Gmail Promotions Tab Update: Why Relevance Beats Recency, and How Hotels Can Stay Ahead

How the Gmail Promotions Tab Update Makes Clean Guest Data and Guest History Analysis Essential for Hotel Email Marketing.

Gmail is rolling out a major change to the Promotions tab. Instead of showing the newest emails first, Gmail will prioritize the most relevant ones. (Google Blog) This means your hotel’s email campaigns will no longer compete for visibility based on send time alone. Placement will depend on how well Gmail thinks your content fits each individual guest.

For hotels, this is a wake-up call. The days of sending the same generic campaign to your entire database are over. Gmail is making sure of it.

What’s Changing in Gmail

• Relevance over recency. Gmail will surface emails based on engagement history and brand affinity, not just arrival time.

• Deal nudges. Time-sensitive offers may still appear on top, but only if Gmail thinks they matter to the recipient.

• Purchases view. Receipts and confirmations get grouped separately, reducing upsell visibility.

• User choice. Some will opt back to “most recent,” but the default is now relevance.

(SpamResource)

Real Conversations Hotels Are Having

We recently spoke with the marketing manager of a boutique hotel collection who admitted, “We don’t know how to segment. We just send to the entire list.”

Another resort told us, “We’re going to keep sending to everyone. We see ROI, so why change?”

Here’s the problem: blasting your entire list might feel like it’s working, but Gmail is about to start burying those campaigns. Why? Because engagement signals matter more than volume. The disengaged subscribers on your list drag down the performance of everyone else. Sending more emails to more people doesn’t fix that - it makes it worse.

Hotels that keep this “spray and pray” mentality will see their promotions sink deeper in Gmail’s Promotions tab. That technique worked back in 2003, but now it is going to be detrimental to your entire list, and if you keep sending to that entire database, Gmail is going to eventually suppress all of the emails from your sending domain. The short-term ROI they’re clinging to will dry up when placement disappears. And just in time for Black Friday/Cyber week!

Micro-Segmentation: The Relevance Multiplier

Micro-segmentation for hotels is no longer optional. Gmail rewards engagement, and engagement comes from sending relevant messages to the right guests.

• Segment using stay seasonality, booking preferences, and frequency of visits.

• Personalize offers around guest lifestyle and demographic data.

• Use predictive scoring to identify likely repeat bookers.

• Test subject lines and creative by microsegment, not your entire list.

Predictive models already classify campaign relevance with strong accuracy. (ResearchGate) With Gmail’s update, this kind of precision targeting becomes the difference between being at the top of the inbox - or invisible.

Clean Guest Data Is Non-Negotiable

A clean database is the single strongest relevance signal you can send to Gmail. Dirty lists drag your reputation down and push you lower in inbox rankings.

• Suppress inactive subscribers who haven’t engaged in 12-18 months.

• Eliminate OTA placeholders, duplicates, and fake addresses.

• Validate emails to keep bounce rates low.

• Monitor engagement decay across all properties.

Validity notes that Gmail’s visual features like Annotations only help if your domain reputation and list hygiene are already strong. (Validity)

Guest History Analysis: The Hotel Advantage

This is where HMA’s Intelligencia platform gives hotels an edge. A Guest History Analysis (GHA) doesn’t just clean your list. It enriches it with the insights needed to build relevance into every campaign.

• Cleans first. Removes duplicates, OTA placeholders, and invalid emails.

• Appends lifestyle and demographic data. Reveals who your guests are beyond booking history.

• Exposes segmentation opportunities. Shows the hidden groups inside your CRM that are ripe for targeted offers.

• Supports ongoing hygiene. Identifies disengaged guests before they sink your sender reputation.

With GHA, hotels move away from batch-and-blast and toward campaigns that Gmail recognizes as relevant.

What Hotels Should Do Now

1. Cleanse your database first. Remove duplicates, OTA placeholders, fake emails, and disengaged subscribers. Once the list is clean, run a Guest History Analysis to reveal who you should be segmenting and how to group them.

2. Suppress inactive records before Gmail’s relevance-based ranking pushes your campaigns down.

3. Build a segmentation strategy based on behavior, demographics, and lifestyle data uncovered by the GHA.

4. Personalize offers and creative for microsegments rather than your full database.

5. Test Gmail Annotations and structured markup, but only once your data is accurate.

6. Monitor inbox placement, engagement, and direct booking revenue as Gmail’s changes phase in.

The Takeaway

Hotels that keep blasting their entire database will see diminishing returns as Gmail prioritizes relevance. The “one-size-fits-all” strategy isn’t sustainable - it’s about to be punished.

The hotels that win will be the ones with clean guest data, a smart segmentation plan, and a Guest History Analysis powering every send. That’s how you stay visible in Gmail, build engagement, and increase direct bookings.

At HMA, we make sure your email marketing isn’t working against you. Clean data. Smarter targeting. Measurable growth. To learn how HMA helps hotels maintain clean guest data, run Guest History Analysis, and adapt email marketing to Gmail’s new Promotions tab update, contact us at +1-831-655-0109 or visit wearehma.com