Brand asset sharing for hotel groups without a full DAM
A simple brand asset sharing workflow for hotel groups, resorts and property agencies: one brand page per brand, folders per property, file requests for guest photos, expiring links and a checklist.
Brand asset sharing is the job of getting the right logo, photo or font to the right property team or agency, and keeping old copies from circulating. For a hotel group, resort or property management agency, you can run it with one brand page per brand, a folder per property, a file request for incoming photos and links that expire. You do not need a full digital asset management (DAM) system to start.
This article gives you a workflow in four stages and a checklist at the end. If you want the basics of what belongs in a brand kit first, read brand asset management for small business. Here the focus is many properties, many partners and a steady flow of photos.
Why sharing brand assets across properties goes wrong
The pattern is familiar. A logo goes out in an email thread, a property manager saves it to a desktop, and an outside agency keeps its own copy of last year's fonts. Six months later three properties use three versions of the logo, and nobody knows which photo of the pool is cleared for use.
The fix is not more rules. It is one place that holds the latest version, a clear way to hand it to people, and a way to take access back. The four stages below do exactly that.
Stage 1: Prepare one brand page per brand
Start with the source of truth. Create one brand page for each brand in your group, holding logos, colours, fonts and approved images. In Tarkle you open Brands, start a new brand and work through the steps: About, Logos, Colors, Fonts, Assets, SEO, Links and Privacy. The Privacy step is where you choose who can see the brand, including selected client organizations and contacts.
Add a short brand story and your usage rules where the guidelines belong: how much clear space a logo needs, which colours are allowed on photography, which fonts are for print and which for web. Rules that sit next to the files get read. Rules in a separate PDF do not.
Keep the approved photo set small and up to date. Thirty photos that are cleared for use beat three hundred that nobody has checked.
If your group has one master brand and several sub-brands, make a brand page for each, so a partner working on one property never has to guess which logo applies.
Stage 2: Organise folders by property
A brand page is the showcase for your assets. Behind it you still need working files: full-resolution photos, campaign material, seasonal menus. Set up folders with a clear pattern, for example brand first, then property, then type of file. Keep the names plain enough that a new starter finds things without asking.
Tarkle has no separate "property" object, so the property is simply a folder in your structure. That is fine for a small or mid-sized group, and it keeps the system easy to explain. Where several teams work in one organization, team folders give each team its own space.
Name every share link after its recipient, such as the property or agency name. When one partner leaves, you can switch off that one link without breaking anyone else's.
Stage 3: Deliver to property teams and outside agencies
Send each property team and each agency its own link to the files it needs, rather than one link for everyone. You can limit access to a single client organization, put a password on a transfer, and send the password through a different channel from the link. Recipients can open or download without creating an account, which matters when a seasonal agency needs files today.
Use a view-only transfer when someone needs to look at material but should not take a copy, such as a draft campaign shown to a regional manager.
Get photos and content back with a file request
Guest photos, updated property images and agency deliveries come back through a file request. You write the instructions, pick the destination folder, and send one link. Uploaders do not need an account, and you can turn on an email for each upload. Each request creates its own sub-folder under the destination, named after the request title, so a "Spring guest photos" request stays separate from "Spa menu update".
Use the instructions to say what you want and how it may be used: the type of photos, the file size, who may appear in them, and what you will do with them. You can also close a request on a date and cap how much each person uploads, with request deadlines and limits. On the Free plan you can have one active file request at a time, and Pro lifts that limit.
Guest photos can show children or reveal health or religious details. Write your own consent wording, ask your legal adviser to review it, and put it in the request instructions. Tarkle delivers the files. It does not make a use of someone's photo lawful, and you confirm you have the rights to share what you upload.
Stage 4: Control access and end it cleanly
Access should have an end date. Set link expiration on transfers and file requests so a link stops working after a campaign or season. When an agency contract ends or a property changes hands, revoke access by disabling the link in one click.
Then check what happened. Transfer status shows whether a transfer was delivered, viewed or downloaded, so you know whether the new property team actually opened the brand files. Do this review after each campaign and twice a year for old links.
Checklist: brand asset sharing without a DAM
One brand page per brand, with logos, colours, fonts, approved images and short usage rules.
One folder per brand, then per property, with plain names.
One share link per property team and per outside agency, named after the recipient.
A password on any link that holds unreleased material, sent separately from the link.
An expiry date on one-off transfers and on every file request link.
A file request for each recurring return, with instructions, a destination folder and a deadline.
Your own consent wording in the instructions for guest photos, reviewed by your legal adviser.
A twice-yearly check of live links, with revocation for any partner who has left.
When a full DAM is the better choice
This workflow suits a group with a manageable library and a small marketing team. A full DAM is the better fit when you manage a very large library, need multi-step approval workflows before anything is published, or must track usage rights and licence dates per image. Tarkle does not offer those, and it is better to know that before you build around it. If you are weighing a dedicated tool, see do you need a full asset manager.
Set this up today
Create a brand page for your main brand and add logos, colours, fonts and ten approved photos.
Build the folder pattern for one property and move its files in.
Send that property team its own link, with an expiry date.
Create one file request for guest photos, with consent wording in the instructions.
Put a review date in the calendar to check live links.
You can try all of this on the Free plan. Start for free and build your first brand page.