Social Media for hotels and resorts

Are you looking for how to use social media for hotels or resorts? It’s always challenging to take a hotel or resort to the next level. So why use social media as a medium to promote a hotel or resort business?

Well, you will find the answer here! An effective and simple social media marketing techniques can increase your hotel and resort bookings, returning clientele, and find exponential growth in your business.

Analyst firm Gartner estimates more than 80% of business growth in an enterprise with the use of social media tools.

Social Engagement via social media with your guests always helps to create more awareness of your hotel or resort and a being in touch feel for your potential guests. Thus, keeping that excitement alive for their next vacation.

In this article we’ll show you ways of using social media for hotels or resorts. Let’s begin!

Table of Contents

How to use social media for hotels and resorts

Knowing your Customer

Before the guest books your hotel or resort they will probably have done some research to pick the right hotel for them. Through Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Trip advisor you will find to influence how the guest perceives your hotel or resort before they book.

Determine what you offer, where you want to cater, what you want to convey. It’s important to set the goal right and spread it across all social media platforms.

Once you have narrowed the demographic, encourage your guests to “like” you on Facebook or “tweet” you on Twitter. Start offering rewards by offering discounts on products and services. If you find a guest as a travel blogger, it’s a good idea to ask them to write about his experience.

Perhaps you can motivate your staff to use social media to spread a word or two. It’s important how your staff feels about the place first and you will see the impact it has.

Facebook

Facebook is a place where we often share and people are more likely share with their connections all about their vacation pre and post-trip. So there is your chance to grab attention on how your hotel or resort will make their trip the best trip they’ve ever had.

You can excite your guests with some awesome pictures, offers, and links to your page about your hotel or resort. Here are some tips to create an awesome Facebook Page to get your new clientele and engage former ones:

Place an awesome Cover Photo – Add a cover photo wisely which depicts your uniqueness. This creates a Facebook Image and also the first thing that a Facebook visitor will look into.
Showcase as many pictures as possible – Use photos of the destination to create an idea of the vacation guests may experience. This will change based on the time of year; show them why you are awesome all the time.
Encourage your potential guests with a reason that they will have such a good time to visit your hotel.
Offers or promotions – Offer your guests with special discounts or coupons for Liking your Page. Encourage them by offering a next visit discount on the stay. Ask them to share with their friends to get a chance of getting extra benefits.
Customer relationship – Yes!! You could use this tool as customer relationship management to understand the client’s experience and as well as work on improvements. It’s all about sharing, understanding, and getting better.

LinkedIn is an amazing social media for businesses and professionals with steady growth each month, more people transferring their social lives from Facebook to LinkedIn. It’s safe to say that LinkedIn is now an important player in the social media sphere. Additionally, LinkedIn has integrated Lynda university, making it a perfect place to learn and study in a more sociable way.

+Add LinkedIn badge and button to your website. Share your on LinkedIn profile with people, and encourage them to add your hotel to their circles.
Content – Share good content, pictures of your hotel. Spread it in relevant groups, this should help in getting more targeted audience following you. Try to get as much engagement as possible on your posts. It helps in search engine ranking.

Instagram

Many don’t fancy using Instagram as a marketing tool, but it is a powerful marketing tool in its own way. It has proven results if utilized correctly. Hashtags being a key component in using Instagram

Trending Hashtags – Using trending Hashtags at a particular time can help more visitors by showcasing a special promotion or wedding event which would encourage guests to choose you instead of others. This will show how you can make their event special.
Niche Hashtags – Use niche Hashtags for let’s say if your hotel ‘’is located in a famous Bali beach”. You can use a specific tag such as #Balibeach. Potential guests will search for those location-based Hashtags when they plan for a specific location. This gives you an opportunity to place your hotel and resort right in front of them.

Also using popular landmark creates an excitement in tourists for the place they would visit.

Twitter

How will convey your message within 140 characters or less? Well, Twitter can! Twitter users share their experiences and prove to a referral gateway to expose what your hotel or resort has to offer.

But how?

Create a link for a promotional offer – Create an offer based on the plan of what you would like to offer, when and create a link and share it. Include some free incentives; give a meal coupon or a pass to visit the nearest museum
Event promotion – If you are not part of an event, well you can promote it. Share an event or special occasion in your city with an offer. Create excitement with the event information. It may be a weekend football or a hockey match.
Timing is important – People tend to be on social media platforms either during Breakfast, Lunch, or Dinner as that is the most ideal time. It is important to send out tweets when people are online and checking Twitter.

Tips: Utilize your 140 characters carefully as if you want someone to @mention or retweet there to need to be enough room to do this. So preferably do not use the full 140 characters.

Trip advisor

You find it all in Trip advisor where to go, who to stay with, what sites to visit. It is such a preferred tool used by travelers. Also, it offers the benefit of sharing opinions, pictures, reviews, and positive and negative comments on hotels and travel products.

Other features include enabling guests to search popular destinations or pick their own. Also, it has popularity or a rank list which includes your hotel and valuing your hotel among the other best in terms of services, friendliness, comfort, and luxury.

Always remember your strength and promote it. You may not be top of the list, but you can be in top for certain categories which you are good at. Be accurate, be competitive and ensure your guests get the best deal.

Foursquare:

Search is not restricted to PC users as the mobile phone has taken over it. One such important social media app is Foursquare. Foursquare users can just check-in into the hotel. They can simply tag, share their travel experience with friends and family. So here’s how you could use it.

Detailed information: List your business in Foursquare with lots of information such as descriptions, photos, web details, and complete the claim process.
Promotion: Offer something specifically for foursquare users who are more likely mobile travelers should be encouraged. ‘A discount of 10% on a 2-day booking’ would do a trick.
Regular update: Make sure your profile is up to date. Keep posting with promotional offers regularly while answering to guest’s comments if any.

Conclusion

Overall Social Media Platforms are an effective tool to engage, listen, and have a 360-degree view of the customer. Hopefully, this piece of information would have helped to get a better understanding of how to use social media effectively to market hotels and resorts. Perhaps there are other social media platforms such as Pinterest, Tumblr, Yelp, or YouTube video which isn’t discussed. It’s just important to choose the right platform and creating a strategy that works for you.

Consistently voted the world’s best hotel, The Burj Al Arab”7-star” hotel stands tall and proud on the Arabian Gulf. With a beautiful evening sky to complete this scene, it’s hard not to be impressed by its radical and flamboyant design.