Analyzing Social Media's Impact on Hotel Performance During COVID-19

This report investigates the impact of social media on hotel performance during the COVID-19 pandemic. The research aims to understand the role of social media in the hotel industry, analyze its effectiveness in boosting performance, identify challenges faced by hotels like the Clayton Hotel City of London, and explore measures hotels adopted to improve performance. The study utilizes a literature review to gather secondary data from books, journals, and articles, and a questionnaire to collect primary data. The report covers the role of social media in promoting hotels, communicating with guests, and providing instant feedback. It also examines the effectiveness of social media in attracting customers, providing discounts, and delivering services during lockdowns. The report includes findings from the survey, recommendations, and conclusions, offering insights into how hotels can leverage social media to overcome challenges and enhance their performance during and after the pandemic.

Impact of social media on
hotel performance during
COVID-19
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ABSTRACT
The main purpose of conducting current research is to understand the impact of social
media on hotel performance during COVID-19. For achieving objectives of the research that is
to know the importance of social media, literature review is conducted for that secondary source
is used like books, magazines and journals. Questionnaire is conducted to gather raw data from
respondents about the importance of social media.
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SUMMARY
From this research it is summarised that this research is significant for determining the
significance of social media at hotels during COVID-19. Social media refers to the various
channels which are used to share and convey information about the research to guests so that
maximum guests and tourists can be attracted. There are various challenges that are faced by
hotels like low number of customers, low rate of performance and many more. For decreasing
the effect of pandemic hotels are using social media to promote their safety measure they are
following to attract customers.
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ABSTRACT....................................................................................................................................2
SUMMARY.....................................................................................................................................3
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.............................................................................................................6
Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION.........................................................................................................7
Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW..............................................................................................9
Role of social media in hotel.......................................................................................................9
The effectiveness of social media over increasing performance of hotel during pandemic of
COVID-19...................................................................................................................................9
Issues faced by Clayton Hotel City of London during COVID-19...........................................10
Different measures of hotel opting to improve their performance during COVID-19..............10
Chapter 3: RESEARCH METHODLOGY...................................................................................12
Chapter 4: ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS....................................................................................15
Chapter 5: Critical Appraisal, Recommendations and suggestions for future work.....................27
Chapter 6: CONCLUSIONS..........................................................................................................28
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................29
APPENDICES...............................................................................................................................31
QUESTTIONAIRE....................................................................................................................31
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I am glad that I have received such an amazing opportunity to conduct research on the
impact of social media on the performance of hotels. I want to thank people like my professors
who have given their guidance to complete my research in a systematic manner.
I would also like to show my gratitude to my friends and family who have motivated me
to work patiently and help with required resources to complete my research.
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Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION
Social media is defined as applications and websites which are designed for people so
that they could share content in real time and quickly. Businesses, organisations and hotels are
using social media by mobile applications , by computer and social media is used at any gadgets
having internet connection which allow user to make and share content so that they can engage
with maximum people (Aydin, 2020). Basically it is a type of tool which is used for creating and
sharing information with large number of public. Twitter is used by companies to share links and
messages that are very attractive. It is used by organisation to attract customers towards the
products and services.
Social media has created a great impact in everyone's lives be it individuals or
organisations. It has clearly changed the manner of learning, having fun and affecting how
people travel. Businesses and hotels in the travelling and accommodating industry have finally
started to understand the approach of social media in creating a great brand, allowing greater
exposition globally, driving sales, creating and maintaining good relationships with consumers as
well as to give the great tool to make interaction directly to them (Lin and et. al, 2020).
Research Aim and Objectives
Research Aim
“To examine the effectiveness of social media over increasing performance of hotel
during pandemic of COVID-19.” A study on Clayton Hotel City of London.
Research Objectives
 To examine the role of social media in hotel.
 To analyse the effectiveness of social media over increasing performance of hotel during
pandemic of COVID-19.
 To determine the issues faced by Clayton Hotel City of London during COVID-19.
 To identify the different measures hotel, opt to improve their performance during
COVID-19.
Research Questions
 What is the role of social media in hotel?
 What is the effectiveness of social media over increasing performance of hotel during
pandemic of COVID-19?
 What are the issues faced by Clayton Hotel City of London during COVID-19?
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 What are the different measures hotel opting to improve their performance during
COVID-19?
Approach and Methodology
For successfully completing the research, researcher has used various types of research
methods which helped in attaining objectives of the research within a time. There are different
types of methods like research approach, research philosophy, research strategy, sampling and
many more. All these methods have assisted researcher to achieve and objectives of investigation
that is impact of social media on hotels performance. Survey is selected in research strategy, it
has also different types from which questionnaire is selected in which closed-ended questions are
asked from chosen participants. The participants occupy great knowledge about the research
topic about the chosen organisation that is Clayton Hotel City of London because they have
direct connection with the organisation as they closely observe their activities and happenings.
By conducting this research, investigator has developed understanding about the different
medium and channels of social media which would help them in developing their professional
career.
Chapter Preview
This research has various chapters which is crucial for completing and achieving the
research aim and objectives. The first chapter is introduction where a brief about social media is
given along with aim and objectives. The next chapter is literature review, in this data is
collected from secondary sources like books, journals, articles and publications which is
necessary for attaining objectives. Then comes the chapter research methodology where all the
methods are explained in detail used for gathering and analysing information as per the
objectives of investigation. After that analysis and findings is a chapter which is used to get
information from the selected participants with this gathered data is shown in tabular form and
graph. Then recommendations and conclusion are chapters which give measures to overcome
and the conclusion includes brief of every chapter included in the research.
