The hospitality industry has a fundamental misunderstanding of what effective social media marketing actually is in 2025.
They bring on a “social media person,” typically someone young who "gets" Instagram, then expect them to make magic happen.
The results are predictably disappointing.
Beautiful content that barely moves the needle on actual bookings.
What they really need is an entire media team embedded into their property, not just one person wearing seven different hats.
Yet hotels everywhere follow this playbook without questioning it.
The "hire and hope" strategy
Here's what typically happens when hotels decide they need to improve their social media presence…
- Post a job for a "social media manager" or "content creator”
- Hire someone who says they understand social media
- Hand them the brand guidelines and a camera
- Check the box that they are “doing social media”
What they get is essentially a social media coordinator - someone who manages posts and keeps the accounts looking presentable.
These coordinators run unoptimized campaigns, waste ad spend, and operate as cost centers because they don't know how to create highly engaging content that actually drives bookings.
Many hotels are fine with this because they see social media as a branding channel, not the most important guest acquisition channel of the decade.
We've taken the opposite approach, treating social as our primary acquisition channel, and hit 80%+ direct bookings at our properties as a result.
While hotels stay stuck with OTA dependence and underperformance using an outdated approach.
What actually drives bookings
Effective social media marketing isn't about finding one magical person who can do everything. It's about building a comprehensive media team, pairing creatives with growth marketers, who work together toward one goal: filling rooms profitably.
You need…
Videographers who understand content needs to be shot for capturing attention and keeping viewers engaged.
Video editors who know the difference between a corporate promotional video and content that actually performs on social platforms, with pacing, text and cuts designed specifically for algorithm optimization.
Creative directors who can develop overarching strategies that optimize every piece of content to get you closer to your revenue goals, not just brand awareness.
Viral hackers who spend countless hours per week figuring out the current platform algorithms, what content is driving the most engagement and creating content formats for your brand based on their insights.
Community managers who turn comments into conversations, conversations into relationships, and relationships into direct bookings through genuine engagement.
Performance marketers who can take that organic content and scale it through paid campaigns that actually generate measurable ROI.
Influencer managers who vet partnerships based on actual conversion potential rather than just follower counts or engagement rates.
Copywriters who understand hospitality psychology and can craft captions that move people from awareness to booking.
It's a complete media ecosystem, not a single hire.
Here's where it gets complicated…
Most hotels simply cannot afford to hire a full media team.
Let me break down the math that makes this impossible for most properties:
A competent creative director will cost you $80-120k annually. Add a videographer ($60-80k), video editor ($50-70k), community manager ($45-60k), and performance marketer ($70-90k), and you're looking at $305-420k in base salaries before benefits and overhead.
For a 50-room property generating $2 million in annual revenue, that's 15-21% of your entire top line just on content creation and social media.
Before you factor in ad spend, equipment, or any other marketing expenses.
The economics simply don't work for most hotels.
Which is exactly why we built Oasi…
Instead of forcing hotels to choose between hiring one overworked person or building an expensive in-house team, we developed a system that gives you access to our entire specialized crew.
Our team includes:
1. Videographers who return to your property every couple of months to capture fresh content optimized for social performance, not just pretty shots.
2. Video editors who've helped generate over 130 million views across hospitality properties by understanding platform-specific optimization.
3. Creative directors who oversee the creative strategy at your property.
4. Viral hackers who are solely focused on figuring out the strategies behind the most viral content and using those insights to create formats that work for our properties.
5. Community managers who actively engage with your audience and convert social interactions into direct bookings.
6. Influencer managers who vet and manage monthly partnerships, focusing on creators who drive actual conversions.
7. Performance marketers who understand the difference between content that looks good and content that generates ROI.
8. Copywriters who craft messaging that moves travelers through the booking funnel.
We test hundreds of pieces of new content monthly across our portfolio to stay ahead of algorithm changes and platform trends. We track what actually drives website visitors with booking intent, not just what generates likes and comments.
Most importantly, we're performance marketers who happen to create beautiful content – not creatives hoping our work accidentally drives business results.
You might be thinking “so you just created another agency…”
And that couldn’t be further from the truth.
At our core, we're owners and operators who understand the metrics that actually matter.
We built Oasi out of necessity; we couldn't find an agency that:
- Understood what owners care about (revenue)
- Focused on actual growth metrics like website visits instead of vanity likes
- Prioritized engaging, viral content over just posting aesthetic pictures.
Most agencies focus on distribution while treating content creation as an afterthought. But content is the special sauce.
So we built the opposite: an agency for owners, by owners, that puts content first.
Want to see what a real social media marketing system could do for your property?
Fill out an inquiry here and let’s explore how we can work together.
See you guys next week!
-Ben Wolff
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🎥 Check Out My Podcast with Steve Turk Diving into The Story Behind Baya, Our New Tropical Landscape Resort
🎥 Check Out My Episode on The Bigger Pockets STR Podcast on Redefining Luxury Hotels and Outperforming Traditional Hotel Models
🎥 Check Out My Podcast Episode on the Action Academy about Making Millions Through Direct Bookings
Ben Wolff
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