Role of Social Media in Hospitality Industry

Research Projects

Table of Contents
TITLE: ............................................................................................................................................1
Chapter 1: Introduction....................................................................................................................1
Background.............................................................................................................................1
Statement of research problem...............................................................................................1
Research aim..........................................................................................................................1
Objective of research..............................................................................................................1
Research Questions................................................................................................................2
Purpose and scope of research ...............................................................................................2
Rationale for selection of topic...............................................................................................2
Research specification............................................................................................................2
Research Time Line................................................................................................................3
Chapter 2: Literature Review...........................................................................................................4
Concept of social media.........................................................................................................4
Positive and negative impact of social media over customer base of Primer Inn .................4
Influence of Social media over improving customer retention for Premier Inn.....................5
Measures for avoiding the negative impact of social media over brand image of premier inn. .5
Chapter 3: Research Methodology...................................................................................................6
Research Design ....................................................................................................................6
Research approach..................................................................................................................6
Data collection methods.........................................................................................................6
Chapter 4: Data Findings, Analysis and Discussion......................................................................10
Chapter 5: Conclusion, Recommendations and anticipated Limitations.......................................20
Reflection.............................................................................................................................20
Recommendations................................................................................................................20
Anticipated limitations.........................................................................................................20
Conclusion............................................................................................................................21
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................22

