The Biggest Social Media Mistake Hotels Keep Making
The biggest social media waste I see in hotels is ticking the box
Hotels are building their 2027 budgets right now, and in too many properties social media still gets treated as a nice to have, something to sort out after the rest of the marketing is done. That mindset is getting expensive.
I hear it a lot: "we know social media matters, but it's not a priority right now." Guests are still researching and comparing, and competitors are still showing up in feeds. People are reading TripAdvisor, Yelp and Google reviews, and if you aren't part of that conversation you don't get to control what they learn about you. So when a hotel tells me social isn't a priority, what I'm hearing is "we're comfortable letting someone else shape the guest opinion before we get a chance to."
A wedding guest or a parent visiting a college may not need you right now. But if they already know you exist, that matters when the moment arrives.
How social became the intern side quest
Hotels have always had very defined commercial lanes, like revenue management, sales, PR and operations. Social media came in later, and it often got attached to whoever had time or whoever seemed young enough to get it. That's how you end up with social being treated like the intern side quest.
I also think the industry has been burned by bad execution. Plenty of owners and GMs have paid someone to post pretty pictures and seen a few likes. Then they asked whether any of it drove room bookings. When there's no clear answer, they decide social media doesn't work. That's like hiring a bad revenue manager and deciding revenue management doesn't work. Sometimes the problem is the strategy, the investment, the ownership or the measurement.
What ticking the box looks like
The biggest waste I see is when a hotel spends just enough to say it's doing social, and not enough to give it a chance to work. We call that ticking the box. They hire someone to post, with no clear strategy, no audience definition, no connection to revenue needs and no measurement. Three or six months later they say social media didn't drive any bookings. What they actually tested was underfunded activity. It's like opening a restaurant without training the staff or creating a menu, then deciding restaurants don't work.
And then there's the classic one, champagne tastes on a beer budget. Hotels will spend serious money on a renovation, a brand campaign, a website or a sales trip, then want to spend as little as possible on the channel where guests see the property week after week. Underfunding social and expecting it to perform is where the waste happens.
Questions to answer before the 2027 numbers lock
Start with what role you expect social to play next year. Skip "how many posts do we need?" and work out what you're trying to accomplish commercially, like which demand periods you want to grow and which guest segments you want to reach.
Then work out who owns it. Someone has to be responsible for the strategy, capturing the content, approving it and measuring it. If the answer is that you'll figure it out later, you're setting up a January panic project.
Posting is the activity, and social media marketing is the strategy behind it. Investing means paying for the thinking, planning, creative execution and measurement. It also means telling your social team what packages are being promoted, what need dates matter, what sales is pushing and what the revenue team is worried about. Too often they get a few lobby photos and a random "hey, can you post this today?" request, and then everyone wonders why the strategy feels disconnected.
Build the calendar around what you need to sell
If the revenue team knows there's a need period coming up, tell your social team. If sales is pushing a group segment, social should know early enough to create content around it. Build the content calendar around those commercial priorities, and go further than holidays and pretty photos.
If weekends are soft in a certain month, tell stories that give people reasons to stay, like what's happening nearby. If corporate travel is a priority, show that traveler the workspace, the breakfast, the parking and the wifi. For a major local event, show people how staying with you makes the trip easier: where they park, how far the venue is, what to do before or after and why your hotel is the smart choice for that trip.
The connection to booking goals comes from that planning. Work out what you need to sell, who needs it, when they're deciding and what questions they have. Then make the content that would make them more confident choosing you.
We go through all of this in the full episode. Watch on YouTube or listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
Calvin and the Revpar Media team build hotel marketing that drives bookings, from social media management to influencer campaigns.
Book a 30-minute callFull transcript
Calvin Tilokee For today's episode, we are talking about something every hotel should be thinking about right now. 2027 budgets. Social media still treated in too many properties like a nice to have a throw in or something to figure out after the real marketing is finished. But that mindset is getting expensive. Guest attention, trust and booking confidence are being shaped online long before someone reaches your website. In this episode, I'll break down why social media deserves a real seat in the budget conversation, what hotels are missing when they under invest, and how to think about social as a serious commercial channel instead of a content chore. I'm Calvin Tulloch and this is socially awkward.
