Hraba Hospitality Consulting

TRIP ADVISOR isn’t always making inn owners happy.

I had posted this link before.  I think it is interesting that an inert marketing piece on how to deal with online CRM issues garnered responses that were relatively off topic (not about responding) by focusing on how much these 3 innkeepers dislike Trip Advisor.

I think of the situation where an innkeeper is angry, confused, and beleagured by these reviews, feeling zero recourse, searching the web for a chance to connect, lash out, or vent steam.  They find this helpful little blog and whammo… unleash their frustration against trip advisor.  I know it is a small sampling, and I know it is errant linking to a source that is “internet-y” at best.

But I cannot help but think many other innkeepers are frustrated or confounded by the inaccessibility or lack of connection they have with customers.

Someone on that blog said Trip Advisor does more harm than good.  Of course, that was spoken by an angry owner… so we recognize their humble opinion.  But I do think there are some fundemental flaws with Trip Advisor, to the point of being long term killers.

1) There is no way to verify the reviewer’s content as being true.  In fact, without getting myself in trouble, I can guarantee a couple of reviews to be fake.  There is zero oversight or process of veracity for these things.

2)  Ownership, management group, or property level employees understand part of the client population are disturbed, OCD, or any number of different traumatic offerings.  Hotels are public buildings, and they draw every sort of client: from domestic violence victims, suicide attempts, illicit affairs, dementia victims, medical conditions, etc.  Not saying this is a large part of the client base, but they exist.  The point is that emotional, fallible humans are the clients, and humans are sometimes impossible beasts.

We have all encountered the guests that were unwinnable, miserable, and downright bitter.  Sometimes, when you take into consideration all the emotional, mental, or physical conditions people can have, a hotel will not be able to please everyone, let alone accomodate them.

3) The real clincher:  It is in the best interests of the property manager or owner to have happy guests.  Hell, it is in the interest of the ownership to have great management, so the employees are genuinely happy.  That all goes back to the guest experience and bolsters the property’s brand image.

IE:  It is absolutely in the self interest of the hotel to be responsive and reactive to guest issues, complaints, and needs. I am not sure of the hotel that prides itself on arrogant non communication and total lack of willingness to listen to guests… but they won’t need Trip Advisor to help them shut down.  So what’s it good for then?

TripAdvisor negates the ability for the ownership to react on behalf of the property in lieu of a negative review.  It actually encourages ranting and raving rather than limits it.  The only ownership presence is a rather caddy, argumentative, and defensive arena of countering reviews (rather than being able to respond directly to reviewers).

In the end, I am starting to see deeply problematic Trip Advisor flaws; from lack of ownership accessibility who desire communication and positive brand building, to counter-intuitive response management theory.  The hotel not only wants a happy guest, they want a chance to resolve the situation as it happens.

Which brings me to my grudge:  What sort of human being takes time to drag a brand through the mud in revenge, retalitation or retribution?  Wouldn’t one prefer to be a happier person and acheive resolution as an issue happens, than wait for it to end and deal with it after nothing can be resolved?

The answer is no…. no they don’t.  Often, these are simply unhappy people, that feel locked into their mundane lives… feel powerfless and out of control.

They are miserable people, and nothing will change that.  If they were interested in less misery, they would deal with the issue at the time of the problem.

But not these people.  They want misery.  They court and hone it.  In fact, they are just waiting, from the moment of check in…. to get home and ease their meanigless existence with a joyful moment of glorious power…. as they click that single bubble on their …online… hotel…. review.

Maddening isn’t it?  And no recourse for ownership.  There needs to be a mediator or at least someone to approach.  I know most TA reviewers are kind people, just like every hotel owner isn’t a perfect guest loving altruist.

But most hotel owners want happy guests, and would like to be able to effectively resolve the situation as it happens.  It is my assumption that many of these negative one time or multiple negative reviewers are just those kind of people, and if it wasn’t your hotel it would be some other property.

So then…. how does a passive TA reader of reviews filter these shill or unfairly negative reviews?  And how to owners reach the guest individually without seeming defensive or rude?

These are some of the problems.  I could, obviously, ramble about these forever.  I will take the advice of my wall clock and realize it’s late.  =)

Marriott Mobile — generated more then $1.25 million in gross revenue in the first 100 days after introducing direct mobile Internet bookings.

