Social media marketing has transitioned from a luxury to a necessity, becoming an alternative to traditional marketing tactics across all sectors, particularly within the hospitality industry.
This industry has its challenges, from managing the rapidly changing expectations of guests seeking personalization to competing in a densely packed market where standing out is more crucial than ever.
To overcome these challenges and thrive, hotel businesses need to think strategically and use social media to shine. Especially when today’s travelers are increasingly turning to social media, making a strong presence on social media platforms is essential.
88% of travelers use social media for travel inspiration. If you want to be the one influencing them, you need to have a well-planned social media marketing strategy for your hotel. It can:
- Increase direct bookings
- Boost brand awareness
- Improve guest engagement
1. Targeted Advertising
Running targeted advertising campaigns allows hotels to reach potential guests based on interest, demographics, location, and online behavior. Instead of spending money on brand promotions, hotels can use platforms like Facebook and Instagram Ads targeting the right audience at the right time.
This social media strategy for hotels can help reach frequent travelers, business professionals, or honeymooners.
Why It’s Essential for Hotels?
Targeted social media ads can convert more visitors into customers than regularly displayed ads. They help maximize the return on interest (ROI) and reduce waste by focusing resources on the most likely convert audience.
Max, an expert in real estate and tech, has discovered the importance of social for stay booking. He revealed how social media is responsible for 85% of traffic on his website and a huge ROI.
Facebook and Instagram hotel ads achieve higher ROI compared to traditional banner ads.
How to Leverage this Strategy?
Best Platform for Targeted Advertising:
KPIs and Metrics to Track:
- Click-through rate(CTR)
- Conversion rate
- Cost per booking
- Return on ad spend (ROAS)
Utilize Advanced Targeting Options
Facebook Ads Manager targets users based on age, income, travel preference, gender, language, location, etc.
Conduct A/B Testing:
Regularly test different ad formats and messages to see what works best and refine your approach based on their behavior on your past ads.
Retarget Website Visitors from Social
Set up dynamic retargeting ads for users who visited your booking page but didn’t convert.
Use Strong CTA
While targeting your audience, use a clear and concise CTA button and leverage the sense of urgency and scarcity. Add a “Book Now” button to your social media ads to drive direct bookings.
Hilton Fiji gives a great example of targeted advertising. Their recent Facebook ad for hotels has all the elements necessary to generate bookings and ROI.
- They have a clear CTA, “Call Now”.
- The post contains a link to track this ad’s website visits and bookings.
- They have provided the guest with an offer that created a sense of scarcity.
2. Optimize Posting Times
Optimizing the posting time means sharing content on social media when your target audience is most active. Posting at the right time ensures your content reaches the maximum number of people when they are online.
Every social media platform has an algorithm that prioritizes recent and engaging posts, so timing plays a massive role in visibility.
Why Is Optimizing Posting Time Essential for Hotels?
Posting at the right time on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram increases engagement rates to 20% and more. This is the best time to post, as it varies based on location and industry.
Using the best time to post on social media for hotels can increase engagement rates by up to 50%, making your content more likely to be seen and interacted with.
How to Leverage this Strategy?
Best Platforms to Optimize Posting Time:
- Twitter (X)
- TikTok
KPIs and Metrics to Track:
- Engagement rate by time of the day
- Impressions
- Reach
Use Analytics Tools:
Use social media analytics tools hotels to determine when your followers are most active.
Test Different Posting Time:
Regularly test different times and days to refine your strategy based on the results.
Schedule Posts During High-Engagement Time on Each Platform:
Employ social media scheduling tools to automate your posting based on your audience’s most active time on each platform.
3. Seasonal Campaigns
This social media strategy for hotels focuses on creating content that resonates with the current season, holidays, or local events.
Seasonal campaigns leverage holidays, peak travel times, and local events to create time-sensitive promotions. Whether it’s a Christmas getaway, summer vacation special, or Valentine’s Day retreat, aligning offers with seasonal trends encourages more bookings.
This strategy leverages temporal relevance to engage users, driving bookings during peak tourist seasons or around special events.
Why Is Sharing Seasonal Content Essential for Hotels?
Seasonal marketing aligns hotels with customer behavior, often influenced by the time of the year.
Google Trends analysis shows that searches for “summer vacation hotels” peak during late spring, indicating optimal times for targeted marketing.
A recent Expedia report reveals that 38% of travelers book hotels based on seasonal promotions.
Hotels that align their content with these trends can capture increased interest and convert it into bookings.
