Like most industries as we speak, the visitor expertise in hospitality begins lengthy earlier than check-in. Vacationers now uncover locations, examine choices and form expectations, all on social media.
On prime of that, the 2025 Sprout Social Index™ reveals 86% of customers plan to take care of or improve the time they spend on social platforms. This implies each interplay is an opportunity to construct belief, strengthen model authority and generate bookings.
Under, we’ll share the important thing elements of a 5-star social media advertising technique and highlight examples from main hospitality manufacturers setting the usual.
The evolution of social media for hospitality manufacturers
Social media has utterly reshaped how individuals plan and expertise journey. As an alternative of counting on brochures or journey brokers, company now flip to social platforms to discover locations, ask questions and get a really feel for what their keep could possibly be like.
For hospitality manufacturers, this shift means social is now not only a advertising channel. It’s a core a part of trendy buyer care. When somebody reaches out with a query, concern or suggestions, your response units the tone for his or her relationship with you.
And when replies aren’t well timed or useful, it has penalties. Based on the Sprout Social Index™, 73% of customers will select a competitor after a poor interplay or delayed response. Participating straight with company builds belief and reveals your dedication to satisfaction, providing you with a aggressive edge.
Friends additionally anticipate greater than promotional posts on social media. They search for human-focused, video-led content material that captures genuine experiences and feelings. For instance, native tales or behind-the-scenes glimpses assist future company think about themselves there, lengthy earlier than they ebook.
With 5.85 billion international social media customers anticipated by 2027, investing in a considerate, customer-first social technique positions you to increase your attain and appeal to new company world wide.
What a 5-star social media technique for hospitality consists of
A 5-star social media technique connects each a part of the visitor journey, from discovery to post-stay critiques. It entails utilizing social platforms to ship useful service, strengthen relationships and switch constructive experiences into an enduring status.
Right here’s what that appears like in follow.
Unify visitor service and status administration
Social buyer care works greatest when it’s proactive, not simply reactive. That entails anticipating wants, providing assist earlier than points escalate and constructing one-to-one relationships that really feel private and human.
In some ways, social media is your digital entrance desk. When company go to your profile, touch upon a submit or ship a message, they anticipate a fast, considerate response.
Your social crew can implement these second-mile service rules by utilizing social media instruments that simplify and improve environment friendly, personalised experiences.
Through the use of Sprout’s Sensible Inbox, for instance, you may unify all incoming social messages, critiques and mentions right into a single stream. This helps your crew ship constant, branded experiences that drive loyalty and satisfaction.
Uniting visitor service and status administration turns each remark, evaluation and message into a chance to showcase your hospitality values and create memorable connections.
Win the “the place to go” second with social search
The fashionable journey journey begins on social. Vacationers use platforms like TikTok and Instagram to resolve the place to go, what to eat and which inns to ebook. This shift marks the rise of social media search, which is a high-intent discovery channel you may’t afford to miss.
Social search is when customers use social media channels to seek for inspiration, concepts, merchandise and types, as a substitute of counting on conventional search engines like google and yahoo like Google and Bing.
Optimizing for social search (or social website positioning) goes past hashtags. It entails crafting captions, alt textual content and placement tags that match what customers are looking for and creating short-form video content material that solutions these questions straight.
Whether or not you optimize for “greatest brunch in Austin” or “household resorts in Hawaii,” showing in these searches places you in entrance of ready-to-book vacationers. By treating social search as a part of your journey trade search technique, you strengthen visibility throughout each social and conventional search, driving discovery at each stage of the reserving funnel.
(Supply: Instagram)
Create content material that sells the expertise, not simply the room
Friends don’t simply purchase a keep. They purchase the sensation that comes with it. Your social content material ought to transcend showcasing rooms or facilities to seize the total expertise of being there.
Use storytelling to assist potential company think about themselves at your property. Function behind-the-scenes moments, native actions, visitor testimonials and short-form movies that spark emotion. These strategic property construct belief, deepen want and switch inspiration into motion.
Take Nima Native Home Lodge, a boutique resort in Mexico Metropolis, for example. In a TikTok video, the model reveals aesthetic visuals and stress-free experiences in a comfortable nook of the town.
(Supply: TikTok)
This works as a result of it offers vacationers a really feel for the environment, not simply the facilities. Viewers can image themselves within the expertise, which makes the property extra memorable and fascinating.
Construct your model as a hyper-local neighborhood hub
Authenticity drives connection. Extra vacationers are selecting hospitality companies which might be genuinely rooted in place and function, not simply polish. To do that, transcend surface-level “native content material” by mixing strategic storytelling with measurable impression.
For instance, share tales that mirror your model’s distinctive character (like “meet the crew”) and collaborate with close by companies to amplify attain. Additionally, spotlight cultural occasions that encourage company to discover.
While you again community-driven content material and person engagement with efficiency information, you construct a aggressive benefit that’s onerous to duplicate for even international manufacturers.
Moreover, for the hospitality trade, native influencers are particularly highly effective. They provide authenticity and a right away connection to the neighborhood. Search for micro-creators who already maintain affect in your native space to drive particular actions like restaurant bookings, resort stays or occasion attendance.
When their content material begins incomes engagement, social algorithms take discover and floor it to much more individuals. Sprout’s Influencer Advertising resolution helps you amplify that impression by making it simple to search out the fitting creators, handle partnerships and measure the outcomes—multi functional place.