TITLE:
“To identify the role of social media in attracting and retaining consumers of hospitality
industry for longer period of time” A case on Premier Inn.
Chapter 1: Introduction
Background
Social media is considered as latest computer mediated technology that is being used by
business organisation for interacting with its customers in effective manner (Ahmad, Musa,
2016). It is also used as the marketing tool which helps businesses in improving their
performance at market place. The current study is based on Premier Inn, a chain of hotels based
on UK. The hotel is considered as the largest brand of United Kingdom which owes approximate
785 hotels with around total of 72000 rooms.
Statement of research problem
Premier Inn is currently facing issue related to decline of sales. In this regard, manager
has asked marketing team to conducting an research for retaining existing users and attracting
new one with help of social media. `
Research aim
“To identify the role of social media in attracting and retaining consumers of hospitality
industry for longer period of time” A case study on Premier Inn.
Objective of research
 To understand the concept of social media
 To determine the positive and negative effect of social media over customer base of
Primer Inn
 To ascertain the influence of social media over improving customer retention for Premier
Inn
 To identify the measures for avoiding the negative effect of social media over brand
name of premier inn.
Research Questions
 What is the concept of social media?
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 What are the positive and negative effect of social media over customer base of Primer
Inn?
 How social media influence customer retention in Premier Inn?
 What are different measures for avoiding the negative impact of social media over brand
image of premier inn?
Scope and purpose of research
The actual intention for initiation of this investigation is to enhance knowledge of
marketing team on social media so that by using this the company can easily retain customers
and improve its sales performance effectively. The main scope of this investigation is that it will
provide vast knowledge to hospitality industry which enhances their business performance in
effective manner.
Rationale for selection of topic
The main purpose of selecting this research topic is that this topic is feasible for
hospitality industry as by increasing knowledge over this topic, the industry can easily retain its
number of customers. With the selection of this research topic, employees of hospitality industry
can easily attract numerous of customers towards them in order to improve their sales
performance for increasing its profitability.
Research specification
The investigation will include numerous of sub section that will collaboratively
contribute in attaining feasible research outcome. Initially, it covers information basic
background of research (Anitha, 2016). Then, it discusses about the selected research questions
and objectives. After formulation of effective aims and objectives, investigator will further
provide detailed information in literature review section. This section will provide information
on the formulated research questions according to different authors point of view. At next,
description of used methodology with its significance has been described effectively. It consist of
timescale and description about resources which will be required by researcher to complete this
research in effective manner.
Research Time Line
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Chapter 2: Literature Review
Concept of social media
As per perception given by Jones, J., (2018)., social media is considered as
merchandising method that is being adopted by business organizations for promotion of their
commodities and offerings of their own company. The concept of social media was developed
for making it easier for individuals to interact with one another effectively. The concept is further
used by business organization for communicating to its customers in order to attract them
towards the company in effective manner (Lovelock and Patterson, 2015). It can be also be said
that social media tools helps business organization in attaining other individuals too which leads
to the development of overall business society.
Positive and negative effect of social media over customer base of Primer Inn
According to the thought of Berger, (2015), Social media is one of the strongest mode of
interaction with the customers which attracts them towards the services of the Hotel. It has been
analyzed that this interaction with customers often places positive and negative effects over
customers’ base. For instance, if in any case negative publicity of Premier Inn is done at social
media platform, then there are probable chances that customers of this company might develop
negative image of the hotel in their minds. Also these negative thoughts will also not allow these
customers to make purchase of offering given by this hotel. As a result, it can be said that social
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media is placing negative influence over the Premier Inn. On the other hand, while discussing
about positive influence of social media over customer base of the Hotel, it can be said that if
any hospitality brand promotes their offerings on social media then, it directly contributes in
influencing huge number of potential customers towards it (Parker and Van Alstyne, 2016).
Along with this, Premier Inn Hotel can also take feedback from its existing customers effectively
which places positive influence over the customer base of company.
Influence of Social media over improving customer retention for Premier Inn
As per the views presented by author named as Kumar and Pansari, (2016), adoption of
social media platform helps business organization in improving customers’ retention in every
industry. With reference to hospitality industry of United Kingdom, it can be said that Hotels
belonging to the specified geographical location focuses on attracting new customers and retain
existing one in order to enhance their sustainability at marketplace in effective manner. For
instance: Management of Premier Inn often uses social media platform to interact with its
existing customers in order to understand their experience with the hotel services. This
interaction will allow company in developing their positive relations with the existing customers
with longer period of time (Yen, 2015). As a result, it can be said that social media directly
improves customer retention for Hospitality sector.
Measures for avoiding the negative impact of social media over brand name of company
According to view point of Laudon, (2016), problems related to social media is
increasing day by day. This creates requirement of finding out certain measures which will help
hospitality sector in avoid negative effect of social media over the brand name of hotel. Some of
the common ways for this are Press release, devising social media compliance strategy and
