Hotel Blogs - When Hotel Marketing gets Social

5 Internet companies that count for me back in 1998

I started to use the Internet for the first time, back at University in 1998 at ESSEC/IMHI School near Paris.

Now, at that time, you didn't have all the publicity around which websites you should go to and where to start. But I remember very well the services I used for specific queries.

Search Engine
in 1998: Dogpile
Today: mostly Google

Hotel Booking Website
in 1998: HRN (which became Hotels.com later on)
Today: too many too mention

Instant Messaging
in 1998: ICQ
Today: Skype or MSN Messenger

News Aggregator
in 1998: Net2One
Today: Netvibes

Email
in 1998: Essec university email (like 4543543tge@edu.essec.fr)
Today: Gmail mainly

What about YOU?

(HRN Homepage in 1998)               (ICQ Homepage in 1998)

The Milestone Hotel embraces Web 2.0

I am always looking for typical examples of how hotels have integrated web 2.0 tools in their B2C websites to disclose a bit more about what their hotel is a about.

The luxury hotel in London (a real 5 stars hotel!) The Milestone Hotel has added RSS feeds on its press section in order to get updates from the hotel and the hotel group Red Carnation. The site also explains very simply how to use RSS what is it for. Another step forward web 2.0 is the inclusion of podcasts with interviews from the general manager, the Food & Beverages manager or the hotel's butler. Quality of the podcasts is really good and the timing not too short and not too long. You could see that this hotel has really thought this through.

Did I tell you that the Milestone has one of the most exquisite tea time brunch in the city. in the winter, I enjoy spending a couple of hours with friends by the chimney on a Sunday afternoon in their library room.

Technorati Tags: milestones hotel, red carnation, travel 2.0, web 2.0, podcasts

Accor is getting into social networking

SuiteHotel - one of the Accor hotel brands - has launched the social networking NomadSphere. The website has been designed for new nomads who spend a  lot of  nights outside their home. The community has about 30 pages of registered members. Not bad after 15 days...More info here.

This initiative has been created by the agency Agence Clark.

Is it clean? I'd like to know before I get there.

You'd like to think that any hotel rated with even one star has at least passed the basic clean test. By that I mean that the linens were changed since the last guest, the bathroom has been cleaned and the towels are fresh. Beyond that, I would like to think that the higher the rating, the cleaner the hotel. But that is not always the case.

Elizabeth's Experience in Dallas

A 24-year-old friend of mine booked a hotel through a popular online low-fare travel site. The hotel had 2 stars and was inexpensive (about $71). Upon arrival, she found her room to be dirty, still not cleaned from previous guests. She asked the desk clerk for a different room. No problem, the clerk said. But Elizabeth's second room was even worse. Her room had not seen a thorough cleaning in months and certainly not even a cursory cleaning since the last guest. The bathroom harbored countless health issues starting with vomit on the toilet and floor. The tub had mold and was quite stained. Countertop was dirty. Dresser was sticky. The bedspread hid the visibly used linen beneath. Her list of filth went on and on, supported by digital photos that she took before leaving.

Two Hotel Bills for the Same Trip

Elizabeth could not stay there another minute. She checked into another hotel. But now she had two hotel bills for each night of the trip. She has been unsuccessful in contacting the booking site. She is now disputing the payment through her credit card company.

How Can Inexperienced Travelers Avoid a Hotel Nightmare?

