Social Media Impact on Hotel Revenue & Reputation

Social Media as a communication universe

More than sharing platforms, social media are incredible ways to communicate and touch people all over the world.

How many ways, and through which platforms, can social media reach/influence a hotel's individual guests?

Social media are clearly essential tools to take advantage of in the tourism & hospitality industry. First of all, social platforms are one of the best ways to communicate internationally. More than that, they are tools able to make people dream about a destination. In a word, they are THE perfect tool to reach people and communicate about a destination.

The most appropriate platforms are clearly Instagram & Youtube which are the most visual one. They are perfect tools to question & attract people to our destination.

Social media are now part of people's daily lives. In the tourism industry, guests are influenced everyday by the content of hotels and destinations, but also the one published by influencers specialized in travel (bloggers, Youtubers, Instagramers).

At which phase in the customer decision journey is social media communication most influential?

The  very essence of social media is to build and maintain an engaged community around the hotel's experience. In this sense, social media communication is actually the most influential after the stay, when the guest is more likely to become loyal to the hotel thanks to the community built around the concept.

In terms of customer decision journey, I think that social media are the most influential at the beginning of this journey because the main objective of social media is about communicating: make people know the hotel, love it, and book rooms.

Case study :  here are two example of two hotels' websites (Le Coq hotel and Jo&Joe)

Are their social media touchpoints optimized for mobile users?

As we can see, Le Coq Hotel offer the possibility to easily "join the community" by subscribing to the newsletter and sharing on social medias. The touchpoints are optimized for mobile users as the links are easily visibles.

Jo&Joe goes further by offering a special app, particularly made for the community, which makes it even more optimized for mobile users, obviously. 

What recommendations would I offer to improve the mobile user's social experience?

My recommendation to improve the mobile users' mobile experience would be to add a specific button so that people could share all these websites and platforms on their own social medias.