Analysis of Social Media's Impact on the Hotel Industry: A Case Study

This research project examines the impact of social media on the hotel industry, focusing on the Holiday Inn Hotel-Camden Lock in London. The report begins with an introduction to social media, its different types, and its applications within the hospitality sector, including information dissemination, customer engagement, and marketing strategies. It explores the importance of social media for increasing sales, profitability, and customer interaction. The study uses secondary data from various books, journals, and magazines to analyze the effects of social media on hotels, discussing tools, techniques, and ways to improve its effective use. The research addresses key questions such as the meaning of social media marketing, its implications in the hospitality sector, and how businesses can leverage it for growth. The project includes aims, objectives, rationale, and research questions to provide a comprehensive understanding of the topic. The findings are presented with discussions, conclusions, and recommendations for future research and improvements in the hotel industry's social media strategies.

Research Project
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter 1..............................................................................................................................................3
1.1 Aims of the research..................................................................................................................3
1.2 Objective of the research...........................................................................................................3
Chapter 2..............................................................................................................................................3
2.1 Introduction, concepts, and theories..........................................................................................3
2.2 Main body..................................................................................................................................4
2.3 Conclusions................................................................................................................................7
Chapter 3..............................................................................................................................................8
3.1 Research methods......................................................................................................................8
3.2 Research instruction and Gantt chart.......................................................................................10
3.3 Sampling..................................................................................................................................11
3.4 Ethical issue:............................................................................................................................11
3.5 Data analysis and interpretation...............................................................................................11
Chapter 4............................................................................................................................................14
Finding and discussions.................................................................................................................14
Chapter 5............................................................................................................................................20
Summary, conclusion, and recommendation.................................................................................20
TASK 4...............................................................................................................................................21
REFERENCES...................................................................................................................................22
APPENDIX........................................................................................................................................25
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
In the following research, I owe to the heartiest gratitude to my mentor who guided and motivate
me with his knowledge and skill. His guidance and effective standards motivated me to carry pout
the whole dissertation in right manner. In addition to this I like to thank my colleague and team
members who aided me in collecting information for study.
ABSTRACT
In the following research project I have use the various books, journal and magazines in order to
collect the secondary data.
CHAPTER 1
0.1 Introduction
The following project reports is going to define the impact of social media in the hotel industry. In
order to analyse this implication, research will use the effective data collection method. Social
media play a very important role through which company can directly touch with customers and get
review. In the hospitality industry, social media assist in increasing the sales and profitability by
attracting the customer.
1.1 Aims of the research
Aim
To critically analyze the impacts of social media on hotel industry: A study on Holiday Inn
Hotel-Camden Lock Hotel, London.
1.2 Objective of the research
Objectives
 To understand the meaning of social media and its different types
 To determine the applications of social media initiative for hospitality industry of London
 To explore the impacts cause by social media on Holiday Inn Hotel-Camden Lock Hotel,
London
 To suggest the new ways by which Holiday Inn Hotel-Camden Lock, London should
increase the effective use of social media for various benefits.
1.3 Rationale of the study
Social media is very important source in the business organisation through which company can
increase the sales and profitability. The following project report provides depth understanding and
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knowledge about the social media channels and its importance in the business organisation. With
assistance of the social media channels, company can improve the sales and profitability of
business. In addition to this, present research study focuses upon detail description of all related
social media implication through which company can ensure better growth and performance in the
marketplace.
1.4 Importance and significance
The following research project assist researcher in enhancing his knowledge and understand about
the topic of social media in the hospitality industry. The study will be effective for those who
belong to field of literature review and they will find source of information.
1.5 Research question
◦ What is the meaning of social media marketing?
◦ Define the implication of social media I the hospitality sector?
◦ What are various tools and techniques of social media?
◦ How company can improve the sales and profitability by use of social media tool?
 What are different ways of implementing social media techniques in the hospitality
industry?
