ABSTRACT
COVID-19 has spurred online marketing across sectors while the hotel industry is not an exception. Hoteliers are increasingly reliant on social media to promote and sell their rooms while social media influencer marketing prevails. To maximize their return on high investment on influencer marketing, marketers need to choose the right person. As limited implications can be drawn from the existing literature, this study adds knowledge to the scholarship by unveiling consumers' views on an influencer who is suitable for hotels and whom they are willing to take the advice. By conducting ten in-depth interviews, we revealed that hotel consumers expect the social media influencer to be physically appealing, experienced in travelling, having numerous followers, proficient in photography, able to suggest unique attractions in the property, good at providing discount information, and unbiased in his/her recommendations. The findings not only provide useful implications for hoteliers who want to pursue influencer marketing on social media, but also pave the knowledge ground for future research to investigate this marketing trend.