Hotels that treat social media as an afterthought, posting the occasional lobby photo or holiday greeting, are leaving bookings on the table. Social media is now a primary research channel for both leisure travelers and corporate event planners. A recent study found that over 60 percent of travelers visit a hotel's social media profiles before booking, and 40 percent of meeting planners check a property's Instagram or LinkedIn presence when evaluating venues.
The challenge is that each platform serves a different purpose, attracts a different audience, and rewards different content types. A strategy that works on Instagram will fall flat on LinkedIn, and what drives engagement on TikTok would look out of place on Facebook. This guide breaks down exactly how hotels should approach each platform, what to post, and how to measure whether it is working.
Instagram: Visual storytelling and aspirational content
Instagram remains the single most important social media platform for hotels. It is where travelers go to imagine themselves at your property.
What to post:
- Room and amenity showcases. High-quality photos and short Reels of your best rooms, pool areas, spa facilities, and dining spaces. Show the experience, not just the room. A video of morning light streaming through a suite window with a coffee tray on the bed tells a story that a static room photo cannot.
- Behind-the-scenes content. Your pastry chef preparing breakfast, your housekeeping team doing a room reveal, your bartender crafting a signature cocktail. These humanize your brand and give followers a reason to engage.
- Guest experiences (with permission). Reshare tagged guest photos and stories. User-generated content is more trusted than branded content and costs nothing to produce.
- Local area highlights. Showcase nearby restaurants, attractions, and hidden gems. Position your property as a gateway to the destination, not just a place to sleep.
- Event space in action. Capture beautifully set ballrooms, outdoor receptions, and meeting setups. Event planners actively browse Instagram for venue inspiration.
Posting cadence: 4 to 5 feed posts per week, daily Stories, 2 to 3 Reels per week.
Key tactics: Use location tags on every post. Build a branded hashtag and encourage guests to use it. Respond to every comment and DM within 24 hours. Use Instagram's collaboration feature to co-post with local businesses and influencers.
LinkedIn: Corporate sales and group business
LinkedIn is the most underutilized platform in hotel marketing, which is a missed opportunity because it is where corporate decision-makers, meeting planners, and travel managers spend their professional time.
What to post:
- Case studies and event recaps. Share how your property hosted a successful corporate retreat, conference, or incentive trip. Include specifics like attendee count, setup style, and client testimonials (with permission). This is the content that meeting planners search for.
- Industry insights and thought leadership. Share your perspective on trends in hospitality, group travel, or event planning. Original commentary on industry reports positions your property's leadership as knowledgeable partners, not just vendors.
- Team accomplishments and culture. Highlight employee promotions, certifications, awards, and community involvement. Companies choosing venues want to work with professional, stable teams.
- Property updates and renovations. Announce new meeting room technology, renovated event spaces, or expanded services. Frame these updates in terms of what they mean for clients, not just what they are.
- Sales-oriented content. Promote group packages, seasonal corporate rates, and event planning capabilities. LinkedIn is the one platform where overtly sales-focused content is appropriate, as long as it provides genuine value.
Posting cadence: 3 to 4 posts per week. Engage daily by commenting on posts from clients, industry partners, and local business contacts.
Key tactics: Ensure your hotel's company page is fully optimized with a compelling description, banner image, and link to your sales page. Encourage your sales team to share company posts to their personal networks. Use LinkedIn's newsletter feature for monthly updates that keep your property top of mind with corporate contacts.
TikTok: Behind-the-scenes and personality-driven content
TikTok is not just for Gen Z travelers. The platform's algorithm surfaces content based on interest, not follower count, which means even a new hotel account can reach millions of viewers with the right content.
What to post:
- Day-in-the-life content. Follow a front desk agent, concierge, or housekeeper through their shift. Viewers are fascinated by the inner workings of hotels, and these videos consistently outperform polished promotional content.
- Room reveals and before-and-afters. The transformation of a banquet hall from empty space to fully set wedding reception is inherently compelling on TikTok. Film the entire setup process and compress it into a 30 to 60 second video.
- Responding to trends and sounds. TikTok rewards timely participation in trending audio and format trends. Adapt viral trends to a hotel context. A trending sound about "things that just hit different" paired with clips of your property's best features can rack up views quickly.
- Guest experience surprises. Film surprise birthday setups, honeymoon welcome amenities, or creative room arrangements. Content that sparks an emotional reaction gets shared.
- Hotel hacks and tips. Share insider knowledge like how to request a room upgrade, what the best check-in time is, or how to get the most out of a hotel loyalty program. Educational content builds trust and followers.
Posting cadence: 3 to 5 videos per week. Consistency matters more than production quality on TikTok.
Key tactics: Film in vertical format, always. Use trending sounds but keep them relevant. Hook viewers in the first two seconds or they scroll. Add text overlays for viewers watching without sound. Engage authentically in comments, as TikTok's algorithm rewards accounts that interact with their audience.
