The 5th Luxury Hotel Benchmarking Report just released by BluSky Marketing highlights that the social media is still to deliver on hotel awareness for a number of luxury and boutique hotels in the UK.
The benchmarking report is based on 3,882 real reviews from real guests between October and December 2013 across15 luxury and boutique hotels. The report is part of an online hotel guest experience programme, BluSky Reviews, and shows hotel awareness through social media to still be in its infancy at 1%, up from 0% in the same quarter last year (the best hotel only achieves 2%). The social media performance compares to repeat guests contributing 27%, WOM/Recommendation 21% and search 23%.
"There is a lot of hype and buzz around social media at present in the industry, with a number of hotels starting to put more emphasis and resource behind this new medium. We know from other industries and from various experiences in the hotel sector that social media can not only drive enquiries but generate sales for hotels. In reviewing this benchmarking report, are guests responding to social media in terms of generic WOM/Recommendation or identifying it as a separate area which has stimulated their awareness? Alternatively are hotels just not leveraging this new medium correctly," commented Jeffrey Epstein, Hospitality Business Improvement Management Consultant.
The benchmarking report also brings to light that the majority of luxury and boutique hotels participating in the BluSky Marketing Hotel Guest Experience Survey Programme have improved their star ratings in comparison to last quarter.
: The Luxury Hotel Benchmarking Report enables hoteliers to monitor their respective performance against their contemporaries. Of the 15 luxury and boutique hotels included within the report a number of hotels are either included within the Small Luxury of the Worlds Hotel or Pride of Britain consortiums, though not exclusively. Click here to see a copy of the report.
