Hotel Use of Social Media

It is the current "hot topic", so we thought we would find out what was really happening at the moment in the hotel sector.  Through May and June we undertook some research into how hotels are using social media, with some interesting results.

• Half the respondents to the survey were independent hotels, with half being hotel groups
• 90% are using Facebook, which suggests a pre-disposition of the respondents towards social media.  But saying that, only 65% are using Twitter, 27% YouTube and then only single figure mentions for LinkedIn, Foursquare and Flickr.  So perhaps the majority of hotels are seeing Facebook and Twitter as their only foray into Social Media, without considering the wider channels.  Interestingly, no respondents mentioned TripAdvisor, perhaps not considering it as a social media channel ?
• 8% of respondents are using no social media sites at all
• 40% are updating content once per week, 25% taking it more seriously and updating daily
• 73% are handling social media in house, with 27% outsourcing it to an external agency
• Of those handling it in house, 39% is managed by the hotel owner or GM, 45% by the sales and marketing functions, with other mentions for Reception, F&B and other Operations teams.  Only one respondent had a "Social Media Manager"
• 17% allocated no budget to social media marketing, with 52% spending up to £2,000 per annum.  The hotel groups obviously are spending more than the independent hotels
• 87% are spending less than 2 hours per week on social media marketing
• 35% are not measuring how much revenue can be attributed to leads or referrals from social media sites.  But 43% state it is contributing up to 5% of revenues, with 8% saying no revenue is being generated

To sum up, it seems that hotels are still testing and trialing, perhaps only scratching the surface of the opportunities that may exist in the social media arena.  With it mostly being handled in house, perhaps opportunities are being missed both in terms of managing the main channels professionally, but also broadening the coverage to use more channels.  There is some spend from marketing budgets, but perhaps not enough measuring of the results and generally a reluctance to get expert support.

When respondents were asked to agree or disagree with a few statements, these perhaps give some interesting insight into the current attitudes :

• We think Social Network sites are important but don't understand how to market through them (30% agreed)
• We only play at it, but could make more of it (43% agreed)
• We do all we should to market effectively through Social Network sites (26% agreed)
• We should be spending more time marketing on Social Network sites (35% agreed)
• We should be getting professional support with our Social Network site marketing (13% agreed)
• Social Network sites are a "nice to have" but won't generate any more revenue for the hotel (9% agreed)
• Social network sites will be a key part of my customer marketing plan next year (48% agreed)
• Social Network sites will not be around in 3 years time, so we don't need to bother (4% agreed)

It is encouraging that the respondents recognised the need to take social media seriously and look to spend more time and effort communicating through these channels.  Perhaps there is still an opportunity for those who trial and test it and find out how to use the media successfully, to put themselves at a competitive advantage ?

There are also a few interesting insights into this topic in a recent article on HotelBusiness.com.  Click Here to take a look.

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