The Hidden Cost of Ignoring Hotel Social Media Channels Today
Waiting until 2027 to take social media seriously puts your hotel behind
Social media is where a hotel builds visibility, trust and demand before anyone makes a booking decision. So when hotels plan their 2027 budgets, I want to see a real investment in social media. It shouldn't be funded from whatever money is left over.
The quickest test is to ask someone to explain your strategy. If the answer stops at "we post three times a week", you've got a problem, because frequency is not a strategy. And if your social media disappears the moment the one person responsible goes on vacation, it was never a system. As we say in revenue management, hope is not a strategy.
When an owner says "we tried social media and it didn't drive any bookings"
We get this one from owners, GMs and other decision makers. I want to diagnose it, starting with what exactly they tried. Posting occasionally is very different from running campaigns, creating original content, connecting posts to offers and tracking website traffic.
Then I look at the goal. It might have been immediate bookings, brand awareness, a need period, a package or local visibility. If the goal wasn't clear, the result won't be clear either.
After that comes the booking path. Social media can create interest, but if the landing page is weak, the offer is unclear, the booking engine is clunky or the rate strategy is off, social gets blamed for a problem it didn't create.
And then there's time. A lot of hotels want social media to behave like a light switch. Turn it on and bookings appear. Social is often more like a muscle, where you build recognition, trust, audience understanding and momentum over time. Weak content, poor measurement, bad timing and a limited budget are all very different problems, so find out which one you actually had.
What to measure besides likes
Likes and follower counts are signals, but they're incomplete. Look at reach with context, meaning whether you're reaching the right people in your market. Website clicks, profile visits, link clicks, DMs and comments all matter.
Saves and shares matter a little bit more, because they often show intent. If someone saves a post about a wedding venue or a rooftop family package, that tells you more than a casual like.
I also think content learnings are underrated. Maybe your audience cares more about parking and location than the lobby, or more about pet friendly rooms than your restaurant. That's useful business intelligence.
How a competitor pulls ahead
A competitor gets ahead of you by showing up consistently with a clear message for a longer period of time. Meanwhile the hotel that isn't investing can look invisible or stale, even if the actual property is perfectly fine.
A guest may never say they chose another hotel because its Instagram felt stronger. They'll just pick the one that felt more trustworthy and easier to picture themselves staying in. Wait until 2027 and you're starting behind someone who's already built consistent content and an audience.
You don't need a luxury budget
Airport hotels, extended stay properties, suburban hotels and roadside properties can all have strong social media if the content is specific and useful. The mistake is marketing yourself like a luxury resort when that's not why people choose you.
So define the guest who's actually staying with you. They might be flying out early, visiting a hospital, attending a wedding or going to a sports tournament. Then build a few content pillars you can execute consistently (you don't need 25 different ideas). Budget for enough photo and video to keep the hotel current, because nobody should be relying on brand photography from five years ago. Pick the platforms you can manage well. X (Twitter, for the elder millennials like myself) is a great platform, but if you can't respond to messages in real time you're wasting your time there.
The first 90 days
If you're funding social next year, I'd spend the first 30 days on diagnosis and strategy. That means auditing your channels, the booking path, competitor presence and reviews, then defining what people should understand about the hotel after seeing five or six pieces of content.
The next 30 days go on the content foundation: pillars, a calendar, asset capture, reporting and cleaned up links to the website. I'd also want input from revenue, sales, operations and the property team, because social shouldn't be created in a vacuum.
The final 30 days are for execution and learning, publishing consistently and tracking website actions, saves, shares and DMs. By day 90 I want the team treating social as a channel they're building.
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. Social media is not the extra money fund at this money left over. It is where hotels build visibility, trust and demand before booking decision ever happens. In this episode, I'll explain why 2027 budgeting needs to include a real investment in social media, and why waiting to leave your property behind. I'm Calvin Tilokee and this is Socially Awkward. So how do you know if you're doing social correctly or fitness taking a box? One warning sign is that nobody could explain the strategy beyond. We post three times a week. Frequency is not a strategy. Another sign is that the feed could belong to any hotels. A room photo, a lobby photo, a breakfast photo, a holiday graphic, a generic caption.
Nothing specific about the market. The guests, the property, the team, the experience or the reason someone should care. Another big warning sign is that social is not included in commercial conversations. If revenue, sales and operations are making plans and the social team finds out after everything is decided, then social is being treated as distribution, not part of the strategy. Also, if the property only talks about social when something needs to be posted immediately, that's a checkbox. Can you post this today? It's not a marketing plan. No. Reporting is another big red flag and another sign that you're not taking this seriously or reporting that only says likes went up or followers increase without any discussion of reach, audience quality, website actions, content learnings, inquiries, campaign performance, or how the content supported business priorities.
