Scroll through a few hotel Instagram accounts and you’ll see the same posts: the room, the pool, a plate of food, a sunset. It looks tidy. It’s also why an account can stay busy without bringing in new guests. This guide covers why property photos aren’t enough, the three kinds of hotel content that work together, and how to set up your profile so interest turns into enquiries and direct bookings.
What’s wrong with posting property photos?
Nothing, as part of a feed. As the whole feed, it has two problems.
It mostly reaches people who already know you. Room photos are useful to someone comparing your hotel with two others. They give nothing to the much bigger group who haven’t heard of your hotel, or haven’t yet decided to visit your destination.
There’s no strategy behind it. When an account exists to “stay active”, posts feel random, the voice is generic, and nothing leads anywhere. A follower might like a sunset photo and never think about booking.
We call this catalogue content. It’s a brochure posted one page at a time.
What are the three kinds of hotel content?
A feed that brings new guests uses three kinds of content, each with a different job:
| Kind | Who it’s for | What it is | Example formats |
|---|---|---|---|
| Discovery | People who don’t know you yet | Your destination, experiences, food, culture, wildlife, hidden gems, things to know before you go | Short reels, carousels, local guides, “did you know” posts |
| Property | People comparing where to stay | Your rooms, views, food, what’s included and what makes you different, told through your story | Stay walkthroughs, a day at your hotel, who it’s best for |
| Testimonial | People about to decide | Real guest stories, reviews, photos and videos, shared with permission | Guest clips, review highlights, reposts of tagged stays |
Discovery brings new people in. People don’t search for a hotel they don’t know exists; they get interested in a place first. A reel about the best time to see a lake at sunrise, or a carousel of five dishes to try in the old city, is interesting to someone who has never heard of you, and your hotel shows up as the natural place to stay.
Property content helps them choose. Show what a stay is actually like, not just what the room looks like empty.
Testimonial content gives them the confidence to book. It must always be real, and shared only with the guest’s permission. Never invent a guest story, even as an example.
Some examples, to adapt rather than copy:
- Discovery, for a lake hotel: “Three things to know before you visit in the monsoon.”
- Property, for a resort: “A day here, from the first chai to the bonfire.”
- Testimonial: a guest’s own reel of their anniversary dinner, reposted with their permission and credited.
How do you find your property’s narrative?
Before you plan a single post, answer these questions with your team. The answers become the story every post comes back to.
- What do guests mention most often in reviews, unprompted?
- Why do repeat guests come back?
- What can a guest do here, or nearby, that they can’t do elsewhere?
- Who is your hotel best for, and who is it not for?
- What’s the story of the property itself: who built it, what it used to be, what you’ve changed?
- What would you like people to stop assuming about your hotel or your destination?
A feed built on those answers sounds like your hotel. A feed built on trending audio and stock captions sounds like everyone else.
How should you set up your profile for enquiries?
Your profile is where interest turns into a question. Make that easy:
- A professional account. Instagram’s business and creator accounts give you insights about your audience and content, and let you add a contact button with directions, a phone number and an email address.[3]
- One clear link in your bio to your booking page or to WhatsApp, not your home page. Tag it so you can see visits from Instagram in your website analytics (more on that below).
- Highlights that answer the usual questions. Stories you add to Story Highlights stay on your profile until you remove them.[5] Use them for rooms, how to reach you, what’s included, and real guest stories.
- Quick replies in DMs. Professional accounts can set up frequently asked questions that appear when someone starts a chat, with optional automatic replies.[4] Use them for rates, availability and directions, and point guests to WhatsApp or your booking page for the rest.
- Links in stories. Every account can add a link sticker to a story.[6] Use it whenever a story is about something bookable.
Some tools that connect to Instagram messaging can also send an automatic reply when someone messages a keyword, such as “STAY”. If you use one, keep the reply short, honest and quick to hand over to a person. Our guide to turning WhatsApp enquiries into bookings covers what to automate and what to keep human.
Reels, carousels and stories: what is each for?
Each format has its own job:
- Reels are for reach. Instagram says most of the reels people see come from accounts they don’t follow,[1] and that a new reel is first suggested to a small group of non-followers likely to enjoy it, then shown more widely if it performs well.[2] That makes reels the natural home for discovery content.
- Carousels are for detail. A swipeable set of images or slides suits property and planning content: “what’s included”, “five things to do within an hour”, “which room is right for you”.
- Stories are for the people already following. Day-to-day moments, limited offers, and a link to book. They keep you in mind for people who are already interested.
Instagram says the most important things it predicts for reels are how likely someone is to reshare it, watch it all the way through, like it, and visit the audio page.[1] In practice, that rewards reels that are worth watching to the end and worth sending to a friend, which is exactly what good discovery content is.
How do you measure what matters?
Followers and likes are easy to count and easy to misread. Look at the numbers that connect to bookings:
- New people reached, especially through reels and discovery content.
- Profile visits and link clicks to your booking page.
- DM and WhatsApp enquiries that started on Instagram.
- Bookings you can trace to Instagram.
To trace bookings, add campaign tags to the links you share. Google Analytics recommends adding utm_source, utm_medium and utm_campaign parameters to the links you use in campaigns, so you can see which ones send visits.[7] Use a separate tag for your bio link, your stories and any ads. Then ask guests at booking how they found you, and note it.
Review these every month, and put more effort into the kinds of posts that bring enquiries.
What mistakes should you avoid?
- Only posting property content. It skips discovery and testimonial, the first and last steps to a booking.
- Posts with no next step. Every post should end with one clear action: a DM keyword, a link to book or a WhatsApp message.
- Slow replies to DMs. An enquiry that waits overnight can easily book somewhere else.
- Reposting guests without permission. Ask first, and credit them.
- Chasing trends that don’t fit your hotel. Borrowed formats are fine; borrowed personality isn’t.
- Judging success on followers. A smaller audience that enquires is worth more than a large one that doesn’t.
What this means for hotel owners
- Write down your property’s narrative using the questions above.
- Plan each week across the three kinds of hotel content, with more discovery than you think you need.
- Set up the profile for enquiries: one tagged booking link, useful highlights, quick replies in DMs.
- Give every post a next step.
- Measure enquiries and bookings, not just reach.
For a ready-made month of ideas, see our 30-day hotel content calendar, and for the wider plan, 12 ways to increase direct bookings. If you’d like help, our Social Media Management service builds your hotel’s narrative and creates all three kinds of content with you.