• Visit the Hotel's Own Website. A start, but not always reliable. Elizabeth did check the hotel's site. It sounded just okay. The pictures were mostly of the Dallas skyline.
• Look at Prevailing Room Rates on the Hotel's Site. How do rates compare to the discount site? This hotel listed its regular rates quite a bit higher, giving the impression it was a more deluxe hotel.
• Hotel Description Might Be a Clue. This hotel's description focused on its close proximity to a convention center and hundreds of restaurants but not on its own amenities. Like the photos, the description was vague. And, upon arrival, Elizabeth found the neighborhood was indeed close to  the convention center, but in a very rundown area with vagrants milling about.
• Don'tt Go By an Impressive Name. Don't make the mistake of associating a luxurious-sounding name with quality. Ritz, plaza and other similar copycat names are just putting on the ritz!
• Check Reviews. Don't skip this step. Read all customer reviews provided on the travel site. Reviews were mixed for this hotel, most not good. But Elizabeth never read them before booking.
• Check TripAdvisor.com. This site offers forums on various cities. Tap into the city forum you need, search for hotel opinions. Or ask your own questions and someone will answer. It is a very active forum and my experience with recommendations there has been positive.
• How to Get a Refund. Internet commentary seems to say that it is very difficult to get online travel sites to respond. Elizabeth can dispute the charge through her credit card company. Beyond that, she can check with the hotel itself, even though she purchased through an online service. With the complaints she had about this hotel (accompanied by her photos), she can contact the Board of Health, Convention Bureau, Better Business Bureau and the Chamber of Commerce. She can also share her experience on TripAdvisor.com and other similar travel sites that accept comments.
• Do Your Homework Before You Book. Traveling on a tight budget doesn’t mean you have to give up basic cleanliness. But choosing a 1 or 2 star hotel may require closer scrutiny.
• Don't Count on Stars. Three major online discount sites rated this hotel with 1 or 2 stars. Only one major site did not list this hotel. Doesn't anybody check on the hotels they sell to unwary travelers?

Without a personal recommendation, choosing a hotel can be a gamble. I recently discovered a customer-focused online site that actually visits its Quikpick recommended hotels. Plus it does not require prepayment, permits cancellations and is very competitive with the other sites. You'll find it on my regular blog, along with additional information about the hotel rating systems.

Tish (Guest Blogger)

Travels with Tish -- Girlfriends' Getaway Guide

Next: More about hotel rating systems

The best non American websites to watch...

The magazine Business 2.0 has listed 31 new online companies outside the US which are worth to watch for the moment. Each venture has a dedicated page to capture a snapshot of what the business model is about, the CEO name and the funding.

On the travel side, I am glad to see that 2 exciting companies have made the list:

* Trivop
* Bezurk

You can also view on the Google maps where the start ups are located.

Technorati Tags: business 2.0, trivop, bezurk

The dotcom returns on Channel 4...

I have missed that video which is an extract of the news edition of Channel 4 (a TV channel in the UK) end of April. You can hear Brent Hoberman - founder of Lasminute saying it's easier to make profits on Internet in 2007 that it was in 1999 and VCs like Index Ventures talking about the return of the dotcom euphoria. I like the background music of Prince with his famous "1999" song...

HotelClub Awards 2007 - London

Last night, I have attended the Best Hotels in Great Britain and Ireland Hotel Awards 2007 brought by HotelClub. A good 300 attendees came of the evening event which took place in Vinopolis near by the Tate Modern in London. The venue was really a wise choice. A lot of space, many corridors and a fantastic function room with a stage to announce the winners of this year.

I have made a video of the awards ceremony which will be published this weekend.

Before I publish the video, just a preview of who won the Three Best Hotels in Great Britain and Ireland:

The Dorchester, London, England
Gresham Hotel, Dublin, Ireland
Radisson SAS Hotel & Spa, Galway, Ireland

The show was presented by Ben Fogle - a British travel writer and TVpresenter and adventurer and a former actress from the TV show Home & Away (if someone has her name please let me know...)

The 2nd part of the evening was about networking with the attendees. I have much pleasure to meet and talk to people who work at HotelClub, Orbitz Worldwide, eBookers, Galileo and other hotel related companies such as Pegasus, TripAdvisor, Hilton, IHG.

Finally, a big thank you to Chloe Lim - Managing Director of FlairviewTravel (HotelClub/Rates2Go/Asia Hotels) who accepted to have a video interview with me before the event. This interview will be published next week.

   

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Technorati Tags: hotelclub awards, hotel awards, vinopolis, chloe lim, ben fogle, flairview travel, travelport

I am still intrigued by this...

