Imagine your hotel getting an enormous surge in visiblity after someone posts about it online. Suddenly, your property is reaching a massive audience—an audience that’s already interested in travel and hospitality. The impact? More eyes on your brand, more interest, and more bookings.
On the contrary, traditional marketing is limited to a much smaller audience. Nowadays, when most people spend their time on social media, isn’t it favourable for one to meet them in the right place?
Now, imagine if this experience is being brought to your audience in their socials by a well-known travel influencer through stunning visuals/videos and personal experiences of their stay. The impact is almost immediate- potential consumers can see and feel the experience as if they are present right there and then. Now consider the amount of influence and power it holds for the hotel’s prospective consumers. It’s gigantic!
Now, let me tell you about the partnership between this luxurious hotel and famous travel influencers, Bruised Passports, to help you understand the importance of Influencer marketing for hotels.
Bruised Passports documented their entire experience, including the hotel’s exquisite beauty and exceptional service. They shared it on their social media through Instagram posts and stories, which reached millions of their followers.
This kind of influencer marketing is imperative for the hospitality industry because it brings such hotel experiences to life in a way conventional ads cannot. When potential guests see real people among them enjoying their stay, it builds trust and makes them compelled to choose that hotel for their adventures.
Back to the example, what was the outcome of the campaign?
Leela Palace Udaipur saw an upswing in reservations and inquiries and gained thousands of social media followers.
This is the influence of influencer marketing, which can no longer be considered an ‘option’ but a necessity in the hospitality business. For that reason, hotels are now using influencers to make their brands more humanized and engage potential customers meaningfully in the age of digital marketing, which greatly improves visibility for hotels, increases trustworthiness and ultimately leads to more bookings.
For that matter, this blog will address influencer marketing in the hotel industry, including its increasing importance, effective strategies, and examples from real life.
If you own a hotel or work as a marketer in the hospitality industry, this guide will help you comprehend how best to use influencer marketing for hotels to drive more reservations, enhance brand presence and create unforgettable moments for guests.
Why Should Hotels Do Influencer Marketing?
Hotels have realized that leveraging travel or lifestyle creators can significantly impact their reach and engagement. In this setup, influencers act as a mutual connection between hotels and their potential guests. Their endorsements, often seen as personal recommendations, build trust and can influence their followers' decisions to a great extent.
But let’s break it down and understand 5 reasons why hotels should do influencer marketing.
1. Personalized Experience
As we, as consumers, proceed further into the digital world, we are looking for more unique experiences. Consumers have grown weary of ads like billboards trying to pique their interest just by the looks of it. What they want is something that appears as if made personally for them. This is what influencers can provide- a personal touch!
Considering that a lifestyle influencer posts about a hotel stay, it turns into a recommendation more than a typical ad. As a result, potential customers visualize themselves having the same experience, thus becoming more inclined towards booking the hotel in question.
Therefore, through influencer marketing hotels can provide relatable content that meets current expectations of the customers.
2. Brand Exposure
Influencer marketing helps hotels and hospitality businesses reach wider audiences beyond their existing customers. As travel and lifestyle influencers usually have a similar target audience as your hotels, it’ll be easier for you to place your property in front of those guests who are otherwise not aware of it.
You can locate new and relevant audiences by partnering with pertinent influencers who will showcase your property’s stunning aesthetics as well as top-notch services in an engaging yet entertaining way.
3. Exclusive and Realistic Insights
Influencer marketing gives the audience the image that the influencers are experiencing the same and are comfortable enough to share the positive aspects such as the comfort of the rooms, beauty of the environment or quality of the food. This kind of content appears to be more credible because it has been delivered by someone who has been there before.
From the perspectives of potential guests, these views give them a better understanding of what is awaiting them, which in return makes the decision to book a stay stronger. These realistic and personal glimpses from influencers build trust and provoke a genuine interest in visiting the said property.
The hospitality sector has embraced influencer marketing with open arms, as it aims to create unforgettable memories. Today, influencer marketing has moved from the periphery of the hotel industry to become a strong and effective mode of word-of-mouth advertisement.
Thus, it’s time for us to dig deeper and analyse the roles of travel and lifestyle influencers in the hospitality market.
Ways to Use Influencer Marketing for Hotels
Micro-Influencers for Personalised Touch
Utilise the power of micro-influencers with highly engaged followers to create a personalised touch. These influencers may have a smaller audience, but their loyal and dedicated followers often have a strong connection with them. Collaborating with micro-influencers allows hotels to tap into their authenticity and relatability, effectively reaching a targeted audience.
Host Influencer Events for Buzz and Reach
Influencer events generate excitement that attracts many people. You can get several influencers into your hotel to experience it first-hand, taking fascinating pictures. This will give those influencers an opportunity to indulge themselves in all aspects of your hotel so they can share their true stories with their followers. It drums up interest and generates excitement around the hotel.
Collaborate for Sponsored Content, Contests, and Giveaways
Partner with influencers for sponsored posts, contests, and/or giveaways. Sponsored content allows the influencer to develop content that showcases the services of the hotel and the experiences they offer. Contests and giveaways extend contact and interaction as influencers encourage their followers to participate and get a chance to win exciting prizes.
Leverage User-Generated Content
You can encourage users to post about their experiences on social media through branded hashtags, which may harness the strength of user-created material. User-generated content (UGC) offers genuine and relatable counsel that greatly impacts the choices of like-minded users. It acts as social evidence and may considerably improve an establishment's online reputation plus presence.
