Social media marketing more important for independent hotels

User generated content is much more likely to affect an individual property booking than a large resort reservation. UGC also significantly affects those booking a holiday to a new destination rather than those returning to the same place. Assessing the utility of UGC from consumers’ perspective in their travel buying cycle at this juncture, Gilles Granger, Founder & CEO, Vinivi says, “UGC is used at key decision making moments in the buying cycle. If you are looking at destination UGC (inspirational), it will appear in the early stage (where did my friend go to? Where others are advising me to go?). If you are looking at hotels / properties, UGC comes in the decision making, therefore very close to the basket confirmation (Customer question: Is this place really as good as the OTA says it is? Do I know anyone who did go there?).” “Apparently 90 percent of online consumers trust recommendations from people they know; 70 percent trust people they don’t know and only 14 percent trust advertisers. It’s clear that UGC is fast becoming the number one source of reference material for consumers before booking their holiday. On Qype, we have over 1.9 million reviews on everything from underground bars in Berlin, afternoon tea shops in London to the best budget hotels in Barcelona, and every month 22 million people are using the site and reading other people’s opinions,” Richard Dennys, CMO, Qype told EyeforTravel’s Ritesh Gupta. Get the full story at HSMAI Source: HOTELMARKETING.COM