And here's a very simple one. If the hotel social media disappears when the one person responsible gets busy, goes on vacation, or leaves the property, then it was never a system. It was a task, a growth channel has ownership process, strategy, budget measurement, and accountability. A check box has random posts and hope. And as we say in revenue management, hope is not a strategy. So something we get from owners and GM's and other decision makers is we tried social media and it didn't drive any bookings. So let's unpack why that may have happened. The first thing I would start by asking is what exactly did you try? Because we tried. Social media can mean a lot of things. Did you post occasionally? Did you have a strategy?
Did you run campaigns? Did you create original content? Did you connect post to offers? Did you track website traffic? Did you give it enough time? Did you know who you were trying to reach? Then I would ask what the goal was. Were you trying to drive immediate bookings, build brand awareness? Support a need period, promote a package, increase direct traffic, generate inquiries and improve local visibility. If the goal wasn't clear, the result won't be clear either. But also look at the investment level. Was there enough budget for strategy and content or someone just posting whatever assets already existed? Were there enough videos with a fresh visuals? Was anyone engaging with the audience? Was the content aligned with the property's actual business needs? Then I would look at the booking path.
This is important. Social media can create interest, but if the landing page is weak, the offer is unclear. The booking engine is clunky. The rate strategy is off, or the value isn't obvious, so is going to get blamed for a problem it didn't create. I would also ask how long they tested it. A lot of hotels want social media to behave like a lightswitch. Turn it on. Bookings appear, but social is often more like a muscle. You build a recognition, trust, content, intelligence, audience understanding and momentum over time. So when someone says social didn't work, I wouldn't dismiss then, but I would say, let's diagnose it. Was it the channel? Was it an unclear strategy? Weak content, poor measurement, bad timing, limited budget or unrealistic expectations?
Because those are all very different problems. Hey, let me ask you something. If you're running a hotel and you know, social media matters, but you just don't have the time to figure it out, you're not alone. That's exactly why I built Rapport Media. We work with hotels to create marketing strategies that actually drive bookings, not just likes. From social media management to influencer campaigns to full creative production. We've been in the room, we've managed the revenue, and we know what moves the needle. If that's something you're looking to solve right now. Scan the QR code on screen or click the link in the show notes. Now back to today's conversation. So one thing to look at, to measure the success of your social media is to track the metrics.
We are very accustomed with that in the revenue management side of things occupancy ads, RF, Pas. However, there are a few key metrics you need to look at on social media to determine the effectiveness of your strategy. And this goes beyond just likes and follower counts. Those are not meaningless, but they are incomplete. They're signals, not the full story. So hotels should be looking at reach and impressions, but with context. Are you reaching the right people? Are you showing up in your market? Are people discovering their property who may not have known you existed? Website clicks. Matter. Profile visits matter. Link clicks matter. DMs comments and saves. Matter saves and shares matter a little bit more because they often show intent and usefulness of the content that was viewed.
If someone saves a post about a local event, a wedding venue or rooftop family package, or a guide to the neighborhood that may be more valuable than just a casual like video watch time and completion rate can also tell you what people actually care about. Are they watching the room tour? The local guide, the behind the scenes, their content, the package explanation that gives you insight into what's resonating. Hotels also need to look at campaign specific performance. If you're promoting a package, use trackable links. If you're supporting a need, period, look at traffic and booking behavior during that window. If sales is targeting weddings or meetings, look at whether social content helps create inquiries or supports the sales conversation. I also think content learnings are underrated. Social tells you what the market responds to.
Maybe audience cares more about parking and location than lobby. Maybe they care more about pet friendly rooms than your restaurant. Maybe local event content outperforms generic brand content. That's useful business intelligence. And finally, look at whether social is making the hotel easier to trust. That can be harder to measure directly, but it shows up in engagement, quality comments, questions, DMs shares, tech content, influencer interests, and how often people reference social and conversations with the property.
The goal is not to ignore likes. The goal is to stop pretending. Likes are the whole scoreboard. So if you're in a position where you haven't been investing in a social media, but your comp set has and you've now started to fall behind, here's how we can address that. And these things happen slowly. They happen over time. And that's what makes it dangerous. A competitor doesn't need one viral video to pull ahead. They just need to show up consistently with a clear message for a longer period of time. They become familiar. Their rooms feel current. The restaurant feels more active. Their team feels more human. They've built a connection with their audience. Neighborhood feels easier to understand. Packages feel more relevant. Their brand feels alive.
