Social media hotels: gimmick or clever marketing?

by Mark Frary

Ever since there have been hotels, there have been theme hotels. Take Sweden’s all-treehouse Treehotel and chilly Icehotel, the kids TV themed Nickleodeon Family Suites in Orlando and those Missoni and Bulgari fashion hotels for example.

The latest craze is for social-media themed hotels.

The 1888 Hotel in Sydney’s Pyrmont district is the latest. It has decided to use Instagram to appeal to a certain type of guests.

When you walk in the lobby, there is a revolving display of Instagram shots with more in the guest rooms while there is also a spot to shoot a selfie. The hotel also promotes a local “Insta-walk” of great places to take photos in the vicinity.

One of the hotel’s opening gambits was to offer free rooms to any Instagram user who had more than 10,000 followers. The offer wasn’t a free-for-all however – it was only open to individuals and only to the first fifty.

The offer has generated plenty of buzz on the photo and video sharing social network, mostly from jealous Instagrammers with fewer than the necessary number of followers or people feeling that the brand was muscling in on social.

Igrammer xander85 said, “I don’t see myself staying with you anytime soon. It’s almost like you have segregated your demographic. “If you are not big on social, we don’t want you” It’s not a good look.”

Others were happier. User laurenepbath said, “Just want you to know that I’m extremely grateful for my free night. People complaining that they can’t get a free night and that you don’t ‘get’ social are wrong. I know loads of Australian Instagrammers with 10K plus and I think you guys are great.”

The 1888 is not the first social media hotel.

At the social media sessions at World Travel Market 2012 we heard from the team at the UshaÏa Beach Hotel in Ibiza, known informally as the Facebook hotel. The hotel has installed check-in pillars throughout the property that let guests update their status and take and upload selfies.

The Spanish seem to like the social media hotel concept. Majorca is home to Sol’s Wave House hotel, which claims to be the first Twitter hotel. It offers free wi-fi, a #SocialWave community and a Twitter concierge. The theming goes little further than that – there are no picture of blue birds in the lobby for example.
So what’s the trend all about?

These hoteliers have recognised that establishing a new hotel is all about word of mouth and good marketing. By theming a hotel around social media, you are letting social media enthusiasts do word of mouth on a global scale. The hotels are recognising that in the modern social world, everything is open for discussion and dissection on a global scale 24 hours a day. Why not just take that to its logical conclusion.

I’m just waiting for someone to open a LinkedIN-themed business hotel.