With more than 12.2 million members on Facebook – that’s a 47% penetration of its population – Malaysia is no laggard when it comes to embracing social media. Currently ranked at 17th place among Facebook countries, it is seeing fast growth – in the last month alone, numbers jumped by almost half a million (according to Social Bakers).

Malaysians are also active creators of content, going by the active blogging scene that characterises in particular the poltiical scene. And when you consider how successful AirAsia has been in leveraging social networks to sell air seats to Malaysians, well, it is no surprise that hotels in the country are also jumping onto the social media bandwagon to get their messages out in front of customers.

And these hoteliers are doing exactly what Henry Mason, trendwatching.com’s director of research and analysis, said at the opening session of Social Media Week in Singapore that “social media is about customers, not brands”.

They create rapport with their fans through online “conversations”, update them on the hotels’ services, latest happenings and special events. To increase fan base, they also offer discounts for room stays or vouchers at F&B outlets for “liking” them.

Guests like this “personal” touch and being able to deal directly with hotels on queries or just to keep updated on their activities.

Three hotels have seen positive results from such an approach and here, they share their stories.

Grand Millennium Kuala Lumpur

Grand Millennium Kuala Lumpur recently literally “shouted” in glee as its Facebook followers on its four (Facebook) pages reached a whopping 30,000 fans, a new all time record, as well as a new social media benchmark for the city’s hospitality industry (top picture).

What is unique in Grand Millennium’s Facebook strategy is that each of the page features a unique and individual conversation with a welcome gift for its fans.

• The Mill Café:  Hotel’s first Facebook page to reached 10,000 fans in less than a year; converse in foodies passion for good food and the highly sought seafood buffet dinner.
• Lai Ching Yuen:  Completed the Chinese restaurant launch with dim sum class sweepstakes last December, boasts a 10,000% growth in less than three months to over 15,000 fans. The page converse in diners’ passion about dim sum and they also receive tips from the chefs. http://facebook.com/laichingyuen
• Pulse Ultra Club: Recently re-launched the fan page with interactive welcome tab, as well as “Hot Candy” photo contest with total prize worth of RM10,000. http://facebook.com/pulsekl
• Grand Millennium Kuala Lumpur:  Currently working to install the page booking engine, as well as other features that will be available in the coming months. http://facebook.com/grandmillenniumkl

In explaining the hotel’s huge fan base, Grand Millennium’s general manager, Melvin Lim (pictured right) said the hotel understands the value of customer engagement and Facebook is the best platform to do so.

“We spent a lot of time testing on how to build a strong community relation, as well as building a brand conversation platform.”

The hotel is also using Twitter to expand its engagement with its guest through its handle, @Klconcierge.

“As the name implies we want to position ourselves as the concierge that provide visitors to Kuala Lumpur with local information, whether it is from the best nasi lemak (local rice and curry dish)  to travel arrangements that a concierge provides in a hotel,” said Lim.

Millennium Kuala Lumpur is also on TripAdvisor and works with the latter’s team to develop partnership, attend its online training and explore its latest community tool

“Through such target approach, rather than bombarding with constant promotion the hotel is reaping rewards through increased occupancy and healthy patronage at its F&B outlets,” said Lim.

Holiday Villa Hotels and Resorts

Malaysian-born and bred hotel chain, Holiday Villa Hotels and Resorts, is also seeing positive results from leveraging on social media, specifically Facebook, despite actively using it only a year ago.

The hotel group, which just celebrated its 25th anniversary, has a corporate Facebook page, as well as one for each of its 25 hotels and resorts spread out in 10 countries – Malaysia, Cambodia, China, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Qatar, Sudan, U.K. and France.

Kenneth de Silva, Holiday Villa’s general manager business development & special projects (pictured left), said the corporate page has about 2,800 fans, while the individual hotels has an average of 300 fans each.

“For the corporate page we do a lot of interaction with our fans. Besides updating our F&B and room promotion we also run competition, quizzes, provide pertinent information about the destination where Holiday Villa hotels are located and sometimes just random and trivial questions,” he said.

Holiday Villa also has a Twitter account, which compliments the Facebook page.

“As these two are the most popular social media channels we update the same contents on Twitter as we do Facebook,” explained de Silva.

The hotel group also offer special rates or discounts exclusively for its Facebook fans and Twitter followers on occasions like the MATTA Travel Fair and Holiday Villa Bridal Fair.

De Silva said a valuable part of using social media to engage with their guests allow them to know what their customers are talking about in relation to their hotels.

“We hear their grievances and their compliments and this helps us to improve our services and products. At the same time we are creating customer loyalty and our brand is reaching to places in the Middle East, Europe and USA.”

Future plans is to install a page booking engine into the fan pages so guests can book for rooms and services directly without having to go to the hotel’s website.

The Royale Chulan Kuala Lumpur

The Royale Chulan Kuala Lumpur, part of the Malaysian hotel chain – The Royale Bintang-Hotels Resorts Group – went straight into social media to engage with its guests when it started operations in 2009.

As with most hotel groups it maintains one FaceBook fan page for every hotel property, as well as a corporate page, uploading all information on their facilities like rooms, restaurants and events.

The Royale Chulan Facebook page currently has almost 1,900 fans, and the numbers are increasing.

“We are carrying out activities to boost the numbers, like talking to our guests and giving them the latest updates on the hotel and its outlets. We also reward our fans with special promotions for the hotel/F&B outlets and gifts for ‘liking’ the fan page,” said Franz Swoboda, Royale Chulan’s general manager (pictured left).

The hotel also has a Twitter account, as well as a YouTube channel.

“We make sure that the three (FaceBook,Twitter, YouTube) are integrated and directed to one another accordingly.”

Swoboda added that success of using these social media channels was not just measured by increase in business, but also by improved communications with its guests.

“We are able to interact directly with our guests and provide instant responses to their feedback and inquiries.”

On plans to install a page booking engine into the fan page, Swoboda said it would be done the hotel’s website is revamped. “Guests then can access the reservation booking engine from the FaceBook page.”

He revealed that the hotel would soon have specific pages in TripAdvisor for all the hotel’s F&B outlets as restaurants are also reviewed.

“We are also in the midst of revamping our current website to compliment the use of social media. It will be ready later this month (February).”