Anyone searching for how much hotel PR costs usually wants a number. With Press & Pillow, that number exists and it is public: an ongoing PR and press office service generally starts at around €1,600 per month, with no VAT currently added under Italy’s flat-rate tax regime. But that is a starting point, not a fixed price list, and it is also the least interesting part of the answer. The more useful question is not “how much does it cost?”, but “what am I actually buying for that fee?”. Two proposals with the same price can contain completely different amounts and levels of work.
In this article, I explain what determines the cost of a press office, what my service actually includes, what remains outside the fee, and why I can start from that level without it meaning that the client receives less. I am approaching it with the kind of transparency I would want myself if I were on the other side, assessing an investment.
How much does hotel PR cost?
There is no universal rate card. The cost of hotel PR depends on who is actually doing the work, their level of senior experience, the structure behind them, the markets involved and the intensity of the activity required. The market includes very different models, from freelancers working within a relatively limited scope to structured agencies with larger teams and more complex organisations. With Press & Pillow, an ongoing mandate generally starts at around €1,600 per month, with no VAT currently added under Italy’s flat-rate tax regime. It is an indicative starting point: not a package applied to every client, but the level from which I build a proposal around the actual project.
Comparing two PR proposals by looking only at the final number is, however, one of the least useful ways to choose between them. And that is really what this article is about.
Why two PR proposals can represent very different things
A PR fee does not buy a number of press releases. It buys time, expertise, relationships and the ability to create editorial opportunities. That is why two proposals at exactly the same price can, in practice, represent two very different services.
When assessing a press office proposal, the number matters far less than what sits behind it: who will actually work on the account and with what experience, whether you will speak directly to that person or through an intermediary, how personalised the pitching is, whether follow-up is included, how journalist enquiries are handled, and how much strategic input and availability are part of the relationship. Two providers can charge the same amount and, in effect, be offering two completely different jobs.
There are also certain items that leave me slightly puzzled when I see them separated out in a proposal. An onboarding charge or an additional fee for setting up the press kit, as though preparing the basic tools needed to do the work were not part of the work itself. A fee based on the number of contacts, such as “we will approach up to one hundred journalists, and if you want one hundred and fifty it costs more”, as though contacting more people indiscriminately were an advantage rather than a problem. Or reporting billed separately, effectively asking the client to pay extra for the right to see the results of a service they are already paying for. In my way of working, these things are simply part of the service. Separating them can make the initial figure look lower while shifting the cost onto every additional activity.
What the ongoing Press & Pillow service includes
From the starting fee, a hotel receives an ongoing and comprehensive service designed to function as an external PR department, rather than as a supplier to whom press release distribution is delegated. In practical terms, that includes editorial strategy, media mapping, press releases, one-to-one personalised pitching, follow-up, management of all journalist requests including inbound enquiries when the hotel lists me as its press contact, strategic calls, identification and development of news angles, creation of the press kit, monitoring and reporting. Where the mandate includes international activity, the agreed markets form part of the scope of work: I do not apply a pay-per-country tariff every time another agreed market is approached.
The principle is simple: I become another member of your team. Someone who thinks about the property as though it were their own, who plans ahead with you and discusses strategic decisions, rather than an external service provider waiting for a brief before producing a report.
No artificial limit on press releases
There is no numerical ceiling on press releases, and I do not sell quotas such as “two releases per month, with the third charged separately”. A press release is written when there is genuinely something worth communicating — something that makes the hotel distinctive: a project connected to the local area, a seasonal initiative, a meaningful collaboration. It is not written for every small update. Adding one new cocktail to the menu is not necessarily news, and neither is organising a New Year’s Eve dinner simply because every hotel with a restaurant does the same. Weak press releases are not an additional service: they are a way of exhausting journalists’ attention. The right number is dictated by the project, not by a spreadsheet.
One point of contact, directly available
You always work directly with me. You can write to me or call me, including on WhatsApp, when you need to: I respond quickly and, in any case, we will have spoken within twenty-four hours. There is no allowance of “a certain number of calls or consultations” that suddenly runs out. The consultancy is continuous, much as it would be if you had someone dedicated inside the property. I genuinely like being involved in the strategy, thinking things through together and being able to say “yes, no, perhaps, let’s discuss it”. It is the part of the work I enjoy most, and I consider it part of the service, not an add-on.
