Contest Ideas for the Hospitality/Spa Industry

More and more hotels recognise the importance of a spa in their line of services, and the presence of a spa in a hotel can serve as an argument in favor of charging a higher price. That’s why owners seek out creative hospitality/spa contest ideas from event organisers and marketers to promote their offerings and engage their audience.

About the hospitality industry

The hospitality industry is a concept linking many diverse forms of entrepreneurship specialised in the market related to the reception and service of guests. The hospitality industry is aimed at creating a positive experience to attract tourists, vacationers, travelers, and industry leaders for cooperation. It also provides equipment for restaurants, furniture and design solutions for hotel decoration, table cloths, and other items. With the advent of the Internet, it became possible to develop many creative hospitality/spa competition ideas to attract even more of an audience to the industry.

Challenges, the features of the industry

Here are few management challenges in the hospitality industry that you may face while organising promotion activities:

• Constantly changing expectations of customers
• Continued technological changes and regular innovations
• Political and security challenges
• Skilled labor shortage
• Staff turnover and irregular working hours
• Booking and revenue challenges

Hotel/spa brands are starting to better understand their target audience and the importance of the guest experience to their success, but few hotel contest ideas come out each year. That’s where contest management solutions can come in handy and lead to immediate results.

The target audience of the industry

The target audience of the hospitality industry and the industry’s related events will more likely be top management and hotel/spa/restaurant/guest house owners, their HR directors, financial directors, and managers. Hospitality committees and other organisations seek the format of business breakfasts and round tables. Hotel owners and managers, representatives of international hotel chains, hoteliers, investors, and other related industry specialists will be particularly interested in spa contest ideas and other events for promotion and engaging new customers with what they do.

Reasons for running contests

Since the style of interaction between hotels and spas with their customers is constantly changing, hospitality contest ideas will be a breath of fresh air in your marketing and business promotion.

What was initially just a simple add-on service, the idea of a spa grew into an independent business in terms of business volume and turnover, customer impact, and importance to the hotel. That’s why spa contest ideas are also highly sought after among spa proprietors.

There are various types of contests you can use. Sometimes it is simply a means to have fun, while other times, it is a serious event with serious rewards. A competition can be part of an advertising campaign or the entire basis of a complex business process. We believe that there are 4 main motives for holding contests:

• To attract the attention of the target audience to your product, brand, or company
• Involve the audience in communication
• Find people and ideas
• Make a decision

Social media contest ideas for hotel and spa companies will cover them all. With their help, hospitality managers will be able to attract and entertain their audience as well as study their behavior and preferences. To draw attention to their customers and their products, they should choose creative hospitality contest ideas.

Running a contest for the hospitality/spa industry

The best industry processes and practices incorporate a complex approach to changing an industry that attracts more of an audience with incredible spa giveaway ideas.

Architects and designers often cooperate with spa consultants in order to create unique solutions for spa complexes, which attract media outlets and effectively boost the PR of hotels via social media contests.

Spa management is becoming a popular profession, and prestigious educational institutions now include this course of study in their programs, which also contributes to industry promotion. Finally, in recent years, systematic marketing research of the spa market has appeared, which has made it possible to measure the serious progress of this area in numbers via creative events and contest ideas.

Types of contests

The following contest types can be applied in the hospitality industry:

• Photo contest
• Instagram hashtag contest
• Essay contest
• Blog contest

• Video contest

To discover more about all the contest types that can be organised and managed on the Judgify platform, you can look at our Solutions section:

• By event type
• By role
• By industry

You may also discover some useful information about contest types, contest prize ideas, trophies, international contests and how to promote them, and more from our blog.

Contest requirements

No matter what contest you run—social media, Youtube, or charity/giveaway—it should align with certain contest requirements that are clearly stated in your terms & conditions and written on the contest page from the very beginning of its launch.

• A contest is a campaign in which effort, skill, or merit is required to enter to win a prize.
• Require people to upload a photo or video in order to enter.
• The winner is determined by voting or other judging criteria.
• The element of chance must not exist in a web contest.
• Rules, eligibility guidelines, entry guidelines, and prizes should be provided to contestants; include all this in the fine print.
• An adult aged 18 or over must submit contest entries on behalf of the entrant.
• If there are endorsements required, they should be provided accordingly.
• To select a random winner, use special tools.

In general, requirements may vary based on the contest type, specifics, and the area of conduct. Remember that according to the official social media rules, when conducting contests in the chronicles of pages, you cannot ask users to become fans of the page in order to be able to participate in the competition.

Best contest and giveaway ideas for the hospitality/spa industry

To participate in the contest, we can ask users to like the publication, leave a comment, submit a video or something else, or combine a variety of methods. You may also choose from a variety of channels, such as YouTube, Instagram, personal blog, your contest landing page, or other features.

Use your imagination and don’t be afraid to experiment. In this way, you will achieve excellent results and provide your contestants and potential customers with fresh and creative contest ideas.

Selfie contests

Photo contests involving local attractions or landmarks are, of course, one of the most interesting and creative ideas and usually stimulate good engagement from users. As we all know, visual content attracts the most attention, as it is easier for our brains to digest it, so users tend to like it more.

Essay  contests

The idea of such a competition is a bit like a photo contest, but here you will have to show more abilities and talents. Users can be asked to write a poem, an essay about their experience using the brand, a piece of visual art (created with their own hands or on a computer), or something else entirely.

Crowd contest

Through this type of competition, a brand or company transfers some of its functions to users. For example, we can ask users to choose a color for a new product, select the ingredients of a new dish or create an entirely new one, think up the original name of a service, etc.

Slogan contest

Another effective and exciting way to attract the attention of Facebook users is through messaging contests.  In order to take part in the competition, the user must come up with a name, slogan, dialogue, etc. and put it on the photo published on the page. You should try to partner with a restaurant, spa, or theater in your area to get the best contest results.

Prizes ideas

Apart from contest ideas, you should also come up with useful prizes to motivate your contest participants. Here are some of the most popular incentives for hotel/spa/resort guests:

• A free upgrade to your President’s Suite (or equivalent)
• Give away a dozen deep tissue/Thai massages
• “Girls Weekend” spa day giveaways

• A 2-night stay for 2 at your hotel, spa, or resort
• A romantic dinner at the restaurant in your hotel
• A hotel package including flights, car rental, day trips/adventures, and more
• A holiday-related stay for the family or a couple’s getaway

• A spa gift package of products, such as lotions, scrubs, nail polish, etc.

For more great contest and prize ideas, feel free to contact us and get some professional ideas with our helpful contest marketing tools.

How to identify your contest idea and then run with it

After studying good examples of contests in the realm of hospitality, you will be able to decide on your best idea that will really work. With the right approach, a good contest helps to significantly increase user engagement index and engage new fans of your spa, hotel, resort, or beauty parlour.

To spark your imagination and inspire you to create your own Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, or any other contest promotions, feel free to contact the contest management professionals.

Conclusion

If you want to develop the most modern concept for a spa center promotion in your hotel and increase their access to salt caves, infrared saunas, hammam, hot bamboo massage, candle wax massage, wellness trainers, pain-relieving massage, cosmetology lights, other therapy or fitness the quest of happiness, self-knowledge, and so much more, use recreation contest ideas and our public voting software in your hospitality business.  

Feel free to ask for help any time. Good luck on finding your success!