That’s why social media has become one of the most important tools when it comes to promoting hotels and generating engagement with guests. So if you also want to increase your visibility on social media and get an increase in occupancy at your hotel, take a look at what these chains are doing on their social platforms to inspire travelers. Here are three examples of the best social media strategies for hotels.
Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts
This is one of the best known hotel chains worldwide with 99 hotels in 41 countries. Four Seasons is present on various social media platforms. In fact, they have a presence on Facebook (with almost 424,000 Likes), Twitter (224,000 followers), Instagram (292,000 followers) also on Google+, LinkedIn (330 236 followers) and YouTube.
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Through its different accounts, Four Seasons provides attractive and engaging content. In fact, on the one hand, this chain shares content such as promotions for restaurants and the spa. And, on the other hand, it shares memorable images taken by guests. For example, on its Instagram account, Four Seasons shares photos posted by guests on their own Instagram accounts with its special hashtag (#FourSeasons).
When this hotel chain shares a photo it always thanks the guest who posted it by saying for example “Thank you (person’s username) for sharing (specific moment) from (specific Four Seasons hotel, from where the photo was taken) with #FourSeasons “. A basic structure that also makes the user and the hotel connected and involved in the networks.
Engagement and valuable content is what customers and prospects are really looking for. And where they spend most of their time online is on social networks. For this reason, the focus should remain on these platforms and be part of the conversation, as Four Seasons does. Because do you really want to lose the opportunity to gain more customers?
RIU Hotels and Resorts
This second chain has 105 hotels in 19 countries. RIU is also on the top six social media platforms with a large community on Facebook (969,356 Likes). It is also present on Twitter (50,000 followers), Instagram (50,000), Google (160,114), LinkedIn and YouTube.
On Facebook, they reply to each and every comment with a very personalized response. Even when a comment is not posted in order to get a response, the RIU marketing team has a reply, even if it is just to thank the user for their comment. They also encourage users to go to their hotels by saying things like “we would be delighted to have you”, when they comment that they are delighted with this hotel chain, they encourage these users to share which is their favorite hotel.
On the other hand, when newlywed users comment that they are going to spend their honeymoon at one of their hotels, the marketing team asks them to share their best photos with them. And in general they are very engaged and interact a lot with their guests and their Likes, using kind words and emoticons. They also provide a different response to different comments and the response is always friendly.
As you can see personalization is a must when it comes to social media conversations. If you thought it was as easy as using the same answer for each one, you were wrong. If it were the other way around, you wouldn’t like an answer the same as another user’s either. Wouldn’t you appreciate it if, if they read a comment from you, the response was genuine?
Barceló Hotels and Resorts
The latest example is this chain with more than 100 hotels in 18 countries. Barceló has an account on Facebook (194,855 Likes), Twitter (173,000 followers), Instagram (22,700 followers,) LinkedIn (29,729 followers), as well as Google+ and YouTube.
The marketing team mainly uses Facebook and Twitter pages for the promotion of the hotels, showing images of their swimming pools, bars… However, they use their Instagram page differently. For example, they republish photos of their guests and thank them for their stay at the hotel. Or they simply repost the photo using the text from these customers and adding some hashtags and some text and then share the photo, again thanking the customer for uploading it. In both cases, always point to the customer, which is a way of showing that they are grateful for the images and happy that their customers are enjoying their stay in their hotels.
This shows that your hotel or chain can leverage each platform differently. You don’t have to share exactly the same content on all social networks. You can use them for different purposes as Barceló is doing and benefit from user-generated content when you share it. You can be creative and not limit the way in which both your hotel and your users create content.