The proactive — and often invisible — work
A large part of my work is invisible, and it does not depend on the client handing me a ready-made piece of news. Every day I read the articles being published by the titles and journalists that matter to a project, to understand what they are covering and to identify opportunities quickly: a feature on the best hotels for wellbeing, sleep or relaxation, for example, or the most beautiful panoramic pools in a particular destination. I look for an angle even when one is not immediately obvious, and I continually think about how something the hotel already offers can be reframed so that it becomes editorially relevant again. Keeping the client constantly within journalists’ field of vision is part of what eventually generates coverage. And that work happens within the fee, without anyone needing to ask for it.
What sits outside the fee: direct expenses
The only items outside the fee are direct expenses, and I think that should be clear from the beginning. There are three main categories: my own travel costs including transport, meals and accommodation, the travel and hospitality costs of journalists being hosted, and any photography production that may be required. I need strong imagery in order to do the work properly, but I am not a photographer: if a professional shoot is necessary, that is an external production cost.
These are not hidden costs and they never appear unexpectedly on an invoice. Everything is discussed and approved in advance, case by case. I almost always recommend an initial visit to the property, and there is a reason for that: ideally, I want to experience the hotel for a couple of nights. I communicate something far better when I have genuinely experienced it, and it also allows me to tell the client honestly what works and what, in my view, should be improved before inviting press attention. It is an expense, but it is also part of the quality of the work.
Why Press & Pillow starts at around €1,600 per month
I start from this level for structural reasons, not because I provide less. Press & Pillow was deliberately built as an independent and streamlined operation: I work directly on the projects myself, without the organisational layers and fixed costs of a larger structure. I come from demanding international environments, I specialise exclusively in hospitality, and that makes the way I work particularly efficient. Many of the costs that a larger organisation necessarily has to sustain and ultimately reflect in its fees simply do not exist within my model. I do not turn that difference into less work: I turn it into a different fee.
There is also an honest way of looking at the figure itself. €1,600 per month is a consultancy fee, not an employee salary: there are no employer contributions, no severance costs and no costs relating to holidays, sickness or a workstation for the hotel to carry. What the property receives is an external senior professional with more than nine years of experience and a background that includes Belmond in Portofino, at a cost that would be difficult for a hotel to replicate through even a much more junior internal hire once the full employment cost is considered. I do not say that to diminish anyone else’s role. I say it because it is the correct way to compare what is being spent with what is actually being received.
There is also a limit I impose deliberately: I work with a maximum of three ongoing clients at any one time. I am not one account amongst fifty. I choose to work with a small number of projects precisely so that each one receives genuine attention and a high-quality relationship.
What are you really buying with a PR fee?
With a PR fee, you are not buying a number of press releases. You are buying the certainty of having someone beside you who thinks about your hotel as though it were their own, who is available to discuss strategy and who works with you to develop the project over time.
A significant part of the value lies in what is not done. Knowing who not to contact matters enormously. If a journalist covers high-end hotel wellbeing, I will approach them when your hotel genuinely has a wellness proposition worth discussing; I will not flood them with stories that have nothing to do with their interests. Irrelevant pitching damages relationships, and relationships are the real capital of this profession. It is equally valuable to be able to tell a client “this story is not strong enough” instead of turning something into a press release that the media will simply ignore. A supplier whose business model depends on the number of distributions has very little incentive to tell you that. I do, because I measure my work by the quality of what is published, not by the quantity of what I send.
Does a lower fee mean lower value?
No, and the distinction matters. The fee is not lower because the work has been reduced. The model through which the work is delivered is different. In my case, less structure around the service means fewer costs to absorb — not less service for the client.
When a hotel tells me that another professional costs five hundred euros less, my answer is that senior experience has a value and should be paid for accordingly. With me, you have continuous consultancy, proactive pitching across the agreed markets, ongoing activity and the certainty that the person working on your project is thinking about it every day, not once a week. Choosing a press office purely on price is one of the worst ways to make the decision. It is a little like buying a ten-euro pair of shoes simply because they are cheap, then walking in discomfort until you eventually buy another, more expensive pair. The first ten euros may have seemed insignificant, but the real cost includes everything you had to buy again afterwards.
