By Gloria Rand
If the recent economic slowdown has taught the hospitality industry anything, it’s that taking advantage of every low cost marketing tool available is essential if you want to keep your hotel rooms filled. One of the best tools for accomplishing that is the social networking site, LinkedIn.
Hospitality Industry Benefits from LinkedIn
I recently asked hospitality industry experts in the LinkedIn group, luxuryhoteliers.com, what benefit they had gotten from LinkedIn, and the responses I received fell into these 3 categories:
1. Research clients
2. Find partners
3. Share ideas
One of those commenting was Peter Delmas, director of operations at I.H.M. International Hospitality Management. He said, “As someone who believes business and life success begins by engaging people, LinkedIn has been a great tool. My networking tentacles stretch much further and with far less effort than in the past. The wealth of knowledge and professional advice is just a few key strokes away and that is priceless.”
Delmas wasn’t the only one who found LinkedIn to be a great resource for acquiring knowledge and ideas to promote their business. Lana Idio, a hotel manager from Nigeria also noted that she believes the biggest benefit she’s gotten from LinkedIn is being able to share ideas and get new ones. But apart from that, she said, “It’s lovely to be able to get to know so many professionals and be a part of this big “family,” so to speak. It’s nice to belong!”
Sharing experiences in LinkedIn groups is one way hotel owners can exchange ideas on what’s working when it comes to marketing their properties. Of course, LinkedIn is also terrific for generating leads and finding referral partners. “I actually found Linkedin to be a great tool to research our clients and find new business connections which evidently sometimes lead to new business,” said Quintin De Wet, Associate Director of Sales and Marketing at Hyatt Regency Oubaai Golf Resort and Spa in South Africa.
