Instagram is massively underutilised by the hospitality industry

Just as hotels get comfortable simply sharing their best images to the grid, Instagram levels up. Today it takes a lot more than an aesthetically pleasing feed to inspire sophisticated audiences and to generate bookings. The market knows when it’s being marketed to, and hotels that just shout about their products or services may get likes, but do they translate into reservations?

Instagram is the one channel that can be utilised at each stage of the guest journey, from inspiration and research, through to on-property experience and post-stay sharing. It can be used to support the AIDA (Awareness, Interest, Desire and Action) model of marketing, but how can hotels tap into this content marketing to drive bookings? 

These are some of the simple ways to start turning your hotel’s Instagram activity into content that sells:

Utilise the carousel feature

Each post on Instagram can be up to 10 pictures or videos, graphics, or a combination of the three. That’s essentially the size of a brochure, yet how many hotels just post one or a couple of pictures and videos, and leave it at that?

You could make guides about the destination with pictures from ‘bucket list’ experiences that the destination has on offer. Share cultural information and details about public transport and more. It could essentially become a travel brochure about the destination. In a couple of months, you can also change the cover picture and reshare the same post to enlighten newer followers.

The post can become an interactive menu; not just listing the items, but showcasing them with slow-motion pouring, or close-up videos of the food being prepared, or even a video from the chef describing the inspiration behind the dish. A photo flat pan of all the ingredients next to the finished dish is beautiful. The same with cocktails; the creative scope is endless. It could be a book of the best reviews, top-performing team members, in-room amenities menu, or a pillow menu. All of this is unique insight into the experience that allows the audience to immerse themselves into your venue and turn their desire into action.

Use Instagram Reels

Videos can be everything from closeups, slow-motion and time-lapses to members of the team talking to the camera and showing the audience the new suite. A walk through a busy kitchen, water action in the pool or simple aesthetic close-ups, there are a lot of avenues for hotels to explore.

You can create a regular feature out of sharing ‘hotel hacks’, a step-by-step guide to making your bed like a hotel bed, how to make the famous hotel omelettes, and so much more. These educate the audience and provide value, but also allow the hotels to showcase their products, the brands that they use, their expertise and those luxurious touches in a subtle, not salesy way. It empowers the audience by teaching them something new.

Use IGTV

IGTV is good for sharing interviews with team members, guests, or others. A string of topical interviews by the GM, or different department heads talking us through their experience like ‘a day in the life’. Some could go as far as to create a mini-series that gets the audience hooked and engaged.

Go Live

This must be quite well thought out in a hotel environment, but setting up a tripod and setting Instagram to ‘Live’ in a busy open kitchen would rack up lots of views. An hour by the pool or by the bar as the sun sets would be beautiful. They could do a VIP briefing live or do a live bed-making competition to entertain.

Promote the destination

Travel has changed in a post-pandemic era. People want to explore and discover the destination and engage in the experiences on offer.

Using all of Instagram’s features, you can show in rich detail the destination, as well as the ‘must see’ attractions, events, recommended restaurants and things to do on the doorstep. Using the multiple easy design apps, you can create a walking trail on the destination across the carousel pages, and put the town map up, among other things. The creative possibilities are endless.

Showcase the experiences in detail

Instagram can serve as a unique window into the heart of the hotel operations and what experiences await the guest. Hoteliers don’t pay much thought to the mundane things that they are used to, like the preparation of a designer omelette, or the way the bed is made, the way the amenities are laid out, the way a cocktail is mixed and so on, but the audience loves it; they don’t see this every day. They see the images of a beautifully styled in-suite breakfast table, but they don’t see all the little details and effort that goes into it, and that’s what they want to see on Instagram. Real stuff, not more adverts. Details. 

Tap into the booking journey

Looking at the booking journey (travel inspiration, research, booking, on-property and post-stay), Instagram is one of the only channels that can tap into each stage of the journey without trying too hard.

Think of it as a loop. Existing guests have the potential to invigorate the first stage of the booking journey for another through travel inspiration. On-property and post-stay content is often shared to friends and family, like-minded people likely sitting in your target market demographic range. By giving the hotel pockets of Instagramable content opportunities, it encourages social media sharing and drives brag factor; people want to tag your location and highlight that they stayed there.

Remember: nobody pays as close attention to your content as you do, so don’t assume everybody has seen it. Visitors to the profile should see what you are and what are your top USP’s within the first nine posts. Don’t be afraid to repeat the content.