tracking of misleading and negative statements. For instance: it can be said that if Premier Inn
faces any issues related to social media then the management team of the hotel can use any one
among Press release, devising social media compliance strategy and tracking of misleading and
negative statements options to overcome the issue and maintain their brand image effectively at
market place in effectively manner (Zhang and et. al., 2017).
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Chapter 3: Research Methodology
Research Design
It is defined as set of measures and methods that are used for analysing and collecting
changeable specified in research problems (Fletcher, 2017). The research design is developed as
per assigned problem of research work. It is a methods and technology in which the researcher
tries to solve the issues, every research is done through certain parameters. The survey is done
for the specific purpose.
Research approach
It is plan and structured procedure to the issues. The research approach is divided into two
part that is data collection and data analysing. The data collection includes qualitative and
quantitative and data analysing includes inductive and deductive. The inductive data analysing
basically opted for reading the secondary data and it is widely used for qualitative data
collection. It creates direct link between objective of research which also helps in achieve the
raw data effectively. The deductive analysing is basically exploration of theories. Observation is
done through statistical testing of hypothesises. It has been further analysed that inductive
research is time consuming but it provides accurate data in effective manner (Brannen, 2017). In
current research, researcher has used inductive research approach as it is based on qualitative
research design which includes secondary data collection of work. All the data is analysed
through journals and past experience of the expert researcher
Data collection methods
It refers to the way from where data is collected from the chosen respondents in order to
attain desired research outcome. It is classified into two parts such as Primary and Secondary
(Mackey and Gass, 2015). In primary method information is collected from sample population
with face to face interaction. Sources of primary methods are questionnaire, interview, focus
group, etc. Primary methods directly rely upon the information which is gathered from work
which has been done by someone else. Sources of secondary methods are books, journals, online
websites, magazines, news papers etc. In the current investigation, researchers has opted
primary and secondary methods for collecting authentic data effectively within provided time
limit.
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Questionnaire: It refers to the set of questions that is formulated by investigator in order
to collect information from respondents. These questionnaires are further filled by respondents
so that effective analysis can be done in future.
Sample size: Sample size refers to total number of respondents that have been chosen by
the investigator from the whole population (Kumar, 2019). With reference to current study,
investigator has selected 40 respondents among the stakeholders of Premier Inn Hotel so that
required information can be attained by them in effective manner.
Questionnaire
Q 1) Are you aware about the concept of social media?
a) Yes
b) No
Q 2) Do you think usage of social media tool for promotions helps Premier Inn in rising its
sales?
a) Yes
b) No
Q 3) According to your perception, does social media helps in customer retention in Premier
Inn?
a) Agree
b) Disagree
Q 4) In what manner social media support in influencing the choice of customers for purchasing
a particular services?
a) Large number of option
b) Feedback from experienced customer
c) Easy access to offering
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Q 5) As per your opinion, which of the below stated is main advantage of social media for
Primer Inn?
a) Effective Customers Relationship Management
b) Promotion of offering of hotels
c) Developing inter-business relationship.
Q 6) What are negative effects related with use of social media for Premier Inn?
a) Negative publicity
b) Misleading claims
c) Rumors
Q 7) What are different measures for avoiding the negative effect of social media over brand
image of premier inn?
a) Press release
b) Tracking of misleading and negative statement
c) Devising a social media compliance strategy
Q 8) Do you think social media posses the capacity to persuade customers to make a purchase?
a) Agree
b) Disagree
Q 9) Provide some recommendation to Premier Inn by which they can enhance customer
sustainability effectively.
Questionnaire
Q 1) Are you aware about the concept of social media? Frequency
a) Yes 35
b) No 5
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Q 2) Do you think usage of social media tool for promotions helps
Premier Inn in rising its sales?
Frequency
a) Yes 25
b) No 5
Q 3) According to your perception, does social media helps in
customer retention in Premier Inn?
Frequency
a) Agree 32
b) Disagree 8
Q 4) In what manner social media support in influencing the
choice of customers for purchasing a particular services?
Frequency
a) Large number of option 10
b) Feedback from experienced customer 15
c) Easy access to services 15
Q 5) As per your opinion, which of the below stated is main
advantage of social media for Primer Inn?
Frequency
a) Effective Customers Relationship Management 12
b) Promotion of offering of hotels 10
c) Developing inter-business relationship. 18
Q 6) What are negative effects related with use of social media for
Premier Inn?
Frequency
a) Negative publicity 11
b) Misleading claims 9
c) Rumors 20
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Q 7) What are the measures for avoiding the negative effect of
social media over brand image of premier inn?
Frequency
a) Press release 13
b) Tracking of misleading and negative statement 11
c) Devising a social media compliance strategy 16
Q 8) Do you think social media posses the capacity to persuade
customers to make a purchase?
Frequency
a) Agree 33
b) Disagree 7
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Chapter 4: Data Findings, Analysis and Discussion
Theme 1: Concept of social media
Q 1) Are you aware about the concept of social media? Frequency
a) Yes 35
b) No 5
Interpretation: Social media is modern day marketing method that is basically used by
business organization for promoting their commodities and offering among client. According to
above represented graph, 35 respondents have agreed that they know about social media because
they have observed that maximum among them have seen many promotional advertisement over
social media. Whereas, 5 respondents among them have said that they are self oriented person
who are not even using any technological tool for interacting with people at social scale. As a
result, these individuals has denied to the same question that they are not aware about the topic.
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35
5
a) Yes
b) No

