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15 Effective Social Media Marketing Strategies for Hotels in 2025
Many hoteliers think that just because most social media channels are free, they’re easy to play with. However, it requires a well-thought-out social media marketing strategy that can help your brand stand out from others.
Not only does it build brand awareness, but it also becomes a powerful weapon for you to connect with potential guests.
That's where you need to become visible on social media and inspire travelers to plan their trips.
A study from Statista says that 75% of people are influenced by social media channels when planning their next trip or destination.
Read this blog to learn about the 15 social media marketing strategies that can position your property differently and help you get direct bookings.
While most hoteliers think that organic marketing takes time and effort, once done correctly it can increase your hotel visibility, attract potential customers, and give you direct bookings.
If your hotel has no presence on social media or you have an unoptimized social media profile, then you're missing tons of direct booking opportunities along with a chance to build better customer relationships.
One study state that hotels which have leveraged social media platforms get an increase in direct bookings by 20% every year.
In fact, your potential customers spend almost 2 hours and 21 minutes on social media; this means that having a solid presence of your brand can put yourself in front of hundreds and thousands of such customers.
That's possible by creating high-quality content that can be in the form of short-form videos, user-generated content, influencer collaborations, etc.
Social media marketing in the hospitality industry is helping hotels and travel companies to be visible. In an industry so competitive and ever-changing, social media marketing in the hospitality industry is a necessity, more than an option. It allows hotels to give a sneak peek into their property and services, the luxury that awaits guests.
“With the rise of social sharing and the correlating desire for experiences over material items (in particular by millennials), social media has become the go-to destination for travel-related decision making,”
-Allison Focella, Senior Digital Strategist at a United States PR, and social media agency
Humans get influenced by other humans the most. A post or a video of guests having the time of their lives at your property would inspire the masses to dream and plan it for themselves. There are ample hotel social media post ideas that could attract people and increase engagement.
Following are some of the best social media marketing strategies for hotels:
The first step in creating a social media marketing campaign for hotels is to prepare a basic structure or an outline of the strategy. Know your audience, and their needs and formalize strategies accordingly. Decide which social media platforms are you targeting and what content would go on them. Furthermore, establish some practices or guidelines so that the staff is coordinated.
Hotel social media marketing strategies should be specific and achievable. Do not be over-ambitious with your goals. Set short-term goals initially and gradually start planning for a longer term. Take the help of a content calendar to manage your content better. Specific objectives would help bring clarity among teams. Additionally, short terms goals will keep them motivated.
As important as it is for you to promote hotel property and services, is promoting the destination where the hotel is located. Spread awareness about the city/state in which you are located; about its rich culture and heritage or delicacies or the adventures it offers, etc. Make people feel that they are missing out on something great by not visiting the destination. Share posts, articles, reels, and videos about the best things to do in the town where your hotel/resort is, or the restaurants that guests just must see.
Relatively new, influencer marketing can be a particularly good social media marketing strategy for hotels. It is a type of social media marketing where influencers a brand’s product and encourage their audience to explore the same. With a significant reach and prominence on social media platforms, influencers can promote your business like no other.
Influencers are offered complimentary stays and services at the hotel. Their stay and experience form the promotional content that is viewed by their followers. This is how influencer marketing works. It might sound simple; however, it needs a bit more planning than this. Make sure that you choose value-aligned influencers to promote your brand. He/she should embody the idea and image that you would want to convey through your brand.
Another crucial strategy for social media marketing in the hospitality industry is to ask guests/customers for reviews. Hotels could request guests to review their property and services in their social media stories and posts with tags. These could be reposted. This would increase engagement. More importantly, these reviews reassure other people about your services and build credibility around your brand name. Hotels could benefit from reviews a lot.
Reviews could also be taken on Facebook through a link. Send out automated emails to all your guests after their stay, requesting them to leave a review. Enable your Review tab on Facebook (which can be found under your Page Settings) thereafter. There will be a link that will redirect users to your Page’s Review section when they click, increasing the likelihood that they leave one.
Any social media marketing strategy for hotels is incomplete without engagement. Engage with your audience through polls, short Q&As, short live videos of celebrations, festivities, etc. Create and use interesting, creative, and trending hashtags, and recreate trending reels. Request your guests to tag you in the pictures and videos they take at your property or while availing of services.
This is important when it comes to creating a social media presence. Be responsive and interactive with your audience. Avoid tardiness at all costs. Even if the guest is not staying at your property or is not one of your regulars, be quick with your responses. This is a time investment that you need to make. Make everyone feel heard and cared about. Additionally, always be ready and open to learning. Analyze and learn from comments and adopt suggestions that come your way on social media content.
