Biggest mistake hotels are making right now
The biggest mistake I see in hotel marketing right now is a lack of creativity and bravery, which results in boring repetitive content.
Think about the last time you truly saw a piece of content that made you stop scrolling. Why did you stop to engage with it? It’s because the content drew your attention in. It stood out from all the other content you consumed that day. Did you know that the average social media user engages with between 1000 - 1400 piece of content daily? That is an incredible number of reels, posts and carousels. In order to stand out in that sea of content, you need to capture attention. And you need to do that within the first few seconds. You won’t do that by posting the same thing the other hotels are posting.
This filters down to what is the biggest issue facing hotel marketing, particularly in the lifestyle/luxury space. Boring, boring content. Close your eyes and try to visualize the Instagram feed of your favorite luxury hotel. I bet it looks like this, photo of a woman holding a martini. A moody picture of a hotel key on a table. A close up of the bed sheets. A finger pressing a elevator button, with a caption that says “we are an oasis” “or escape reality”. This type of marketing worked about 15 years ago. When Instagram was new, and not everyone had a digital camera in their hip pocket. The visual quality of photos in these days drove success. Having a high quality photo equaled luxury. Now? We all have the ability to take stunning photos. Which means, your feed is now flooded with quality photos. Which means the story behind the photo needs to improve in order to stand out.
Marketing is meant to make your product stand out. Yet, luxury hotels with very few exceptions, are posting the same content. How will your content and by extension your hotel, ever stand out if you’re doing the same thing as everyone you are competing with? The hotel industry is way too competitive to continue making this mistake. The good news is that this is easily correctable. In next week’s blog, we’ll discuss strategies to make your hotel shine on social media.
