Facebook has introduced a number of features over the past few months, creating new opportunities for hotels. In this article, we will look at five approaches hotels are using on Facebook.

1) Facebook as exclusive source

Hotel Seven in Paris uses Facebook as both the exclusive channel for hotel news and the source of the lowest available room rate. In myrecentinterviewwithMartinSoler, who led Facebook strategy for Hotel Seven, he explained – “If people wanted to know anything about the hotel, they had to follow us through Facebook. No press releases went out, and we did not take any questions from the media.”

This was more than just an one-time PR stunt. “We’ve continued our strategy after opening, and made it clear to our colleagues that it was Facebook that attracted our fans initially,” said Martin. “So we had to remember that our Facebook fans helped us achieve this success. The fans-only rate is the best rate you’ll get – better than our own website or any distributor. We also reward our Facebook community by notifying them of anything that’s going to happen before we tell anyone else – even before we post to our website.”

This focus of attention on the Hotel Seven Facebook page has attracted an audience of over 12,000 fans: significant for a single property of their size. This may be an radical approach, but the results are hard to argue with.

See the page:http://www.facebook.com/pages/hotel-le-seven

2) Facebook as a local community hub

Many landmark hotels serve as community hubs. Some urban hotels like the Roger Smith Hotel in New York City have become famous for attracting cultural influencers, but rural hotels can also use Facebook to further establish themselves in their local area. Poet’s Cove Resort & Spa uses Facebook not only to connect with guests, but also to engage the local residents of Pender Island, British Columbia.

See the page:http://www.facebook.com/PoetsCove

While local residents may not be interested in staying at your hotel, they could be a valuable source of revenue for your restaurant or spa. Positioning your property as a regional hotspot can be an effective strategy for a Facebook page.

The Marriott Napa Valley Hotel & Spa also does well with this concept. They routinely run contests to engage their fans, and post photos frequently to promote the property. The page is linked with local wineries, a theater, and the Napa Valley Marathon. Because of the property’s close proximity to the San Francisco Bay Area, they do a good job of promoting Napa as a relaxing escape from the city.

See the page: http://www.facebook.com/NapaHotel

3) Facebook as a local guide

Distrikt Hotel in New York city uses Facebook to update their community on what is happening in the city. By becoming a resource for visitors, the hotel increases the likelihood of people passing along their page to others.

See the page:http://www.facebook.com/DistriktHotelNYC?sk=app_161118960597645

There are a wide variety of ways hotels can serve as local guides, from posting events to providing individual responses to fan questions. But using a calendar like the Distrikt Hotel created makes it easy to access everything in one place.

4) Facebook as a sales tool

The Beacon in South Beach focuses on making sales by creating and promoting a specific special offer on their welcome tab: 2 free mojitos and a 15% off discount.

See the page:http://www.facebook.com/beaconsouthbeach

As we saw from Hotel Seven, delivering an exclusive offer is a powerful way to focus attention. This does not have to be just discounts or coupons. Put together a value-added Facebook package that is compelling and only available through Facebook. Not only does this draw traffic to the page, but it gives you another way to measure results.

From the time they began working on Facebook, Starwood Hotels and Resorts has provided booking functionality for all of its brands. In a recent article article published by Hotel News Now, David Godsman, VP of global Web for Starwood, said, “Conversion on Facebook is smaller but close to conversion on our brand websites. (Starwood’s Facebook fans) start to see other people’s experiences at the properties….What we are seeing now is an emergence of technology that that we didn’t see six months ago. There is an opportunity for ourselves and other hotel brands to enable these type of transactions within Facebook.”

Starwood sees opportunity to drive revenue through the site, and has introduced a “Shop” tab on the pages for all properties of their Westin brand. On this tab, visitors can book a room directly without leaving to the Westin website. Recent changes to the Facebook page structure are likely to make ecommerce integration like this increasingly common.

5) Facebook as a mini website

One & Only Palmilla uses advanced design to create an experience like browsing their website. Separate dynamic pages are setup for the spa, golf course, weddings, and restaurants.

See the page:http://www.facebook.com/OOPalmilla

Outside the hospitality industry, brands such as Red Bull and Harley-Davidson are building immersive experiences that leverage the new flexibility of Facebook. Rich media is becoming increasingly important, and there is a clear trend to use this to build increasingly interactive pages.

As Facebook does a better job of supporting these technologies, we can expect corporate Facebook pages to look and function more and and more like a traditional website.

Reporter: Vivian Yang

Resource: HN