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Abstract

In light of the development of social media, social media marketing has been widely adopted by all kinds of business industries and even government organizations. This phenomenon also lead to some changes in the buying behavior of the customer, which may require the company to alter their existing marketing strategy. For hotel industry, the usage of this up-to-date marketing method is still at the preliminary stage. To promote the development, this study chose hotel chain, which is the most representative operational form within the hospitality industry, as an example to identify and demonstrate the opportunity as well as the risk that social media marketing can bring while addressing some possible approaches for the hotel chain to engage with social media marketing. 

Key words: social media, social media marketing, hotel chain, eWOM

1.0 Introduction

Social media (SM), especially the social networks, has generated a great impact upon the original way of communication between the customers and the business of all kinds, even the governmental organizations have used it as communication tools (Leung, Bai and Stahura, 2013; Serra Cantallops and Salvi, 2014; Kim and Ko, 2012). Up to 2018, the social network users have reached 3.196 billion, which is approximately 42 percent of the total population and 79.5 percent of the entire active internet users (Chaffey, 2018). Thus, social media marketing (SMM) have gradually become popular and this led to some degree of controversy and arguments. Some scholars have argued about whether SMM is effective enough and some have deeply analyzed how SMM influenced different walks of life. This paper have chosen hotel chain as the main subject to discuss the impact of SMM and how hotel chain can take advantage of it whilst acknowledging its risks. The reason for choosing hotel chain is that the hospitality industry is one of the most prosperous and rapid growth business sectors. The value it may create is estimated to be near $1.6 trillion in 2018 globally (hotelmarketing.com). Within the hotel industry, hotel chains “have noteworthy influence over the rest” and the number of hotel chains is continuous growing (Ivanova, Ivanov and Magnini, 2016a). This suggests that more independent or other types of hotels may become hotel chains so that they could expand their business scale and capture more market share. Hence, the hotel chain is and may remain to be the major trend of hospitality industry. As a result, knowing how the most up-to-date marketing method (SMM) could affect and help hotel chains is significant.

The remaining paper is organized in the following structure: Part 1 includes the definition of SM, SMM and hotel chain. It also is comprised of the dimension, advantage and disadvantage of SMM, and its connection with the hotel chain. Next, part 2 contains the detailed explanation of the function and effect of SMM relating to hotel chain. Then part 3 presents some suggestions regarding the usage of SMM in the hotel chain. At last, a conclusion is presented to summarize the main points of this essay.   

Part 1

2.0 Definition

2.1 Social media and social media marketing

As social media (SM) and social media marketing (SMM) are two new emerging concepts, they still lack precise definitions that meet the general agreement (Xiang and Gretzel, 2010). According to Kaur, “any website which allows users to share their contents opinions, views and encourage interactions and community building can be classified as a social media” (2016). Social media can also be considered as an internet-based instrument that provides a set of platforms for people to communicate or exchange viewpoints and information in variable forms (figure 1) with each other. (Merriam-Webster, 2012; Safko and Brake, 2009; Weinberg, 2009; Xiang and Gretzel, 2010). ‘User-Generated Content’ (UGC) and ‘web 2.0’ are another two terms that can be used to refer to social media (Constantinides and Fountain, 2008: 232). The public commonly access social media via digital devices (e.g. mobile phone, laptop, PC, tablet) that are internet-capable. 

Figure 1. What does social media generally include (Webexpertsindia.com, 2018)

Marketing is the foundation and core of any company’s promotion strategy (Mangold and Faulds, 2009). In the last decade, the rapid changing Macro-environment in the aspects of technology and economy have contributed to the appearance of SMM. Kaplan and Haenlein (2010) defined social media marketing as ‘‘Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of User-Generated Content’’ for marketing purposes (p: 61). Contrasting to this, Weinberg’s (2009) definition put more emphasis on the advantage that SMM has. He indicated that SMM is a process that allows companies to advertise their services and products via internet channels in order to expose to a wider range of audience that are out of reach for the traditional marketing channel (p: 3).