How to Leverage this Strategy?
Best Platforms for Seasonal Marketing:
- Instagram Stories
- TikTok
KPIs and Metrics to Track:
- Ad performance
- Booking during campaign
- Engagement rate
- Social traffic to the booking page
Plan 3-6 Months in Advance:
Plan your seasonal content calendar well to align with upcoming holidays or events and take advantage of ad cost fluctuations.
Use a free social media post template to stay organized and consistent for easy and effective planning.
Highlight Local Seasonal Experiences:
Showcase seasonal experiences on social media that can attract more guests and create a sense of FOMO for those who don’t.
Promote Local Events:
Tie your promotions to local festivals or events, offering special rates or packages.
Use Seasonal Hashtag:
Enhance the visibility and discoverability of your posts by using popular seasonal hashtags like #ChristmasAtRamada and #SummarsWithHilton, etc.
Marriott Hotels promoted winter, Christmas, and New Year holidays, sharing glimpses from the hotels worldwide and sharing seasonal experiences with their audience on social media. This post has images showing the hotel’s facade with Christmas lights and weather.
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4. Leverage Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing for hotels involves partnering with social media influencers to promote the hotel’s amenities, services, events, and unique experiences. It allows hotels to tap into the trust and reach of social media personalities.
Travelers rely on recommendations from influencers, especially in the hospitality and travel sectors. Collaborating with travel bloggers, YouTubers, or Instagram influencers can expose your hotel to thousands of potential guests.
Why Is this Strategy Essential?
According to a study by Influencer Marketing Hub, influencer campaigns earn $5.20 for every dollar spent, highlighting their high ROI.
Data shows that Instagram has the highest engagement rate for Nano influencers with a small but niche community.
Moreover, nearly 57% of marketers use Facebook for influencer marketing campaigns.
How to Leverage this Strategy?
Best Platform for Influencers with Hotels:
- TikTok
- YouTube
KPIs and Metrics to Track for Influencer Collab:
- Engagement rate
- Website clicks from influencer posts
- Booking from an influencer campaign
Find Nano and Micro-Influencers:
Find a niche influencer that has a high engagement rate and strong community. For example, if you want to promote holiday season discounts with influencers, collaborate with the one actively sharing deals with the audience for the upcoming season.
Offer Influencer Free Stay:
Offering free stays to influencers in exchange for posts, reels, and stories is vital. This way, they can share their experience and appear genuine to their audience.
Use Influencer Content as UGC:
Share influencer content on your social media feed or in collaboration with them to attract more engagement to your social and eventually towards the final booking.
Hilton Resort collaborated with top niche influencers to promote the 70th anniversary of Pina Colada. They offered them a free stay and an experience to witness the anniversary event and shared several influencers’ content as UGC on their feed.
5. User-Generated Content
User-generated content (UGC) is any content, such as photos, videos, and reviews, created by guests instead of the hotel itself.
Travelers trust real experiences over branded marketing, and UGC provides social proof that encourages bookings. When guests tag your hotel in their vacation photos, you can repost their content to showcase authentic experiences.
Sharing UGC on social media can enhance credibility and authenticity, providing prospective guests with unbiased perspectives.
UGC acts as social proof, with Nielsen reporting that 92% of consumers trust organic, user-generated content more than traditional advertising.
For hotels, showcasing real guest experiences can significantly influence booking decisions. Hotels that incorporate UGC get a higher engagement rate than others.
How to Leverage this Strategy?
Best Platforms to Share UGC:
- TikTok
- YouTube
- BlueSky
KPIs and Metrics to Track:
- Number of UGC posts
- Mentions
- Engagement rate
- Reach
- Conversion from UGC
- Branded hashtags
Create a Branded Hashtag:
Have your own branded hashtag and encourage guests to use it when they share UGC.
Feature Guest Photo and Videos:
Regularly share guest content on your social media platforms as a token of appreciation and as a mode to derive more reach, visibility, engagement, and, eventually, bookings.
Encourage UGC with Contests and Giveaways:
Contests and giveaways are the best social media strategy for hospitality to encourage guests to share more about you and boost your organic reach. Engage guests with these activities on social media, where they can win a prize for the best post.
Ramada by Wyndham reshared a guest’s Facebook post of their Montreal hotel, which gained significant engagement and showcased authentic guest satisfaction.
Geo-tags and location-based services mean tagging your content with your geographical location on social media. This makes it discoverable to users searching for or browning content related to those locations.