Read the Hotel Mag Article

This is more of an attempt to get conversation started about tripadvisor.

I think it is obvious to respond and interact with guests on yelp. In fact, I think it is a valuable tool. Beyond dealing with unhappy clients, managing that as well as learning from them… you are allowed to connect with endorsers of your brand… thrilled clients that will help you spread the news about your message.

It is fantastic.

But I am still confused about tripadvisor, and how one might proceed most efficaciously. If I am completely mistaken, I will find out by being helped/schooled/*learned* in this public setting….

If I am not mistaken, instead of a direct correspondence with your previous guest you are actually just posting a public response. It seems dangerous, and could be useful, but feels more like a double edged sword.

I am sure I am missing something, but I would love other people’s thoughts on how to handle your hotel brand within tripadvisor as opposed to something like Yelp.

post here, or simply email me at michael@hrabaconsulting.com

Ever felt that the social media sites don’t cater to ownership or hotels at all?

Ever known that it wasn’t your fault, you want to explain yourself, and you want to lash out but because we are kind, nice humans we would actually never compromise our professionalism in any way….

but you need to scream?

Finally.

THE REGISTER OF BAD GUESTS.

wow.  funny.  scary.  wonderful.  and sad.

Ambivalence can be many emotions at once.

HHConsult?

Hraba Consulting?

Hraba Hotel Consult?

I don’t care what you call it…. but we have been here for years and begin anew today!

13 years in hotel operations

25 years of online experience

Here we go.

(actually I do care what  you call it.  =)

In regards to Mr. Kirby’s awesome TA article, talking about the ethics behind encouraging reviews.

http://www.hotelsmag.com/blog/1720000572/post/690036469.html#addcomments

My comments…
TA is markedly unpredictable and oft times quite strict with how it interprets it’s TOS. I think the problem here isn’t whether the line of ethics is crossed from our perspective… it is whether the line is crossed from a user / content generator’s perspective. Look at Yelp… when a business owner overextends himself they will turn on it. Worse than TA staff filtering your content and objecting to it are the TA reviewers revolting due to perceived unethical behaviour. You are correct that, by the book, this is ethical grey area. But it might not be worth risking your brand’s image or position right?

The old marketing model has been flipped upside down, and now people are trying to figure out how to reach consumers that *want* to be reached… branded consumers that want to identify with your brand, rather than ignore it dutifully with the endless visual and aural “spam” that litters every street we walk down, store we walk into, or sites that we surf. And it is in this that we find our best opportunity… consumers no longer want to be advertised to. However, they will endorse your brand in the interest of their personal identity… which is why Yelp has been such an incredible opportunity from a business end. Not only do I like to reach out and talk to the consumers, I like the challenge of rectifying bad situations! It is a personal mission for me to redefine “advertising and marketing” with being real and transparent to the guest. I want them to identify with my quirks, possible (yet unlikely) typos, and my individualistic approach at really responding to each consumer… knowing each consumer is much more amplified than a traditional non social site reviewer. Like it or not, the consumer is now easily tiered into multiple levels of VIPS, not unlike what hotels have done for years.

Initially, very few businesses took advantage of yelp. Then came the terror and panic…. Business owners realizing it was a force, almost a lobby, that they needed to address, which led to an amazing moment in yelp history of business owners lashing out and acting like defensive bullied playground kids. Then things starting calming down a bit. This is the point we rest at… a moment when more and more hotel (business) owners are becoming involved, not because they are worried about customer perception… but because they realize the tool this is, in a violently upset world of dying print media and traditional marketing tactics going awry. Finally, in a world where we are moving further apart and less connected to our clients…. We have a direct and professional way to approach them.

Yelp has gotten me to the point of actually knowing our clients. It has been enjoyable finding out about their families, preferences, suggestions, and complaints. Yelp has helped me to humanize my client base. And because of this…. The angriest yelpers became some of our most branded and loyal customers because we showed that we were engaged, earnest, and interested in improving our relationship, service, and brand.