2.2 Hotel Chain

Hotel Chain can be defined as “the companies or sub-divisions of companies that encompass hotel properties under a single brand.” (Ivanova et al., 2016b; Ivanov and Zhechev, 2011). This addressed that Hotel Chains are usually multiunit (Ivanova and Ivanov, 2015). Cerović, Pavia and Galičić (2005, p. 23) proposed that hotel chain also implies to the provision of standardized services and products with ensured quality. Vrkljan, Bartoluci and Čižmar (2017) emphasis more on the management and geographical aspects, indicating that “hotel chain is an enterprise that administrates through a unique management, a number of hotels located in diverse areas. They can be total or partial owners of the hotel and they manage their administration, marketing and promotion.” So to conclude, the hotel chain commonly is a series of subsidiaries that under a same brand name with integrated standards and regulations, and there usually are no geographical limitation. Hilton Hotels & Resorts, Holiday Inn, Nikko Hotels are some typical examples of hotel chains.

3.0 Dimensions of social media marketing

Five dimensions are included in SMM: Interactive, electronic word of mouth (eWOM), trendiness, entertainment and customization (Kim and Ko, 2012). 1) Interactive means the “old-fashioned one-way communication is changed to interactive two-way direct communication” (Kim and Ko, 2012). This suggest that not only the merchant can receive the feedback that the customer provides, but also does the other (potential) customer. As a result, the business may promptly improve their products or services accordingly and other consumers could view the feedback as consult. (Sanok, 2014). This characteristic not only transformed the dynamics of brand-customer communications from basis (Daugherty, Eastin and Bright, 2008; Gallauter and Ransbotham, 2010; Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010), but also led to another feature that SMM possess: eWOM. 2) eWOM is defined as “all informal communications directed at consumers through Internet-based technology related to the usage or characteristics of particular goods and services, or their sellers” (Litvin, Goldsmith, & Pan, 2008, p. 461). And “compared to traditional WOM, online WOM is more influential due to its speed, convenience, one-to-many reach, and its absence of face-to-face human pressure” (Sun, Youn, Wum & Kuntaraporn ,2006). This shows that SMM has strengthen the customer’s influencing power. 3) Trendiness suggests that social media is capable of providing the freshest and the latest information about the products and services (Bruno et al., 2016). Kim and Ko (2012) first apply this factors to the fashion industry because of its timeliness. Hotel industry is influenced by this aspect as well (Sano, 2014). For example, the development of new tourist spot may create some opportunities for hotel chains to expand their business. 4) Entertainment is a crucial element of SMM, considering the first intention of people using social media is the seeking for pleasure and amusement (Bagozzi and Utpal, 2002). For the effectiveness of SMM, click rates or page views is the basic measure standard since it can roughly but directly presents the number of people that has been engaged. The higher the level of entertainment, the greater chances to induce more attention (Kang, 2005). 5) Customization is based on the newly marketing pattern: one-to-one and many-to-one (Ding and Keh, 2016; Nam and Yeo, 2011). Customers can make unique requirements to the company to let them provide special experience. Use this tool effectively, company may enhance its brand loyalty and acquire more attention (Martin and Todorov, 2010).