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Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
It is the chapter which is most useful for achieving the objectives in a systematic and
proper manner. For achieving the objectives of research, secondary sources are considered
books, journals, articles and magazines are used to get relevant and accurate data as per the need
of research.
Role of social media in hotel
According to Michopoulou and Moisa (2019), social media has become one of the
important channels of sales for hotel industry. There are different aspects which benefit
organisations to being active on different medium of social media. It is not only channel of
advertising but en effective channel for communicating with different guests. Social media plays
different roles in hotel industry like:
 It provides information about hotel to the people on channels like Twitter, it assists in
becoming more visible and active and platform for making interaction with the guests.
 It assists in socialising with maximum people as it engage people with the posts and
blogs on social media.
 Social media is best for communicating every type of information related to hotels like
their new construction of property, new technology adopted by them so that guest have
great experience.
 The channels of social media helps hotel industry to get instant reviews and feedbacks
from customers so that they can improve that service of area where they are lacking.
 Social media is used by hotels for marketing the events organised by them within the
country or outside. These information attract customers and increase the brand image.
The effectiveness of social media over increasing performance of hotel during pandemic of
COVID-19
According to Shin and Kang (2020), social media has great impact over increasing the
performance of hotel industry during COVID-19. It is best for increasing the performance of
hotels at pandemic because it is used for informing and updating details of hotel to guests.
People are frequently active on social media which make the work of hotel easier, they can easily
communicate with guests whatever they want to convey. Hotel industry has enhanced the
performance during COVID 19 by simply posting things about the safety measures they are
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following this attracts the customers that they are while taking the service of hotels. Posting
things on social media and booking rooms with website of hotels has made the work of guests
very convenient as they could pre-book rooms and check the safety measures of hotels. During
COVID-19 hotel industry has provided discounts on social media for attracting many guests so
that their performance could increase. Hotels at pandemic used social media for delivering orders
at time when they are locked at home. Various platforms of social media give automated content
where hotels schedule content and post so that it could work automatically and that can be
utilised in other useful activities. Marketing through automated technologies assist hotel to create
new leads, management of data, increased efficiency and make apt content for targeted guests at
the time of COVID-19.
Issues faced by Clayton Hotel City of London during COVID-19
According to Napierała, Leśniewska-Napierała and Burski (2020), COVID-19 has
created a a lot of issues and problems for Clayton Hotel City of London. In the time of pandemic
the hotel is unable to create guests because people were unable to travel and stay at hotels
because it was not safe which have reduced the revenue and profitability. The pandemic crisis
has changed the spending manner of millennials. Managers of Clayton Hotel City of London has
been suffered to maintain and manage war of prices because every hotel in London is reducing
their prices to attract more customers at pandemic, decreasing prices by every hotel is one of the
problems for Clayton Hotel. The rules of government has also pressurised Clayton Hotel in
decrease their occupancy of hotel at single time because gathering of more people are not
allowed at the time of COVID-19. The another challenge is to increase the customer base in the
pandemic because no one is interested in staying those hotels who are not managing hygiene and
safety measures so it is difficult task for maintaining safety and hygiene all the time and in every
activity.
Different measures of hotel opting to improve their performance during COVID-19
According to Anguera-Torrell, Aznar-Alarcón and Vives-Perez (2020), hotels have
highly impacted by the situation of global pandemic that is COVID-19. Measures of social
distancing is the best way to decrease the impact of pandemic. With this hotels should provide
necessary items like sanitizers, gloves and masks to every guest so that fear of spreading virus
can be decreased. When these items are provided by hotels to their guests then they will spread
good things about the hotel and ask other people to visit particular hotel which would increase
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the performance of hotel. Hotels should focus on formulating policies for safety and cleaning so
that every employee and guest follow to enhance the safety of people in hotel. Hotels adopt
automatic check in and check out systems so that contact between people can be reduced and
hotels could have large number of customers that will enhance the performance of hotel.
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Chapter 3: RESEARCH METHODLOGY
Research methodology is a significant process taken by researcher to collect information
with the purpose of achieving aim and objectives of investigation. Research methodology has
survey in which interview and questionnaire are considered for gathering primary information. It
has information collected from various sources which have existing and new information. It
involves different methods of research like research approach, research philosophy, research
strategy, data collection and many more. It is the chapter, researcher clearly explains how
important are information for addressing questions and objectives of investigation. Some other
techniques used by researcher are data presentation and analytical methods. These are effective
and efficient for gathering appropriate information according to the topic of study (Mishra and
Alok, 2017).
 Research Approach: Research approach is introduced as plan which consists different
path of broad assumptions to elaborate the different methods like data interpretation,
analysis and collection (Roggema, 2017). It is generally based upon the nature of the
research topic. Research approach is classified into two types of data analysis: inductive
and deductive research approach. For conducting this research, deductive approach is
considered by investigator because it is quite effective approach of analysis for gathering
relevant data according to the topic of the research. Generally it is used for forming
hypothesis on the basis of current theory and then choosing the accurate strategy of
research for examining the hypothesis. It is also selected because it assists in analysing
and accumulating data in a quantitative form within allotted period of time. Inductive
approach is not selected because it initiates with the observations and theories towards
finishing the process of research as result of observations. And it is also concerned with
gathering qualitative data.
 Research Philosophy: Research philosophy is defined as specific set of values that
focuses on the nature of reality which is researched. It is linked to the type of knowledge.
In this some assumptions are formed that give apt justification about the way research is
done or taken out. In the research philosophy there are two types of methods which are:
positivism and interpretivism. It is significant for investigator because it carries out
activities of investigation in a proper manner. Basically it shows how a researcher think
about the topic of study and its particular area (Cazeaux, 2017). In order to accomplish
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