Theme 2: Usage of social media tool for promotions helps Premier Inn in rising its sales
Q 2) Do you think usage of social media tool for promotions helps
Premier Inn in rising its sales?
Frequency
a) Yes 25
b) No 15
Interpretation: Social media tools are beneficial for business organization in improving
their approach over customers. This leads to raise in sales of company. With reference to Premier
Inn, it has been analyzed that this company is using social media tool for attracting maximum
number of customer so that they can get attracted to the services of hotel and can also make use
of them in effective manner. While asking the above stated question with customers, it has been
identified that 25 respondents have shown their positive influence over the question. This is
because, these respondents have seen that when they personally wants to book a hotel room and
they do not have its mobile application they personally feels to find page of same hotel on social
media in order to find out its link to book the room. This shows that promotion through social
media channel enhances sales performance of the Premier in effective manner. 15 respondents
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25
15
a) Yes
b) No

shown negative response towards similar thing because they thinks there are many users who
believes that social media promotion are not trust worthy that is why they ignore its offers and
discounts. From this, it can be said that maximum number of people agreed to the statement that
usage social media increases sales performance of Premier Inn
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Theme 3: Social media helps in customer retention in Premier Inn
Q 3) According to your perception, does social media helps in
customer retention in Premier Inn?
Frequency
a) Agree 32
b) Disagree 8
Interpretation: This is seen as amazing tool that is being used by business organizations
belonging to hospitality industry for increasing customers sustainability. According to above
represented graph, it has been analyzed that 32 respondents have agreed to the same statement
where as leftover 8 people have denied to the same thought. It has been seen that these 32
people have seen that Premier Inn can easily retain customers loyal towards them with the
adoption of this technique. This is because, by using social media, executives of organization can
communicate to customers in effective manner which ultimately build their positive relationship
with the Hotel. As a result, they remain loyal with the same company for long time. Remaining
respondents believes that customer retention can only be done in effective manner by providing
quality services to customers.
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32
8
a) Agree
b) Disagree

Theme 4: Social media support in influencing the choice of customers for purchasing a
particular services
Q 4) In what manner social media support in influencing the
choice of customers for purchasing a particular services?
Frequency
a) Large number of option 10
b) Feedback from experienced customer 15
c) Easy access to services 15
Interpretation: As shown graph, it has been identified that 10 respondents have stated
thinks that large number of options attracts customers in purchasing specific products. On the
other hand, 15 believes that feedback received from experienced customers attracts these
customers to make purchase. While, leftover 15 people thinks that ease in access to services
attracts them a lot towards the services Premier Inn.
15
10
15
15
a) Large number of option
b) Feedback from experienced
customer
c) Easy access to services

Theme 5: Main advantage of social media for Primer Inn
Q 5) As per your opinion, which of the below stated is main
advantage of social media for Primer Inn?
Frequency
a) Effective Customers Relationship Management 12
b) Promotion of offering of hotels 10
c) Developing inter-business relationship. 18
Interpretation: It provides many benefits to Premier Inn. Some main among them are
Developing inter-business relationship, Promotion of offering of hotels and Effective Customers
Relationship Management. According to represented graph, it has been analyzed that 12 people
thinks that main benefit is development of effective Customer relationship management due to
regular based interaction. Whereas 10 people thinks that main benefit is promotion of offering of
hotel, this is because, customers easily gets aware about the services of hotel with social media
promotions. Remaining 18 people thinks social media tool is effective development of inter-
business relationship for Premier. This is because these people have seen that executive of
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12
10
18
a) Effective Customers
Relationship Management
b) Promotion of offering of
hotels
c) Developing inter-business
relationship.

Premier Inn also gets business proposal from other businesses from social media tools. This
ultimately gives monetary benefit to them in effective manner.
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Theme 6: Negative effects related with use of social media for Premier Inn
Q 6) What are negative effects related with use of social media for
Premier Inn?
Frequency
a) Negative publicity 11
b) Misleading claims 9
c) Rumors 20
Interpretation: Every technology has its own disadvantage which places negative
impact over the business. Main negative effect of social media are faced by social media tools
are Negative publicity, Misleading claims and Rumors. As per the above mentioned report, it has
been find out that 11 people believes that main negative impact of social media for Premier Inn
is the negative publicity. Whereas, 9 people believes that misleading claims are seen as the
another influential impact which are negative for the stated hotel. On the other hand, majority of
20 people have declared that rumors are the main negative impact that influences Premier Inn in
negative manner. This is because, these people thinks that many times rival company also spread
out rumors about Premier Inn in order to develop negative image of the company at marketplace.
18
11
9
20
a) Negative publicity
b) Misleading claims
c) Rumors

