The user experience in a hotel has changed significantly with the rise of social media. Were you not happy with a hotel experience? Tweet and complain. Did you enjoy your hotel experience?
The user experience in a hotel has changed significantly with the rise of social media. Were you not happy with a hotel experience? Tweet and complain. Did you enjoy your hotel experience? Write on their Facebook page.
Hotel chains around the world have optimised ways as a result of social media to go the extra mile for customers, including the Marriott chain, where in the US state of Florida, the Marriott Orlando World Centre, in 2010 began embracing the tool to help guests with their experiences, utilising Facebook, Twitter and the FourSquare platforms, as well as web sites such as TripAdvisor, and in a profile that year in The Wall Street Journal, said they went the extra mile for those who commented online.
The world’s first Twitter hotel
Three years later, the platforms that have shaped the hotel industry’s core mission have translated into the first social media hotel, located in Magaluf in Majorca, one of the Mediterranean Islands of Spain. The hotel, Sol Wave House, takes interactions with guests to a whole new level, especially on Twitter, with special offers using designated hashtags. The rooms have Twitter accessories mixed with the modern luxury and design guests expect from hotels.
With the hashtags, including #fillmyfridge for prompt replenishing of the mini-bar of any of the 184 rooms, via an exclusive hotel app accessed via Wi-Fi. With this app, guests can also tweet the hotel using the hashtag #socialwave to share pictures of their holiday and flirt with other guests while enjoying a blue coloured shot on a Friday using the hashtag #twitterpoolparty. According to a report in Time Magazine in the US, the hotel is aiming to soon offer the ability for guests to tweet song requests to an in-house DJ or meal requests to the hotel’s chefs.
Is The Sol Wave House the future of hotels?
This Twitter hotel is the first in the world, and what makes it so unique is that it relies on the interaction between its guests in the attempt to make their stay a welcoming and unique one compared to other hotel experiences. In the age of social media, hotels are trying to go the extra mile to ensure their guests, whether on a business trip or on a personal holiday, get the best bang for their buck, in the hopes that the guest will go online to Facebook, Twitter or Foursquare, or web sites like TripAdvisor, and leave positive feedback, recommending the hotel to their friends or family.
The Sol Wave House appears to be leading the way for the future of social media and hotels. Will we see another one like this? It is yet to be seen, but it certainly has the rest of the industry taking note when it comes to 21st century guest experiences. Perhaps a page will be taken from the Sol Wave House and more hashtags will come, ensuring quicker service and that extra element that guests look for in making a travel experience memorable.
Until then, sit back, relax and enjoy, because all you need or want from your hotel is now a tweet or Facebook post away.
What do you think? Is the Sol Wave House setting a new trend? What role did social media have in your experiences at a hotel? Have you had a positive experience? Have your say in the comments section below, on Facebook or on Twitter.