4.0 What is social media marketing to hotel chains

It is well known that customers are the core of service industry, which refers to the industry that “Service products are entities over which ownership rights cannot be established. They cannot be traded separately from their production” (Eurostat, 2009, p. 2). Business involves in accommodation can be considered as service industry. Therefore, engaging with customer is a vital issue and should be prioritized, especially in this highly competitive environment of hotel chains (Gannon, Roper and Doherty, 2015). SMM can exercise its full effect in this area. According to Kim, Lim and Brymer (2015), SMM can be applied to establish better customer relationships, enhance customer loyalty and brand awareness for hotel chains (Chan and Guillet, 2011). Furthermore, according to a report that Nielsen and NM Incite (2012) published, 60% of customers tend to discover detailed information via social networking sites, and 63% have a preference to read online customer reviews. Through this eWOM trend of SMM and to take advantage of it wisely, positive reviews may create a loop of positive feedback and thereby influence customer’s original hotel choices (Leung et al., 2013). Although Hays, Page and Buhalis (2013) argued that SMM is still not widely approved or treated as an important part of company’s strategy and thereby often being neglected. In practice, according to Hotelmarketing.com (2011), approximately 75% of the hotels have already used SM for marketing purpose. In 2012, 90% has joined the SMM (First Merchant Services and Coyle Hospitality Group, 2012). This proved that the thought of marketing through social media has become popular, and the increasing rate of utilization also can draw more hotels into following (Nassar, 2012). This demonstrates that the effectiveness of SMM is recognized by the general hotel industry. So in conclusion, SMM is an useful and necessary tool for hotel chains to promote their products and services while building close connection with their customers.  

5.0 Advantages and disadvantages of social media marketing

5.1 Advantages

More empowered managers began to consider marketing as “the engine driving the growth and success of many firms” (Shankar, Carpenter and Farley, 2012). In the meantime, the development of SM not only allows customer to collect, discuss and exchange data to inform each other about the company’s products and service (Blackshaw and Nazzaro, 2004), but also enable managers and marketers to communicate and interact with consumers in innovative ways that were arduous or unlikely to achieve in traditional promotion channels (Kane et al., 2014). Thus, getting a comprehension of the SMM’s advantage can help business to use this tool efficiently and effectively.

5.1.1 SMM is cost effective

Compare to traditional marketing methods, the first advantage of SMM is that it is considerably cost effective (Trusov, Bucklin & Pauwels, 2009; Samuel, 2017). Advertising through a thirsty seconds ad on national TV may cost approximately $350,000 (Kern, n.d.). By comparison, the using of SM can cast out the distribution part of mass media (for this case, the TV station) which is commonly inevitable, thereby result in the reduction of cost. A large proportion of SM outlets can be accessed cost-free (e.g. F******k, Twitter, YouTube) (Kirtiş and Karahan, 2011). Apart from that, according to Sano (2014), “Social media marketing allows companies to communicate with consumers easily and quickly. From the company perspective, their mere participation on social media generates positive effects to the same extent as traditional advertisements”. This infers that with the same input, marketing through SM can produce larger benefits than through traditional marketing channels. Therefore, with less cost and higher efficiency, SMM is very cost effective. This advantage also intensify the capability of SMM’s online sales promotion. Joie de Vivre (one of world famous hotel chains) is a successful example. When comes to the tourist off-season, the revenue of hotel chains usually will suffer a certain extent of decline. However, Joie de Vivre turned this inferior position into an opportunity by live streaming an online marketing campaigns via Twitter and F******k to its tens of thousands of followers. Through this SMM activity, more than 1000 spare rooms of Joie de Vivre were rented out per week and this boosted the hotel’s annual sales volume up to 240 million dollars (Wom360.com, 2018).

5.1.2 SMM has time advantage

“Social media ensures the reach and effectiveness within specific time limit” (Amrita and Mohan, 2016). This demonstrates that SMM is guaranteed to convey the message in time and with high quality, so SMM has time advantage (Kirtiş and Karahan, 2011). In the meantime, Richard (2017) proposed that “More so than previous generations, Millennial seek out instant gratification, preferring fast service over friendly service and face-to-face contact.” and they “have the ability to and are comfortable with last-minute purchase decisions.” Besides, since the Millennial generation is the second largest consumer group (Paul, 2001), they are highly targeted by marketers because they have strong purchasing power (Howe and Strauss, 2007). As a result, SMM fits well with the general buying habit of the major purchasing power. It also seems almost compulsory for hotel chains to take advantage of SM to create quick and automated service if they intend to capture Millennials’ attention (Ernst and Young, 2014).

