Hotels turn to social media

As social media is constantly evolving, hotels are trying to come up with new and innovative ways to stay connected with their guests. Here are three interesting examples of how business and leisure hotels are trying to tap into the ever-growing popularity of social media.

The Twitter hotel

In Spain, Meliá Hotels launched its @SolWaveHouse Hotel on the island of Mallorca as the first ever ‘twitter experience hotel’ in the world. The hotel tries to facilitate interaction among social media-savvy customers and stimulate a ‘buzz’ among guests. In the hotel, you can join the #SocialWave and share your best moments with the community. Or connect to the Tweet Concierge, he is only a tweet away!

The Instagram hotel

1888 Hotel in Sydney, Australia, has introduced social media into the overall guest experience. The hotel integrated Instagram into both the property itself as well as marketing the right audience. A nice touch is that anyone with more than 10,000 followers on Instagram stays at this hotel free of charge. The hotel is a true ‘Instagram hotel’, as guests are greeted by a revolving digital mural of Instagram images as they enter the lobby. Also, guests are invited to stand in front of an open frame hanging in the lobby and make a selfie. The hotel’s guestrooms are also decorated with Instagram photos. For this purpose, over a hundred Instagram photos were submitted by guests.

Tweet hotel guests: come to Hawaii

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Hawaii held a Tweetup – a gathering of Twitter fans. Not in Hawaii but at The W Los Angeles Hotel in Westwood, another Starwood property, using Twtvite to draw attendees and shared the event on Twitter with the event hashtag, #luwow. The meetup offered games and giveaways; anyone attending could win three-night stays at a few of the Hawaii hotels. The best thing about this social media marketing approach is that guests left the event as brand ambassadors, talking about the prizes and the gathering on social media…

Image by 1888hotel.com.au