So this is just a conversational thought experiment, and I want to know what you think about this, how insane or inappropriate it is, and how it would be received (especially regionally or wherever your market is). In regards to hotel (and all) marketing, I get cynical about it as toxic clutter and spammy noise. It is, generally, not making our lives better. Whenever I, as an operator, am wedged into the marketing conversations, it’s amazing how much “gut buzz” drives initiatives vs logically thinking through cost vs return, value vs damage to the brand, etc. I get that the storytelling and what not is all valuable for long term positioning, but I cannot help but think if a hotel was committed to just being painfully real with it’s marketing. I think if the brick and mortar had a real value to the public, social media is irrelevent. We’ve seen hotels be successful with social media, from an aesthetic and interaction point of view, but if the results are revenues, that’s still yet to be seen. I’ve been a gatekeeper about it being a total waste of time, if you are looking for bookings. However, in the last couple years, we are seeing revenue from FB, very little from anywhere else (speaking about social and not UGR).
What’s more problematic is that we’ve seen MANY hotels with absolutely zero social presence (no accounts even set up), to dormant presence (hotels didn’t have the labor $$ or staff to accomplish ongoing social media content generation)…. that knock RevPAR, both ADR and Occ, out of the park. Over the budget, over the comp set, ZERO social presence. So how much more successful would they have been with social posting, and how would we quantify that. Or, a better question is what opportunities or revenues have been lost due to a lack of social media? We can easily quantify that with a vague “really, not that much, if any, at all”.
So, I keep returning to this notion of a great hotel, operated well, service oriented, and desirable rates, location, and vibe. The hotel doesn’t have to be profoundly cynical just because the marketing is direct, honest, and real…. But what do you think of my anti-marketing hotel? Note the famous Bill Hicks video link, and know this does not lack self-awareness…. if someone did this, it would get PR exposure for the transparent and honest marketing angle, being anti-marketing would conjur marketing, so the hypocrisy is strong here. But I just dream of an honest hotel, saying it like this on their website. How would this be received, if someone did this? Has anyone done this?
WELCOME TO OUR HOTEL WEBSITE, THE ONLY PORTAL INTO OUR WONDERFUL HOTEL, BECAUSE:
- We have a website so you can find out about us, and book direct, which is the best thing for a guest, and its the best thing for us.
- We don’t have instagram, because we think brands clutter up social feeds.
- We don’t have Facebook, because we think it’s disingenuous & derivative posting “Yay Holiday” every holiday, or aligning ourselves with a social movement to appear empathetic, when it’s really just hollow marketing to turn people into dollar signs for revenues. We believe in all forms of progressive social justice and accountability, we just don’t believe in exploiting it at the cost of your humanity.
- We are on user generated review sites, not because we can’t control it, but we welcome it as a way to steer the ship, and inform guests about how great we are at running hotels.
- We want to do this the right way. We want to do it the way you would want to be treated, with dignity and respect. We understand that our guests are sophisticated, and they’re not going to book a room they hadn’t planned on booking because some smiling people were in a lobby shot with the craft cocktail list. For those that like cynical marketing, we’re sure there are enough other brands to fill that void. Each time they market to you about FOMO, they’re dehumanizing you by exploiting or evolutionary psychology that is steeped in the need for validation and relevance. This is called “Societal Marketing”, and it’s the bad side of marketing. The good side of marketing connects people that want to know about us, that don’t know about us. That’s actually sweet. Making someone feel “less than” without a product? That’s hacking our brain to make us feel bad and then mobilize us as dollar signs.
- Until then, visit us and enjoy real, independent hospitality and service. We’ll personalize your trip so that it is an authentic experience of our local surroundings, where you can feel the culture, and be part of the experience, as if you were a neighbor and part of the community. And yes, that’s true, but also all those were more of the cynical marketing-speak that makes most of itch.
- Yes, we’re hypocrites but we do not lack self-awareness. This is still marketing of our hotel. We’re going for the anti-marketing market. It’s a good market.