Le Seven hotel has enjoyed occupancy rates of up to 80% during the low season.  This incredible achievement has been driven by a direct to consumer Facebook communication strategy.

Le Seven is located in the heart of the Latin quarter in Paris. An and is a boutique hotel, with a very distinct style. Bold and modern suites next to rooms that feel inspired by a James Bond movie. All of them stand out as features of the hotel in their own right.

Currently the Hotel Le Seven page has 25k likes, having added a thousand likes per month over the last year. The growth in volume has primarily been driven by cross-marketing the page to existing customers and newsletter subscribers. They innovated however in approaching bloggers within the hotel sphere, sending them information on the hotel and links to the hotel and the Facebook page.   The hotel has not ran competitions over the last year as it no longer felt that it was getting traction by doing so and given the strict conditions now in place from Facebook, they decided to focus elsewhere.

Facebook as a PR agency.

While all of the above will be familiar to Irish hotel managers and the people who run their  social media campaigns, what stands out with regards to Le Seven is that Facebook is the main focus of their PR strategy. The hotel does not indulge direct PR enquiries or send out press releases. Facebook is the communication strategy of the Hotel. This strategy was driven to ensure that people followed the hotel’s page if they desired information on it. The boutique nature of the style also allowed this strategy to be acted on. Mainstream hotels would still want to engage in a multi-faceted campaign. The boutique nature of this hotel allows people to

Incentivise the Fans

The key driver to the Facebook growth and strong booking has ultimately been that Facebook Fans are heavily incentivized. Facebook fans are treated as VIP customer. Special deals are offered to those who like the page and they are rewarded and thanked upon arrival as well. This is Facebook as a Social Network with Customer Relationship Management. When you arrive on the Facebook page, you are informed in the page profile image that there are special discounts for fans only.

Facebook as a Sales Channel

Facebook pages for a Hotel are an excellent new sales channel. They especially appeal to impulse buying. There is a very clear and distinct Icon leading to a reservation page, that is integrated in to the Facebook Page. All too often, this tab is indistinct, it is the key reason that your business is on Facebook, to drive sales. Whether that is via increased brand awareness or through direct sales on Facebook. The Facebook application that Le Seven use is created by. In Ireland a number of companies provide such features. Many Hotels, will be able to avail of Aró’s offering in this regard.

In conclusion I hope that this article has shown that Facebook can be a significant driver of revenue to a hotel’s bottom line. It will vary from business to business and certainly is especially suited to a boutique offering like Le Seven but it can increase business for all. At the very least it is an solid plank in a Search Engine Marketing plan, and will increase name recognition and customer loyalty.

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