Impacts of social media on guest relation management :

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impacts of social media on guest relation management. Guest relation is an important department in the hotel and hospitality industry in general, as the guest is the main concern of this industry. Making sure that the guest is treated with utmost care and their expectations met and excided is the driving force for the hotel industry. To maximize guest satisfaction, the hotel must make sure that the services and all the products purchased are of standard quality. This project objective was to find out how social media influence the relationship between the guest and the hotel. In essence social media have a number of categories which include social media sites that are; social networking sites, media sharing site/brand exposure sites and the online reviewing sites. Each of these group of social media is used for different and specific function so that to enjoy their maximum benefit. The research was carried out in Nakuru town hotels specifically Sarova lion Hill and Merica hotels. The research design used is the descriptive type of design which allowed systematic collection and analysis of data and is also less expensive type of design. After the analysis of data it confirmed that social media have a great impact on the guest relation management and the hotels have done their best to upgrade their systems. Facebook was the most used under the social networking sites, YouTube was the most preferred under the media sharing/brand exposure site and TripAdvisor was the most used and know by guest to give hotels reviews. This research also informs the respective hotels of the areas they need to put more effort and areas to improve for better business and profits.