With the recent integration of Starwood Hotel properties with Instagram, guest pictures will now be displayed under "Guest Gallery" section in all property sites.
The hotel group claims that its guests across 1,150 properties share about 40,000 photos per month on Instagram.
Starwood is using these masses of user generated content to display across its portfolio of websites, in addition to the "Photos" and "Videos" sections already used on the the sites.
Each Instagram picture under the Guest Gallery section retains the Instagram username, date of picture, and comments.
Starwood says:
"From unique hotel amenities to eye-catching local sites, the enhanced Guest Galleries from Instagram offer a fun, new way for travelers to explore their next Starwood destination – all from the perspective of fellow guests."
With a tremendous increase in mobile traffic to its branded websites, Starwood expects user generated content like its Guest Gallery pages will continue to change how guests book travel, explore and interact with its hotels.
A lot of activity has happened in the Instagram (travel) world in 2013, including:
- Today, Instagram announced the list of top 10 Instagrammed locations (Thailand retains the top spot this year too) and cities.
- Yesterday, Instagram launched Instagram Direct feature that allows users to share picture in private (a similar feature that exists in SnapChat).
- Australia's 1888 Hotel that is designed with Instagram pictures and offers a free stay for Instagram users with 10,000 followers - The Instagram Hotel.
- Top 10 best usages of Instagram by Airlines
- Australia's Hamilton Island promoted the destination by conducting an Instagram competition that called for pictures that best represented a holiday
A recent
study by Piper Jaffray among 8,500+ teens concluded that the next generation travellers are leaving Facebook and turning towards Instagram and Twitter.
Now, how many still wonder the eyebrow-raising $1 Billion price that Facebook paid for Instagram?
NB: Instagram user image via Shutterstock.