in-house or outsourced social media for a seasonal venue
by Joseph Herbinet
A salary and an agency fee don't pay for the same thing. What really separates the two options for a hotel, a beach restaurant or a chalet open part of the year.
the real question isn't cost
A venue manager torn between hiring a community manager and handing the accounts to an agency usually compares two budget lines. It's the wrong comparison. A salary and an agency fee don't pay for the same thing, and the difference only shows at the end of a season.
We manage about eighty Instagram accounts across Saint-Tropez, its gulf, Courchevel and Megève. The question comes back every autumn, when budgets are decided. Here is what we have learned from answering it dozens of times, including when the right answer was to bring it in-house.
what makes a seasonal venue different
A hotel open from March to October, a beach restaurant open from May to September, a chalet open from December to April: none of them needs the same workload twelve months a year. The workload isn't just heavier in season, it's of a different kind.
In season, the work is production and responsiveness: shooting on site, quick editing, posting the same evening, replying to messages within the hour. Off-season, the work is preparation and strategy: art direction for next season, planning shoots, reworking the editorial line, analysing what worked. Two different jobs, rarely held by the same person.
That mismatch is what makes the decision hard. A full-time position is sized on the yearly average: too small in July, too big in February.
the real costs of going in-house
The salary is only the starting point. Add social charges, equipment, software licences, recruitment time, supervision time, and above all the cost of vacancy: the month when the person leaves and the accounts slow down.
Two costs are always forgotten. The first is training: a community manager new to luxury hospitality takes a season to learn its codes, and that season, your accounts are the training ground. The second is housing, which in Saint-Tropez or Courchevel can be more than the difference between the two options.
Going in-house makes sense above a certain volume: several venues under one brand, photo and video production that justifies a dedicated year-round role, a marketing department already in place to supervise. Below that, the position is structurally under-used part of the year.
what outsourcing really buys
An agency doesn't sell hours of posting. What a good one brings comes down to three things.
The first is elasticity. The workload follows the season without you hiring in April and parting ways in October.
The second is a comparative view. An agency following dozens of comparable venues immediately sees what works elsewhere. A community manager alone in one venue only has their own results as a benchmark.
The third is continuity. A team absorbs a departure; a single position doesn't. On an account that drives part of your direct sales, an interruption costs more than it seems.
On the other hand, outsourcing moves production away from the floor. An agency that isn't physically present in season produces generic content, and it shows.
the mixed model, often the right one
In practice, the strongest set-up is neither. An internal contact, often someone already on the team, captures the raw material every day: what's happening on the floor, the dish the chef has just finished, the 7 p.m. light on the terrace. The agency handles art direction, editing, editorial line, publishing and steering.
This split works because it puts each skill where it is scarce. Daily presence can't be delegated. Aesthetic judgement and market knowledge can't be improvised.
five questions to decide
How many venues are involved? One leans towards outsourcing, a group towards a supervised in-house role.
How wide is the gap between the busiest and the quietest month? The wider it is, the more dead time going in-house costs.
Who, internally, will supervise this person? Without a clear answer, the role drifts into execution without direction.
Is photo and video production a permanent or a seasonal need? Permanent, it justifies a position. Seasonal, it justifies a contractor.
Does the account contribute to direct bookings? If so, continuity matters more than savings.
what we say when the answer is “go in-house”
It is, more often than you'd expect from an agency. A group of five venues with a structured marketing department is better off bringing its daily production in-house and keeping the agency only for art direction and seasonal peaks. Saying so costs a contract in the short term and wins better ones later.