5.1.3 SMM is a better approach to identify potential customer

Potential customers are generally considered as the group of people that are not only interested in company’s products and services, but also simultaneously have the matching purchasing power. According to Haili (2016), “the market is the potential buyer(s) of the product, consumers whose demands should be met and whose tastes are to be catered for.” Thus, the ability to accurately identify company’s potential customers is very important for any business, including hotel chains.

Before the invention of SM, market surveys and data mining are the two popular approaches for identify potential customers (Chen, Liu and Chen, 2016). Market surveys commonly take the form of questionnaires to acquire information, and data mining signify the process of extracting and analyzing the data that are collected from the customers’ transaction records (Chang, Hung and Ho, 2007). Although market surveys can generate relatively accurate result compare to other traditional ways, it really requires a huge amount of human and financial resources. Since it is hard to obtain rival’s information via data mining, this method cannot help companies to capture the leading market trend and the current customer preferences (Chen et al, 2016).

The appearance of SM has completely turned this situation around. The using of any online SM services will leave a trail of digital footprints (Malhotra, Totti, Meira, Kumaraguru and Almeida, 2012) and marketers can take advantage of these seemingly trivial information. “Referrals coming from LinkedIn, interest from blog sites, ‘likes’ on F******k, and large scale analytics of Twitter messages are changing the way we prospect for new customers” (Moncrief, Marshall and Rudd, 2015). Through collecting and analyzing these data, marketers can quickly confirm which customer belongs to their potential buyers. Hence, they can tailor their marketing content and convey the message to the customers that have relevant demand. So in conclusion, SMM can help companies to identify their potential customers more accurately and effectively.

5.2 Disadvantages

Although SMM is a convenience and versatile tool, it remains a double-edged sword. To learn its disadvantage before using SMM could help to minish the deficiency and risk that it may bring. 

5.2.1 SMM can be misleading and may defame company’s reputation

From the perspective of the business, “the quality of news on social media is lower than traditional news organizations” (Shu, Sliva, Wang, Tang and Liu, 2017). The advantage of SMM happens to be the trigger of this phenomenon. Spreading the messages faster and wider than other methods with lower cost are the exact cause for the appearance of these massive amount of online fake news (“low quality news with intentionally false information”) (Shu et al., 2017). Apart from that, the online imposters are capable of posting fake messages that may be misleading and thereby jeopardize company’s image (Petty, 2012).  

EWOM of SMM may also initiate adverse impact. The information that are generated online are uncontrollable in this digital era (Hartman, Hunt, Childers, 2013). Besides, owing to the fast development of SM, eWOM is becoming a very influential trend (Babić et al., 2016; Maslowska, Malthouse and Bernritter，2017). According to Serra Cantallops and Salvi (2014), eWOM has a tremendous effect on the tourism industry, and within tourism industry, hotels are impacted the most. In customers’ opinion, the information that displayed online are more believable than the information acquired from other media (Seo and Park, 2018). However, Hu, Liu, and Zhang (2008) suggested that the liability and objective of online reviews are unwarrantable. This means the potential customer do not know who they have chosen to believe in, and the credibility of eWOM is still in doubt. In addition, it is impossible to meet everyone’s expectation, so it is natural to have negative reviews. Unfortunately, the “negative reviews were found to be more influential than positive and mixed reviews” (Hartman, et al., 2013), whereas among the negative feedback, there also has a possibility of malicious bad comment. This proves that eWOM can be very misleading. Furthermore, the company’s reputation may be damaged by those unfair commons.

