Travel: experience is the product, identity must live on-site
When customers book due to beautiful photos but leave because of a sense of dissonance, the issue is not marketing but the gap between promise and reality.
In tourism, a brand is not built on social media but is validated in every moment a guest stays. Identity must be consistent from signage to towels, from the way staff greet guests to the scent in the room. When any touchpoint deviates from the initial promise, a one-star review appears, and no advertising budget can erase it.
In 2025, Vietnam welcomed over 21 million international visitors, an increase of about 13 to 20 percent compared to the previous year, according to the General Department of Tourism. Domestic bookings are also rising sharply. On the surface, the industry looks very good. But inside thousands of homestays, boutique resorts, and mid-range resorts, a silent crisis is occurring: everything looks the same, and no one remembers anyone.
When beautiful photos become a trap of expectations
The journey of tourists begins on the screen: they scroll through Instagram, view drone photos of an infinity pool overlooking a pine forest, and read adjectives like "hidden paradise" and "healing space." They book a room based on expectations built by images. Then they arrive.
If the scent in the lobby is off, if staff are flustered when customers ask a question outside the script, if the towels are dingy while the online photos are all pristine, a sense of dissonance arises. Customers don’t need to name it. They just feel deceived, even if the host had no intention to mislead anyone.
This is not a marketing issue. This is a problem of a brand that exists only on media channels but has not been implemented in practice.
Experience is the product, not the context
In most industries, the product is what customers buy before experiencing the service. In tourism, this is completely reversed. Customers purchase before knowing what they will receive. And what they are truly buying is a feeling: the feeling of relaxation, being cared for, and being in a place entirely different from everyday life.
Wally Olins, who laid the foundation for modern branding thinking, argues that a brand is created by four vectors: product, environment, communication, and behavior. In tourism, all four vectors are present at once, in the same space, with the same guests. No industry demands higher consistency.
A beautifully designed room with indifferent staff is a contradiction that guests will remember. A delicious breakfast presented messily signals that the owner is not attentive. Conversely, a budget accommodation that is consistent from the way towels are folded to the notes left on pillows can create a special feeling that a five-star hotel cannot buy with money.
A brand is not a logo. A brand is a person's gut feeling about a product, service, or organization.
Marty Neumeier, The Brand Gap
Which touchpoint is speaking for you
Try to go through the journey of a real guest: they search on Google, visit the booking page, view photos, and read descriptions. Then they send a message to ask for more information. The attitude of the person responding to that message is a brand touchpoint. The content of the booking confirmation email is a touchpoint. The wayfinding from the entrance to the lobby is a touchpoint. The scent when the room door opens is a touchpoint. The way the staff greets guests at breakfast is a touchpoint.
Most accommodation owners can only control digital touchpoints because they are visible and easy to edit. Physical touchpoints and human interactions are left to chance or handled according to the discretion of each staff member during their shift.
The result is a brand with a significant gap between promise and reality. And in tourism, that gap is measured by reviews on TripAdvisor, Google Maps, and Booking.
The OTA trap and why a strong brand is a financial asset
When there is not a strong enough brand, accommodations rely entirely on online booking platforms to attract guests. The platforms take 15 to 25 percent per booking. Besides the financial cost, there is an invisible cost: the property owner loses ownership of the relationship with the customer. They have no data, no way to follow up, and no way to create loyalty outside of third-party channels.
When a lodging establishment builds a brand that is clear enough, customers remember the name, recall the feeling, and search for it by name rather than by price. This is not romantic. This is a practical business mechanism: reducing dependence on OTAs, lowering the cost of attracting new customers, and increasing direct booking rates.
Kantar BrandZ reports that brands perceived as "meaningful and different" lead customers to be willing to pay an average of 38 percent more. In tourism, this means the same room, same location, but a stronger brand can sell at a higher price without complaints from guests.
The local story: the only thing that cannot be replicated
In a context where thousands of homestays and small resorts are competing, the most sustainable advantage is not a prettier pool or a larger room. It is the local story that cannot be replicated because it is tied to a specific land, people, and community.
A resort that tells the story of the surrounding fishing village, integrates meals from local fishermen, and names spaces after real local landmarks is building an asset that competitors cannot photocopy. That is the "sense of place," a central concept in modern hotel experience design.
But a local story is not just a collection of handmade items placed in the living room for show. It must permeate the way staff introduce the surrounding area, the language on the menu, the choice of materials in the space, and the small details that guests notice when they pay attention. That is when the brand truly lives in every touchpoint on-site, not just on social media.
Consistent identity in operations is not just about aesthetics. It is the mechanism for building brand equity over time: each time a guest's experience meets their expectations, a memory of the brand is further reinforced in their mind, following the mechanism described by Jenni Romaniuk and Byron Sharp in their research on distinctive brand assets and mental availability.
References
Marty Neumeier, The Brand Gap (2003). Wally Olins, On Brand (2003). Byron Sharp, How Brands Grow (2010). Jenni Romaniuk & Byron Sharp, How Brands Grow Part 2 (2016). General Department of Tourism of Vietnam, report on international visitor numbers for 2025. Kantar BrandZ, "meaningful + different" brands and higher willingness to pay.
Frequently asked questions
Why do many homestays and resorts invest in beautiful photos but still receive low reviews?
Because images create expectations, while the actual experience is what guests evaluate. When guests arrive and find the atmosphere, scent, staff behavior, or room quality does not match what they saw online, the feeling of being deceived arises immediately. This is a direct consequence of investing in media imagery without investing in the actual experience.
Do homestays or small resorts need to build a structured brand, or is running ads enough?
Advertising brings people in for the first time, while branding makes them return and tell others. For small accommodations, advertising budgets are often limited, so the value of each retained or referred guest is significant. A clear, consistent brand that tells a compelling local story is more persuasive than any paid campaign in the long run.
How to break free from dependence on online booking platforms like Booking or Agoda?
The way out is not to abandon those platforms immediately, but to build a brand strong enough for guests to actively seek direct booking channels. When guests remember the name, recognize the style, and trust the experience, they will look for your website or fan page instead of just searching for prices on OTAs. This is why consistent brand identity and a local story have real financial value, not just aesthetic value.