Hotel marketing is all about opening up as many channels of communication as possible. Social media is a very important component of this strategy, and Facebook is often the lynchpin to success. As a case study, let’s take a look at the Indigo Pearl resort in Phuket. They have grown their online bookings from 10 percent last year to almost half of all bookings this year. They accomplished this in part by growing their Facebook presence to the point where they have over 8,000 followers, which is a phenomenal number for an independent luxury hotel in Thailand.
The sales manager of the hotel, Michael Nurbatlain, took on the additional role of digital marketing manager, and quickly dove into e-commerce and social media outlets. Michael chose to concentrate on Facebook, which is very predominant in Asia, as opposed to Twitter which is just coming into its own there. His task was to engage more fans of the hotel The Indigo Pearl is an opulent resort catering to rich travelers such as executives, physicians and hedge fund managers. Michael chose a beautiful photo of the pristine waters surrounding the hotel to adorn his Facebook landing page. He encouraged participation on his Facebook Wall by numerous postings, many tied to contests or other attractive hooks.
The hotel uses lots of photos and videos on Facebook. Besides posting many on the Wall, others were set up in separate albums to highlight contests, colorful residents and staff profiles. They set aside a separate integrated page just for Twitter updates. Perhaps most crucial of all, the hotel set up a booking engine in Facebook. It allows potential guests to pick their check-in and check-out dates, the number of guests, and any promotional codes. The booking page displays important information about seasonal discounts and discounts for booking over 30 days in advance. You can even sign up for a newsletter. The booking page also prominently ties in hotel partners, such as Air France and Avis.
Michael has found that promotions are a key to increased sales. For instance, he set up a photo contest to see what images people would submit that best exemplify the hotel. Fan posted and voted on photos. This generated a few hundred new fans, but this wasn’t good enough for Michael. So this year he set up a contest in which participants designed their dream three-day holiday package for Phuket. Rules on submissions were lax, to encourage maximum participation. The promotion took off, and required its own album page to handle the volume of photos sent in. The winner won seven nights in one of the hotel’s suites. Michael thinks there should be several prizes available to spark greater interest. He made sure he interacted with every participant, even if it was only to tweet a thank-you.