Seasonal Campaign
A hotel seasonal content campaign has to be finished before the booking window opens
Guests book a season months before it starts, so content filmed during that season arrives a year late for it. This page works backwards from the window you are selling into, gives you the date the shoot has to happen, and sets out what three nights on the property produces.
Seasonal Campaign, one fee agreed before we travel
The property provides the stay and travel, nothing else. We work UK wide and take properties across Europe and further afield, and the same team runs hospitality social media management once the library exists. Prices are in pounds sterling and no VAT is added. If you are ordering from outside the UK your card issuer sets the exchange rate, and anything due in your own country is outside our invoice.
Campaign date planner
When does the shoot have to happen for the season you are selling?
Pick the season, set how far ahead your guests book, and the planner works backwards to the date the shoot has to be in the diary. Every figure below is a date rather than a projection.
Which season are you selling
Your booking engine knows this figure. City breaks tend to run short, resort and festive stays long.
Time between files landing and the campaign going live, for sign off and scheduling.
The one fixed number here is ours. Delivery is 10 working days from the end of the shoot, which the planner counts as fourteen calendar days. Everything else is yours to set.
Shoot has to happen by
Working backwards
Why this planner holds no revenue figure. A timing decision is a calendar problem, and a date can be checked against a diary. A projected return cannot be checked against anything.
Four seasons, four different films
What actually changes when a property changes season
A seasonal campaign is not the same shoot with different weather. The rooms sell on different things, the light behaves differently, and the guest changes with the season. These are the angles we plan around.
- 01Spring, March to May
Gardens, terraces opening, the first outdoor breakfast of the year. Properties with grounds have their strongest month here and never film it, because spring arrives while everyone is still selling summer.
- 02Summer, June to August
Pool, rooftop, long evenings and late golden hour. The most competitive season to advertise into, which is why the content has to exist before the window opens.
- 03Autumn, September to November
Fireplaces, warm interiors, shoulder season pricing and the quieter weekend. The season most often left undocumented, and the one where a small occupancy shift is worth the most.
- 04Winter, December to February
Festive decoration, snow and mountain access, New Year and Valentine packages. The shortest filming window of the four, and the one where booking late means missing it by a year.
The reason three nights rather than two. A season has a look that has to be established rather than sampled. Three nights gives three sunrises, three evenings and every meal service more than once, which is what a campaign needs to run a whole season without the same frame appearing twice. The two night Film and Campaign package covers a property; three nights covers a property in a season.
What arrives, and what the property provides
What comes back
- A themed film, 20 to 30 minutes longBuilt around the season rather than around the building. The asset that sits on your website and your booking engine for that whole window.
- 14 ReelsCut from the same footage in all three aspect ratios, enough to post through a full season without repeating a frame.
- 20 social stillsFrames from the shoot, formatted for feed and Stories rather than print. Not architectural photography, and we say so plainly.
- A full caption packWritten to the content and to the season, so posting is scheduling rather than creating.
- Paid media rights and whitelistingOrganic use on your own channels, paid media rights for 12 months from delivery, and whitelisting through Velena's handle for the same 12 months.
What you provide
- two creators, three nights on site, on full boardA production requirement rather than a courtesy, because lunch and dinner service cannot be filmed by creators who are not eating there.
- Travel to the propertyWe are in Buckinghamshire and work UK wide. Anything beyond the usual radius is quoted before booking rather than added afterwards.
- Access, and your policy on peopleWhich areas we can film, and whether staff and guests appear. Most properties say staff yes, guests no.
- Your ad account, if you want whitelistingA one off permission in Meta Business Manager. It takes a few minutes and it is reversible at any point.
- Nothing elseNo crew, no lighting hire, no location fee, no second unit and no day rates on top.
Rights
Whitelisting is what the Seasonal Campaign adds
Every hotel package includes organic use and paid media rights. This is the tier where your ads can also run from a creator handle instead of your brand account, which changes how the advertising performs rather than how much you own.
Your ads, running from a real person
Whitelisting means your ads run from a creator handle rather than from your brand account, so they carry a real person's name and following instead of a logo.
- Your paid ads can run through Velena's Instagram handle as whitelisted ads for 12 months from delivery.
- You keep full control of targeting, budget and creative
- Permission is granted in your ad account and reversible at any time
- Available on this tier and on the monthly retainer
What you can do with the footage
Organic use on your own channels, paid media rights for 12 months from delivery, and whitelisting through Velena's handle for the same 12 months.
- Organic use on every channel you own, with no end date
- Paid media on Meta, TikTok and Google for 12 months
- Not a buyout, and not resale or sub-licensing to a third party
- Not a right to pass footage of us to an agency or booking platform
Why we do not sell a buyout on hotel content. The footage has one of us on camera as a guest in your property. A buyout with onward licensing would let that footage be passed to an OTA or a booking platform we have no relationship with, which is a different thing from a hotel advertising its own rooms. The licence runs for 12 months and renews rather than expires quietly, and the terms are set out in plain English on our terms page.
The output
Three cuts from real property shoots
Filmed on working stays at properties including Leitlhof San Candido, Ibis Edinburgh and Ibis York. The themed film these are cut from goes to the client rather than being published here. Ask and we will send a full one where the client is happy for us to share it. Click any to play, nothing loads until you do.