So Jim wanted a simple testimonial, and I blather on. But the ROI is never easy, and we need a new way to measure things. However, I can speak plainly of unhappy guests that have returned on a comp night from the hotel, that happily spent incremental revenue (outlet revenue like spa or restaurant). I can also speak of positive reviewers that have been given discounted rates and have returned, already branded, to enjoy our hotel yet again, and we await yet another update. What some of you at yelp might not have realized is how much of this is branding… that you are reinforcing your brand as they write a review…. But if the identify with the review they are tapping out because they hold the company/hotel/etc in high esteem…. That review they type out is literally reinforcing the brand as they type it.

Yelp is much more important than a review site. It is on the threshold of being the epicenter of the “new” marketing model. It is no longer about shoving adverts down the throats of consumers who want nothing to do with you. It is time to recognize we can not only talk to branded consumers thirsty for information…. But we can find depth and meaning in the relationships between clients / guests and create a new approach to business that not only has demonstrable ROI, but is a more human, interested, and excited approach to knowing your client base.

Wow I am going to need to start proofreading my posts.

I hadn’t spent much time organizing and such… so there are a couple duplicate links here and there. Fact is, with so much content and data… you might miss one anyway. But I will get to posting new, relevant, industry stuff… and watch for my site to go live…

oh wait it finally did!!!  yay!

There is something fairly revelatory about my mother’s new purchase… a Lexus “this is not an SUV” SUV hatchback.  I have zero green commentary, I have zero bourgeois commentary… I have nothing negative to say guys… calm down.  It is a practical car for her needs, the “endless errand running”-”take too much on” go-getter.  That is fine.

What is interesting is that she has owned multiple mercedes’ since her 1990 economy purchase of a Honda Accord.

I don’t think this says anything about Lexus per se… possibly that their online brand was strong.  But what really shook me was that my mom, a NON web 2.0/user generated content/ social media woman actually turned to the net to resolve her ongoing problem with Mercedes.

SO… here is the story of a non web 2.0 user and how she actually used web 2.0:

She first researched her Mercedes dealer and noted the results were incredibly poor.  She then researched her new Lexus dealer, and found striking and positive comments.

(When I say “research”, I mean typing specific, exact keywords in google; then perusing the different sites that popped up, namely Yelp).

She would look through the comments…. recognizing that some people were just extreme, ignorant, bad mouthing, or unhappy.  She actually knew to mentally cull the wheat from the chaff as a matter of unconscious habit.  This is sometimes suggested as a dent in the social review model, in that casual users don’t “get” to filter reviews, so I found it of interest she casually mentioned she was ignoring bad reviews.

She then found a number of places through that same manner, grouped them all together…. and had them directly bid for her business on the exact model she wanted.

I know this sounds deliberate and literal, but these habits are constantly questioned… so I thought I would throw it out there.  It is utterly simplistic, and not a real case study, to be sure….. derrrrrrrrr.

But it is amazing how social media and user generated review sites are becoming relevant even to the completely passive internet users.

Also, not only that it creates an outlet for unhappy clients… but, what’s more, it offers a place for clients to get massive amounts of research and real “case studies” before buying.  Very simplifying for the consumer, and very empowering.

For the strong, pervasive, talented brands as well…. it is an amazing opportunity to have that one to one direct marketing ability… and I mean DIRECT, at your disposal.

As for the weaker brands, don’t pay attention.  Trust me.  It’s scary.  Sorry Mercedes.

[WARNING:  DISGUSTING CYNICISM AHEAD.  I JUST TALK ABOUT IT TO MAKE IT AS TRANSPARENT AS POSSIBLE]

It might be the most important marketing tool in the history of business.  This is what I would like to talk about.  I bailed on facebook a couple months ago as demonstrated here:

http://www.yelp.com/topic/san-francisco-i-just-deleted-my-facebook-account#uGX2fLe0NIteKu_XQVWZhg

http://www.yelp.com/topic/san-francisco-is-facebook-beacon-evil#-NineORULvGb3hM778Ltdg

Well now I need to do it for a couple reasons… one is that it may be killing email.  For real.

http://memebox.com/futureblogger/show/674

http://mashable.com/2007/08/20/facebook-email/

So that is one reason.

But another is because I need to *understand* this thing from a business end.  It is quite rapidly changing so much of business and marketing.