This social media strategy for hotels can attract guests already in the area or planning to visit. Geo-tagging can make your hotel appear in local search results when potential guests look for accommodation nearby.
Why are Geo-Tag and Location Tagging Important?
Geo-tags are crucial for hotels because they increase local visibility and capture the attention of potential guests nearby.
Posts with location and geo-tags receive 79% more engagement than those without.
In addition to that, having geo-tagged posts on social media also improves your visibility on search engines.
How to Leverage this Strategy?
Best Platforms to Tag Location:
- Google My Business
KIPs and Metrics to Track:
- Impression from location searches
- Engagement of tagged posts
- Track booking from tagged posts
Always Tag Your Hotel Location:
Tag your hotel location in posts and stories to boost visibility and discoverability for travelers looking to stay.
Hotel Marriott uses geo-tags on social media like Instagram to tag different properties worldwide, highlight their location’s attractions, and effectively draw in local tourists.
Encourage Guests to Tag Your Hotel Location on Social:
Make it easy and enticing for guests to check in and tag your hotels. Offer welcome drinks and other goodies for those who do.
Optimize Google Business Profile:
Optimize your Google Business Profile to increase discoverability on Google and other search engines.
Use Location Hashtags:
Combine your location or geo-tag with local hashtags to maximize reach.
Hotel Fairmont often promotes location-based hashtags for its properties in different countries, like #fairmontmaldives, on social media to increase local visibility and encourage UGC.
7. Promote Customer Testimonials and Reviews
Promoting customer reviews means showcasing positive feedback from past guests on social media. Displaying positive reviews on socials helps build credibility and encourage direct bookings.
This strategy of leveraging the power of social proof enhances credibility and trust among potential customers by highlighting real guest experience and satisfaction.
How to Leverage this Strategy?
Customer testimonials and reviews can significantly impact hotel booking decisions.
According to a report released by BrightLocal, 79% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.
Keep these reviews authentic, raw, and positive simultaneously so guests can differentiate your hotel from competitors.
Data says that 40% of customers will leave a review if they have a positive experience; you just have to track them and share their testimonials on your social media.
Actionable Tip To Leverage UGC:
Best Platforms to Share Reviews:
- Google Business Profile
KPIs and Metrics to Track:
- CTR on review-based posts
- Website Traffic
- Engagement
- Mentions
Use Video Testimonials:
Create video testimonials of positive reviews showcasing the guests and their experience at your hotel. You can even combine the testimonials of more than one guest, thanking them and turning them into engaging content.
Hilton Hotel & Resort gives an excellent example of sharing customer testimonials in an exciting and fun way. They connected employee-generated content (EGC) with guest testimonial videos and combined them for Facebook posts, thanking them for their kind words.
Respond to Reviews:
Engaging and responding to reviews and mentions with both positive and negative feedback is vital to show that you value quest feedback.
Share Images Featuring Guest Reviews:
Share graphically made social media review posts using authentic TripAdvisor and Google reviews.
Hyatt often shares customer reviews in the form of images on Facebook posts and Instagram to share what experience they give their guests.
As highlighted in the chart below from our 2025 Instagram Trends Report, the hospitality industry shares the highest percentage of photo posts on Instagram.
Leveraging high-quality images is key. You can also re-share the stunning photos posted by happy guests, showcasing authentic travel experiences at your hotel. This builds social proof and encourages potential guests to imagine themselves at your property, making them more likely to book a stay.
Turn Positive Feedback into Carousel Posts on Instagram:
As mentioned above, you can combine a few positive guest review graphics and share them on social media in carousels. This type of social media strategy for hotels generates more engagement and reach.
8. Highlight Employee Stories
There are several ways to highlight employee stories. A good social media strategy for the hotel is to share EGC that involves personal anecdotes, achievements, and behind-the-scene insights.
Featuring employee on social media builds a strong connection with guests and makes the brand more relatable. This strategy gives a humanized approach to building a deeper connection with your audience.
How Does Showing Employee Stories Help?
According to a Forbes survey, storytelling will make your brand 22 more memorable than others.
And several studies say that content that features people receives higher engagement than other social media content types.
Combined with these two attention-grabbing powers, it generates the highest level of engagement and connection.
Showing employees helps personalize the hotel experience and fosters a sense of trust and loyalty among potential guests.
How to Leverage this Strategy?
Best Platforms for Story Telling:
- TikTok
- Instagram Facebook
KIPs and Metrics to Track:
- Engagement rate
- Comments
- Mentions
- Followers
Spotlight Employee of the Month:
Sharing the story of an employee every month on social media derives an emotional connection with the audience.
