5 of the best: Hotels on Google+
1: Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group
Visually highly appealing and updated consistently and frequently, this page really does make you want to experience Mandarin Oriental hotels. Also, the page uses hashtags very well and generally has the right “tone”, that is, it doesn’t just act as a duplicate of the company’s Facebook presence, but addresses its audience with a unique Google+ voice.
2: Hilton Dubai Jumeirah Resort
Perhaps not the most engaged page ever, but certainly one of the best pages among hotels in the region. Consistently updated and integrated with its Google Local listing, what would make this page even better would be management replies to the guest reviews posted to the page.
3: The Address Hotels + Resorts
By no means a great page and perhaps the weakest link in this company’s otherwise very strong social and digital presence, yet still better than a lot of other pages in this region. The posts that are visible on the page are very nice, but the page seems to be updated only sporadically or for major events (ATM, New Year’s, etc.). As this is an umbrella page for all their properties, I wasn’t expecting full Google Local integration, but at least the map location of the head-office should be updated (it currently shows as near Union Square).
4: Best Western Plus Marina Wolfsbruch
A surprising find. Best Western’s social and digital presence is as diverse as its property portfolio, but this page is certainly one of the best Google+ pages in our industry. I would have ranked it higher, but wanted to focus on hotels in the region rather than overseas. Consistent updates, a good mix of content and very nice management replies to reviews all make this a great page.
Granted, it’s not a hotel, but the page is a good example of how Google+ can be used for conference centres or restaurants. The “About” section of this page has been fully completed and features useful keywords, which will help with the search engine visibility of the property. The map location is correct and, while not the most active of pages, it does have useful and targeted updates in its stream.
Note: As always, I tried to find as many local examples as possible, but unfortunately many hotels in the region still seem to shy away from Google+, so I had to include some international pages.