Dubai Hotels are promoting their brands and increasing business by using social media websites. Revenues have dropped due to the slowdown in international travel and more competition, so hotels are looking for less expensive ways to attract guests. The Monarch Hotel used the twitter social networking website to launch its Eid promotion this month, and this was responsible for around 12 per cent of its bookings.
The hotel also uses facebook to recruit new employees, and last month used twitter to recruit two new front-of-house staff. Assistant to the hotel’s general manager, Gabby Feile, explained “The economic situation has encouraged hotels to use social media. It is free and you can target different people who you would not necessarily be able to target through classical advertizing.”
