Skift, the most influential media company covering the business of travel, is seeking a full-time hotel reporter to expand our coverage of the hospitality industry. Skift reporters are expected to write a mix of daily stories and deeply reported features. The position is fully remote in the UK as Skift is a fully distributed company.
This position will cover news and analysis for all things hotel marketing, branding, and design, with an emphasis on trends in boutique and lifestyle hotels. The ideal candidate will produce original reporting and will have the ambition to drive the conversation, not follow it, for a global audience of industry leaders.
The reporter will report to Skift’s Senior Hospitality Editor.
This is a stellar opportunity for a reporter who wants to share in ownership of a buzzy beat for a highly influential industry publication. Skift is a next-gen travel media company founded in 2012 in New York. It’s renowned for deciphering and defining news and trends in the travel sector through its journalism, research, and live events, including its conferences in Europe, New York, and beyond.
Candidates will have experience as a journalist digging up news, preferably with a deep familiarity with hotel marketing and design, or all of these things. We’re looking for someone eager to eat, sleep, and breathe hotel marketing and design, who can write quickly at a professional standard, and who has an appropriate degree of skepticism about what publicists claim. You’ll periodically do deeply reported features on topics such as the birth of an iconic brand, a list of the top hotel design firms and interior designers, or critiques of missed opportunities by brands to reflect diversity in their campaigns.
Part of this role will be helping in production and distribution of our must-read Daily Lodging Report, a twice-daily newsletter that is a Skift brand.
Does reporting on a new brand launch or ad campaign before anyone else give you a small thrill? Do you follow hotel design firms on Instagram? Is a hotel launch party your idea of a fun night out? Do you complain to friends when a publicly held hotel group has poorly defined brand segmentation? Have you downloaded a hotel brand’s streaming playlist? Are you the owner of a rare tee that has an iconic hotel brand’s original logo? Could you fill a podcast episode talking about lifestyle soft brands and sound intelligible the entire time? Are you okay with public relations teams being exasperated by your reporting? Then this position is for you.
This position is a chance for you to work with the best editorial team in ALL of travel and the best boutique media company around.
Some of What You’ll Do
- Track stories from a wide range of sources, not just press releases.
- Write fast, sharp stories in a timely manner, applying an original analysis underpinned by bigger trends. Always think of the bigger picture.
- Cover developments in how hospitality evolves, from new amenities, furnishings, wellness offerings, experiences that offer connection with locals and other guests.
- Cover marketing moves in the hotel sector, from traditional TV to digital, outdoor, social, loyalty, experiential, programmatic, and earned.
- Be a confident and informed interviewer of chief marketing officers, architects, designers, interior decorators, influencers, industry leaders, operators, and experts.
- Have a working knowledge of broader marketing trends and connect the dots on how hotels will adopt them.
- Do reporting deep dives for feature stories.
- Have a path toward creating a weekly briefing column or podcast on hotel marketing and branding.
- Cover periodic earnings announcements at publicly held hotel companies.
- Constantly think of new ways to tell stories in engaging and sophisticated ways.
- Consistently break news. Never follow the pack.
- As needed, provide back-up support in lightly editing and schedule a newsletter from Skift’s sister brand Daily Lodging Report.
- Communicate with the overall team about stories you’re working on.
- Participate in Skift’s conferences and live events.
- Travel occasionally to cover industry events and for team meetings.
- Be the public face of Skift at travel industry events, our own events, and media appearances.
The Experience You Bring
- Two to five years of experience in business reporting is preferred. B2B or business publishing experience is preferred, but consumer media experience or travel tech experience will be considered. We care most about finding curious individuals who are skilled and enthusiastic about puzzling out complicated topics and explaining them to a savvy and engaged audience.
- Preferred experience in covering breaking news as well as day-to-day industry coverage.
- Extensive contacts in hotel marketing or design are ideal.
- Exceptional writing and copy-editing skills.
- Proficiency in WordPress, basic photo editing tools, Google Docs, and other remote working tools.
- Proficiency in languages is a plus for our global coverage.
How You Work
- You communicate openly and share information regularly with your colleagues.
- You exercise astute and ethical judgment in your everyday actions.
- You form successful and strong work relationships.
- Your enthusiasm and dedication are at the heart of how you collaborate well with your teammates.
- You’re passionate about the world of travel.
To apply, go here.