CHAPTER 2
2.1 Introduction, concepts, and theories
There are several factors that contribute to the process of proposed research project
selection. The first one has kept career path in focus where the researcher wants to like to make the
career in the future in hospitality industry after completion of studies (Bauer, 2014). For this,
several months have spent on selection of the research subject so that prepare study on chosen area
of investigation can help in to get a better job in future in any hotel of London. On the other hand,
the topic of interest of scholar has another reason behind selection of research topic. At the time of
pick study theme, the researcher has involved in it for months because of interest in this area. Due
to this, investigator has given huge inputs to analyze the issues face by hotel industry of London
related to social media applications (Billig and Waterman, 2014). Along with this, knowledge on
selected research topic for the investigation has one of the factors. The researcher has the sufficient
theoretical knowledge on social media and in this respect to utilize them, it has decided by the
scholar to transform that information in the practical form. Apart from this, to complete the
graduation degree, the researcher wants to prepare a research project in hospitality industry area. In
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this context, it has decided by the scholar to choose social media importance for organizations in
this business sector (Billig and Waterman, 2014).
2.2 Main body
Meaning of social media and its different types
According to Bruhn, Manfred, Schoenmueller and Schäfer, 2012 social media is the
collective of online communications channels dedicated to community based input, interaction,
content sharing and collaboration. It is a computer mediated technology that allows creating and
sharing of information, ideas, career interest and other forms of expression via virtual communities
and network. According to Chan, Ling and Guillet, 2011 social media is a wider platform through
which business can promote and advertise their products and services in the market. Social media
facilitates the development of online social networks by connecting users profile with those of other
individuals and group. Social media includes popular websites such as Facebook, twitter, etc. With
assistance of these websites, people can interact and communicate with each other. According to
Dinan, 2000 social media technologies take many forms including blogs and business networks. As
per the views of Fotis, John, Buhalis and Rossides, 2012, social media is a big platform where
business enterprise can introduce its products and services and also, it can provide information
about the prices, features, discount, etc. Along with this, author has further stated that there are 10
types of social media platforms that are social networking, video sharing, live streaming, micro
blogging, blogging, social news, photo sharing, etc. There are various examples of social media
such as Facebook, twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Reddit, Pinterest, etc. Social networking platform
allows users to connect with other people who have similar interests, likes and experiences. These
types of platforms allow individuals to share and consume information across its network and to
join, create and participate in the group. In the social networking, various kinds of platforms are
included like Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+. Another type of social media is video sharing in
which video platforms users upload videos that can be shared specially to that platform as well as
all across the internet. According to Hays, Stephanie, Page and Buhalis, 2013 video sharing
platform assists user to upload and download the video. There are 1.3 billion users who watch
almost 5 billion video per day. Another important type of social media is live streaming that is a
platform which provides its users to broadcast and watch live video from their computers and
smartphones.
According to Hjalager and Anne-Mette, 2010, Live streaming have various kinds of
platforms like periscope, blab, etc. Micro blogging is a platform that allows users to share content
and information in short, little, blurbs. There are several Twitters like micro blogging sites out there,
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but they tend to be most popular in Asia. In this include the twitter which is one of the better known
micro blogging platform out there and is famous for its 140 characters limit for each past. Tumbler
is quite effective and it also has the reputation for having a significant amount of the adults. In the
words of Hvass, Kristian and Munar, 2012 social news is another type of social media which goes
over some people head. It is a platform like Facebook can be used to achieve some of the same
result. Social news can use with the help of Digg, Reddit etc. Liu and Zhenhua, 2003 stated that
photo sharing special type of social media which can used with the help of Instagram, flickr etc.
Content duration is a platform of social media which has a big part of maintaining killer social
media. Google is obviously handy for this but there are entire social media platforms dedicated to
curating content. According to Miguéns, Joana, Baggio and Costa, 2008, wiki are collectives’
platform of social media where users contribute articles to create sites full of vast information.
Applications of social media initiative for hospitality industry of London
As per the view of Hjalager and Anne-Mette, 2010 social media is the wide platforms where
anyone can easily get interact and communicate with each other. In the context of hospitality
industry, social media assist to the corporation in order to announce the information about the
services and their features. With assistance of social media, company can easily transfer the
information about accommodation facilities and services to the customers. In order to convey the
information to customers and develop the relationship with them, firm can use the various kinds of
applications of social media. In the context of hospitality industry, there are major five applications
of social media that is information dissemination, ongoing customer engagement, just in time
marketing, extending concierge service and service recovery. On the other hand, as per the view
point of Sigala, Marianna, Christou and Gretzel, 2012 Information dissemination, various social
media channels are suitable for sharing various types of information. For instance, you tube can be
used to create a video library of the hotels including guided tours of the facility and the surrounding
attractions, special features, interview with staff and customers. Social media platform such as
flickers and pinterst can be used to upload the image of the different area of hotel and surrounding
locales. With assistance of the various channels of social media hotel's information can easily
transfer to the customers. The information conveyed on social media improves the decision making
process for potential guest, especially because it can be shared in real time.
