Resort seeks social media-savvy guest to check in for 2 months – Related Stories – AH&LA SmartBrief
“As hotels increasingly put social-media experts on staff to uphold their online reputations and communications, one historic New Hampshire hotel is taking things a step further by recruiting what it calls an “Inn-Bedded Resorter.” The Balsams Grand Resort Hotel in Dixville, N.H., is hiring a savvy social-media guest to check in for the summer, get paid $2,500 and chronicle life at the hotel on sites such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.”
Boston Herald | 06/07
This story published in AH&LA SmartBrief on 06/08/2010 
Social Sites™ likes creativity and innovation, even if it sounds a whole lot like a scaled down version of “Best Job in the World.” But we have to wonder whether the Return on Investment actualizes itself when it comes to long term, sustainable results. Let’s assume they select a local for the job (since we can’t calculate airfare from somewhere-out-there to New Hampshire). There is a cash stipend of $2500.00 and they will be taking a room out of inventory for two months. Based on published rates from July 1 through August 31, that equates to an additional $18,898.00 in room revenue for a total of $21,398.00…yowza! The hotel’s ADR is somewhere around $300. That means they will need to book more than 70 rooms to recoup their costs/loss. No doubt there will be an initial surge of interest but certainly it will wane as the novelty wears off and the short term “guest” returns home, leaving the hotel without an ongoing social media strategy. Social media, like traditional sales and marketing, requires building loyalty and relationships over time, often years. Our suggestion for hotels thinking of launching a media effort such as this…do the math and consult your business plan before taking the plunge to make sure the investment makes good sense.
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howardhian
carolwrites
Ok, you caught us, it’s a gimmick. We’re trying to provide an intern with a grand summer, a great experience and decent pay and befits while in return, they use their talents to help promote The Balsams Grand Resort Hotel in New Hampshire.
Full disclosure. I’m the President of BackboneMedia.com and ReadGeneration.com part of the team that created the Inn-Bedded Resorter strategy and the blog. I wish that I could write a short comment to this but unfortunately I’m a long winded blogger.
Read my entire post here…
http://www.readgeneration.com/are-gimmicks-are-good-for-short-term-and-long-term-returns
Stephen, glad to know you and we most appreciate your comments….well said!! All our best to you and your campaign. BTW, we’re long winded bloggers too
-Social Sites
Thank you for sparking the post. You really helped me out. Since we had launched this campaign last week, our team had been blogging about it on the Balsams’s blog http://thebalsams.com/blog/ and tweeting about it, but I did not get the chance to talk about the campaign from a marketer’s perspective.
You have flipped us from skeptics to fans squarely grounded in your court. We will follow your progress with support and interest. Best of luck to you and the Balsams and keep having fun…your enthusiasm shows and will no doubt resonate with consumers.