COVID-Council for Hoteliers – Daily Social Media Marketing Updates.

Last updated: 09:03, 25th March 2020

Focus on how to get your hotel in the home to continue to keep your property front of mind, for example, sharing spa treatment tips and recipes from the chef. Share your knowledge and expertise with your audience to keep them engaged. Here is a great example of how to roll out a campaign using this concept.

At a time where guests are temporarily unable to create new memories at your hotel, you could focus social campaigns on collecting user-generated content by asking your audience to share photographs of their favourite memory experienced at your hotel. You can also ask them to comment with the thing they are most looking forward to doing at your hotel once everything is back up and running - keep your property front of mind.

Updated: 19:00, 24th March 2020

There have been over 1 million people engaging in conversations around travel, hotels, hospitality and Coronavirus in the UK already this month. With sentiment scores for these conversations hitting over 80% negative, here are our latest recommendations on what you can do on social media right now.

1. Be responsive, be present. Make sure you are there to answer questions and allay any concerns. You can automate some of the process, for example setting up Facebook and Instagram private message autoresponders.
2. Don’t stop posting but do adapt your strategy. Focus on what people can do now; looking forward to future travel and virtually experiencing your hotel through live and pre-recorded video.
3. Be human. Humanise your brand and highlight what you are doing in response to the Coronavirus outbreak, be it food deliveries or extra deep cleaning.
4. Instill confidence. Post a statement to all your social channels to keep your followers, and current and potential guests up to date.
5. Use targeting. Exclude locked down markets for any shorter-medium term promotions. Focus on products like gift vouchers and highlight any flexible booking options.