APRIL 21, 2026
Why your hotel's social media manager is the most under- supported role in the building.
Published by HoSS — Hospitality Social Media Summit
They're responsible for your brand's public face. They manage the channel where guests discover you, judge you, and decide whether to book. They handle crises in real time, respond to reviews that affect your revenue, and create content that competes with OTAs spending millions.
And most of them are doing it alone, without formal training, without a clear strategy, and without a budget that reflects the commercial importance of what they do.
If there's a more under-supported role in hospitality, we haven't found it.
The reality of the role
Talk to any social media manager working in a hotel, resort, or restaurant group and you'll hear the same story with minor variations:
They're a team of one.
Sometimes two, if they're lucky. Managing social across an entire property — or multiple properties — with no dedicated designer, no videographer, no copywriter, and no analyst. They concept, create, shoot, edit, write, schedule, respond, report, and optimise. Every day.
They have no formal training for what they actually do.
Most hospitality social media managers learned on the job. They might have a marketing degree, but nothing they studied covered hospitality-specific social strategy — because those courses barely exist. They're figuring it out in real time, learning from generic Instagram advice that was built for DTC brands selling trainers, not hotels selling experiences.
Their budget is an afterthought.
When times are good, they might get a modest paid social budget. When times are tight, it's the first thing cut. Meanwhile, the revenue team has sophisticated tools, the front office has a full tech stack, and social — the channel that shapes first impressions for every potential guest — runs on willpower and a Canva subscription.
They report to people who don't understand the channel.
Their GM wants to know why followers haven't grown. Their marketing director wants to know why a post "didn't go viral." Their revenue director doesn't see how Instagram connects to bookings. Nobody is asking the right questions because nobody in the approval chain has social media expertise — and the person who does is too junior to push back.
Their approval process kills their effectiveness.
The trend they spotted on Monday morning is dead by Thursday, when the third round of feedback finally arrives. Every piece of content runs through layers of sign-off — GM, brand standards, sometimes owners — each adding friction, each slowing execution, and none of them understanding that speed is the currency of social media.
They're isolated.
There's no peer community. No industry benchmarks. No way to know if they're doing well or poorly compared to similar properties. They attend generic marketing conferences and come back with notebooks full of advice that doesn't translate to their reality. They scroll LinkedIn and see DTC brand case studies that have nothing to do with filling rooms on a Tuesday in January.
The cost of this neglect
This isn't just unfair to the individual. It's commercially damaging to the business.
Inconsistent brand presence.
Without a strategy, clear guidelines, and adequate resources, your social media output is reactive and inconsistent. Some weeks you post daily. Some weeks you disappear. The visual identity shifts depending on who's creating that day. Potential guests scroll your feed and get no clear sense of who you are or what makes you different.
Missed revenue opportunities.
Every day your social media operates without commercial intent is a day you're leaving direct bookings on the table. Your competitor down the road — the one whose social manager has a strategy, a budget, and leadership support — is capturing the guests who should have been yours.
Reputation risk.
A poorly handled review, a tone-deaf post, a slow response to a crisis — these aren't just social media problems. They're revenue problems. One mismanaged public interaction can cost thousands in lost bookings. When your social media manager has no crisis training, no response frameworks, and no escalation process, it's not a question of if something goes wrong. It's when.
Talent drain.
The best hospitality social media managers leave. Not because they can't do the job — but because the job becomes unsustainable. Burned out by workload, frustrated by lack of support, and undervalued by leadership that doesn't understand what they do. When they leave, the property loses institutional knowledge, momentum, and continuity — and the cycle starts again with someone new.
What good support actually looks like
The hotels and groups getting social media right aren't necessarily spending more. They're supporting their teams differently:
- A documented strategy. Not a content calendar — a strategy. One that ties social media activity to business objectives, defines target audiences, sets KPIs that matter, and gives the social media manager a clear mandate they can point to when priorities compete.
- A realistic content operating system. Templates, approval workflows, content pillars, and a governance framework that builds speed into the process rather than adding friction. The goal isn't more content — it's better content, faster.
- Training that's actually relevant. Not generic digital marketing courses. Hospitality-specific training that covers the unique challenges of the role: seasonal content strategy, OTA competition, review management, multi-property complexity, lean team execution, and reporting in language leadership understands.
- Leadership that understands the channel.This might be the most important one. When GMs and marketing directors understand what social media actually does for their business — and what it takes to do it well — everything changes. Budgets become realistic. Approval processes become faster. Expectations become fair. And the social media manager is treated as a strategic contributor, not a content factory.
- A peer community.Knowing you're not alone matters. Access to other hospitality social media professionals — for benchmarking, idea sharing, troubleshooting, and mutual support — transforms the experience of the role.
The shift that needs to happen
The hospitality industry needs to stop treating social media as a junior marketing function and start treating it as a strategic commercial channel. Because that's what it is.
The person managing your social media is managing your brand's public reputation, your direct booking pipeline, your competitive positioning, and your guest relationships — all at once, all in public, all in real time. That deserves a strategy, a budget, proper training, and leadership support.
The properties that figure this out first won't just have better social media. They'll have better commercial results, lower OTA dependency, stronger brands, and teams that actually stay.
This is why we built HoSS
The Hospitality Social Media Summit exists because hospitality social media professionals deserve better. Better training. Better frameworks. Better tools. And a community of peers who understand exactly what the job requires.
At HoSS 2026, your team member won't just learn — they'll build. A bespoke strategy for your property. A 90-day execution plan. A KPI dashboard tied to the metrics your leadership cares about. And six months of post-event support through the HoSS Digital Hub — so they're never doing it alone again.
If you're a GM or marketing director reading this: sending your social media manager to HoSS is one of the highest-ROI investments you can make this year. Not because they need fixing — but because they need the support your organisation hasn't provided yet.
If you're a social media manager reading this: you're not imagining it. The role is harder than it should be. And there's a room full of people in London in September who know exactly what you're dealing with.
The Hospitality Social Media Summit takes place September 3–4, 2026 in London
Places are limited to ensure every attendee receives personalised strategy attention.
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