Pick an employee of the month or a random employee and show a day in their life working at your hotel using audio and visuals.
Marriott Hotels have done something similar. They shared a day in the life of a Marriott assistant and showcased their everyday chores, working and connecting guests.
Post Behind-the-scene Content:
Sharing behind-the-scene of staff preparing guest experiences and their thought on making them more memorable.
Tip: Use short video clips of employees sharing their favorite guest moments. Use short video clips of employees sharing their favorite guest moments.
9. Behind-the-scene Content
Giving followers an exclusive look into the hotel operations builds transparency and engagement. This way, you give a peek into the hotel’s day-to-day operations, showcasing the brand’s authenticity and transparency.
This type of content can include everything from kitchen preparation to housekeeping logistics.
How Does BTS Content Help?
Behind-the-scenes content humanizes your brand and builds trust with your audience. BTS generates more interaction by giving viewers raw, genuine, and authentic vibes.
It also shows that you are proud of your hotel’s operation standards and willing to share them openly. These social media marketing strategies for hotels are what set you apart from competitors.
How to Leverage this Strategy?
Best Platforms for Behind-the-scene Content:
- YouTube
- TikTok
- Community Groups
KPIs and Metrics to Track:
- Engagement rates
- Sentiment Analysis
- Comments
- Mentions
- DMs
- Website traffic from that BTS post.
Plan Regular BTS Posts:
Sharing regular behind-the-scenes events, experiences, seasonal occasions, festivals, and more can generate a sense of connection among the followers and a desire to stay at your hotel and experience those occasions.
Engage Your Staff:
Behind-the-scene content is nothing without your hotel staff. Show them in your posts, Stories, and videos to create transparency and engagement among social media followers.
Post “Before & After” Room Setups:
Before & After is one of the best BTS ideas for a hotel. Share it for event setup, restaurant setup, or room setup.
Hilton Hotels & Resorts has their improvised version of BTS, called Behind-The-Meal. In this, they show the BTS of making a meal for their guests, and then the guests experience those incredible meals.
Custom hashtags are unique brand-specific tags you can create for your hotel to consolidate all related social media posts in one searchable thread. This encourages guests to tag their social media posts while staying at your property.
These increase your discoverability through UGC and help track their brand mentions. This social media marketing strategy for hotels fosters a sense of community among guests and followers and enhances engagement.
How Does BTS Content Help?
In 2025, hashtags may not be a big game changer for reach, but they still boost your discoverability and engagement more than those without.
According to SocialPilot Instagram Trends Repost 2025, a post with few but relevant hashtags gets more reach than a post with 20+ irrelevant hashtags.
But custom hashtags help track conversations around your brand, making engaging with and monitoring your audience easier.
How to Leverage this Strategy?
Best Platform to Promote Custom Hashtags?
- TikTok
KPIs and Metrics to Track:
- Number of posts on Hashtag
- Engagement Rate
- Reach
- Visibility
Create a Branded Hashtag:
Create branded or hotel-specific hashtags, or you can even add location, like country, city, or island, in the hashtag with your hotel name.
These hashtags should be memorable, encourage UGC, and be specific to the campaign, like what Hilton has done.
Hilton has its branded hashtag, #HiltonForTheStay, a memorial that encourages UGC. This hashtag has 65k plus posts, and Hilton guests worldwide share content.
Display the Hashtag in Your Hotel:
Displaying your branded campaign or event hashtags on the welcome screen, room keycards, and restaurant menus will encourage guests to share their version of the stay on social media.
Use Trending Travel Hashtags:
Travel hashtags that are trending or are season-specific can also generate colossal engagement and reach. Hashtags like #TravelToTheTop and #Wanderlust can never go out of fashion.
Combine trending hashtags with your custom-branded hashtags to be more specific to your hotel.
11. Local Partnerships
With local partnerships, your hotel can collaborate with nearby businesses, attractions, and influencers to cross-promote services, increase your hotel awareness locally, and enhance guest experience by giving them ideas to explore in your locality.
This social media marketing strategy for hotels can amplify your reach and collaboration and offer a more comprehensive stay to the guests, making your hotel more attractive.
How Local Partnership Help?
When visiting new places for traveling, guests often look around to find more places to visit nearby and enhance their stay. Guests prefer hotels that offer recommendations for local experiences that they might not find elsewhere.
How to Leverage this Strategy?