The cited author Stelzner and Michael 2011 stated that information dissemination is the
important application for social media. In the contradicting view Hjalager and Anne-Mette, 2010
stated that ongoing customer engagement is another significant application of the social media
which create a buzz around the brand by conducting contests and employing gamification strategies
on social networking channels like Facebook. In this manner social media assist corporation to
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engage with users and generating a sense of community within the customer base. According to the
view of Milano, Roberta, Baggio, and Piattelli, 2011 social media provides an opportunity for hotels
to create a buzz around their brand and maintain an ongoing dialogue with customer. Along with
this, social media is applied in mostly for attracting the large number of customer and develop the
strong relationship with them. On the other hand, Xiang, Zheng and Gretzel, 2010 stated that in
order to engage the customer in the hotel industry, social media is the best platform through which it
can attract more customers and deliver their services. One another important application of social
media is just in time marketing under which extends market deals and offer to customers in real
time that are personalised and contextualized to customer situation. In this manner, some of the
most innovative applications of social media in the hotel industry is Location based application such
as four-square are widely used in the industry for marketing to users in a manner that is directly
relevant to their current requirement. Fotis, John, Buhalis and Rossides, 2012 stated that social
media application can use by the hotel company in order to identify the current location and its
information in the business purposes. For instance when company use the four-square application in
to the business process they get an access of all required information. According to the opinion of
(Stelzner and Michael, 2011) one another important application for social media is service recovery
under which traveller who have had a poor experience with hotel will often get the information
regarding facilities and services with the help of social media. With assistance of the social media,
company can identify the information about the services which customer has put the negative
comments. Further they can improve their reputation with followed up the remedial action.
Effective service recovery can actually increase customer loyalty as it conveys the perception that
the corporation cares for its customers. According to the view of (Xiang, Zheng and Gretzel, 2010)
another application of social media is extending concierge service under which company using
various social media channels like twitters and Facebook. These channel of social media have used
by the hospitality industry in order to extend concierge services. In this manner, company provide
the regular updates about the facilities and accommodation of hotel to the customer so as they can
easily identify the various kinds of offers and discount along with the industry. According to the
Fotis, John, Buhalis and Rossides, 2012 social media is applicable in the hotel mostly to convene
customer for purchasing the services. In this manner, company adds various pictures and images
about the hotel beauties and its different location. With assistance of these social media application,
organisation can attract the large number of customer in a single time.
Impacts cause by social media on hospitality industry of London
In the hospitality industry, social media is very important platform through which
organisation can easily introduce its excellent services in the market. Furthermore, firm can easily
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get the various views and feedback of the customer regarding to the hotel services. According to the
view of Stelzner and Michael, 2011 social media have various benefit and drawback on the
hospitality industry. In the context of positive impact, company can easily convey the information
about the accommodation facilities, prices, features to the customer with the help of social media
channel like Facebook, twitter, Instagram, video sharing etc. In the contradicting view JENKIN,
2010 stated that social media have great positive impact is to attract the large number of customer
because by providing attractive discount and feature, company can attract the large number of
audience toward the hotel. According to the view of Bruhn, Manfred, Schoenmueller and Schäfer,
2012, with help of various platform of social media, company can increase its popularity and
goodwill in the market. They can earn the maximum profitability and brand loyalty by design the
creative page and design of the websites on the social media platform. In the view of Chan, Ling
and Guillet, 2011 stated that social media is the wide platform which is very beneficial for the hotel
industry because they can easily promote accommodation services in the market. The use of social
media goes beyond simple internet marketing campaigns that corporation conduct on time to sell
their product or services because companies use it to build ongoing relationship with customers. In
the contradicting view of (Weinberg and Tamar, 2009) social media have some negative impact
which create barrier in the profitability of the company. The negative impact is that various
customer put the negative comment on the social media page of the organisation which can see by
the other users. This creates the negative impact of the organisation in the mind of customer. Social
media is a time consuming process under which corporation have to spend lots of time to maintain
and update the various information about the hotel. In order to add more information and update
regular basis, marketing executive have to spend lots of time. As per the view of Chan, Ling and
Guillet, 2011 social media have major negative impact is miscommunication over the content. One
of the defining characteristics of social media platform is the ability of multiple users to interact
with a single piece of content .These interactions such as reposts likes and comments are what
shape social media success but they can also turn against a campaign if the comment are negative or
off topic. According to the view of Stelzner and Michael, 2011, hotel goodwill have negatively
affected by social media because some negative comments of the customer are display at the web
page which creates the negative image of the corporation in the mind of customers.
