Please Hold, Your Lodging Sector Will Be With You Shortly

Every DMO has a Director of Marketing, a Director of Sales, a Director of Communications...

But not one has a Director of Lodging.

You’d think the people literally funding the DMO might get a seat at the table, right? Nope.

When my friend in the STR Industry started calling DMOs last week to find out how they work with short-term rentals, she kept getting transferred to...you guessed it...membership.

Because that’s what happens. We’ve got departments for media, events, PR, and community engagement… but no one who can actually explain how the organization relates to the very people who fund it.

The Thought Experiment:

What if every DMO had a Director of Lodging?

Not a hotel salesperson. Not a partnership coordinator. A real, strategic seat at the leadership table, someone responsible for protecting and amplifying the sector that pays the bills.

Here’s what that could look like:

• They’d be the voice of the stay. Hotels, vacation rentals, boutique inns, timeshares (I guess?) -- finally, someone connecting all of them to the bigger tourism mission.

• They’d measure actual lodging health. Not just occupancy. We’re talking length of stay, guest sentiment, workforce pain, host friction, and repeat visitation. (Ya know, things that matter more than how many likes your “Top 10 Brunch Spots” reel got.)

• They’d translate policy into impact. When city council starts throwing around words like ban, tax, or moratorium, this person could interpret both the economics and the optics, before it becomes a PR fire drill.

• They’d connect experience to economics. Because the bed your guest sleeps in often decides whether they ever come back. If your sheets suck, no mural selfie is saving you.

• They’d finally tell us why people travel. No amount of anonymized data will ever reveal the full truth. That kind of insight comes from the people who see it up close --the GMs, the front-desk staff, the hosts. They know when it’s not leisure or business but grief, medical visits, custody hand-offs, family reunions, youth sports, or the rare “just because I needed to breathe” trip. That’s the soul of a destination, and we’ve never built a system to capture it.

Basically, they’d give the sector a brain, a voice, and a damn chair at the table.

But Isn’t the Whole DMO “About Lodging”?

Technically, yes. DMOs exist because of lodging taxes. So in theory, the entire organization is the Department of Lodging.

But that isn't reality. Once you get past the C-suite, it fragments fast:

• Marketing’s chasing engagement.

• Sales is chasing leads.

• And the social media manager just wants to know who to tag so they don't get in trouble.

Meanwhile, the actual funders — the hotels, inns, and short-term rental hosts — get treated like background characters in their own movie.

And to be fair, we created that problem ourselves. When travelers started craving “experiences,” we swerved so hard into the other lane we ended up on another planet. We built an entire industry around storytelling, vibes, and social proof—and somehow convinced ourselves that where people stay didn’t matter anymore.

We made the stay invisible. But here’s the truth: the stay is the experience. It’s the one part of the trip that holds the entire story together.

We’ve become so disconnected from lodging that even we forgot what it feels like to stay somewhere that makes you fall in love with a place again. And that’s why the short-term rental disconnect feels so charged, because there’s no one whose job it is to connect the dots between “home” and “here.”

The Complexity Nobody Talks About

A Director of Lodging wouldn’t have an easy job. They’d have to wear a lot of hats:

• Corporate negotiator: Flag hotels operate under national brand contracts. Many can’t just hop into your cute little campaign without a 14-step corporate approval process and an email from legal.

• Community diplomat: Boutique hotels and vacation rentals rarely have a voice at the policy table. This person would have to unite those worlds without letting politics turn it into the next city-council cage match.

• Data analyst meets therapist: Because one minute they’d be reading STR reports, and the next they’d be talking a burnt-out host off the tourism ledge.

It’s messy, nuanced work, which is exactly why no one’s doing it. But it’s also the work that matters most.

Why the Role Doesn’t Exist (Yet)

Because DMOs were built to be politically safe, not strategically complete.

Back in the day, “lodging” meant hotels. STRs weren’t even on the radar. The system separated sales from experience, marketing from policy, and hotels from homes — and it worked fine… until it didn’t.

Now, hosts, hoteliers, and property managers are all paying in and asking one question:

“If my taxes fund your existence, why don’t you even know my name?”

If We Hired One Tomorrow...

Imagine a DMO brave enough to hire a Director of Lodging tomorrow. Month one? They’d:

• Map every room in market, hotels and STRs.

• Audit what percent of tax revenue actually shows up in leadership decisions.

• Start regular think-labs with hosts, GMs, and front-line staff.

• Create a Lodging Alignment Plan to unify policy, workforce, and storytelling.

• Launch a campaign like “Stay Local, Stay Legendary.”

They’d make lodging not just the funding base, but the foundation of the destination. (And maybe, just maybe, the next time someone calls asking about “how to work with STRs,” the answer won’t be “here’s the link to buy a listing.”)

Every DMO says, “We’re powered by the lodging community.” But the truth is, most are powered by its checkbook.

If DMOs want to stop the exodus, burnout, and community backlash, maybe start by creating a role that’s been missing since day one.

Because without a Director of Lodging, you’re not managing a destination. You’re just spending the night.

👋 I’m Jenn Barbee. Tourism Fixer. Professional instigator. Co-founder of Destination Innovate. And since you don’t have a Director of Lodging… I went ahead and volunteered. 🖤