For the hotel chain, “positive reviews play a significant role in consumers’ evaluations of service quality and value”. However, even the positive feedback can be misguiding as well. Some companies may use preferential policies (e.g. discount offering, bonus points) in return of positive reviews. For instance, American based Caesars Palace gave extra member points to the customers who have shared their good review and satisfying experience on Twitter or I*******m (Wom360.com, 2018). When other customers perceived these good evaluations, they may be self-assured and then blinded believe that the products or services ‘must be good’. “Consumer confidence is likely to positively impact overall satisfaction and result in decreased instances of regret and dissonance (Hartman, et al., 2013). This may further harm the credibility of eWOM and reinforce its misleading effect.

Part 2

6.0 The function and effect of social media marketing towards hotel chains

6.1 The Relationship between Online Travel Agency and hotel chains

The development of internet makes the appearance of Online Travel Agency (OTA) possible. Soon after, OTA has become a dominant online distribution channel in the hotel industry (Verhoef, Kannan, and Inman, 2015; Ye, Zhang and Li, 2018) because OTA can provide a substantial amount of customer resources to the hotel and an expedient as well as reliable booking platform to the customer (Lee, Guillet, and Law 2013; Li and Law, 2007). Moreover, compare to other type of hotels, hotel chains are especially dependent on OTA due to its characteristic (Ropero, 2011).

According to Stangl, Inversini and Schegg (2016), OTA “allowed the consumers to cultivate a taste for convenience, user-friendliness and playfulness in online purchasing.” This indicating that OTA helped the general customers accustomed to the online booking convention. However, with the increasing dependency of hotel chains on the OTA, and OTA’s ability of providing cheaper solutions or offering better deals than the hotel itself (Kim, Bojanic and Warnick, 2009), hoteliers started to “lose control over their own products and brands” (Stangl et al., 2016). These gradually emerging problems and conflicts between hotel chains and OTAs, plus the fast development of SM that can provide alternative marketing outlets have led hotel marketers to put more emphasis on SMM (Bowen, 2015). This implies that the marketing found started to shift towards SMM and hotel chains inclined to let customers book their rooms directly from the official SM sites or web pages rather than the OTA. 

The causes for this transferring of marketing channels also include the alternation of the prominent buying power. As mentioned above, Millennials is the second largest purchasing power and Walsh (2014) demonstrated that they will “account for over half of all travel spending by 2020”. This generation are conditioned to SM. Apart from that, it is necessary to learn the hotel price before booking, because the price is dynamic and perishable so it is always changing (Ropero, 2011). Millennials tend to use SM to gather hotel’s information before they make reservation (Bowen, 2015). As a result, SMM not only let hoteliers regain control, but it also more aligned with the current purchasing trend than OTA. Thus, the benefits that created by SMM let hoteliers pay more attention to SMM and therefor reduced hotel chains’ dependency on OTA. 

6.2 Building customer loyalty

A large percentage of hotel managers think sales revenue can be increased as long as the customer’s satisfaction has been enhanced (Kandampully and Suhartanto, 2000). However, the homogeneity of products and services within the general hotel chains has made this not sufficient enough (Ivanova et al., 2016b). In the highly competitive environment that caused by hotel’s assimilation tendency, maintain existing customers has become more important than attracted new customers because hotel chains cannot ensure that the satisfied customers would repurchase from them. Apart from that, Heung, Mok and Kwan (1996) suggested that “customer loyalty is considered to be a more important issue for hotel chains than for independent hotels.” Thus, it seems clear that increase customer loyalty is prior to the enhancement of customer satisfaction for hotel chains nowadays (Kandampully and Suhartanto, 2000).

SMM can help hotel chains to strength its customer loyalty through its interactive feature. With a high level of engagement, SMM allows hotel chains to keep improving their service according to the feedback they perceived. Hence, they can acquire more customer satisfaction through   cultivate a better relationship with customers, and eventually establish customer loyalty (Jones, Mak and Sim, 2007). EWOM can also be of assistance. Positive online comments are cost-free to the enterprise while possessing higher efficiency and better effect than conventional advertising (Villanueva, Yoo and Hanssens, 2008). These positive feedback not only may attract new customers, but also could encourage repurchases. As a result, SMM can influence hotel chains’ way of building customer loyalty.

