The impact of Social Networks on the classification of Luxury Hotels - Measuring Success: The use of Social Media metrics to evaluate the efectiveness of luxury hotel marketing efforts

Abstract

In recent years it was observed significant growth in hotel business turnover; new accommodation concepts and guest experiences have emerged; with these new opportunities also emerging, new concerns of communicating the new message to the right customers while trying to reach as many audiences as possible. Social networks have stood out as the hotels' preferred communication platform, so the main focus of this study will be to understand the main factors that help luxury hotels have the best possible criticism in social networks as a way to attract new customers and retain customers. To this end, a segmentation/forecasting model using Data Mining techniques was created to assess whether there is a pattern of factors in social networks that help define key elements for the successful implementation of a Digital Marketing strategy. In the second phase, a framework was created for implementing a Digital Marketing strategy, creating guidelines for hotel businesses to help achieve success in social networks as quickly and efficiently as possible. This study helps hotels by assisting them in understanding the expectations of their clients on their Facebook pages. Following that, advice on how to strengthen their Facebook profile and boost their competitiveness in terms of digital presence. It was shown that the factors that contribute more to a higher Facebook classification as a proxy of success on Social Media, were the number of likes on the page and posts, the amount of the page followers, and the number of video and photo posts in the page, with this results real world recommendations were given, assuring the best implementation possible for a Digital Marketing Strategy on Facebook.