Investigating Social Media Marketing in the Hospitality Industry: Facebook and European Hotels

Abstract

Social media have changed the way people interact with each other and with companies. In fact, recent research confirms that user-generated content is a key element in the decision-making process of customers who travel. The hotel business is now taking advantage of the introduction of social media into their marketing programmes, trying to create a customized relationship with consumers. The aim of this study is to investigate the use of social media among European hotels. Quantitative and qualitative research methods have been combined to identify a group of items useful to comprehend how hotels interact with customers on social media. The results show that European hotels are still in the first stages of developing social media strategies that present a moderate level of integration among different media. They are considered a useful instrument to promote the hotel brand but the potentiality of customer engagement is still undervalued.