challenges.
Best AI tools for social media marketing: Gemini, Claude, & ChatGPT
How AI is being used in SEO
AI is reshaping SEO in hospitality by accelerating keyword research, optimising content structure, and helping venues rank higher in local and competitive searches. For restaurants, pubs, and hotels, showing up in the right search results can mean the difference between a fully booked evening and an empty room.
Sophie Page-Britton (Brew's senior SEO specialist):
"AI has transformed how we approach SEO for hospitality clients. We can now identify keyword opportunities and optimise content at a speed and scale that wasn't possible even two years ago."
How AI is being used in SEO:
- Keyword research acceleration: AI tools like SEMrush, Ahrefs, and Surfer SEO uncover long-tail, intent-based keywords in minutes, helping you target the phrases that guests use to find you.
- Content gap analysis: AI compares your content to competitors and identifies topics, questions, or keywords they’ve missed, giving you an edge in search visibility.
- Local SEO optimisation: AI assists in citation building, Google Business Profile optimisation, and localised content creation to help venues rank for “near me” searches and geo-specific queries.
- Content optimisation: AI platforms enhance metadata, structure, image alt tags, and readability to match Google’s ranking algorithms, while maintaining a natural, brand-consistent tone.
Examples of AI in SEO:
- Location-based keyword discovery for chains or multi-location restaurants (e.g., “best rooftop bar in Manchester” vs. “outdoor dining in Shoreditch”).
- Seasonal trend identification for capturing search spikes around menus, events, or holidays.
- Competitor content analysis to spot and fill content gaps that attract high-intent traffic.
- Search optimisation for “restaurant near me” queries with automated schema markup and local citation and link-building strategies.
- AI-powered keyword clustering to group search terms into strategic themes or landing page ideas.
- Automated technical SEO audits that flag mobile issues, page speed, crawl errors, and more.
- Content performance prediction using AI to estimate how new pages will rank based on structure and keyword density.
- Local search ranking factor analysis, identifying what moves the needle for each geographic market.
Best AI tool for SEO: SEMRush
The human element: Why expertise still matters!
While AI has transformed how quickly and efficiently marketers can work, it doesn’t replace the insight, creativity, or connection that real people bring to the table. At Brew, we see AI as a powerful co-pilot to our work, not the pilot.
Industry experience helps us choose the right tools, apply them effectively, and ensure output aligns with brand tone, messaging, and facts (since AI can confidently generate incorrect or misleading content). More importantly, relationship-building, problem-solving, and creative storytelling remain deeply human strengths.
Emmaline McAndrew (Brew marketing consultant): "AI tools are incredibly powerful, but they require human hospitality marketing expertise to deliver the best results.
Understanding restaurant operations, customer behaviour, industry seasonality, and more importantly, people, remains essential for success - understanding the complexity of people is something that AI cannot yet achieve."
How do we use AI in our digital marketing?
Brew’s approach blends AI tools into proven hospitality marketing frameworks, led by a team that continuously tests, learns, and evolves with new technologies. By combining machine speed with human strategy, we create marketing that’s not just efficient, but memorable and emotive.
Getting started with AI in hospitality marketing
AI is transforming hospitality marketing by streamlining content creation, personalising email campaigns, improving SEO, and boosting social media performance. Tools can generate ideas, optimise content, analyse data, and automate tasks – all of which save times and increase ROI.
However, human expertise remains essential for strategy, quality control, and authentic customer connection. At Brew, we combine AI with proven marketing frameworks, guided by continuous learning and client collaboration.
Let’s see what AI can do for your business – together.
Matt Bowell
Matt has been in marketing for 25 years, clocking up many years for institutions like the NHS, the BBC, Comic Relief, Goodyear Dunlop, and Lonely Planet in the UK and abroad. Matt leads the client service team as one of Brew’s directors.
