Leveraging User-Generated Content (UGC) for Hotels, B&Bs, Restaurants, and Tour Providers

Leveraging User-Generated Content (UGC) for Hotels, B&Bs, Restaurants, and Tour Providers

User-generated content (UGC) is a powerful marketing tool that can elevate your business, complement professional content, and build trust with your audience. For hotels, B&Bs, restaurants, and tour providers, UGC helps create authentic, engaging content while also fostering community, amplifying reach, and saving resources.

This blog explores:

• The benefits of UGC
• Challenges of creating all content in-house
• How to incentivize and leverage UGC effectively
• Examples of UGC strategies in action

Benefits of Leveraging UGC

1. Builds a Community Around Your Brand

UGC enables your guests and customers to feel involved in your brand’s story. When your audience shares their experiences, they don’t just advertise your business—they become part of it. This sense of community is invaluable, building loyalty and encouraging repeat visits.

• Hotels/B&Bs: Encourage guests to share their favourite room views or vacation moments using a branded hashtag. This not only promotes your property but also helps future guests visualize themselves staying at your hotel.
• Restaurants: Foodies love to showcase their dining experiences. When diners share photos of your signature dishes, they invite others into a community of food enthusiasts that revolves around your restaurant.
• Tour Providers: Adventure tourists love to document their experiences. Encouraging them to share their excitement will create a loyal following of travelers eager to experience your tours.

2. FOMO and Trendsetting

UGC naturally creates FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) for those who haven’t visited your business yet. It shows real customers enjoying real experiences, inspiring others to visit. UGC also helps position your brand as part of the latest trends.

• Hotels/B&Bs: A guest sharing a serene photo of their stay can trigger FOMO for followers who want that same experience. It creates a strong pull for future bookings.
• Restaurants: Diners who post their experiences with your trendy food or cocktail specials turn your restaurant into a must-visit spot for food lovers.
• Tour Providers: Highlighting UGC from travellers exploring scenic routes or engaging in thrilling activities makes your tour service appear cutting-edge and unmissable.

3. Complements Professional Content

While professional photography and content creation services are essential for maintaining a polished and high-quality brand image, UGC adds an authentic, personal touch. UGC offers organic, real-time content that complements the polished visuals created by professionals. It keeps your feed fresh between professional shoots, showing a mix of polished, curated content and real-life customer experiences.

4. Cost-Effective and Timesaving

Creating all your own content can be time-consuming and costly. UGC provides an ongoing stream of content that requires minimal effort and expense on your end. With UGC, you have an authentic, fresh source of content that fills the gaps between professional shoots, allowing your marketing team to stay active without needing to produce everything in-house.

• Hotels/B&Bs: Between seasonal campaigns or room renovations, guest-generated images can keep your social media lively and engaging without stretching your budget.
• Restaurants: Diner-generated content keeps your feed active, allowing you to stay top of mind with less frequent professional shoots.
• Tour Providers: Tourists posting about their experiences can help market your tours on a consistent basis, reducing the need for constant in-house content production.

Challenges of Creating All Content Internally

1. Time-Consuming

Producing high-quality content in-house demands significant time, from planning and shooting to editing and posting. This challenge multiplies when you need to maintain consistent posts across multiple platforms.

2. Expensive

Professional photography and videography services, while essential for producing high-quality content, can be costly. However, balancing professional content with UGC can provide a more sustainable long-term strategy.

3. Maintaining Relevance

Staying up-to-date with social media trends can be hard when producing all your content internally. UGC allows you to quickly tap into current trends, with real-time content from your customers showing what’s relevant right now.

How to Incentivize and Use UGC: A Step-by-Step Guide

Step 1: Encourage Guests to Share

First, encourage guests or diners to share their experiences. Subtle but clear prompts, like a note on the table or a suggestion at checkout, can encourage users to post their experiences on social media.

• Hotels/B&Bs: Add prompts in rooms, lobbies, or at check-in desks encouraging guests to share photos of their stay with a specific hashtag.
• Restaurants: Include a message on your menus or table settings encouraging patrons to share pictures of their meals with your branded hashtag.
• Tour Providers: At the end of each tour, invite customers to share their favorite moments with your hashtag to be featured on your social media.

Step 2: Create a Branded Hashtag

Creating a custom, branded hashtag allows you to easily track and collect UGC. It also serves as a simple way for your audience to engage with your business.

• Hotels/B&Bs: Use hashtags like #StayAt[HotelName] to consolidate user content and encourage sharing.
• Restaurants: A hashtag like #DineAt[RestaurantName] makes it easy for customers to post about their experiences and for you to find and share those posts.
• Tour Providers: Encourage travelers to use hashtags like #ExploreWith[TourName] to create a collective portfolio of shared experiences.

Step 3: Incentivize UGC

Offer incentives to customers who post content. This could be in the form of contests, discounts, or the chance to be featured on your brand’s social media pages.

• Hotels/B&Bs: Run a contest where the best guest photo each month wins a free night or a complimentary service.
• Restaurants: Offer a discount or free appetizer/drink to diners who post and tag your restaurant in a high-quality photo or video.
• Tour Providers: Run a photo contest, with the best tour photo of the month earning a discount on a future booking or a special prize.

Step 4: Monitor and Engage

Use social listening tools to track your branded hashtag and collect UGC. Engage with users by liking, commenting, and sharing their posts, showing your appreciation for their content.

Step 5: Curate and Share UGC

Curate the best UGC that aligns with your brand values and aesthetic. When sharing, always credit the original creator and add a personalized thank-you message to encourage future contributions.

• Example for Hotels: “Thanks for sharing this amazing sunset view from your room, @GuestName! We’re so glad you enjoyed your stay.”
• Example for Restaurants: “We love seeing our customers enjoy our signature dishes! Thanks for this mouth-watering photo, @CustomerName.”
• Example for Tour Providers: “What a breathtaking shot from your tour, @Adventurer! Thanks for joining us—we hope to see you again soon.”

Examples of UGC in Action

Hotels/B&Bs

A hotel in Killarney could run a UGC campaign during peak tourist season, encouraging guests to share photos of their view, breakfast in bed, or hiking excursions nearby. Each post adds to a community-driven narrative that appeals to both future and returning guests.

Restaurants

A restaurant might incentivize UGC by offering a free drink to anyone who shares their dish using the restaurant’s hashtag. These posts can be shared on the restaurant’s Instagram Stories, showing an ongoing, real-time stream of diners enjoying their food.

Tour Providers

A Kerry-based hiking tour provider could encourage adventurers to share photos of scenic landmarks they visited during the tour. Reposting these customer experiences showcases the beauty of your tour while promoting your service organically.

Conclusion

User-generated content is a dynamic, cost-effective way to build a sense of community, create FOMO, and position your brand as a trendsetter, all while complementing the professional content that keeps your brand polished and premium. By encouraging and curating UGC, you can save time and money while maintaining an authentic connection with your audience.

UGC is not a replacement for professional content creation but a perfect partner that enhances your overall marketing strategy—giving your brand the best of both worlds.