When adopted, these strategies can assist hotels to fully benefit from influencer marketing, thus reaching out to more potential consumers and attracting more consumers to drive bookings. In other words, it is vital to find the most effective strategy, depending on the aims, the audience, and the brand of the hotel.
With a solid foundation in influencer marketing, hotels can now explore how to further boost their hospitality business through this powerful strategy. Let's dig into the following topic: how to maximise the impact of influencer marketing and propel the growth of the hospitality business.
Role of Travel Influencers and Lifestyle Influencers in Hospitality Marketing
Aside from being brand advocates, influencers also act as content developers for hotels. Whether they are posting magnificent photos, captivating videos, or interesting stories that highlight the hotel’s USPs, influencers do it all. Their content serves as firsthand testimonials that potential guests can trust and relate to. They are able to give a clear picture of what the guests should expect- the hospitality and warm welcoming of the rooms, the taste of foods served, and the fun of different central points of interest.
In addition, they also prove to be useful for providing feedback to hotels. This way, their strategies and ideas may provide information about what should remain practical and what should be changed to enhance the position of hotels in the eyes of tourists and guests.
To leverage the magnitude of travel and lifestyle creators within their hospitality marketing strategies, hotels have persistently been incorporating influencer marketing campaigns as part of a wider promotional strategy. Resembling a new trend, social media influencers having significant reach and relatability makes them powerful champions for hospitality marketing. All said and done, an excellent synthesis between these tourism influencers and creative advertisements produces remarkable results.
So, let's explore that further.
Powerful Influencer Marketing Campaigns for Hotels
One of the ways hotels can fully benefit from influencer marketing is by creating and executing well-thought-out influencer marketing campaigns for hotels. These campaigns can take various forms - sponsored stays/hosting, giveaways, collaborative content, and more.
For example-
Case Study 1: The Oberoi Amarvilas, Agra
The Oberoi Amarvilas, situated in Agra, has become very famous for its amazing views of the epic Taj Mahal. To improve its image on the market and draw more customers around the world, the hotel started an influencer marketing campaign. They collaborated with top travel influencers who were active on social media platforms such as Instagram and YouTube.
These influencers were treated to the luxurious lodging and gourmet amenities offered by The Oberoi Amarvilas. What they did was film their stay there and the beautiful scenery of the Taj Mahal through their rooms and balconies. The two pieces of the story that really brought out the grandeur of the hotel are the hospitality and the sheer magic of waking up to the view of the Taj Mahal.
Social media went wild about this campaign- both national and international tourists could not miss it. Travellers who had followed the influencers’ journeys were particularly quick to pick on it, hence a giant leap in occupancy rates at the Oberoi Amarvilas Hotel. The campaign managed to achieve its objective of promoting this hotel as a premier haven intended for an opulent choice in Agra City.
Case Study 2: Suryagarh, Jaisalmer
Through an influencer marketing campaign, Suryagarh - a luxurious boutique hotel located in the heart of Thar desert, Jaisalmer, India – aimed to show off its unique cultural experiences and the magic of the desert. It worked with travel influencers who were keen on discovering offbeat destinations as well as immersing themselves in local cultures.
The influencers were called into the magical land of Suryagarhad. They got engaged actively with the people in order to understand their cultures through camel safaris, traditional folk dances and stargazing in the desert. The influencers documented Suryagarh’s splendid architecture, exquisite hospitality and original cultural experiences.
The impact of this campaign was felt as far as Africa’s Sahara. In addition, the influencers’ posts and videos reached out to individuals interested in various kinds of travel experiences. The captivating images and personal stories behind them made the followers feel wanderlust and full of curiosity. Consequently, based on all the above-rendered information, we can conclude that there was a sharp increase in Suryagarh bookings by those who were soon heading off to discover deserts and enjoy inimitable luxury and cultural integration aboard this hotel.
The study focuses on the above-mentioned cases shows how influencer marketing campaigns serve hotel positioning as attractive tourist resorts, increase brand recognition, and facilitate booking. Utilizing influencers’ storytelling skills and broad coverage, hotels are able to craft an enticing story that strikes a chord with their target group, thus making it more likely for them to opt for such an establishment for one-of-a-kind experiences.
This successfully shows the power of influencer marketing in the hospitality industry, but how exactly can hotels utilise this strategy to maximise their success? Let's find out the ways to leverage influencer marketing in the hospitality industry.
Hospitality Marketing Examples
The hospitality sector has witnessed some remarkable instances of fruitful influencer marketing initiatives that have greatly affected brand recognition and reservations. Below are some of these cases:
The Four Seasons Hotel Los Angeles:
To share their experiences on social media platforms, the hotel usually works with influencers and celebrities. In doing so, the hotel gets great media coverage which expands its audience and increases brand visibility.
Conrad Maldives Rangali Island:
The resort has impactfully showcased its unique undersea residence thanks to the partnership with travel influencers. Following that, the resort generated huge amount of interest and encountered an increase in bookings by taking advantage of influencers in hospitality marketing.
These examples successfully convey the effectiveness of influencer marketing for hospitality businesses and underline the impact it can have on brand growth and customer engagement.
Wrapping Up
To sum up, influencer markings for the hotel industry show it’s worth continuing even in future. Currently, this is one of the areas that the hotels need to make full use of in order to market their brands, reach out to the potential customers and thus increase their revenues.
