Social Media Marketing Strategy for Hotels

This assignment delves into the world of social media marketing within the hospitality sector, specifically focusing on hotels. It requires an analysis of user-generated content related to hotel experiences and a comprehensive exploration of effective social media strategies for hotels. The analysis should encompass various aspects like customer relationship management (CRM), hotel website marketing activities, and the influence of information and communication technologies (ICT) on the industry. The goal is to understand how hotels can leverage social media to enhance their brand image, attract customers, and drive business success.

Running head: THE HOSPITALITY AND TOURISM MARKET
The Hospitality and Tourism Market
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

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Executive Summary
Queenstown Park Boutique Hotel is a 5-star haven for accommodation during all seasons. The
hotel is boutique, yet has a completely modern romantic style and is known for their exclusive
service in the adventure capital of New Zealand. As a boutique hotel they have very recently
found success by means of provision of unique cultural experience to the guests. As because they
are a new entrant into the Australian market, the major competitors would comprise of both the
standard hotels as well as the established boutique hotels in Melbourne. This report has
attempted at analyzing the different elements that needs importance while preparing for an
Integrated Marketing Campaign for the hotel.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Current Business Operation.............................................................................................................3
Recommended Future Campaign....................................................................................................8
Recommended New or Innovative Idea........................................................................................11
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................12
References and Bibliography.........................................................................................................13

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Introduction
Queenstown Park Boutique Hotel is a 5-star haven for accommodation during all seasons.
The hotel is boutique, yet has a completely modern romantic style and is known for their
exclusive service in the adventure capital of New Zealand. The hotel is a designer luxury
accommodation that is set in the peaceful parklands and provides the guests with the option of
savoring the majestic mountain views of Queenstown. There is easy access available towards the
vibrant town center that nestles the shopping centers, nightlife and cafes, situated right on the
shores of the beautiful Lake Wakatipu. The hotel contains 19 luxury suites and rooms. As a
boutique hotel they have very recently found success by means of provision of unique cultural
experience to the guests. As because they are a new entrant into the Australian market, the major
competitors would comprise of both the standard hotels as well as the established boutique hotels
in Melbourne like The Cullen and The Prince which are situated in the culturally popular areas
like Prahran and St. Kilda. The hotel mainly targets cultural enthusiasts who visit Melbourne
from other Australian cities. Limited rooms and median prices helps them in maintaining a
degree of exclusivity (Queenstown Park Hotel 2017).
Current Business Operation
The operations of Queenstown Park Boutique Hotel presently do not comprise of huge
amounts of advertising. Instead of that, the hotel group concentrates on building a very strong
and visually appealing brand image that is generated with the help of word of mouth publicity
and press. Similar to their dedicated efforts in building brand awareness and interests with the
help of non-traditional methods and social media, the Australian counterpart would also place
similar focus on incorporating traditional methods and social media for combating lower brand

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awareness (Queenstown Winter Festival 2017). To understand the marketing strategies and
management tactics in place, the marketing mix analysis would help.
Product
Queenstown Park Boutique Hotel has intangible products that are mainly service based.
They fall into the luxury segment, positioned into the industry at a point with the help of
branding and sub branding from where they have no fear of becoming indiscernible. Queenstown
Park Boutique Hotel offers services and products like guest rooms, banqueting, conference
facilities and other recreational facilities. The sales and marketing department of the hotel helps
the top management of the hotel in identifying the exact requirements and working along with
them for developing these facilities and making improvements accordingly (Newzealand.com
2017).
Price
The average price of the hotel rooms is generally set based on the location. In case of
Queenstown Park Boutique Hotel, Melbourne is a rich area, where keeping an average price of
$200 would help them achieve their estimated revenue of $7000000 per year. In comparison with
the other larger or chained hotels that are situated in the same area, the price of hotels like
Queenstown Park Boutique Hotel is relatively inexpensive. The room rates of the hotel gets
defined and decided according to the different seasons. During peak season the prices are higher,
which falls during off season (Schamel 2012).
Place
Just like any other hotel, Queenstown Park Boutique Hotel also would not be travelling to
customers, as it is always the other way around. The hotel would be located in a central position

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in Melbourne, providing the best amenities, clean and stylish rooms, and experienced staff. To
reach out to the potential customers, Queenstown Park Boutique Hotel would be using both
direct and indirect distribution methods. Queenstown Park Boutique Hotel uses direct methods
like sales via hotel sales team, printed and other media advertisements, hotel website booking
system and global distribution system. They use travel agents, event planners and independent
hotel representatives (Molina-Azorín et al. 2015).
Promotion
For promotional activities the director of sales and marketing works out the most
effective promotion and communication mix for the hotel. The promotional methods and
communication channels that are used by Queenstown Park Boutique Hotel are brochures, hotel
websites, social media sites, television commercials, stationeries and billboards. With the
evolution of technology, the products and services of the hotel have started focusing more on
bringing the products to the place at a competitive and reasonable price. Concentration on this
aspect has become their point of difference, as the other elements have lost their significance in
today’s global markets (Buhalis and Mamalakis 2015).