Best Platform for Local Business Collaboration:
- TikTok
- Snapchat
KPIs and Metrics to Track:
- Engagement
- Referral traffic
- Reach
- Mentions
- Followers growth
- Bookings
Partner with Local Restaurants and Cafes:
One of the best ways to attract most guests from local partnerships is by collaborating with local and nearby restaurants and cafes.
Both your hotel and the restaurant should have shared collaborative posts on social media showcasing the amenities of each other to attract more guests. Come to a common ground on what story you will tell the audience, which will connect you both and explain the collaboration.
Kimpton EPIC Hotel is a well-known wellness retreat hotel in downtown Miami and recently collaborated with a local restaurant, Area 31. This partnership showcased both of their properties and encouraged guests to visit one and see the other.
Collaborate with Local Attractions and Tour Guides:
Another very effective local partnership is with local attractions and tour guides. This social media marketing strategy for hotels can benefit both parties. It can work as a nearby site recommendation for hotel guests and a nearby hotel with great amenities for those who wish to see that site.
Similarly, by partnering with a tour guide of your city or nearby site, you can get more bookings and help that guide get more travelers.
Develop Joint Offers:
Running joint offers contests or freebies, which can also benefit your hotel by increasing the number of guests. By collaborating with local attractions, tour guides, restaurants, or anything else for a joint offer like “Winning a luxury stay” & “Dinner at XYZ restaurant,” you get more bookings.
Tip: Use geo-targeted social media ads to promote partnership offers to travelers already in your area.
12. Stay Updated with Trends
Even after you have an entire calendar prepared for interesting and engaging content for your social media, the only thing that will help you go viral instantly is social media trends.
Staying updated with trends keeps your content fresh and relevant. It involves keeping up with the latest developments in social media, technology, travel, and hospitality and knowing what works best on social media at what time.
Keeping up with vital content and platform updates ensures that your hotel remains relevant and engaging. This proactive approach helps hotels anticipate market shifts and adapt their offerings to meet evolving guest experiences.
Why Staying Updated with Trends Is Vital?
Like every business on social media, being aware of the best practices to thrive your strategy is vital even for the hospitality industry, especially hotels.
Brands that adapt to new trends often outperform competitors in engagement and conversion rates because they are seen as forward-thinking and responsive.
Also, it is a fact that short-form content like TikTok and Reels gets 4X more reach than static content. Knowing each social media platform’s strategy and trending content types is essential to reach more people and eventually get more conversions.
How To Stay Updated with Trends?
Trends Focused Social Platforms:
- TikTok
- Instagram Reels
- YouTube Shorts
KPIs and Metrics to Track:
- Engagement rate
- Content reach
- Followers growth
Jump on Viral Challenges:
There is some viral trending content on every social media paltfrom every time. Find out about those trending content and try to incorporate them into your hotel marketing in some way or another.
If nothing matches our brand voice, go for trending sound and challenges, which always boost massive engagement.
Follow Industry Leaders and Influencers:
Keep a tab on your niche industry leader brands, experts, and influencers to know what works best in the hospitality industry.
Algorithms and Social Media Trends Report:
Stay ahead by keeping track of social media trends and algorithm updates. Tailor your content to align with each platform’s prioritization for maximum visibility and engagement.
To help your hotel succeed on Instagram, explore our Instagram Trends Report 2025—your go-to guide for the latest insights.
Discover what’s working (and what’s not), the content formats driving the most engagement, the posts achieving the highest reach, and the top-performing industries on Instagram.
Bonus: Monitor Analytics
It all comes down to numbers and conversions. Monitoring analytics involves regularly reviewing social media performance metrics to understand the effectiveness of your marketing strategies and how it’s working for your hotel.
Employees use a social media analytics tool to get detailed performance insights and presentation-ready reports with customizable performance metrics.
Knowing the performance analytics allows you to measure if your bookings have increased and optimize your future strategy for better results. Track important KPIs and Metrics based on your business goal and compare results from the past strategy to make data-driven decisions.
Conclusion
As travel and hospitality evolve, so does how you market your hotels. Social media is a tool if you are looking to stand out, attract guests, and increase booking in 2025.
These 12 hotel social media marketing strategies we have outlined will help you thrive in an industry that’s becoming increasingly competitive and digital-first. It’s because today’s travelers are actively engaging with brands on social media, and it’s time for your hotel to harness that.
Remember, it’s about staying proactive and adjusting to the hotel’s social media marketing strategies; if you need a partner to enhance your performance, SocialPilot will always be your ally.