This week I read a really interesting article published by Oracle and for today’s blog, I thought I would drill down on a couple of points that I found intriguing.
The article is interesting in the first part as it collates data from over 13,000 guests and 500 hotels and hospitality providers, so the spectrum is large enough to make the data stack up.
One of the main points made is how important social media is. We have all known for a very long time (and something I repeat often) is that it isn’t about what we want to tell our guests, it’s about what they want to learn for themselves from unbiased opinions, which in our case is past guests and their reviews. And where are these reviews? Well the first place we all think of is TripAdvisor, with maybe Booking.com review section coming a close second. But the interesting fact is that one of the main places we should be looking to gain a barometer of guest feedback, is YouTube.
43% of customers surveyed said that they would trust brands that were reviewed by YouTubers. Have you ever gone on to YouTube and searched for the video content that your customers leave? You definitely should. As hoteliers we should understand that guests are increasingly turning towards social media for advice and unbiased opinions and the impact that these channels have on our guests perception is only going to grow. Some interesting stats that the survey threw up:
- 57% of people are likely to research brands on social media before buying
- 56% are likely to share photo’s of hotels that stand out and provide an experience
- 48% are likely to feature the hotel on social media in exchange for an offer or reward
- 46% are likely to link social media activity to a rewards programme with automatic rewards for posts
