Encourage Hotel Employees to Share Local Experiences

I recently came across a guest article on Tnooz that sparked my interest and got me thinking again about the importance of blogging for a hotel. Having your blog is essential for a variety of reasons, including but not limited to, improving your SEO, putting a face behind your property, and keeping your website dynamic. The people or person who writes this blog would typically be the hotel’s social media or marketing manager, or even an outside agency. We have written before about the many possible ideas for blog topics for a hotel, but the Tnooz article suggested a fresh approach. This approach has a lot of potential in the travel and hospitality industries – letting hotel employees blog.‍

How many times has a guest come to the concierge to ask about the best local spots. Many of these people may have at one point visited your hotel’s blog for a write-up of a fun local event or a hot new restaurant. If the most recent blog post is a bit stale or the information is not quite up-to-date, some guests might want more of an inside scoop! You could have a separate space on your website where your hotel’s employees can publish stories, photos, videos, etc. of their local ventures. The Tnooz article calls this Employee Generated Content, similar to User Generated Content, which has been a growing trend in digital marketing lately.

Getting the staff involved will help morale and give employees a fun purpose for exploring their city. You could even offer the employees small incentives for writing or publishing content on the “local’s corner.” Keep in mind; individual policies may have to be crafted to keep the content appropriate and consistent. The difference between the employee’s blog and the regular blog might be that the latter is comprised of fully-formed paragraphs and includes keywords. An employee’s blog post might be as simple as an Instagram snapshot of a beautiful sunset on a hidden beach. Depending on the size of a hotel’s staff, some of the employees are probably photo or video enthusiasts. Some employees might even enjoy writing and would enjoy publishing content that would help guests explore the area.

Many properties might encourage their staff to write for the hotel’s official blog or to post on Facebook. Separating the employee’s content from the marketer’s is a good idea. It ensures that your hotel’s overall social media marketing strategy is not disrupted.