Meanwhile, the hotel that isn't investing such, they feel invisible or stale, even if the actual properties perfectly fine. And that's the risk. Social media shapes perception. If your last few posts are outdated, generic, or inconsistent, people will notice. Maybe not consciously, but it affects confidence. I guess. May not say I chose another hotel because this Instagram felt stronger. But they may choose the hotel that felt more trustworthy, more active, and easier to picture themselves staying in. The other issue is compounding. The competitor that starts now is not just getting post up. They're learning. They're learning what content works, what guests respond to, what questions come up, and which partnerships matter, which creators are useful, which packages get traction, and which platforms deserve more attention?
If you wait until 2027 to start taking it seriously, you're not starting from the same line as your competition. You're starting behind someone who's already built consistent content, audience, process, and confidence. That's why underinvestment is not neutral. It's a decision to let someone else build a relationship first. So one question we get a lot as well is hotels that don't have a luxury product or a huge creative budget. What should they prioritize first in the 2027 plan? First, you want clarity. You don't need to be luxury to be valuable. You need to understand who you offer and what problem you solve. A select service hotel. Airport. Hotel. Branded hotel. Extended stay property. Suburban hotel. Roadside. All of these can have strong social media if the content specific and useful.
The mistake is trying to market yourself like a luxury resort. When that's not why people choose you. So the first priority is defining the guest who's staying with you. Why are they there? What are they stressed about? Were they trying to make it easier? Are they visiting family? Attending an event? Flying out early. Traveling for work. Relocating. Going to a sports tournament, visiting a hospital or attending a wedding or just doing a quick weekend trip. Once you understand that, the content becomes much easier. Second, build a few simple content pillars, for example. Rooms and amenities. Local convenience guests use cases, team and service packages. It offers neighborhood event content. You don't need 25 different ideas. You need a structure that you can execute consistently. Third, budget for basic content capture. Not necessarily massive production shoots every month, but enough photo and video to keep the hotel current.
A property should not be relying on old brand photography from five years ago. Fourth, pick the platforms you can actually manage well. It is better to be strong and consistent on a couple of platforms than be scattered and weak everywhere. For example, we get a lot of questions about hotels being active on X format. Twitter for the elder millennials like myself. Twitter is a great platform, but you need to be responding immediately. If you don't have the bandwidth or the team set up to respond to those messages right away in real time, you're just wasting your time. And finally, again, connect your content to business needs. If you have need periods, packages, events, corporate accounts, wedding opportunities, or local demand drivers bill content around those.
That is where even a modest budget can become useful. The goal is not to look expensive. The goal is to look relevant, trustworthy, and easy to choose. If you're a hotel that wants to finally decide to fund social media property next year, here's what your first 90 days should look like. The first 30 days would be spent on diagnosis and strategy. I would start with an audit, current social channels, website booking path, competitor presence, content quality, audience engagement, reviews, local market and commercial priorities. I would want to understand what the hotel is trying to accomplish, where the demand gaps are, what segments matter and what the property has not been communicating wealth. Then define the positioning. Who is this hotel for?
Why do guests choose it? What makes it useful? What makes it different in the market? What should people understand after seeing 5 or 6 pieces of content? The next 30 days would be content foundation. That means building the content pillars, planning the calendar, identifying key campaigns, capturing assets, setting up reporting, tightening the profiles, cleaning up links, making sure social is connected to the website and the booking path. I would also want input from revenue, sales, operations and the property team because social should not be created in vacuum. Then the final 30 days would be on execution and learning. Start publishing consistently. Test different content types. Watch what people respond to. Track website actions. Saves. Shares. Profile visits, DMs, comments, and campaign performance. Look at what content helps explain the property best, then refine them.
By the end of 90 days. I would want the hotel to have a clear strategy, a repeatable content process, stronger creative assets, consistent positioning, early performance insights, and an alignment between social and the hotel's commercial goals. And most importantly, I would want the team to stop thinking or socialize. Something we need to post and start thinking of it as a channel that we're building. Because that's the real shift in not just filling of feed. You're building visibility, trust and demand over time. I hope that was helpful for you guys. This has been a really fun episode to record. I see you can see we're very passionate about hotels and social media and marketing here at Revpar Media. If you guys are looking to make an investment and really get your social media off the ground in 2027, please reach out.
Looking forward to see you on the next episode.
