Application of social media from the hotel's point of view: How to retain customers

Abstract

Marketing trends have been changing over the last decades, and companies need to adapt themselves in order to remain competitive. In the last few years, social media has become one of the most important tools of marketing in many industries. The hotel industry is a dynamic and fast-growing sector, and the importance of social media in this industry is more pronounced. Social media allows hotels to provide information about their services to their customers and get immediate and direct feedback from them. The main aim of this research is to understand how hotels apply social media in order to attract and retain customers and how social media can affect their success. This research has been conducted in the Czech Republic, considering 4 and 5-star hotels. Data for this research was collected through interviews and also observation. Managers and hotel employees who had enough knowledge about the marketing and social media of the hotels were selected for interviews. Public pages of hotels on social media were also monitored in order to understand the contents and also the customers' comments. The 􀅫indings of this research can provide a better understanding about the importance of social media in the hotel industry and can provide bene􀅫icial implications in practice.