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Image 1. The hotel
Image 2. Plan

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Image 3. Map
Image 4. Ranking

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Image 5. Views and Interiors
Image 6. Awards
Image 7. Hotel Details
Recommended Future Campaign
Queenstown Park Boutique Hotel would look for achieving brand loyalty with their
targeted market with the help of both rational products and emotional experiences for their target
market by means of their brand positioning. Queenstown Park Boutique Hotel’s brand

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personality would be created, basing it on the target market’s behavioral profiles in an attempt at
resonating with their target audience at both a symbolic and emotional level.
Message strategy
Queenstown Park Boutique Hotel’s message strategy would be focusing on the
satisfaction of requirements and wants of every segment inside their target market by means of
communication of the brand positioning that is wide and has the capacity of satisfying all the
four expected rewards from their target audience that includes “product, sensory, rational, social
or ego satisfaction rewards” (Li, Wang and Yu 2015). This notion would be established with the
help of their positioning statement, “For the culturally enthusiastic travelers, Queenstown Park
Boutique Hotel is going to be the prime boutique hotel that would immerse their guests in a
completely cultural experience. At Queenstown Park Boutique Hotel, our guests would he
staying at the most unique rooms that are designed by local artists and are encircled by a social
hub of culture and creative minds and could meet with similar minded local people and travelers
equally with not even ever leaving the building.”
The major differentiated point that Queenstown Park Boutique Hotel would be
communicating inside their brand positioning and campaign message is that it would be
providing a unique and enjoyable customer experience which would be excellent for every
Australians at the same time of being consumer-focused in their conduct of presenting superior
value as the customers would be provided with the chance of controlling the amount of
purchasing and spending via a visit and stay at the hotel.
Creative strategy

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Queenstown Park Boutique Hotel would be making use of the subsequent types of
images via the chosen mediums:
Print Media
The imagery that would be used in the advertisements would all be in details, with glossy
pictures of the hotel rooms and of the lobby inside the hotel, displaying Park’s social hub status
in action. An amalgamation of the whole page and the smaller ads would be positioned and
printed in Sunday editions of some specifically chosen newspapers, besides news on different
cultural events. Ads in the magazines would be full-page and even small in size, based on the
surrounding editorial content and the time of the year.
Digital Media
The online advertisements would be basic standard banner ads that would be displaying
the images of Queenstown Park Boutique Hotel, which would contain the rooms, the lobby and
its surroundings, along with the cultural events that take place in Melbourne and are of interest
for ten target market. Images might also flash inside one banner ad for including these multiple
scenes (Barreda and Bilgihan 2013).
Social Media
Social media websites would be used for putting up different types of altered and vintage
inspired pictures of the hotel and the surroundings it would be positioned in. Along with that, all
photos of the events that take place, the product collaborations that happen, unrelated
information, videos and photos that might only be of notice for the target market would also be
put up. This marketing approach has a very important role to play in the cementing of the role of

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Queenstown Park Boutique Hotel as a form of brand that has the capacity of permeating the lives
of the different guests beyond their hotel stay (Leung et al. 2013).
PR Efforts
In attempting to support and encourage worth of mouth publicity and making known and
reinforcing Queenstown Park Boutique Hotel’s status as a form of a social hub, different PR
efforts would take place, like sending out of press release at the time when the hotel would start
operating, hosting different types of events like concerts and art openings, and inviting travel
bloggers to visit and stay at the hotel at no cost. Press releases would be generating awareness
among the people who have some amount of voice in media. Travel blogger invites would help
in generating interest among loyal and new customers. Events would further help bolster the
social hub status of the hotel and attract the locals (Radford 2012).
Brand Image
The following traits of Queenstown Park Boutique Hotel would be evoked with the help
of the imagery discovered in the hotel’s advertising strategy:
 Physique: Minimalistic designing, recognizable typography and color arrangement,
iconic symbol
 Personality: Imaginative, refined
 Relationship: Social hub
 Culture: Creative-types, meticulous clients
 Reflection: Fashionable and great metropolitans