2.3 Conclusions
From this literature review about the implication of social media in the hospitality industry,
it has been concluded that social media play a very crucial role through which company can directly
get touch with customer and promote its hospitality services. With assistance of various platform of
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social media, company can attract the large number of customers.
CHAPTER 3
3.1 Research methods
Research approach: Inductive and deductive are the two types of the research approach which use
in different research problems. By using Inductive framework, hypothesis use to test the taken
assumptions (Flick, 2015). This has used when the research is based on quantitative investigation
where some hypothesis have framed to address the aim. On the other hand, in the case of deductive
research approach has adopted in the case of analyze the research objectives with the help of
research questions. Such kind of studies has qualitative in nature which has used to develop a new
theory or draw new outcomes (Deductive Reasoning Versus Inductive Reasoning, 2014). In the case
of the present research, the research has used an inductive research approach. The reason of this is
to find the solution of aim, some objectives have formulated. Along with this, the generated
outcome of the research has helped in development of the new concept in the direction of social
media marketing for Holiday Inn Hotel, London.
Research philosophy: It is a belief which provides a complete framework to the
investigation in different aspects. It focuses over the process of data collection, its analysis and
interpretation. Research philosophy can be defined in two distinct methods of interpretivism and
positivism (Gast and Ledford, 2014). These are basic fundamentally used at the time of conducted
study. In interpretivism, the gather information has interpreted by considering the several beliefs.
On the other hand, in positivism philosophy, it has focused over the factual contents where they
have collected from different sources. During interpretation, no assumptions have made by the
researchers to attain the objectives of the investigation. In the context of the present research, the
scholar has used positivism research philosophy (Hunleth, 2011). The reason of adopting the
following framework by the investigator has to determine the applications of social media in the
context of Holiday Inn Hotel, London. This has showed that how the organization is using the
existing social media platforms for diverse objectives.
Research design: It is a master plan of combination of processes and methods of data
collection and analysis for the research. Exploratory and Descriptive are the two types of research
design (Research design, 2009). By using descriptive research design, it becomes easy for the
researchers to analyze the current issue of the study. It suggests a new method of define and
describe the findings of the research in front of the audiences. On the other hand, in exploratory
research, it has used in that situation when the research issue not clearly understand by the
investigators (Mackey and Gass, 2015). For this, some collect preliminary information have
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required so that study on unclear research aim can be carried out. In the case of the present research,
the researcher has been used descriptive research design. It has allowed the scholar to evaluate the
impacts of social media platforms on Holiday Inn Hotel, London.
Research type: It is also called research strategy where a logical approach adopts to collect
information about a specific research problem. Quantitative and qualitative are the two types of the
research strategy (Miller, Birch, Mauthner and Jessop, 2012). In Qualitative research, it facilitates
the researcher to determine the major reason of conducting the study along with in-depth meaning
of research issue. Observations, interviews, group discussions etc are the some tools and techniques
use to carry out qualitative experiment. In this, sample size of the selected population has become
small and format of data collection either unstructured or semi-structured (Qualitative Research
Methods Overview, 2014). Beside this, in quantitative research, it has used by the researchers to
change numerical information into statistics for better analysis. Face to face interviews, paper based
survey; telephonic interviews, online polls etc are some methods of gathering of information to
address the research questions. Here, the sample size has large as compared to qualitative research
strategy (Quantitative Methods in Education Research, 2014). By considering the present
investigation, the research has been selected qualitative research type because with the help of this,
it has become easy to gather the information about the applications of social media platforms and its
impact on Holiday Inn Hotel, London.
