Martin Kubler
Hospitality social media consultant of iconsulthotels.com
“Currently, Facebook Offers seems to be mostly used by international chain properties, whereas they could potentially be very useful for small and medium-sized local operators, due to the inbuilt “virality” of the promotion [i.e. every time an offer is availed, a newsfeed post is generated],” Kubler says.
“Creating good, popular offers is not easy and it may take several attempts to get it right. As a result, offers should be seen more as advertising than a quick-fire way to ‘put bums on seats’ or fill beds,” he adds.
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“In my experience, and as The Westin case study shows, Facebook Offers work best for ‘auxiliary’ revenue centres (departments such as spa, transportation, etc.) and F&B outlets,” Kubler continues.
Wherever possible, hotels are advised to get their customers to book online in advance and ‘seal the deal’ at an early stage. “This is, by and large, no issue as consumers are familiar with this kind of ‘trade off’”.
Finally, track the success of each offer campaign using Google Analytics or a similar tool. “Only through data can hoteliers decide how to improve future offers.”
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