Prompt Engineering 101: The Series, Episode 2

J. David Flagg

Published: March 22, 2025

In the boutique hospitality industry, effective AI usage begins with skillful prompt engineering, as we began to discuss in Episode 1 of this series. Again, prompting is part science and part art, in crafting specific instructions that yield valuable outputs. Prompt frameworks provide structured guidelines that help communicate your needs clearly to AI systems, ensuring relevant and contextual results.

For small hotels, motels, and B&Bs, this means generating:

• Polished marketing copy
• Personalized guest responses
• Operational checklists
• And much more!

Remember: The quality of AI responses directly reflects the quality of your prompts. Well-structured requests consistently outperform vague ones. Today, let’s focus on marketing and branding and the use of the AIDA framework:

AIDA Framework (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action)

How It Works: 🔄 The AIDA framework organizes marketing content into four strategic steps:

1. Attention – Grab potential guests with a compelling hook
2. Interest – Highlight features that matter most to your audience
3. Desire – Tap into guest aspirations or solve pain points
4. Action – Include a clear call-to-book or inquiry

This approach transforms generic hotel descriptions into mini marketing pitches that hook readers and inspire booking by providing a compelling Call-To-Action (CTA). Let’s introduce you to another important concept in the world of AI prompting, the Persona or Role.

Persona/Role Prompting 👤

How It Works: 🔄 This technique maintains brand voice by instructing ChatGPT to adopt specific roles:

• “Act as an experienced boutique hotel marketer”
• “Write as a brand strategist for luxury hospitality”

This represents the “Role” component in frameworks like RACE (Role, Action, Context, Expectation) and helps align AI output with your hotel’s unique personality, whether elegant and soothing for a spa resort or quirky and fun for a hip hostel. Think of this concept as giving your robot a personality, this may sound scary, but it isn’t that much different than parents providing proper example for their children.

When to Use These Frameworks ⏰

• Use AIDA for promotional materials (Facebook ads, email newsletters, brochures) to capture attention and drive booking actions
• Use Persona Prompting when brand consistency matters (About Us pages, press releases, anywhere that someone with a specific expertise would be valuable, for instance having a world-class chef teaching you how to cook Beef Wellington)
• Combine both to produce professional, on-brand, persuasive content even as a beginner and as you start to learn the “prompting” language your results will begin to amaze you.

Let’s look at some before and after prompts to provide you a clear illustration of the power of proper prompting. To help drive the point home even further, open up ChatGPT on your computer, tablet, or phone and copy in the Basic Prompt below, and then copy and paste the Enhanced Prompt using the AIDA framework, see how it works for yourself:

Prompt Examples: Before & After 📝

Basic Prompt (No Framework): “Write a Facebook post about our hotel’s new spa weekend offer.”

Result: A serviceable but plain post stating the offer without much engagement.

Enhanced Prompt (AIDA Framework):

“You are a marketing expert for a boutique spa hotel.

• Attention: Start with a catchy headline/question about stress or spa benefits
• Interest: Describe the spa weekend with enticing details about treatments and ambiance
• Desire: Explain the emotional benefits and include a testimonial
• Action: End with a strong call-to-action including urgency elements”

Result: A highly engaging post with:

• An attention-grabbing headline about self-care 💆‍♀️
• Vivid descriptions of mineral hot tubs and organic facials
• Emotional appeals about feeling renewed and radiant
• Compelling CTA with incentives and urgency 🤍

Now, you will likely notice both prompts are probably much better than you can do yourself, I am speaking for myself here, but the AIDA framework post is remarkably better! Next, let’s touch on one of my favorite uses of AI creativity, image enhancement.

Image Enhancement Tips 🖼️

While text models like ChatGPT don’t generate images directly they do interface with other image tools like DALL·E or Midjourney. However, ChatGPT can create some killer prompts for you to use in these tools directly.

Process:

1. Generate marketing text using frameworks
2. Ask ChatGPT to suggest an image prompt
3. Use structured image prompts specifying content (setting, subject) and style (lighting, mood)

Example Image Prompt: “Photo of a peaceful luxury spa setting at a boutique hotel: a woman in a white robe lounges by a rooftop hot tub at sunset, with candles and rose petals around. Warm, golden lighting, serene ambiance.” Try this prompt and see what you get. If you do not get what you were expecting, ask ChatGPT why and what can it produce. I think you will find this exercise enlightening.🌟

Reach out to Cape May AI to discuss any questions you may have, and 2025 may be your most-memorable year yet for your guests!

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