Marketing career in hospitality
In todays article, we take a look at the what a marketing career in the hospitality industry looks like. For this we interview Felicia Schreiner, Regional Brand & Marketing Manager of the Dutch branches of The Social Hub.
The Social Hub and the Marketing Behind it
The Social Hub is a hybrid hospitality concept that, besides rooms for short and long stays, also offers community programs, ambassador programs and meetings & events for their community.
Their target group is very diverse, mainly Gen Z, some millennials, and Gen X, but also the regular traveller and business guests who also visit the hub. The specialty of The Social Hub is the opportunity to talk to blend their communities and make connections, all contributing to their mission: ‘Creating a better society’.
The character you can find in each branch of The Social Hub that are in different cities varies due to the different DNA and culture these different cities possess. For example, Groningen is more student-focused, while Maastricht is much more leisure driven. To cater to the right strategy in each city, Felicia and her team will keep strong connections with a key communications contact that is in each team at each location.
The Social Hub is mainly located in Europe and are also expanding in 2025 with more locations in Italy and new ones in Portugal according to Felicia.
Felicia is responsible for the brand and marketing in the Netherlands. She is responsible from a strategic point of view to make sure that in all of the locations, The Social Hub's brand and marketing vision is translated in a way that communicates their vision and values while also connecting to The Social Hub’s global strategy. Here, it’s making sure that each location expresses their unique local characteristics as well as following the same strategy on a global level.
Felicia mainly works closely with all connectors at each location, there is a key contact person that is dedicated to the community and in charge of the event programs at each location. These Connectors will make sure these events run smoothly, and together with Felicia, they seek opportunities to seek bigger city partnerships. Each day, she talks to all locations and learns about each locations uniqueness. She loves to dive into the essence of each city, learning more about the city and finding the right marketing strategy and events catered to each hub.
A marketing career
To get to where she is today, she originally studied communication media and her first job was related to social media management for Scotch & Soda, a Dutch fashion brand. After that, she found her passion and interest in managing the core of a company’s existence, branding.
As for her colleagues, all The Social Hub employees have many different backgrounds, some are from hotel schools, and some have diverse backgrounds, like Felicia. What she learned most in her job is that everyone is human and everyone has different cultural backgrounds. In the end, you all come together through different walks of life. She is respectful and empathetic towards others so that she can share mutual goals and visions with others and eventually become friends.
How to make it in marketing
Her advice to students like us is to be bold enough to make more connections. If you don’t have a specific study background, it doesn’t matter. Be bold enough to write to the company that you would love to work for and talk to recruiters. Talking to the recruiters might end differently, you will never know what will happen in the end. Don’t give up on reaching out to people, even if you often perceive to yourself as under-qualified or ill-experienced. If you resonate with the company’s value you should stop at nothing to try and work for that company, that’s the most important first step, because at the end of the day sharing your values with the company you work for is a sure-fire way that you are going to enjoy working there. Be bold enough to engage and take the chance to join their mission, don’t back down easily. “You never know where you will end up in a few years, if you don’t take that risk”.