6.3 The rise of Airbnb

Although SMM has many advantages that can help hotel chains in variable regards, it still could bring negative influences upon hotel chains. With the rising of the peer-to-peer platforms (sharing economy), some SM applications such as Airbnb have appeared (Zervas，Proserpio and Byers, 2017). At first, the expanding of this sharing economy did not draw much attention from the hotel chains, until those online platforms have become extremely popular (figure 2). Then the hotel chains began to realize these platforms can provide substitutions (e.g. homestay) for traditional hospitality services and these online booking applications could be the new threat to the hotel chains (Salvioni, 2016).

Take Airbnb as an example. Airbnb describes itself as “a trusted community marketplace for people to list, discover, and book unique accommodations around the world” (Airbnb.co.uk, 2018). This self-positioning is a good representative of Airbnb’s greatest merits and what general hotel chains missed: personalization and diversity. Airbnb can provide authentic family hotel rooms so that the customer may truly experience local characteristics. Homestay also suits for customer that tends to make acquaintance with local residents. Moreover, if the accommodations standard are similar between the hotel chains and the homestay, the latter commonly offer a lower price (lower fixed cost) (Salvioni, 2016). Therefore, there is a great probability for the customer (except those who travel for business purpose and may prefer to stay in the standard hotel) to turn to Airbnb and make a reservation of the homestay instead of the hotel chain. In addition, the familiarity and sense of safety that created by hotel chains’ standardized services has already been considered out of date by the Millennials (360doc.com, 2015). They incline to choose somewhere that has features and is convenient for them to meet new friends. So in summary, such companies that strongly rely and focus on (basically based on) SMM could be a strong competitor and cause customer churn in traditional hotel chains.

Figure 2.The reason for the popularity of sharing accommodation (Salvioni, 2016)

Part 3

7.0 Suggestions for the hotel chains regarding the usage of social media marketing

7.1 Viral marketing

Since the biggest advantage of SM compare to traditional marketing channels is its wider spreading rage and higher diffusion speed, viral marketing may be an appropriate and effective way for hotel chains to promote themselves. Viral marketing use SM as the platform while utilize UGC and eWOM as the tool to “creating a World Wide Wave by having others tell you story for you—it is one of the most exciting and powerful ways to reach your audiences” (Scott, 2015).

There are a plethora of successful viral marketing examples. Because nowadays, SM can be considered as a term of ‘social validation’ (Lim, 2010). Customers may generate a buying intention just on account of the product or service that has been recommended by someone they trust, even if the online product introduction information is not detailed ad valid enough (Fan and Miao, 2012). Meanwhile, Lim (2010) claimed that “the most valuable social validation occurs through viral marketing when individuals that one trusts, recommends a product.” For example, if a customer’s friends and family, or even the internet celebrity they follows in the mainstream SM (e.g. Twitter, I*******m, F******k), ‘liked’, commented or shared any information regarding a hotel chains that they have been staying and felt satisfied, the positive contents would appear in that customer’s homepage and may encourage that related customer to follow the steps and make a purchase as well (Scott, 2015). This not only proves the benefits of viral marketing, but also induces one of the major method to launch viral marketing—influencer marketing (Ferguson, 2008).

Influencer refers to the people who possess the power to affect the public. Influencer marketing indicated that instead of focusing on the entire target market, the company only pay attention to those influential individuals and tailor their marketing strategy towards the influencers (Guest, 2015). Nowadays, due to the development of the internet, internet celebrity (web star) has become a trend. These people commonly have a massive amount of followers on their variable SM platforms. Hence, they can convey the message to a wide range of customers (Woods, 2016). For instance, Holiday Inn invite the Creekmore family, who are famous of documenting their own adventures around the world in order to commemorate the loss of their family members,   to film a memorable documentary named ‘Journey to Extraordinary’ (Manvi, 2017). This special video has gone viral and received a favorable response, which may impressed the similar young families who also plan to go travel and choose the “recognizable, family-friendly brand like Holiday Inn” (Manvi, 2017).