How I build a PR proposal — and why there are no standard packages
I do not offer standard packages and I never send a figure without first understanding the project. I study its actual scale and requirements, its objectives, how much activity would genuinely make sense, how much real news it is capable of generating, and whether I am being asked to support one property or several. Having worked inside hotels myself, I also understand how hospitality businesses think when allocating resources to communication. That helps me build a realistic proposal: one connected to the actual project and the results I want to help it achieve, rather than to a universal price list.
The starting fee rises when the work becomes more intensive. A high volume of news, frequent launches, several properties being managed in parallel, or a broader scope and level of expectation all require additional time. A project generating one strong story every week simply requires more work than one generating one meaningful story per month, and the fee reflects that. The number is therefore never arbitrary: it is an honest translation of the amount of work the project requires.
Which hotels are not the right fit for Press & Pillow?
I am not the right fit for everyone, and I would rather say that clearly. A very large hotel belonging to an international chain, with hundreds of rooms and a requirement to coordinate stories simultaneously across numerous markets, needs the structure of a large agency rather than an individual consultant. It is a different model for a different requirement, and I have written separately about when one model makes more sense than the other.
There is also a second, more delicate situation: a property that is not yet ready to expose itself to the press because the product or guest experience is not yet at the required level. In that situation, any PR fee would be money poorly spent, and my first recommendation would be to wait. I have written about this in When a Hospitality Property Is Not Ready for PR.
In summary
How much hotel PR costs depends far more on what sits inside the fee than on the figure at the bottom of the proposal. With Press & Pillow, an ongoing service starts at around €1,600 per month, with no VAT currently added under Italy’s flat-rate tax regime, for a senior, direct and continuous service where the competitive fee is the result of a streamlined model rather than reduced work. What you are buying is not a number of press releases, but an experienced professional who takes care of your hotel as though it were their own.
If you are comparing different PR proposals for your hotel, the most useful way to begin is with a conversation about the project. I will tell you frankly what scope of work would make sense, whether an ongoing PR relationship is genuinely necessary and what you can realistically expect from it. You can explore my PR and media relations services, read the frequently asked questions, or contact me directly.
Frequently asked questions
How much does hotel PR cost?
There is no universal fee: it depends on the seniority of the professional, the provider’s structure, the markets involved and the intensity of the work. The market includes very different models, from freelancers working within a relatively limited scope to structured agencies with larger teams and more complex organisations. With Press & Pillow, an ongoing service generally starts at around €1,600 per month, with no VAT currently added under Italy’s flat-rate tax regime, as an indicative starting point from which a proposal is built around the actual project.
What does the monthly Press & Pillow fee include?
Editorial strategy, media mapping, press releases without an artificial numerical limit, personalised pitching, follow-up, management of inbound journalist enquiries, strategic calls, identification of news angles, press kit creation, monitoring and reporting. Where the mandate includes international activity, the agreed markets form part of the scope of work without a pay-per-country tariff. Only direct expenses remain outside the fee, such as my travel costs, journalist hospitality and any required photography production, and these are always agreed in advance.
Is there a limit to the number of press releases?
No. I do not sell monthly quotas. A press release is written when the project produces a story that genuinely deserves to reach the media. Producing weak releases simply to fill a package is counterproductive because it consumes journalists’ attention.
Are press trips and travel costs included in the fee?
The organisation and management of a press trip form part of the work. Direct expenses do not: transport, meals and accommodation for me and for hosted journalists are separate and are always discussed and approved in advance. They are not hidden costs; they are simply clear boundaries around the fee.
Why does Press & Pillow start at around €1,600 per month?
Because of the structure of the model, not because the service has been reduced. Press & Pillow is deliberately independent and streamlined: I work directly on the projects without the organisational layers and fixed costs of a larger structure, and I specialise exclusively in hospitality. Costs that a larger organisation necessarily has to reflect in its fees simply do not exist in the same way here. It is senior consultancy without the employment costs of an internal resource, offered to a deliberately limited number of ongoing clients — no more than three at any one time.
Can a press office guarantee a certain number of articles?
No, and promises of a guaranteed number of editorial placements should be treated with caution. Media coverage is earned media: journalists remain free to decide whether and how they cover a story. A strong press office can create the conditions for coverage to happen and work to ensure that the resulting coverage is relevant and authoritative, but it cannot guarantee a precise number of articles.
