This Week In Hotels #10 (Translation options, Facebook Places, and more)

[Prefer to listen? Download the mp3 recording here]

If you want to jump to a specific point in the conversation, here are the topics:

2:45 – Should you offer free wifi? (We debate the issue)

5:00 – Could offering free wifi improve your online reputation?

5:45 – Which is better: free, slow wifi or fast & paid?

8:45 – Hotels – tell us what your Internet costs are

13:00 – Some research on what amenities guests want most

15:00 – An interesting case study from Ritz Carlton on Twitter

18:30 – This example is just a logical extension of the core values held at Ritz Carlton

20:10 – Case study of hotel pre-opening, where all employees began blogging

22:45 – Question: how to handle construction and avoid disappointed guests?

26:00 – Opening a hotel during construction all at once vs. a gradual opening

This Week in Hotels, Episode 10 from Josiah Mackenzie on Vimeo.

Comments

[Abhishek Khulbe]

if u want to visit India...u must visit BINSAR..awesome hill station
http://www.imperialheightsbinsar.com/
and this hotel is the best one there..good food, good service and peaceful environment..

[Russell Imrie]

As a Best Western owner (and an owner representative within the global Best Western brand)I'm happy to share my experience of free WiFi at Best Western Hotels and to answer Guillaume's question. Over 2 years ago it was clear from commissioned research and customer feedback that chargeable WiFi created negative perceptions of the hotel. The opportunity was there for a global brand to be first to offer this service across all Best Western hotels worldwide. We had an opportunity to stand out from the crowd amongst mid-market hotels. The proposition was placed before hotel owners who voted for this brand standard to be adopted with a 1 year lead-in time. No financial assistance was offered to hotel owners. If free WiFi was not offered by 2008 then the hotel would be in default at its next annual quality assessment. Failure to comply would lead to termination from the brand. The free WiFi service is now offered by 100% of Best Western hotels worldwide. Our guests love it. I operate two hotels in Scotland and I know that my guests book me over other mid-market other brands because I offer free WiFi. I personaly stay in numerous hotels every year and only choose hotels which offer free WiFi. I also influence the selection of a major annual conference for over 400 delegates and we only select a hotel which offers free WiFi.

Russell Imrie

[Paul White]

Hey thanks for the mention guys! This Week in Bed - new episode is here by the way:

http://bedandbreakfastclub.co.uk/this-week-in-bed-episode-2-paying-for-toilet

(plug type - blatant and unapologetic)

Lots of stuff talked about this week...

Wi Fi should be free - absolutely no question. The reason it isn't - because people keep paying for it - generally business travellers who don't care because 'the company is paying'. Wrong.

Construction should always be talked about and guests should always be told about it - again, no debate.

It should be done in a way to limit the number of cancellations but hotels should expect not to be running at a high occupancy when doing construction work.

I agreed that 40% off for construction work should be offered. Josiah's point that reviews hang around for years is extremely valid.
Reviews are so important that by not telling people about construction you could completely ruin the business.