The aim of the study is to investigate the most effective ways that social media marketing can be applied to ensure customer loyalty management in the hotel industry, as well as features, benefits, and methods of these strategies. The aim is to create appropriate guidelines for the case company to build social bonds with customers that will positively impact on maintaining communication and retention. The data for this study were collected from several sources, such as articles, books, journals and semi-structured interviews. The customer retention process is examined based on workplace experience. The qualitative research method was selected for acquiring in depth data from the manager, who has long experience of the company, for the formulation of recommendations. The results of the study revealed the significance of social media marketing in hotel management in kiwi society. A comparison of earlier and more recent studies on customer retention helped in the investigation of effective strategic approaches that successfully work nowadays. Together with the analysis of the organisations that played the role of examples in the author’s case study, a set of general guidelines were elaborated for restaurants that disclose some hidden opportunities for social media sites for an improved application of customer retention techniques.