Join social engagement with bookings and loyalty
A robust social presence should drive measurable impression. Transfer past self-importance metrics equivalent to likes and followers, to give attention to KPIs that tie on to enterprise outcomes, together with bookings, income and repeat visits. To attribute your effort to bookings and development, use an analytics instrument.
For instance, Sprout’s Premium Analytics add-on permits you to join engagement information to efficiency insights that present what’s really working. Linking your social efforts to tangible outcomes helps your crew show ROI, refine technique and maintain clients coming again.
4 examples of hospitality social media methods in motion
Wish to see what nice hospitality social appears like within the wild?
These 4 manufacturers present how strategic content material, storytelling and buyer care on social media interprets into stronger loyalty, standout visitor experiences and extra bookings.
1. Vail Resorts leans into native enchantment
With greater than 40 mountain resorts world wide, Vail Resorts manages a mosaic of social accounts throughout areas and nations. Their social crew faces the problem of reaching distinct audiences—from international vacationers to native residents.
As Tabbey explains, “We lean into the individuality of every resort model. Our resorts supply totally different experiences—together with city, luxurious and journey—and totally different advantages, like picturesque hikes or family-focused actions.”
Merely posting scenic pictures isn’t sufficient to face out in a aggressive panorama. To rise above the “slopes of sameness,” Vail Resorts tailors their content material to spotlight what makes every vacation spot particular. Some resorts give attention to native occasions, like within the Fb video submit beneath.
(Supply: Fb)
Different posts spotlight iconic adventures and breathtaking views, like within the following Instagram submit.
(Supply: Instagram)
Apply it: Dedicate time and sources to understanding your various viewers and the way demographics range by location. Use these insights to create content material they wish to interact with and submit the place they’re most lively.
“Vail Resorts makes use of viewers demographics from every social media platform to tell our technique. Our totally different resorts—vacation spot, city, native and regional—all lean into every social platform’s distinctive content material varieties and viewers demographics to achieve the meant person. All of them strategy every app uniquely based mostly on their model. Some take a heavier video-first strategy to encourage, whereas others lean into images and neighborhood administration to attach,” describes Tabbey.
Professional tip: Repost user-generated content material to create a neighborhood, specialised really feel on every social media channel. This helps unfold consciousness along with your greatest followers, regardless of the target market. It additionally encourages word-of-mouth advertising as a result of it motivates customers to work together along with your model.
2. Loews Motels has a knack for astonishing and delighting
With 27 inns and resorts throughout the USA and Canada, Loews Motels & Co. makes use of social listening by means of Sprout to remain related to its international viewers and uncover real-time alternatives to raise visitor experiences.
“We use social listening to look for lots of various issues,” says their social crew. “The happiest of all of them, clearly, is figuring out alternatives to shock and delight our company.”
For instance, when an X/Twitter person requested for theme park suggestions in Orlando, the Loews crew observed, even with out being tagged. They jumped in with personalised ideas, turning an off-the-cuff tweet right into a concierge-style interplay that boosted model consciousness and love.
Apply it: Use social listening to merge on-line and in-person hospitality. With a strong instrument like Sprout’s Listening, you may uncover conversations that inform native content material technique and encourage shock and delight moments on your international model advertising. Sprout’s proprietary AI screens sentiment and discovers tendencies, so your crew can simply plan memorable visitor experiences.
3. Allegiant Air reveals buyer journey, even after they land
Allegiant makes use of social media to share user-generated buyer experiences. In a single case, for instance, Allegiant confirmed two clients within the airport, flying on a aircraft and having fun with their seashore trip.
This confirmed how the airline can deliver completely happy journey experiences proper from the start, beginning with transportation.
(Supply: TikTok)
By way of the end-to-end buyer expertise, Allegiant builds a human connection and encourages constructive engagement.
Apply it: Make buyer tales the face of your model on social. Showcasing your clients and crew interactions humanizes your organization, boosts engagement and builds loyalty that lasts. Sprout’s Publishing and Scheduling make it attainable to streamline your social media content material technique, guaranteeing consistency and posts with intention. Plus, with the Premium Analytics add-on, you may select metrics that match what you are promoting targets and present the impression of your information in presentation-ready experiences.
4. The Breakers Palm Seashore masters luxurious by means of storytelling
The Breakers Palm Seashore, one in all Florida’s most iconic resorts, makes use of social media to mix timeless class with trendy engagement. Their content material highlights the property’s heritage, oceanfront magnificence and signature visitor experiences, whereas sustaining an approachable and galvanizing tone.
(Supply: Instagram)
The Breakers’ crew persistently shares cinematic movies and high-quality imagery that showcases the resort’s environment, from dawn views over the Atlantic to behind-the-scenes appears at culinary occasions and spa choices. It additionally responds promptly to visitor suggestions, reinforcing its status for world-class service and social listening.
(Supply: Instagram)
Apply it: Use social media storytelling to bolster your model id. In your social media campaigns, mix high-quality visuals with genuine narratives that spotlight your individuals, historical past and setting. By curating each touchpoint to mirror your model promise, you flip social followers into future company.
Ship a first-class expertise on your clients on social
Social media is now not non-obligatory for the hospitality trade—it’s important to delivering a seamless, customer-first expertise. From participating content material to responsive care, each interplay shapes how company understand your model.
Apply one of the best practices shared right here to raise your visitor expertise, develop loyalty and drive new enterprise. Use Sprout Social to unify your engagement channels, energy your content material calendar, streamline buyer care and leverage information to show your ROI. It’s time to cease chasing 5 stars and begin delivering them–strive our trial demo as we speak.