Facebook: Events, community, and paid advertising
Facebook's organic reach has declined, but it remains essential for two hotel marketing functions: event promotion and local community engagement. It is also the most mature paid advertising platform for hospitality.
What to post organically:
- Event listings. Use Facebook Events for every public or semi-public event at your property, holiday brunches, live music nights, wine tastings, and seasonal markets. Facebook Events have their own discovery ecosystem and drive attendance from people who do not follow your page.
- Community engagement. Share posts about local partnerships, charity involvement, and neighborhood happenings. Hotels that are perceived as community members, not just businesses, build stronger local loyalty.
- Reviews and testimonials. Highlight positive guest reviews with attribution. Facebook's review system is integrated into your business page, so actively managing and responding to reviews here is critical.
- Special offers and packages. Promote weekend getaway packages, spa deals, and dining specials. Facebook's audience skews toward an older demographic with higher disposable income, making it well-suited for leisure travel promotions.
Paid advertising: Facebook (and Instagram, through the same Ads Manager) offers the most granular targeting options for hotels. Use it to target meeting planners by job title, retarget website visitors with room or event package offers, and promote events to local audiences within a defined radius.
Posting cadence: 3 to 4 organic posts per week, plus ongoing paid campaigns.
Google Business Profile: The review engine
Google Business Profile is not a social media platform in the traditional sense, but it is often the first impression a potential guest has of your property. Treating it with the same attention as your social accounts is non-negotiable.
- Respond to every review. Positive reviews deserve a personalized thank-you, not a generic template. Negative reviews require a thoughtful, empathetic response that acknowledges the concern and offers resolution. Potential guests read responses as carefully as they read reviews.
- Post regular updates. Google Business supports posts with photos, offers, and event announcements. Use this feature weekly to keep your profile fresh and signal to Google's algorithm that your listing is active.
- Keep information current. Hours, phone numbers, amenity lists, and photos should be updated immediately when anything changes. Stale information erodes trust.
- Upload high-quality photos regularly. Properties with more than 100 photos on their Google Business Profile receive significantly more direction requests and website clicks than those with fewer images.
Building a content calendar
Consistency across platforms requires a structured content calendar. Here is a practical framework:
- Weekly planning sessions. Spend 30 minutes each Monday mapping out content for the week across all active platforms. Identify themes, assign responsibilities, and schedule posts using a management tool.
- Content pillars. Define 4 to 5 recurring content themes (e.g., guest experience, behind the scenes, local area, events, team spotlight) and rotate through them. This prevents content fatigue and ensures variety.
- Batch production. Dedicate one day per month to shooting photos and videos. A focused production day yields enough raw content for weeks of posts, which is far more efficient than shooting daily.
- Repurpose across platforms. A single behind-the-scenes video can become an Instagram Reel, a TikTok, a LinkedIn post with a thoughtful caption, and a Facebook update. Adapt the format and tone for each platform, but do not create entirely new content for every channel.
User-generated content strategy
User-generated content (UGC) is the most trusted form of marketing. Build a system to capture and leverage it.
- Create share-worthy moments. Design spaces and experiences that guests naturally want to photograph: a striking lobby installation, a beautifully plated dish, a scenic viewpoint, or a clever in-room amenity presentation.
- Make sharing easy. Display your social handles and branded hashtag on key cards, in-room collateral, digital signage, and Wi-Fi login pages.
- Request permission and reshare. Monitor your branded hashtag and location tags daily. When guests post great content, comment on the original post and ask permission to reshare. Most guests are flattered by the request.
- Feature UGC prominently. Dedicate at least 20 percent of your Instagram feed to reshared guest content. This validates the guest experience and encourages others to share their own.
Measuring ROI
Social media investment must be tied to business outcomes. Track these metrics monthly:
- Engagement rate by platform (likes, comments, shares, saves divided by impressions)
- Website traffic from social channels (use UTM parameters to track precisely)
- Direct booking or inquiry attribution (ask "how did you hear about us?" in your booking flow)
- Follower growth rate (absolute numbers matter less than growth trajectory)
- Revenue from paid social campaigns (track cost per acquisition and return on ad spend)
Key takeaways
- Each social platform serves a distinct purpose: Instagram for visual storytelling, LinkedIn for corporate sales, TikTok for personality and reach, Facebook for events and paid advertising, and Google Business for reviews and search visibility.
- Consistency matters more than perfection, especially on TikTok and Instagram Stories where authenticity outperforms polish.
- User-generated content is free, trusted, and scalable when you create share-worthy experiences and make sharing easy.
- A structured content calendar with weekly planning and monthly batch production prevents social media from becoming an unsustainable burden.
- Tie every social effort to measurable business outcomes through UTM tracking, booking attribution, and monthly reporting.
Next steps
Strong social media drives interest, but you need the right tools to convert that interest into booked revenue. Explore HotelAmplify's sales platform to manage leads generated from social channels, or get started with a demo to see how it all connects.