So a lot of times we'll hear hotels say, we know social media matters, but it's not a priority right now. Here's what I think you're missing. Saying that it's not a priority right now doesn't mean nothing is happening. It means a conversation is still happening without you. Guests are still researching. Travelers are still comparing. Competitors are still showing up in feats. Local businesses are still building relationships. Creators are still telling stories. And if your hotel is not participating, you're not saving money. You're giving up influence. I think hotels sometimes treat social media like it's separate from the real commercial work of the property. But social media is one of those places where perception is formed. Before someone ever gets to your website, your booking engine, or your sales team.
So when a hotel says it's not a priority, what I'm hearing is we're comfortable letting someone else shape the guest opinion before we get a chance to. This is why guests are going to TripAdvisor, Yelp, Google reviews, and if unless you're in part of that conversation, you don't get to control what they say about you or what they learn about you. So that's why that's dangerous. Because by the time the guest is ready to book, they've already developed a level of trust, familiarity, or indifference. Social media is not the only thing that drives that, but it's absolutely part of the decision path. Now, the other thing these hotels are missing is that social media is not only about people who are ready to book today, it's about staying visible before that need exists.
A wedding guest, a corporate traveler, a parent visiting a college, someone planning a weekend getaway, someone attending an event nearby. They may not need you right now, but if they already know that you exist, that matters when that moment arrives. So the question isn't do we have time for social media? The question is, can we afford to be invisible while our future guests are paying attention somewhere else? As an industry, we've gotten really comfortable treating social media as a throw in as opposed to part of a real commercial strategy. And part of that is history. Hotels have always had very defined commercial lanes. You had revenue management, sales, marketing, PR, operations, ownership and branding. Social media came in later, and instead of being built into that commercial strategy, it often got attached to whoever had time or whoever seemed young enough to get it.
And that's how you end up with social being treated like the intern side quest. I also think the industry has been burned by bad execution. A lot of owners and GM's have had the experience of paying someone to post pretty pictures, seeing a few likes, and then asking, okay, but did this drive any business where where where the room bookings? Are we hitting budget? Yeah. Did we make our money back from this investment? And when there's no clear answer, they conclude that social media doesn't work. But that's sort of like hiring a bad revenue manager and then deciding revenue management doesn't work, or a bad sales manager and thinking that sales is useless. The problem isn't always the channel.
Sometimes the problem is a strategy, the investment, the ownership, or the measurement. Hey, quick question for you. When was the last time your hotel social media actually brought someone through the door? If you can't answer that, it might be time to rethink your approach. At RAVPower media, we don't do marketing for the sake of marketing. Every strategy we build is designed to drive measurable results more bookings, more visibility, more revenue. We've been on the operations side and we know what matters. If that's something you're looking to solve right now, scan the QR code on screen or hit the link in the show notes. Now back to today's conversation. Another reason is that social media can feel soft compared to things that hotels are used to measuring occupancy ADR, pace pickup.
These feel concrete and wear accustomed to those metrics. Social can feel vague if it's not managed properly, but vague execution doesn't mean the channel is vague. It just means the hotel hasn't defined what success looks like. And lastly, I think some hotels still see social media as a decoration. They think it's there to make the hotel look nice, but socials should do more than that. It should do more than decorate your brand. It should explain the hotel position, the hotel and or guest questions. Highlight reasons to say support demand periods, promote packages, build trust and reinforce why your property is relevant. That's not a throw in, that's part of your commercial work. So with hotel starting to build out your 2027 budgets, this is what leaders should be asking themselves about.
Social. Before the numbers get locked in. The first question should be what role do we actually expect social media to play in our business next year? It's not about how many posts do we need? Not, hey, can someone make us some reels? The real question is what are we trying to accomplish commercially? And how can social support that hotel should be asking what demand periods are we looking to grow? What guest segments are we trying to reach? Are we trying to grow direct traffic? Are we trying to build awareness in a local market? Are we trying to support weddings, groups, corporate travel, leisure meetings, FNB events, spas, rooftop restaurant, anything else on property? Then they need to ask who owns this? Who's responsible for the strategy? Who's capturing content?
Who's approving it? Who's measuring it? Who is making sure social is connected to revenue, sales, marketing and operations? Because if the answers will figure it out later, that's not a plan. That's how social becomes a January panic project. They also need to ask, are we budgeting for what we actually want? Because there's a big difference between funding social media as a real channel and tossing a few dollars added because you feel like you should. If you want strategy, creative direction, video, photography, community management, reporting campaigns, influencer support, and alignment with business goals that requires investment. It doesn't have to be outrageous, but it does have to be real. The budget question is really a priority question. If you do not put social into the plan now, you're already deciding what kind of presence you want to have in 2027.
