The impact of social media on the lodging performance of five star hotels in Malta

Abstract

Although social media is being widely used in Malta, research on a national level is still very limited. On an international level this is not the case where in the past few years’ social media was subject for many research, including studies and books which focus on the use of social media in the hotel industry. All five star hotels in Malta are active on social media and nine hotels interviewed while conducting this research expressed the importance of social media within their hotel, claiming that it provides the possibility for two way communication with both existing and potential customers, which is not possible with most traditional media. Though is this reflected in their practices? And is the investment resulting into actual returns? Therefore this study seeks to discover how five star hotels in Malta are using social media and whether they managed to measure their social media success. The researcher goes a step further and tries to discover the effectiveness of five star hotel social media presence in Malta. This was completed by using a mixed method approach, meaning that both qualitative and quantitative research methods were used. In-depth interviews were carried out with hotel managers responsible for social media, while questionnaires were distributed to guests who have both stayed in a five star hotel in Malta. Since the researcher researched both ends, that is the consumer side and the producer side, some contradicting findings were revealed. Some of which question choices being done by five star hotels when using social media, which raise various opportunities for future research.