Hotel chains are increasingly leveraging the power of Instagram to reach a broader audience, with Starwood the latest to integrate the photo-sharing feature across its nine brands around the world.
Using the hashtag , guests can now add photos of their Starwood experience at properties like the St. Regis, the Westin, Le Meridien, Sheraton and W to an Instagram guest gallery.
It’s estimated that Starwood guests staying at the chain’s 1,150 properties around the world capture and share an average of 40,000 images a month on Instagram.
Currently, photos on the guest gallery include beachfront photos of the W Maldives as well as food porn of a traditional English breakfast at the St. Regis Singapore.
Perhaps one of the biggest Instagram pioneers of the hotel industry, however, remains the 1888 Hotel in Sydney, Australia, a boutique property that billed itself as the world’s first Instagram hotel for hinging its decor and services on the photo-sharing app when it opened this year.
In a bid to attract and serve a digitally savvy clientele, the hotel offers a free night’s stay to Instagram users with more than 10,000 followers — in other words, lots of clout — and has likewise dedicated a “selfie space” where guests can take photos of themselves, hashtag it #1888hotel and see their photo appear instantaneously on screens near the reception desk.
Similarly, the Four Seasons claimed authority on the photo sharing site Pinterest, with the feature. After a traveler creates boards pinned with photos of their ideal vacation and specifying their destination city, a virtual concierge from the Four Seasons will offer personalized recommendations and itineraries based on the user’s Pinterest board.
Meanwhile, both Condé Nast Traveler and luxury travel company Cox & Kings predict that geolocating mediums like Facebook and Instagram will play increasingly bigger roles in the travel industry in 2014, either as an advertising platform for hotels or as a “Wish you were here” postcard by guests.