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Recommended New or Innovative Idea
To enter the Melbourne hotel market, Queenstown Park Boutique Hotel can take the help
of regular advertising campaigns for reinforcing their brand values that includes luxury, warmth
and efficiency. Queenstown Park Boutique Hotel can produce an unobtrusive bundle of short
films attempting to intrigue a younger generation of travelers, and their undertakings can get paid
off. They can get a Christmas campaign which would show up as a magnificent vivified coming
timetable that would be released over 25 days provoking Christmas. Following the outing of a
Christmas Star traveling to Earth, each 15-second episode would incorporate another objective,
and solidify to outline a whole five-minute video that would be released on Christmas Day.
While most self-ruling properties are without the kind of budget that spreads film production, the
achievement of these campaigns may spur lodging heads to imagine fresh out of the box new
thoughts concerning their own specific properties' videos (Luck and Lancaster 2013).
While virtual reality may seem like a front line peculiarity, it's been a fervently issue in
the hospitality business starting late with Marriott trialing the technology and Hilton Hotels
driving a 360-degree video campaign. Marriott made prepared with VRoom Service — a novel
in-room extravagance planned to empower and move guests. By methods for VR Postcards,
hotel guests could experience the shops and the clamoring streets of Melbourne, perfect from
their hotel room. Hilton's compact beginning 360-degree video passes on inescapable guests to
the chain's Barbados property, making an immersive undertaking expected to move bookings
(the video consolidates an end card that is composed with the chain's booking system). While
conveying 360-degree video is an expensive endeavor including specific cameras and production
gatherings, virtual reality offers skilled potential for travel headway and is an example to look

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things being what they are to be more standard and sensible to self-governing properties (Schegg
and Stangl 2017).
Conclusion
As another competitor into the Australian market, Queenstown Park Boutique Hotel will
realize a decently expansive IMC system for a singular hotel of its size. Messages will hope to
portray Park's status as a boutique hotel arranged as a phase over the competition, offering to
guests rooms uncommonly styled by adjacent specialists, a lot of close to nothing, careful
touches, and the opportunity to be immersed in a dynamic social focus. Utilizing a mix of day by
day paper and magazine sees close-by web publicizing and expansive social media use,
Queenstown Park Boutique Hotel will get a level of agreeable vitality that empowers it to get
reach, and repeat, of advancements for its summed up target market of socially excited
specialists in Australian capital urban groups; social media and digital media advertisements will
be utilized reliably, while print media notification will be used basically in the months going
before broad social events in Melbourne, for instance, the Food and Wine, film, and diverse
festivals.

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References and Bibliography
Almeida, N.M., Silva, J.A., Mendes, J. and Oom do Valle, P., 2012. The effects of marketing
communication on the tourist's hotel reservation process. Anatolia, 23(2), pp.234-250.
Barreda, A. and Bilgihan, A., 2013. An analysis of user-generated content for hotel
experiences. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology, 4(3), pp.263-280.
Bowie, D., Buttle, F., Brookes, M. and Mariussen, A., 2016. Hospitality marketing. Taylor &
Francis.
Buhalis, D. and Mamalakis, E., 2015. Social media return on investment and performance
evaluation in the hotel industry context. In Information and Communication Technologies in
Tourism 2015 (pp. 241-253). Springer, Cham.
Leung, D., Law, R., Van Hoof, H. and Buhalis, D., 2013. Social media in tourism and
hospitality: A literature review. Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, 30(1-2), pp.3-22.
Li, X., Wang, Y. and Yu, Y., 2015. Present and future hotel website marketing activities: Change
propensity analysis. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 47, pp.131-139.
Luck, D. and Lancaster, G., 2013. The significance of CRM to the strategies of hotel
companies. Worldwide hospitality and tourism themes, 5(1), pp.55-66.
Molina-Azorín, J.F., Tarí, J.J., Pereira-Moliner, J., López-Gamero, M.D. and Pertusa-Ortega,
E.M., 2015. The effects of quality and environmental management on competitive advantage: A
mixed methods study in the hotel industry. Tourism Management, 50, pp.41-54.

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Newzealand.com. 2017. Queenstown Park Boutique Hotel | Accommodation in Queenstown,
New Zealand. [online] Available at: https://www.newzealand.com/in/plan/business/queenstown-
park-boutique-hotel/ [Accessed 4 Oct. 2017].
Queenstown Park Hotel. 2017. Luxury Queenstown Accommodation New Zealand - Queenstown
Park Hotel. [online] Available at: http://www.queenstownpark.co.nz/ [Accessed 4 Oct. 2017].
Queenstown Winter Festival. 2017. Queenstown Park Boutique Hotel. [online] Available at:
https://www.winterfestival.co.nz/explore/listing/queenstown-park-boutique-hotel [Accessed 4
Oct. 2017].
Radford, G.P., 2012. Public relations in a postmodern world. Public Relations Inquiry, 1(1),
pp.49-67.
Schamel, G., 2012. Weekend vs. midweek stays: Modelling hotel room rates in a small
market. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 31(4), pp.1113-1118.
Schegg, R. and Stangl, B., 2017. Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism
2017.
Šerić, M., Gil-Saura, I. and Ruiz-Molina, M.E., 2014. How can integrated marketing
communications and advanced technology influence the creation of customer-based brand
equity? Evidence from the hospitality industry. International Journal of Hospitality
Management, 39, pp.144-156.
Yeshin, T., 2012. Integrated marketing communications. Routledge.