The tourism industry is one of the industries most influenced by User Generated Content (UGC). Social network/social media is one of the largest used influencers and the hotel factory recommends using them in order to generate a substantial increases of incomes.
One of the industries most influenced by User Generated Content (UGC) is the tourism industry. Nowadays travellers take opinions of other travellers into account during the decision making period when choosing a destination to spend their holidays. A study among millennials carried out by Crowdtap, confirms that 45% of the respondents resort to websites with UGC to plan their vacation. This content’s format can vary depending on the sender and the receiving part, but it’s equally important whether it’s for a hotel chain or an independent hotel.
One of the most viewed sources of UGC is social network, for this reason hoteliers have incorporated jobs and activities focused on the virtual world. One of the trends that has had higher social impact is giving guests the power to create and personalize their stay. Some examples of this trend are the Tres Reyes hotel in Pamplona (Navarra), which allows social media users to choose the room they like the most and would like to stay in, between 3 model rooms. This promotional campaign is being carried out on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to reach a high media coverage. The Spanish hotel chain Hotusa also joined this trend by creating a competition between the best designers in order to design hotel spaces. More than 15 countries around the world participated in this contest providing innovative ideas.
The biggest international hotel chains have added a section on their website that allows their guests to upload pictures through instagram, contributing in the definition of a hotel’s concept and in sharing experiences and opinions. The American hotel company Starwood Hotels & Resorts, that has recently been acquired by Marriott, has created it’s own hashtag #SPGlife that obtains around 40.000 images per month from their 1.100 properties. On the other hand, the also American company Four Seasons took an extra step and created a board on Pinterest called “Pin.Pack.Go” where users can save pins of their perfect vacation at a specific destination and a concierge from Four Seasons comes in contact with this user in order to make their dream vacation come true.
The increase of traffic in a hotel’s website is highly linked to an increase in sales due to a greater exposure generated by targeting new audiences that are hard to be reached by other means. Social media campaigns are also less costly for a hotel, compared to traditional advertising campaigns that require different resources.
Another example of an interactive hotel is the 1.888 Darling Harbour hotel in Sidney, Australia. This hotel has been specifically created for instagrammers, featuring a variety of spaces where guests can take pictures to upload on Instagram. Their aim is to capture the attention of guests, preferably Millennials and the Z Generation. In order to attract this “tech-savvy” market, the hotel offers a free stay to those guests that have more than 10.000 followers on instagram and has also created it’s own hashtag #1888hotel so that instagram users can upload their pictures and automatically display them at the hotel’s reception screens.
A national pioneer is Melia Hotels International. At the Sol Wave House in Mallorca they have created the Twitter Concierge and themed the hotel following Twitter’s design. Guests can check-in their rooms or ask for room-service on twitter, by simply adding a hashtag specifically created for this purpose.
Andy Stalman, professor and author of the book “HumanOffOn, states “they say that the devil lies in the details. There are diabolical details and others that are diabolically creative”, referring to his stay at the 101 Park House in Bogota, Columbia. The customisation of your stay reaches a whole new dimension at this hotel, including: a deep research of information of future guests before their arrival in order to manufacture smart details with their names, career, favourite books, dreamed vacations, etc.
At the hotel factory we highly recommend an active participation on social media in order to increase media coverage of a hotel. In a growing and fast developing industry it’s crucial to be aware of the importance of being up to date in all social media related fields and its applications, and how it can become a source of income for companies.
