It's Not Your Marketing. It's Your Internal Communication (And How Tri Hita Karana Explains It)

Why the three pillars of sustainable hospitality fail at the same place: internal alignment.

Tri Hita Karana —'three causes of wellbeing' in Balinese— proposes that true prosperity arises from the balance between three fundamental relationships: with purpose, with people, and with nature. For your hospitality business, this isn't philosophy. It's strategy.

1. Purpose and Values (Parahyangan): The "Why"

I'm not talking about the mission statement hanging on the wall. It's the uncomfortable question: Why do we exist beyond generating profits? Businesses that connect with an authentic purpose —protecting an ecosystem, preserving a culinary tradition, revitalizing a community— create magnetic experiences - they can copy your posts, but not your essence. This is where your brand's soul resides.

2. Human Relationships (Pawongan): Your People, Your Asset

This includes employees, guests, suppliers, and crucially, the local community. Creating true partnerships. Hospitality stops being a service and becomes a genuine exchange. If you don't take care of your people, the guest will feel it. If your people aren't committed, so will they.

3. Harmony with Nature (Palemahan): Designing to Regenerate

This goes far beyond changing LED bulbs or reducing paper. It means designing operations that regenerate, not just minimize harm. Think about architecture that respects the environment or supply chains that turn sustainable local agriculture into a differentiator. I've been on projects where Zero Waste, so important for hotels with 200 rooms that generate daily amounts of food waste and garbage, betting on this means caring for the environment: people and nature in harmony.

On paper, this sounds logical. Even inspiring. But here's the problem: I know dozens of hotels and resorts that have these values printed in their mission statements, on their walls, even in their welcome dossiers. And still, they fail. Why? Because the three pillars don't collapse from lack of intention. They collapse from lack of alignment.

These three pillars always fail at the same place, and it's not a marketing problem.

When I arrive at a new consultancy, I dedicate 2 to 3 intense days conducting 1-on-1 interviews with each stakeholder. I ask them what they see, what frustrates them, but above all, what's the most valuable thing they know that nobody has asked them about. They have the best information about your business, but they're too busy putting out fires to use it. And there's problem number one: when you do a thousand things, you lose focus and what's important gets diluted.

When internal communication crumbles, everything else cascades down.

• Purpose becomes an empty poster.

• The relationship with guests becomes mechanical.

• Sustainability initiatives remain good intentions.

Tri Hita Karana shows us that you can't have harmony with your guests or with the environment if harmony doesn't exist internally first. The three relationships are inseparably intertwined.

The True Starting Point: Leadership and Communication

If there's one thing I know with certainty after years in this business, it's: Communication, Communication, Communication. So, before thinking about the marketing campaign or the green certification, ask your leadership strategy:

Does your team know and feel the company's purpose?

A year ago I worked with a boutique hotel that had a beautiful purpose: 'Reconnect people with authentic local culture.' When I interviewed the chef, he told me that none of his team knew what that meant in their day-to-day. Zero. But when I asked them what was the most special thing about working there, the chef told me: 'Here I go to the market every morning and choose the fresh ingredients. Guests ask me what each thing is and I tell them the stories the vendors tell me.' That was the purpose. He was living it without knowing it. The problem wasn't the mission. It was that nobody had made the connection.

If your purpose only lives on the website, it doesn't exist.

The other questions that matter

• Are there REAL communication channels where they feel heard, or just compliance meetings?

• Do you celebrate and elevate those who shine so they serve as examples and inspire the rest?

• And if someone isn't engaged: why? Sometimes you need the courage to let go of a rotten apple so the rest of the tree can flourish.

Real sustainability doesn't begin with a report. It begins with an honest conversation among your people.

So if any of this resonates, start here: this week, book 30 minutes with someone on your team you don't normally listen to. Not to solve anything. Just to ask: What's the most valuable thing you know that nobody has asked you?

You'll be surprised.

f you're running a hospitality business and this disconnect between mission and reality sounds familiar, that's exactly the gap I help bridge. I work with hotels, resorts, and wellness brands as their Chief Marketing Officer—building strategies that don't just look good on paper, they work because they're aligned from the inside out.

Want to talk about what that might look like for your business?
www.mariangomez.com