Data collection: It is the most essential part of the research to collect the data with the aim
of addressing the research issues. There is presence of two methods which are generally using to
gather information: primary and secondary data collection (Research Instruments for Data
Collection, 2014). In primary data collection, the information can be gathering with the help of
questionnaire, interview, surveys as well as focus group. While in the case of secondary data
collection method, online, blogs, censuses and government reports have take into the consideration.
By considering the present research, the researcher has been selected both primary and secondary
data collection methods. The reason of this is to address the research objectives; it has required
gathering information from both of the sources (Neuman and Robson, 2012). To collect the primary
information, questionnaire has prepared and in secondary data gathering, books, journals, past
research papers, Holiday Inn Hotel, London past records etc has been taken into the consideration.
Data analysis: It is used to analyze the collected data to draw a valid conclusion. This is
comprised of qualitative as well as quantitative methods. In Quantitative data, it used to generalize
the outcomes within the interest of sample population. SPSS as well as Excel tools have used to
assess the collected data in an effective manner. While in qualitative tool, gather information has
analyzed by preparing the themes where the outcome represents in terms of chart, graphs and tables
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(Panneerselvam, 2014). In the case of present investigation, the researcher has been used qualitative
tool so that results of data analysis can be presented in the form of different images such as tables,
images etc.
3.2 Research instruction and Gantt chart
To carry out the investigation according to the agreed research specifications, an action plan
will prepare by the researcher. It will include several activities where a particular time frame will
allocate to each task. Hence, an appropriate plan and procedures for the chosen research
specification is as follow:
Activity/Week 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
Preparing research proposal
Developing aim and objectives
Investigate background research study
Selection of appropriate research
methodologies
Data collection from primary and
secondary sources
Analysis of the collected data
Develop interpretation and analysis of
the results
Conclusion and recommendations
Submission of draft report
Modifications as per the feedback
comments
Final Submission
To conduct a research, a researcher use different types of resources to answer the research questions
in an effective manner. In the case of the present study, the investigator has used three major
resources: time, finance and information sources. Information resources have helped in collecting
the different facts and figures about the investigation topic based on social media platform and its
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impact on hospitality industry (Smith, 2015). With the help of primary and secondary sources, the
important information can be easily accessed and answer the research questions of the current study.
On the other hand, to conduct the investigation, the researcher has needed some amounts of funds.
The reason of this is to carry out the investigation activities, somewhere money will required such
as transportation, prepare questionnaire, taking fee of access of online information from government
or private websites etc (Taylor, Bogdan and DeVault, 2015). So, to carry out the work in an
effective manner, the investigator has required finance resources so that research questions of the
study can be effectively addressed. Apart from this, time has an important resource in the present
investigation. With the help of this, it has becomes easy to divide the whole research plan into
different time sections. It has allowed the researcher to get the enough time for data collection from
both primary and secondary sources and analyze them to address the research questions (Özerdem
and Bowd, 2016). Therefore, with the application of time, finance and information sources,
researcher has able to match the resources efficiently to the research question. 3.3 Sampling
populations
3.3 Sampling
Sampling: For the present investigation, the researcher has been used purposeful sampling
technique. To gather the information, the sample has collected from the employees of Holiday Inn
Hotel which are working in marketing department. The selected sample size for the investigation
has 20 samples (Silverman, 2016).
3.4 Ethical issue:
In the following research project researcher should take ethical consideration in the various
area. the investigator should take ethical consideration. It is very important while researcher
conduct data analysis, data collection and interpret data for the relevant decision and outcomes. For
researcher it is important to take the relevant information from the secondary resources, there
should not any kind of false data. While conducting research, there should ethical standards,
different disciplines and institutions that promote the value. The researcher must avoid the errors
while it prepare the questionnaire and interpret the data about the topic. The researcher should take
the fair decision related to the outcome and take consider on the trust, accountability, mutual respect
and fairness.
3.5 Data analysis and interpretation
For every kind of research project, there is a need of a proper process to carry out the
investigation with the aim of attain the objectives of the study. In the case of the present research,
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