The question that arises is which are the advantages that make the social media (tripadvisor, YouTube, facebook, twitter, Google+, pinterest, instagramm, LinkedIn) so important and irreplaceable in the marketing mix of every hotel company?
The Internet and the social media are the most important forces behind massive transformations in the hospitality and generally in the tourism industry the last years. In particular, social media are forever changing the way the hotel customers’ book, experience and evaluate the hotel properties around the world. Most of the hoteliers and especially the big companies, who possess the resources to do so, are paying attention to the above trend, employ staff, and organize departments geared towards the online channels and social media. Therefore, I find it very important to take a closer look and present their advantages and their pitfalls. This article uses articles, bibliography and firsthand experience to present some useful, I believe, insight to the subject.
The question that arises is which are the advantages that make the social media (tripadvisor, YouTube, facebook, twitter, Google+, pinterest, instagramm, LinkedIn) so important and irreplaceable in the marketing mix of every hotel company?
First of all, social media is a great way for companies to get to know their prospective and current guests better. With the boundaries of the private space having been knocked down people are posting, writing about their likes, dislikes, wants and needs and the company can observe and identify needs for new products and services or new ways to target its clientele. But here lies a danger for the company to believe that it can depend entirely on them in order to come up with new products or services. This can be proven wrong since social media is not representative of all groups of people. For example, even though Facebook remains the most popular with 1,35 billion users (www.didit.com/global web index Q3,2014/What-we-learned-in-social-media-2014, 22/01/2015) there are others such as pinterest with growing popularity. According to an article by Bob Hutchins (founder of buzz planet) on LinkedIn (“where social media users go 2016”, 22/01/2015) Facebook grows and shrinks at opposite ends of the demographic spectrum. This means that the 65+ age group is growing and the 18-24 age group is slightly shrinking. They do not leave the social media entirely but they shift to other ones such as snapchat.
Therefore, it is important for the hotel companies to use social media as another source of information for its clientele and not depend entirely on them. For example, the face to face encounter and chat with guests can give us a more rounded, in depth knowledge of what guests are looking for without exposing our shortcomings publicly. From personal experience I can tell that many guests are more than happy to share feedback on a relaxed informal way while checking out from the hotel. Also by talking to guests in person we can identify our key customers (e.g. repeaters), or key group of people and ask their opinion.
Social media is also important in managing the image and reputation of the company. The company through them has a large reach to big audiences in a relatively cost effective way. Here it is important for the company to choose carefully which ones to use and how. It is also important to keep a close look to what is said or written online that affects the company directly or indirectly. We all know how hard it is for a company to build its image and reputation and how easy it is to destroy it in today’s online reality. A photograph or a negative comment on trip advisor for example can affect both greatly.
The company can do some simple things in order to improve/maintain its good image/reputation. For example a professional photographer can be hired in order to take professional photos of the property and then to upload them on tripadvisor. Also making promotional videos and uploading them on YouTube is a great way to boost its image.
YouTube has the highest visitation rate and 85% of online users visit it every month (global web index report, Q3, 2014). Moreover, it can create its own YouTube channel and regularly upload videos. By doing so it improves the image as well as boosts the engagement rate. According to a recent trip advisor survey (www.tripadvisor.com/TripAdvisorInsights/bookings-and-traveler-engagement-driven-management, 22/01/2015) in the 25 most reviewed cities by accommodation, merely having one photo of the property increases engagement by 138% and that leads to more reservations for the property. Another important aspect in maintaining high levels of reputation and image is the rapid and effective respond rates. According to the same survey responding to at least 50% of guest comments increases the likelihood to receive a booking by 24%. Additionally, it gives the company the chance to respond to a negative review or comment and provide its side of the story. Thus, for prospective customers this signifies that the company is looking after its guests and places great importance on their opinions and comments. The company in such cases can outsource its management responses if there is not enough staff to do so in house.
On the other hand, the hotel should not wait until a negative comment appears on a social media platform or a forum. In that case we are talking about damage repair and not reputation building. It should take all possible measures in order to prevent that because even an unjustified or unfair comment could potentially deter prospective customers booking with the hotel. In some cases there are customers that blackmail hotels to get something extra in exchange of a good comment or by refraining themselves from writing a negative one. It is estimated (www.bostonglobe.com/business/2013/09/24/fake-online-reviews-proliferate-fraud-detection-efforts-grow, 22/01/2015) that one third of all online reviews are fake. The company should work closely with social media platforms to minimize the impacts of these practices since it is very difficult to eliminate them.
There are also two more points I would like to make with this article. The hotel industry should bear in mind that the majority of people do not write comments at all on the social media. This is because either they are not familiar with them or because their experience was mediocre and they do not have something memorable to share with others. This is also a clientele that the company should pay attention to. Usually guests leave comments either because they are very happy or very unhappy with their hotel experience. I am sure that all of us at some point felt like this for a hotel experience we had. These are guests that do not make comments either online or offline but they do not intend to come back to the property which leads to lost future revenue.
Also the hotel faces the danger to confuse usual complaints with serious ones. Due to the fact that we do not have the guest in front of us in order to have an in depth conversation with them we do not know how serious this problem was for the particular guest. We need to contact them in order to get an idea. The serious complaints could deter the guest from coming back in contrast with the usual ones. For example, a mini bar fridge malfunctioning is not as serious as a rude front office employee.
To conclude, we should stress out that social media is here to stay and it is not a temporary trend. There are also trends such as the multi-networking 91% of 16-64 year olds (global web index, Q3, 2014, 23/01/2015) have visited Facebook, Twitter, Google+ in the past month and also mobile phones are rising rapidly to becoming the first choice device for social behavior (40% already use mobiles to login to a social network platform).
Therefore, individual hotelier’s, as well big hotel groups, should pay attention to the social media platforms; however, not at the expense of the other channels. The human touch is an irreplaceable way to connect with the guests and turn them into long lasting customers of our hotel.
