The problem is often that travel destinations see social media as the enemy. A place where guests can post negative reviews. But if you have great travel product, then the reviews should be good, and if you have great service - then you should be able to use social media to your advantage.
A few tips:
Service - Service is luxury. There is no excuse for poor service– train your staff, drill good service into them. Not only is the customer is always right – but good service makes up for other things that are much more expensive to fix. Treat people really well, go above and beyond, and they should respond with good reviews.
Follow up – When a guest leaves, follow up with an email survey. And, use that as a relief value on issues. And encourage them to “like” you with a good review on Yelp, TripAdvisor or wherever your guest will look.
Ask - If you don’t have a sign or a note on your bill saying “please review us,” people may not think of it. If you don’t ask you won’t get. It is a basic step.
Look at your reviews - There might be some good advice there. If everyone complains about the same thing, and you don’t fix it… people will be turned off. Thank those who give you good reviews, apologize to those who did not – but don’t argue.
Encourage guests to check in on Facebook and other media – it’s free promotion to their friends. Use your social media assets to help your clients promote you to their friends – that is what it is all about!
Twitter – If you are on Twitter monitor it. Never repost to Twitter from another platform - better not to be there. And look out: On Facebook you can delete a negative post to your page. But on Twitter people can call you out and complain. And you can do nothing. So, reply quickly and in a friendly voice to questions on Twitter – and be ready to use it as a customer service outlet – or don’t be on Twitter.