SO…. here I dive deep back into the fray.  I have a couple accounts… one that is for experimenting, one that is me, and one that is a business account.  Here are some things I have noted within the first couple days:

People will friend you because you are a friend of a friend.  This is interesting.  The larger the networks, the better the advertising possibility.  If you could successfully get the contact list of a successful facebooker, the leverage there would be astonishing.  I assume, at some point, you will hear of facebookers selling their contact list to a corporation.  Very unethical, very under the table, and it might have already happened.  Think about the Obama page.

Speaking of Obama, Facebook groups as well as the newer facebook pages are INCREDIBLE.  The marketing potential behind those are epic, and get into a philisophical conversation (more on that soon). I note that many hotels or groups have pages and groups on facebook.  Both are incredible, because it offers an opportunity to directly connect to consumers who *WANT* to be branded.

It is astonishing the level of transparency in regards to consumers… the fact is that advertising is almost expected and welcomed as long as it is witty, impacting, and earnest with its effectiveness while being self aware.  But this leads to a remarkable issue.

Marketing took this default position in the past as creating a rift… or as marketers like to say “need”.  The idea was to create this imperative need in someone, so much so that they might feel less human or capable of competing in their social circle without said product.  Whether it is targeted at the insecurity of growing old, or filling our technolust driven by the marketing machine….  marketing was dehumanizing and robbed people of self worth.  I strongly believe this to this day, but now things are changing.  I am not saying that it grants reprieve to the cynicism embedded in any job that starts with “here… convince people they want this”, but I am saying that it has flip flopped.

The individual is only defined by the brands it wears on its social page.  People define themselves with branding and marketing.  People squirm in their own skin and rejoice at the opportunity to wear Dior, or Persol, or Chanel.  People are voracious to prove they are cool with buttons, patches, labels, logos, and advertising.  Even if it is some modern pop culture subgroup like hipsters or burners, they wear their anti-brand as a brand.  It gets co-opted to a significant degree.  There is a moment you cannot tell if you are talking to someone who started a trend in response to the dehumanizing consumerism, or if they are the response to the marketing trends of consumerism co-opting an explicitly regurgitating this trend.  It has happened with jazz vipers, hippies, punks, and so on.

The startling issue is that the majority of consumers are no longer passively accepting marketing like a car whizzing past a route 66 staggered billboard  ad campaign

The aspect of modern marketing being that consumers are endorsers for your product or brand… WILLINGLY wearing this as if it were an emblem on their clothing.  The Generation Z kids are not only “me me me”, but they are quite willing to leverage their “individuality” for the opportunity to be memetic “endorsers” of products and brands.  Think about that….

The facebook user becomes nothing more than an empty vessel to fill with your marketing efforts.  There is a certain point that the user is solely defined by their brand loyalty that they constantly advertise.  Whether they review a restaurant on yelp, buy something on Amazon, listen to something on Pandora, etc….

It is fascinating, and incredibly important.  In university, my degree in communication went into the idea that information is somewhat autonomous, and the information is the meme, while the human body simply a vessel to transmit these memes.

Think of that…. that information is what is truly alive.  In this sense, brands are what are memetic.  In fact everything is a brand… your name, your facebook or yelp account.  It all ends up representing you and reflecting on you… and people carry this brand image of who *you* are with them.  But what astonished me is that this ethereal, subjective theory could be viable.  I just thought it was something chatted up in dimly lit rooms at 3am over a smoky haze of forced intellectualism.

If facebook (as well as the users themselves through passive acceptance) turns users into “endorsers” or walking billboards (http://www.linkedin.com/answers/marketing-sales/advertising-promotion/advertising/MAR_ADP_ADV/126511-10096762?goback=.ahp), it will be an interesting commentary on what creates our individualism. Are we willfully decieving ourselves into thinking, antithetical to Fugazi’s “You are not what you own” line, what brands we consume is what defines our individuality?

Or is it too late?

We will be happy and focused on the 10 people we know and are happy vacation photos, while all this meta-marketing and meta-advertising is loosely orchestrated in a way that we aren’t even paying attention to.  We will live and die, our facebook profiles will go dormant…

But in 10,000 years, someone might purchase something at Nordstrom’s due to your review.  Or possibly buy Chanel sunglasses because on your spring break you looked… oh…….so…. chic.

Shit Bill Hicks was right.