Check all the social media accounts at least twice a day. Respond to comments and queries at the earliest. Ignorance is bliss, but certainly not for hotels. Delayed responses would create a negative sentiment. This, in turn, would hamper business for sure.
Take advantage of peak posting times. If you time your posts right at or immediately before a peak activity period, there are increased chances of views and engagement. That engagement will take you up in the algorithms considerably. Knowing the right time to post can expand your reach and engage with your potential guests.
We, humans, tend to learn and pick on each other’s behavioral traits. Social media marketing also includes learning and taking inspiration from your competitors. Examine your analytics as well as your competitor’s. For example, you might find a strategy working for your competitor and use that information to tailor your strategy accordingly. Tools like Social Media Tacker and Rival IQ can help you with tracking competitors.
Your content should be inclusive, creative and cater to diversity. Content that is biased and controversial in any way can ruin the brand image and what it stands for. Therefore, curate responsible and conscious content that aligns with your brand image.
Additionally, your posts/videos/reals/carousels should be pleasing to the sense and match your brand aesthetics.
Consistency is of utmost importance in any social media marketing campaign or strategy. You start a practice/project, you stay consistent. Lags in the same would lead to a loss of engagement and followers. Inconsistency means all efforts going down the drain. It brings you back to square one, the most unideal situation to be in.
For the hospitality industry, seasons are one of the most crucial deciding factors for sales and occupancies. Therefore, seasonality should be kept well in mind while creating social media marketing strategies for hotels. This can mean curating posts for various holidays. Additionally, it can mean customizing your posts for the peak, mid and low seasons.
You can highlight your hotel’s popularity, and early bird offers through posts. While for the low seasons you could post promotional or thematic packages and attract more people. Therefore, seasons should also influence social media marketing in the hospitality industry.
It is a known fact that the best way to ensure visibility on Google’s search pages is through paid ads. With the increased usage of mobile phones, with less space for search results, businesses must work towards being seen at the top. Therefore, paid advertisements should be on the marketing strategy lists.
Besides the aesthetically pleasing posts, hotels should also offer valuable content to their users. Provide them with information about the attractions of the destination you are in, the cheapest time and days of booking flights, ways to go light with your packing, travel guidelines, etc.
Content that helps masses to travel light, well-informed, and better could create engagement that benefits the business and guests, alike. Proven Partners, a real estate marketing agency, emphasizes the importance of tailoring your hotel social media marketing approach to each social network.
Instagram, for example, is ideal for showcasing hotel amenities and guest experiences through high-quality images and stories, while LinkedIn offers a more professional environment for sharing industry insights and networking with corporate clients. Customizing your content to fit the specific strengths and audience of each platform can help hotels maximize their engagement and reach a broader audience effectively.
Hosting giveaways is an effective social media marketing strategy that hoteliers can try out in 2025. Giveaways keep your audience engaged and build a follower base.
You can run giveaways offering discounts to people, which definitely becomes an important reason for them to choose you over rivals.
For instance – you can run a giveaway telling people to book a 2-night stay at your hotel for free.
One such resort is La Cantera Resort and Spa, which conducts a summer recipe roundup called the virtual "La Cantera Connected Hub" where they aim to connect with their existing and new guests.
They launched a giveaway-like program where guests had to share their best home-cooked recipe, and the resort chef would choose the one they liked the most and recreate it in their own manner. They’deven add it to their kitchen's menu. The selected participant would get a free virtual resort experience.
Show the behind-the-scenes side of your hotel where guests can actually see what's going on inside your hotel or resort. Just creating high-value content won't supercharge your social media success; you need real people to connect with your guests.
Although sharing stunning images of your hotel or resort can potentially show how the property looks, what if you could blend human faces with static photos, like showcasing how chefs prepare food in the kitchen and how they serve it to guests?
Another way to build human connections is by tagging guests in pictures who stayed at your property, letting them become a part of your brand. That'sprobably a good example of user-generated content.
Social media is a boon for any business, and the hospitality industry too stands to gain from it. Through social media marketing, hotels can promote their business, and thrive in a completive environment. Services are more or less the same in every luxury hotel. However, their effectiveness and how well you are selling them are the deciding factors. While the former can only be experienced, the latter needs more intangible skills and effort. Social media marketing for hotels allows hotels to creatively engage with the masses, and hence, increase visibility and sales. It is the first touchpoint and forms the foundation of any guest journey. First impressions are the most important. You need to make one that displays your ethos!