Habbo Hotel is one of the leading online game alongside World of Warcraft and Second Life. I am still puzzle about the whole thing. But apparently growth is still there in terms of users.

Facts taken from their parent company Sulake:

"Habbo has already over 76 million registered avatars. Currently operating in 29 countries, the Habbo communities are visited by 7 million users per month, each user spending an average of over 30 minutes per session in the virtual world and community." that's a lot of people to target for advertisers...

HEDNA conference - my summary of the event...

 

After a slightly delayed flight to Dublin from Stansted with RyanAir, I arrived at my hotel - the Pembroke TownHouse - at 1.30am on Monday morning after waiting almost 1/2 hour at the airport for a taxi.

The HEDNA conference started at 8.30am at the Burlington Hotel. The hotel is part of Jurys Doyle – which will be demolished in a couple of weeks (that’s what I heard anyway)

That was my second attendance to this European conference. My first conference was in Barcelona in 2004.

Day 1 started with an hour long presentation of Jeoff Ramsey from eMarketer.com who presented too many a lot of statistics about the audience perception of the different new things who came out in Web 2.0. That where I have learned that among US top online travel executive (who are they?), 40%  of them said that blogs will have the least impact on the travel industry…

There were so many charts and slides that I can’t remember other relevant information. Besides saying that all Internet measurement companies have different figures. I was disappointed to hear too many sources coming from the US and not enough from Europe. But this is not the first time. The conference about the European Podcasting summit had the same issue.

The GDS debate was another highlight of the day where hoteliers, travel agents and the 4 GDSs (Amadeus, Galileo, Sabre and Worldspan) could confront their ideas/problems. There is unfortunately always this same issue about rates loading and the complexity of updating or creating rates codes and so on. Where hotel chains might be more educated and trained, independent hotels seem to struggle on how to optimise their rates on the GDS distribution.

Something rather amusing is that moderator Dr. Lalia Rach from New York University started to show a first slide with the White and Blue GDS screen where you see all codes that TAs have to enter. But quickly after, she showed that GDSs have moved away from their archaic way of making a hotel booking by implementing a comprehensive graphical interface for the new travel agents generation.

Now, there was this question about why some agents are not switching to the graphical interface. They say it’s quicker this way…

The evening/dinner was organized at the Guinness StoreHouse where we did have a tour of the plant and were invited at the top of the building to have a meal and have quite a few of pint of Guinness. The top floor was a all open glass windows bar where you could see all Dublin in a clear sky. An absolutely fantastic view…

Day 2 started in the morning with 2 comitees. One on the Credit Cards issues and the other one Tour Operators.

In the afternoon, the anticipated panel was featuring top executives from Lastminute, Flairview Travel, Google, TripAdvisor who discussed about this fascinating topic “Search”.

I didn’t think that the debate was bringing anything new under the sun. The debate was slighted diverted to the topic of hotel reviews were FlairView, Lastminute and TripAdvisor were exchanging their initiative regarding User Generated Content. I start to think that incentivising consumers to review hotels (or anything else) would be required in the near future (I will write an article about it on a future post to explain my reasons).

Finally, I have listened to the last speaker named Daniel Levine from Avant-Guide.com who gave the “five cultural trends that will propel hotel electronic distribution into the next decade”. That was for the best presentation given during those 2 days. Plenty of relevant examples inside and outside the industry. I was also very pleased to see Daniel mentioning on his PowerPoint presentation the Trivop.com project alongside innovative online hospitality initiatives.

I think this event is much valuable by the the networking opportunities it offers and the long list of attendees - more than 300 - specialised in the hotel electronic distribution industry.

So very good event indeed and I am looking forward to attending the next one.

Technorati Tags: HEDNA, HEDNA conference Dublin, conference, hotels, hotel, hedna

 

Netvibes explained by its founder...

As most of you know, I am a big fan of Netvibes, a leading RSS / News aggregator. Thanks to Loic, you can watch how Tariq Krim - founder of Netvibes - came with this idea here.