Travel trend small hotel should watch — Travellers on Facebook

Social media is shaping the travel industry.

Planning a trip with the high street travel agent is declining, replaced by travellers who crave more choice and fast results.

Travellers use Facebook throughout the entire holiday process — to research and book a trip, share snaps while away, and when they return.

We’re seeing a spike in the volume of travellers sharing their experiences through holiday stories and images.

Facebook has become a pivotal source of inspiration.

The pictures and check in notices users see on status updates from friends and family start to shape their travel plans. Many users even post updates to ask for holiday recommendations.

With this kind of activity, hotels must embrace the platform and be where their guests are.

Facebook and traveller stats

• 51% of travel brands found their direct bookings increased because of their presence on Facebook
• 1 in 6 travellers post status updates asking for travel recommendations
• 80% of travellers are more likely to book a trip from a friend liking a page rather than responding to a traditional Facebook ad
• 52% of Facebook users say their friends’ photos inspire their travel plans
• 42% of stories shared on Facebook timelines in 2012 were travel experiences
• 71% of travel brands on Facebook found they had better engagement and conversation with their customers
• 52% of travellers alter their travel plans based on the responses and activity on social media
• 23% of Facebook users check their account at least five times a day

How can hotels leverage this data?

Build your Facebook reviews

You should already be encouraging guests to review your hotel online, but are you putting too much focus on TripAdvisor?

TripAdvisor is a great place to start. But you should aim for an even spread across all your platforms, as travellers tend to search several websites when planning a trip.

And as we’ve already uncovered, Facebook is a major source of inspiration and verification. Travellers expect to see Facebook reviews. They build a potential guests’ confidence in your hotel.

When you ask guests for a review in your follow up emails, be sure to ask for a Facebook review and include a link to your page.

Create a contest

In the travel space, there are an overwhelming number of contests promoted on Facebook every year. But not all have the right concept to tie in with their business goals — to generate more bookings.

If you simply offer an enticing prize for liking your page, you may get many more likes, but it’s not as meaningful as it could be to your bottom line.

Those travellers may not align with your target market, or they could just be fancying their chances at a freebie.

The more unusual your contest and the more involved you make your participants, the more effective your results will be.

A better option could be creating a scavenger hunt in your area. Participants must like your page and tag four friends to enter. They could use an app to upload photos to social media when they find an item. And the prize could be winners who book a stay at your hotel win a free breakfast for 4.

This kind of outside the box thinking creates far more engagement and buzz around your hotel than the contests we’re used to seeing every day.

Post regular updates

It’s not enough to set up your Facebook page and be done with it.

Having only a few posts or many old posts can make you seem behind the times. You’ll lack the kind of transparency travellers seek and you’ll miss opportunities to engage your guests.

If you post regular updates to show what’s happening at your hotel with fresh photos of guests, you give browsers the reassurance and information they need to make a booking.

If potential guests see you don’t respond or have long periods of inactivity, this can also lead to cancellations.

In fact, a Media Bistro study revealed that 52% of travellers change their plans based on social media activity and responses.

Be sure to add new content to your Facebook page at least once a week with updates about your hotel, your guests, events and new images. Once a day would be better!

Facebook direct booking engine

We know Facebook is used heavily during the travellers’ research phase of planning a trip. We also know travellers favour companies who make the booking process quick and easy.

The less they’re required to do, the more likely they are to book.

When a browser lands on your Facebook page, you should give them the option to secure a booking directly from your page. A booking engine built into your Facebook page gives guests a super convenient way to book their stay without clicking on to your website.

A good property management system will already offer a Facebook plugin for travellers to book direct.

As Facebook is now a primary resource for eager travellers, hotels must use all available tactics and tools to optimise their pages.

Gather emails

With so many potential guests at your disposal on Facebook, this is a great opportunity to bring those interested guests into your world for the long-haul.

Getting them on your email list means you can reach out regularly with special offers and events.

MailChimp is great for adding a quick signup form directly onto your Facebook page. Your entire MailChimp account will be integrated with Facebook, and all signups are added to the MailChimp lists you’ve created.

You will then be able to send your newsletters and special offers to everyone on that list, whether they came from your website or your Facebook page.