Abstract Despite there was significant increase in the corporate social responsibility (CSR) literature, in the last decade, little attention has been devoted to shed light on strategic CSR practices in the hospitality industry, especially in the context of developing countries. This paper uses a case‐study methodology to investigate the CSR practices of eight hotels in Santa Marta, Colombia. The results show that the hotel companies were implementing different CSR behaviors that can be classified as philanthropic‐reactive, legal‐reactive, and active groups. The findings revealed that their CSR activities were focused on adding value to their economic performance. This contribution implies that Individual improvement plans for each establishment and a CSR management model for the entire industry are proposed. The results have important theoretical and practical implications for academia and the hospitality industry. Future research should take into account more stakeholders and companies from other industries in the study area.