Theme 7: Measures for avoiding the negative effect of social media over brand name of
Premier Inn
Q 7) What are the measures for avoiding the negative effect of
social media over brand name of Premier Inn?
Frequency
a) Press release 13
b) Tracking of misleading and negative statement 11
c) Devising a social media compliance strategy 16
Interpretation: There are numerous of measures taken by business organization in order
to overcome influence of negative issues which are affecting business of Premier Inn. Some of
the remedial ways for this are Press release, Tracking of misleading and negative statement, and
Devising a social media compliance strategy. As per represented graph, it has been analyzed that
13 people believes that press release is the best way through which brand name of the company
can be improved at market place. 11 respondents think that by Tracking of misleading and
negative statement, they can find out actual reason of issue which contributes in minimizing its
negative influence. Whereas leftover 16 people have declared that by devising a effective social
media compliance strategy company can improve its brand image at marketplace
19
13
11
16 a) Press release
b) Tracking of misleading and
negative statement
c) Devising a social media
compliance strategy

Theme 8: Social media posses the capacity to persuade customers to make a purchase
Q 8) Do you think social media posses the capacity to persuade
customers to make a purchase?
Frequency
a) Agree 33
b) Disagree 7
Interpretation: According to the above represented graph, it has been analyzed that
social media owes capability of influencing interest of customers to purchase offerings offered
by the Premier Inn. On the basis of graphical representation of the topic, 33 respondents have
agreed to the same statement as they thought it is true. Leftover 7 people have declined to same
questions because they thinks customers only make purchases on the basis of their past
experiences.
20
33
7
a) Agree
b) Disagree

Chapter 5: Conclusion, Recommendations and anticipated Limitations
Reflection
From my life experience related with research, many phases has been experienced by me
phases some of them are positive and some among them were negative. From my whole
experience I have improved my communication skills as in this investigation I have interacted
with numerous of people. This interaction has opened my fear of communication with new
people in order to find out answers of my questions. Along with this, the research on Premier Inn
has also improved my researching skills as well as knowledge on the hospitality industry. This
knowledge will definitely help me out in growing my career opportunity in the same field in
effective manner. As a result, these grown skills will help me in conducting more effective
research in future.
Recommendations
On the basis of overall investigation, it has been recommended to Premier Inn to follow
below stated points for attracting and retaining customers effectively towards the hotel offerings.
Some of the core beneficial recommendations for Premier Inn are described as below:
 At first, it is recommended to the manager of Premier Inn to deliver high quality services
to each and every guest in order to enhance satisfaction level of customers.
 At next, it is advised to Premier Inn to focus on developing soft skills among employees
so that they will communicate politely to the customers. As a result, these customers will
remain loyal to the company for longer period of time.
 At next, the hotel can also go for customer loyalty programs as it contributes in
influencing interest of customers towards the company in effective manner. This
increases sales performance of Premier Inn in right manner within less period of time.
Anticipated limitations
Adoption of questionnaire method is seen as the main limitation of the research as it
contains close ended question. In order to overcome this, investigator will mainly focus on
conducting future research on the basis of interview methods as they are based on open ended
questions. This will allow respondents to represent their actual views effectively.
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Conclusion
From the overall investigation, it has been identified that social media is an amazing
marketing tool that contributes in promoting commodities and offering of the company. In the
current research, primary and secondary sources of data collection method are used
simultaneously in this research for completing it in provided time frame. Along with this, it also
contributes in attaining authenticate information. Furthermore, it can be said that usage of social
media tool will help this whole hospitality industry in improving customer retention rate at work
place.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
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