And for a lot of hotels, that presence is going to be inconsistent, underfunded and reactive unless they make a different decision. Now, when does things you we want to make is between really investing in social media and just paying someone to post a few times a week. This is such an important distinction because posting and social media marketing are not the same thing posting as the activity. Social media marketing is the strategy behind that activity. Investing in social means paying for the thinking, planning, creative execution and measurement required to make the channel useful. That includes content strategy, brand voice, content pillars, campaign planning, photo and video capture, editing, copywriting, platform management, community engagement, reporting, and alignment with the hotel's revenue goals. It also means giving the person or team responsible for social enough access to actually do the job well.
They need to know what's happening on property, what packages are being promoted, what need dates are being focused on, what events are near by, what guest segments matter? What are the ownership priorities? What's the sales team pushing? What is the revenue team worried about? Two often hotels say they want better social media, but the social team is operating in the dark. They get a few lobby photos, maybe a menu update, maybe a random hey, can you post this today request? And then everyone wonders why the strategy feels disconnected. A real investment also means understanding that content has to be produced. Hotels are physical, visual, experiential businesses. You can't build a strong social media forever with old brand photography and a few iPhone shoots that someone took in bad lighting.
So when I say invest, I don't mean just spend more money for the sake of spending money. I mean fund the inputs required to get the outcome you keep saying you want because cheap rushed unclear social usually produces cheap rushed on clear results. One of the biggest things we see is hotels wasting money on social because they underfunded strategy, but they still expecting strong results. It's a huge disconnect and the biggest waste I see is when hotel spend just enough to say that they're doing social, but not enough to give it a real chance to work. We call that ticking the box. Then what they'll do is they hire someone to post. But there's no clear strategy, no audience definition, no connection to revenue needs, no content capture plan, no measurement structure, no campaign thinking.
Then 3 or 6 months later, they'll say our social media didn't drive any bookings, but what they actually tested was not social media. They tested underfunded activity. That's like opening the doors to the restaurant, not training the staff, not creating a menu, not telling anyone about it, and then deciding that restaurants don't work. Hotels also waste money when every post is reactive. Post this package, post this holiday graphic. Post this flier posts this photo from the event last night. Post this photo for an event we have coming up on Sunday and Saturday that may keep defeat alive, but it doesn't necessarily build a brand or move a guess close to booking. Another waste is creating content with no destination. You promote an offer, but the website's not ready.
You talk about a package, but the booking path is unclear. You highlight a local event, but there's no landing page, no link strategy, no tracking, no connection to the overall revenue plan. That's not a social media problem. That's a commercial alignment problem. And then there's the classic one wanting premium results with bargain bin inputs, champagne tastes on a beer budget. Hotels will spend serious money on a renovation, a brand campaign, a website or a sales trip. But when it comes to the channel where guests are actually seeing the property week after week, they want to spend as little as possible. I understand budget pressure said in those rooms. I understand what you guys are going through on the hotel side.
Hotels are expensive to run, but underfunding social and expecting it to perform is where waste happens. You end up spending money and still not building anything. So if you're a GM owner revenue leader and you're looking to connect your social media activity to your demand periods, packages, local events, your booking goals, the first step is to stop treating social media as a separate creative island. Social needs to be in the same conversation as revenue, sales and marketing and operations. If the revenue team knows there's a need, period coming up, inform your social team. If sales is pushing a group segment. Social should know that if the property has a local event, seasonal package, restaurant promotion or wedding opportunity, social should know that early enough to create content around it.
The practical way to do this is to build a content calendar around commercial priorities, not just holidays and pretty photos. For example, if you know weekends are soft in a certain month, we should be telling stories that create reasons to stay, not just book now, but what is what's happening nearby? What makes the hotel convenient? What kind of guest is this message going out to? What amenities matter? What local experiences are easy from the property? If corporate travels a priority, then talk to that traveler. Show the workspace, the breakfast, the parking, the wifi, the meeting space, the proximity to offices, ease of check in, the things that reduce friction. There's a major local event. Don't just post where near the event. Show people how staying with you makes that trip easier.
Where do they park? How far is the venue from where you are? What should they do before or after? Why is your hotel a smart choice for them to choose to go to this event? The mistake is thinking social media should only show it. The hotel has good social shows why those things matter. So the connection to booking goals comes from the planning. What do we need to sell? Who needs it? When are they deciding? What questions do they have? What content would make them more confident in choosing us? That is how social becomes part of the demand strategy instead of just a feed.
