The Ultimate Guide To Hotel Influencer Marketing

As travel picks up and competition faces a crisis, it’s all the more important for hotels and hospitality brands who want to make a name online that they stand out as much as humanly possible. The answer to that – Influencer Marketing is a powerful way of extending your brand; and, through real recommendations based on actual experiences, generate foot traffic.

This blog will take you from understanding why and how hotel influencer marketing works, its benefits, to the nuts and bolts of piecing together a successful campaign.

How Influencer Marketing Works at Hotels

Influencer marketing involves coordinating with individuals who maintain a strong following on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and other platforms to support your brand. In the case of hotels, this usually means sourcing and teaming up with a travel influencer who can deliver gorgeous, engaging content showcasing your property, amenities and experiences as they happen.

Why Influencer Marketing is So Effective

People trust people. According to a Nielsen study, 92% of consumers trust recommendations from their fellow humans over branded adverts. Being able to tap into an influencer’s audience has a ripple effect and suddenly your hotel appears much more attractive to their followers.

The Benefits of Influencer Marketing for Your Hotel

Reach New Audiences

Influencers get the word out about your hotel to thousands, often millions of potential customers who otherwise would never have heard of your brand. And by targeting influencers with specializations in luxury travel, budget accommodations, or family holidays, you can meet specific demographic needs.

Raise Credibility

Seeing someone your audience respects share his or her take on your property immediately raises the prestige of your brand. It feels authentic, personal and trustworthy as long as it’s done above-board and in good conscience.

Previous Your On-line Presence

You get a lot more traffic when a property is featured in influencers’ photos, videos or blog posts on social media. That not only attracts potential guests to your site but boosts search engine rankings in the process.

Generation in Your Local Market

At the very least put their content up on your own website to honor their endorsement! Their content is also available for you to post on social media to give the hotel additional exposure.

Ask yourself: If a guest sees the swimming pool breakfast photo that he or she previously looked at on a trusted influencer’s Weibo account, does he or she (or it ) not tend to inquire further about room price, conditions and facilities on your hotel’s website? The result of all this is a rise in reservations.

Developing Lasting Relationships

By collaborating with influencers over a period of time, you can help your brand to become a habit among the consumers they advise. If you work out how to harness this natural brand loyalty, pretty soon they will be coming back to your place as unofficial ambassadors. And they will send other people to stay at your hotel, too.

A Step-by-Step Campaign Launch Guide for Influencers

Define Your Goals

Before you start looking for partners, decide what you want to achieve: Price-efficiently expand awareness of the number of people who are exposed to your media and successfully get bookings during a given time frame that you can live with.

• Are you aiming to attract more customers during a particular season?
• Do you want positioning that calls forth images of a family resort, luxury suite, or ecofriendly destination?
• Are you looking to raise brand recognition through short-term promotions?

Your goals will influence your pitching and how you judge success.

Know and Understand Your Preferred Guest’s Choices for Power

Are you dominated by millennials searching for edgy experiences or silver surfers looking to stay quiet? Picking someone whose audience you already talk to will ensure both a successful choice of influencer and good commercial terms.

A nature resort might work with sustainable travel bloggers. An urban boutique hotel may work with influencers who eat and drink, architects designers, fashion arbiters.

Choose the Right Social Media

Each platform has merits and drawbacks for speaking to discrete audiences.

• Instagram is the perfect camera for content that is visually aesthetic (infinity-pool photos and rooms set up in every nook corner are good examples).
• TikTok offers fun, engaging videos with its creative, short-form format.

• YouTube lets influencers make in-depth travel vlogs that highlight your property.

• E-mail newsletters keep people coming to your site long term. Once someone subscribes they’ll get notified every time new content is added.

Finding the Right Influencer

The following are ways you can identify the right influencer for your campaign:

• Search hashtags: Look for travel influencers using hashtags like #LuxuryHotel, #WeekendGetaway, or #TravelTips that are related to your niche.
• Use influencer platforms. Tools like Upfluence, AspireIQ, and Traackr help you find influencers who align with your goals.
• Engage on social media. Sometimes diamonds emerge from influencer superfans who are already enthusiastic about your brand; always check how community posts have been received, as well as comments and user-generated content.

When selecting influencers, concentrate on those with:

• Genuine engagement rates (look out for fake followers!).
• High-quality content that fits your brand’s image.
• Followers who reflect your target demographics.
• Authenticity and transparency in their paid partnerships.

Craft Irresistible Offers

The incentive you offer is key to successful collaboration. Common options include:

• Free stays in exchange for producing quality content about your hotel.
• Reduced rates for influencers to experience your property during promotion shoots.
• Financial compensation paid to larger influencers who reach high numbers of people.

Clearly communicate in your proposal what you are offering and what you expect in return, for example a certain number of posts, stories, reels or videos.

Always Track and Measure Your Campaign

It is essential to understand the return on your investment. Here are the metrics:

• Engagement (likes, comments, shares).
• Follower growth from the content the influencer posts.
• Website traffic from links shared by the influencer.
• Promo code use (if applicable).
• Direct conversions for example Booking links through UTM-tracked

Common Mistakes to Be Avoided

Errors in Influencer Marketing You Should Avoid

Most are familiar with the power of influencer marketing, but missteps could not only empty your wallet but also harm your brand – which is why understanding why influencer marketing is important is crucial before launching any campaign. 

Here are five points to be aware of:

1. Excessive Focus on Follower Counts
   Even if someone has 100,000 followers on the internet, if they don’t engage regularly then you won’t receive any noticeable difference in sales. Micro-influencers (with 10–50k followers each) are often more practical.
2. Over Control of Content
   Bloggers understand their readers better: Give them creative license while ensuring that what should be focused on is in fact done.
3. Lack of Transparency
   All influencer partnerships should be disclosed to the audience to ensure they trust you.
4. Not Listening to Feedback
   If influencers report bad service or any problems while they are staying in a hotel, these should be dealt with immediately. Any bad reports could seriously harm your reputation.

Hotels That Hit the Jackpot with Influencer Marketing

Ritz-Carlton Reserve (San José del Cabo, Mexico): Zadún

Collaborating with luxury travel bloggers, they produced content featuring their extensive, oceanside property. Their audience was captivated by the beauty, whether it was by serene drone shots or a table setting for fine dining.

Hotel Indigo (Global)

Hotel Indigo teamed up with native bloggers, micro-influencers and on-site writers to promote their “locally-inspired” accommodation options. The effect was not only friendly content but content which made sense.

Bawah Reserve (Private Island in Indonesia)

Teaming up with celebrity conservation bloggers and adventure writers, Bawah Reserve embraced this storytelling trend. For them, eco-tourism would be an easy sell as far as their target market was concerned. They tell stories about saving the environment around the hotel.

Confidence in Collaboration

Hotel influencer marketing is not merely about picturesque photographs and hashtags. It’s all about authenticity, trust and creating a brand impression that is popular with travelers. By thinking ahead about your campaigns and getting the right people involved (big celebrities, lots of followers), your hotel name will always land on the right lips.

Interested in getting started with your influencer marketing strategy but not sure where to begin? Reach out now for a consultation with our marketing experts and we’ll help make your vision reality.