7.2 Using social media marketing to customized

Although viral marketing is one way to use SM to a great extent, hotel chains cannot neglect the importance of grasping the market trends. At the present time, the customer tends to seek for more unique hotel experiences that based on their personal preferences (Amadeus IT Group, 2010). As mentioned above, this happened to be the weakness of hotel chains, but SMM may help them to change that.

The rapid development of the internet and the transparency of information have made understanding the customer become more important (Yeoman, 2011). This demonstrated that hotel chains need to pay more attention to how to meet customer’s requirements because customer may repurchase when they have been offered targeted offers (Infosys, 2013). In the meantime, “traveler motivations will become increasingly fragmented and diverse and harder to segment into clearly definable customer groupings” (Amadeus, 2010, p. 7). As a result, hotel chains should focus more on customer expectation rather the market segmentation. The customized dimension of SMM could help hotel chains gathering detailed customer-related data and “operating on a new level of ‘micro-segmentation’ ” (Richard, 2017). Hence, hotel chains may get a better acknowledgement of customer’s buying tendency, motivations, and decisions making process. Thereby, hotel chains could learn to provide personalized experience and adapt to the constantly changing trend of the market while in some degree neutralizing threat that brought by the flourishing booking applications like Airbnb. 

8.0 Summary

From the perspective of the business, SM can be considered as a valuable tool and an effective platform for strength customer engagement and improving two-way (customer-business) interactions (Sigala, 2012). SMM is widely used in almost every business industry among vary scale of companies including the hotel chain because of its preponderance (Kirtiş and Karahan, 2011). The purpose of this paper is to clarify in which aspect SMM influences hotel chains and what can hotel chains do so that they may take better advantage of it.

The study showed that SMM has a number of merits which traditional marketing methods do not posse: SMM is relatively cost effective for it has lower cost while reaching out to more potential customers with less time; SMM has time advantage and it accords with Millennials’ buying habits; SMM is also a better way to identify potential customers. Apart from the advantages, the study also suggests that SMM could be misleading and may damage company’s reputation. This is because that although eWOM has become a trend, its creditability is still in doubt. Besides, there are a vast amount of online fake news that could be posted by the company or the imposter. These advantages and disadvantages may impact the hotel chains to some extent.

For hotel chains, the effect that caused by SMM can also be favorable or unfavorable. The study indicated that the development of SMM has made a great contribution to the reduction of hotel chains’ dependency on OTA. Because SM provides more alternatives (substitutions) for OTA and thereby allows hotel chains to promote and sell the rooms directly from their official websites or F******k/Twitter homepage. Meanwhile, the blossom of SM facilitated the popularity of online application such as Airbnb that mainly focus on homestay, which could be a threat to the traditional hotel chains due to the standardized services and products of hotel chains are no longer conform to the Millennials’ expectation (authentic, unique, ingenious) as homestay does. Despite this, SMM could help hotel chains to improve customer loyalty because SMM has a high degree of customer engagement and this could help hotel chains to establish a stronger relationship with customers. Finally, according to the research, hotel chains could use viral marketing as an SMM strategy to spread their messages as long as they are morally correct and within a legal range. Moreover, taking advantage of SMM to customized products and services accordingly could be seemed as a very important measurement for hotel chains to counter the competition that brought by Airbnb, and it is crucial for hotel chains’ future development.

The limitation of this paper is that it does not clearly classified different rank or scale of hotel chains. Hotel chains that have different marketing positioning or different target market may use SMM differently. In reverse, SMM may has diverse levels of impact upon them. Further research can concentrate on what type of hotel chain is most affected by SMM and what should they do.