Hoteliers remain sceptical of social media as a bookings driver and prefer traditional offline strategies such as corporate sales calls to build business. A study by Ecole hoteliere de Lausanne and Rate Tiger found that only one in eight hotels use any form of social media as a marketing tool.
“We found that hotels just don’t see the true revenue value in social networks, opting for more traditional methods to engage customers,” said Horatiu Tudori, Senior Lecturer, Revenue Management at Ecole hoteliere de Lausanne.
He said hoteliers saw much better value in chasing corporate or developing loyalty and value to encourage greater repeat business.
“This is an interesting turn around from the unbalanced and heavily online-focused sales strategies of the past few years, which are not bringing the yields independent hotels need right now.”
The survey interviewed 72 hoteliers from France, German, Spain, UK and the USA.
Something marketers need to realize is that the hospitality business is based on the fundamental need of PERSONAL service. Facebook requires monitoring. That requires a body. That is a frivolous waste. Social media is exactly that. Social. Were are in business to serve and meet our guests needs. Not to waste time on the internet. We tried this once and polled our guests (some had their own input) and ALL prefer the one on one personal approach. Even with web based reservations. We do have a booking engine but we state on our site that we prefer call ins to ensure that ALL the guests needs are met. It seems that people forget what we are in business for and that is to serve our guests. Social media is to socialize, and that stands apart from business. Unless, of course, your the type that would take advantage of your own grandmother.