A five star Alpine hotel
A property whose season is the whole proposition
HotelsA wedding venue visit
Filmed as a guest would see it
VenuesA central city hotel
Location and value as the story
HotelsAll three were filmed and edited by the two of us, the pair Women's Health featured and who hold a three year hospitality retainer with No Escape London. The full hospitality library is in the hotels and restaurants portfolio, and the wider UGC portfolio covers every category we film.
Before you book a seasonal campaign
A single shoot built around one season rather than around the building, timed so the content exists before that season's booking window opens. Three nights on the property produces a themed film, 14 Reels, 20 stills and a caption pack, enough to run the whole window without repeating a frame.
Work backwards from the point guests start booking that season rather than from the season itself. The planner does the arithmetic, but the shoot has to sit far enough ahead to allow 10 working days for delivery plus your scheduling time. A summer campaign usually means filming in spring.
Two things. Three nights rather than two, which is what establishes a season rather than sampling a property. And whitelisting, so your ads can run from a creator handle rather than only your brand account. Deliverable counts step up too, and both are side by side on the hotel packages page.
Whitelisting means your ads run from a creator handle rather than from your brand account, so they carry a real person's name and following instead of a logo. You grant a permission in your ad account, you keep control of budget, targeting and creative, and the permission is reversible at any point. It runs for 12 months from delivery on this package.
Not outright, and we would rather say so here than in a contract. Organic use on your own channels, paid media rights for 12 months from delivery, and whitelisting through Velena's handle for the same 12 months. Organic use on your own channels has no end date. Resale and sub-licensing to a third party are not included, because the footage has one of us on camera in your property.
two creators, three nights on site on a full board basis, travel to the property, and access with a stated policy on whether staff and guests appear. If you want whitelisting, a permission in your ad account. Nothing beyond that: no crew, no lighting hire, no location fee and no day rates on top.
Yes. We work UK wide and take properties across Europe and further afield. Payment is in pounds sterling from any country, and travel beyond the usual radius is quoted before booking rather than added afterwards.
Everything arrives 10 working days after the shoot, through a shared drive, all together. Nothing arrives in instalments and nothing is charged afterwards.
The answer turns on whether your property changes. A hotel with genuinely distinct seasons is better served by campaigns timed to them. A hotel that looks much the same year round is usually better served by one strong library and a retainer that keeps posting it. Both are on the hotel packages page and we will say plainly which suits your property.
Because campaign timing is a calendar problem rather than a forecasting one. The planner gives dates you can check against your own diary. A projected return rests on assumptions nobody can verify, and a figure that does not survive checking is worth less than a plain one that does.
Why the timing matters more than the shoot
Most hotels film a season while living in it. Summer content gets shot in July, edited in August and posted in September, by which point the audience it was made for has been and gone. The window it should have advertised into closed before the first Reel went up.
The reason it keeps happening is that a property looks its best during a season, so that feels like the right time to film. It is the right time to film. It is not the right time to start. A campaign built for summer has to be finished before people decide where they are going in summer, and that point sits weeks or months earlier depending on how far ahead your guests book. That number is in your booking engine, and it is the figure this whole page turns on.
Where this sits in the hotel range
The Seasonal Campaign is the third of four hotel packages. The Property Film is a shorter visit for a property that mainly needs the hero asset. Film and Campaign is two nights and covers a property properly, and it is the right choice if your property looks broadly the same all year. The monthly retainer is for hotels that would rather have a steady drip than a concentrated push.
The step up is three nights instead of two, higher deliverable counts, and whitelisting. If one season carries your year, this tier is built for it. If it does not, we will say so, and the tier below serves you better for less.
The wider argument
The commission arithmetic behind hotel direct booking is on the hospitality hub, and the sector benchmarks are in our UK hospitality report. Restaurants are on the restaurant packages page, ongoing posting on social media management, and the case studies show the work at a named property.
Client reviews
What clients say, word for word
“Fantastic service. Been a client for 3 years now and have seen fantastic results, increased viewers, followers and viral videos. Copywriting was on point and has been used in magazines like Conde Nast, Timeout and more.”
Darrell Johnston, Owner, No Escape London and Purgatory Bar. Google review, 5.0.“Velena Lifestyle have been a breath of fresh air for our social media accounts. Their professionalism and knowledge have supported us massively.”
Sean Thompson, Head of Marketing, Snaptrip Group. Google review, 5.0.“Velena was a pleasure to work with, she worked solely with the brief provided and was even ahead of her deadline. The content produced was clean, professional and on brand. We would love to work with Velena again in the very near future.”
Lauryn Middleton, Social Media Manager, Smirk. Client testimonial, October 2023.Every review is reproduced word for word. Read them all on the reviews page.
Both of us
Who arrives, on every hospitality shoot
Velena Nikolova
Co-Founder and Creative Director
Velena Nikolova films and edits every video. A lifestyle creator featured in Women's Health, she is on camera for the property, the rooms and the dining content. More on the about page.
Dragos Nistor
Co-Founder and Business Strategist
Dragos Nistor handles scheduling, the shot plan and delivery, and appears on camera for couple and dining content. Named a LinkedIn Top Entrepreneurship Voice in 2024. More on the case studies.
Our channels
If you would rather watch than read
Velena and Dragos
Travel, food and influencer content from the two of us, and the channel where the long form work lives.
Open the channelVelena Lifestyle
The agency channel. UGC examples, client work and finished campaign videos.
Open the channel
Pick the season, and we will work back from it
One fee, agreed before we travel. Nothing is booked until dates are agreed in writing, and both of us are there for all three nights. We have worked with 100+ brands since 2022 and reply within one business day.