Why Facebook For Hotel Marketing?

If you are reading this I assume you have a good idea already. Let us have a look at a few reasons why hotel marketing using Facebook is something every small hotel owner should know.

1. Facebook has a very large reach. According to Statista.com, the number of users in India is projected to be over 400 million by 2023. That means India is Facebook’s largest user base. For you, as a hotel owner, access to this massive user base is critical.
2. It is Free. Why would you want to spend large sums of money marketing through less effective means?
3. Build your brand. Rely less on Online Travel Agents taking commissions for every order.
4. Powerful insights on Facebook Business Pages. You can get to know so much about your page. Page views, Post Reach, New Page Likes. This way you can plan your content on your page better.
5. Easy to use. You don’t need to be a digital marketing expert to make great decisions. You can also view your competition to see how they are doing or get ideas from.
6. Engage directly with your customers. Building great relationships is the key to your success. Answer queries and drive customer interest in your hotel or homestay.

Cover The Basics

Creating a great Facebook Business Page is not to be overlooked. Customers form their first opinion about your hotel, homestay, or accommodation based on the quality of their online experience. How you can ensure a great online experience is to cover the following.

1. High-quality cover photo. We do not mean you need to hire a professional photographer. Your cover photo should represent your business. It should be pleasing to look at. You can Google – How to take photographs. There is plenty of content online that will help you understand how professionals do it.
2. Contact Details. Ensure that customers can reach out to you easily. Update your phone number, the website where you can take bookings, and enable your chat feature.
3. Location. Most of your customers will often use maps to find your location. Ensure it is accurate.
4. Type of Business. Mention the type of accommodation you offer. Hotel, homestay, hostel, vacation rental, camping, and caravan are some easy identifiers you can use.

What Kind Of Posts Should I Put On My Hotel Facebook Page?

Once you have set up your hotel Facebook Business Page, you will need to create content for your followers. The key to a successful Facebook Page is to not focus on selling. We urge you to stay away from posting about offers and discounts. The lesser you do this the more popular your hotel’s Facebook Page will be.

You might think, everyone else is doing it and that you might lose out. You may think your offers will entice customers to book with you. We can tell you otherwise. Your audience on Facebook is not looking for offers. In fact, the opposite is true. They want to connect with brands and engage with the idea that your brand represents. They will often make a booking if you give them a great experience long before they step into your hotel. Even if they do not make a booking immediately, you are already on their mind.

You should be creating content often. The more engaged the follower, the better for you. Start small, you can bucket your posts into themes, and gauge your followers’ response to each theme.

Let us look at some content ideas for you to engage your customer.

1. Locations and activities nearby. You can consider this as one of the themes you can create content around. Think of using an image or short video instead of just text to describe the location or activity. Promote a great viewpoint, market, or trails for exploring. You can highlight events that occur around festivals that followers can attend instead of the very common post like- “Wishing you a happy festival.” Festivals are an opportunity to be different and be noticed.
2. Feature your food and beverage options. Food and beverage content is a popular topic to create content around. You get to showcase your brand and build a following. Stay away from general-themed content that talks about your cuisine. Be specific. Use photos or videos to great effect. Remember presentation matters so go the extra mile to make an impression with your followers. You can always Google – how to take photographs of food. This will help you take great photos.
3. Use appropriate hashtags. Hashtags and mentions are an effective way to generate more buzz around your post. When used correctly, you can reach a large set of followers that are interested in your content. We have often observed that some social media users use low-quality hashtags and often miss the point of their use.

Here are 4 steps to maximize your use of Hashtags

1. Search for your hashtag on the Facebook search bar and have a look at the results. High-quality hashtags will show up as more results and a lot of likes and comments.
2. Use free online tools like AllHashtag.com. Tools like this will let you search for relevant hashtags, analyze the amount of traffic each hashtag generates, and more.
3. Create new hashtags that your followers can use to mention you. #yourhotelname is a good example of this. Encourage followers to use the hashtag on their posts. This is especially useful if you plan to encourage user-generated content or promotions on your Facebook Page.
4. Research has shown using more hashtags generates the best relevant traffic. We recommend 10-15 for optimal coverage.
5. What is happening around you? Be personal. Take followers on a virtual tour of your business. Imagine your staff picking fresh herbs from the nearby garden, shopping for fresh fish, or new cutlery. Give your followers a glimpse of these kinds of activities showcases the care you take to drive a great customer experience.
6. Flora and Fauna. Showcase birds or interesting species around your hotel or homestay. Flowers and native plants are also popular topics you can explore.
7. Ask Questions. Get your followers to engage with you on Facebook. Ask them about their favorite dish when they visit your area or what they like to do in your area. You can do polls. Questions like how do you travel to get to your location or do you prefer a bus or a rental car to travel?
8. Drive user-generated content. Encourage your followers to tag you on their Facebook posts. Make sure you reply to their posts. Thank them for the post and invite them to come again. You can share such posts on your page as well. You can run contests for the most popular food posts. User-generated content is a useful way to keep followers engaged.
9. Testimonials. Share positive reviews with your followers. You can also use negative reviews if you can highlight how you delighted the customer with quality service and changed their minds.
10. Share Milestones. Share milestones with your followers and showcase your brand. You can post about being sold out for the New Year week and thank all the guests for choosing to celebrate the New Year with you.
11. Promotions. You can promote new additions to your hotel. New cuisine launches, introducing guides for nearby treks or events. You do not want to only talk about offers and discounts. Limit these kinds of posts. Promote other areas of your business instead and stand out from the competition.

We deliberately left out writing about Facebook Ads here for a few reasons. We find that driving followers through organic content through quality posts on your Facebook Page is a much more sustainable marketing strategy, especially for small and medium-sized accommodation businesses.

Setting up a successful Facebook Ads campaign can be a challenge if you are new to it. It may require hiring experienced digital marketing professionals. It should be part of your long-term strategy, however.

Would you like to find out about using Instagram for your hotel marketing? You can also find a lot of helpful content on our blog to help your business grow.

Feel free to contact us about our accommodation management software. We developed powerful software tools to modernize your accommodation business. We support hotels, homestays, hostels, vacation rentals, and many more.