Hraba Hospitality Consulting

Here is a quick and brilliant lesson on the future of search engines, and how hotels (and others) will be able to utilize their “back to the future” functionality.  Keywords are not the be all end all.

SEO PEOPLE! MARKETERS!  WEB DESIGN!  and hotel people to boot….. some really interesting thoughts

http://www.hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/the_future_of_search_5_ways_to_prepare/

http://www.hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/the_future_of_search_5_ways_to_prepare/

While I have endless philosophical questions for Trip Advisor hanging and waiting and looking to be answered by their tireless hotel relations team, I note something that is perturbing.

I am writing a slough of management responses for hotels, and note that my consistent, patterned behaviour of responding, and including my email, has just been bounced at the door.

After writing something along the lines of 20-30 replies, the submission team has rejected my responses for having an email.

These sort of jagged inconcistensies are going to be problematic long run.

However, they are REALLY F*?!*#$ annoying when you are simply trying to do your job.

I am glad I am timely on this as well.

Hotels Rocco talks about Gen Y in hospitality:

http://www.hotelsmag.com/article/CA6630203.html

And Kirby’s response

http://www.hotelsmag.com/blog/1720000572/post/40039604.html

If you look really, REALLY closely, you can see some of my incessant yammering on the talkback, which goes like this:

“I am 32, for frame of reference. Millenials in finance and tech will react BADLY.. and will experience some professional trials unlike they have ever seen. But hospitality is a totally different professional beast. Hotel kids aren’t the types that are *overwhelmingly* “entitled” and needy. Employees in hotels know it is hard work from the ground up. I don’t know anyone in our business that would expect to become a hotel manager straight out of college with a hospitality degree, etc, like some biz kids do with finance and MBA’s. What’s more, I am not sure I have seen anyone advance past the desk or housekeeping, the line or floor in an outlet… without having a deep understanding of the thankless hard work, long hours, and loss of social life. I am not sure this hits us the same way as other industries, but I do notice for a lot of the non-lifer, non hospitality se The economist articles summed up: Gen Y are feedback junkies, with the need to have targets and milestones set up like trying to pass levels in a video game. The amount of feedback they need is almost unmanageable, but there is some good to it, in the sense they feed on real time interactive support. The already unreliable bi quarterly or annual review is made to be even more archaic, and we need new tools to manage these people who have, theoretically been coddled, spoiled, and constantly praised by overly adoring parents. The generation hasn’t gone through anything incredibly difficult like some previous generations, and this recession is going to be one of the first times they will learn to operate differently. In the meantime, tools like rypple.com instill real time feedback for these types, and there is potential in creating a professional social community of constant, credible feedback. Managing these kids is a totally different experience than the old days, to be sure… But I think both the Millenials and the Boomers are starting to be more understanding and empathetic.”

Then I got cut off because I talk to much, but of course posted again, to be unnecessary, this:

“Not surprising, I reached some critical fault Word limit with my last post. Before I describe the economist articles, I cut off. Basically I was saying that non lifer, non hospitality front of house employees have been disastrous lately. It is hard to find someone motivated, who is accountable, intelligent, and effervescent. This part I agree with. However, I think this economy and current climate will aggressively and quickly change the expectations and ideals of many workers of this generation. Not to say problem shall be solved, but better understanding between the two groups is inevitable… due to communication like this. But Millenials (I am just prior to it being from 1976), that voluntarily chose the hotel industry as a professional path and career are far and large not the types of problems that Gen Y is about.”

Sorry… for asking so many questions!

1)      In regards to management profiles, how much should we fill out?  I note our profiles are identical to reviewers, which means:

a.       I can message other users?  IE, the function seems turned on for me to PM reviewers?

b.      Either I turn off most of the profile features and look closed off as a management respondent, or keep them open and appear quite transparent (which is good) as to what properties I am writing for… which causes a problem for two separate owners that I write for that don’t want to dilute or clash with another brand/hotel?  If that makes sense?

2)      It suggests we start reviewing, as a normal reviewer.  Is that correct?  Or is that simply the management profile being the same as a normal reviewer, and we are not supposed to use the profile in this manner?

3)      I know you condone hotels writing responses…. And I am sure you know they might not have the skill (like grammatical errors I need to fix), time, or labour to respond to reviews, or to become an active participant in this “conversation”.  Not to compare you to yelp (heaven forbid… I would never do so), but they are okay with consultants writing reviews on behalf of hotels.  It seems you are as well, with the way you word “hotel representative”, etc.  I want to make sure this is correct before I proceed.  As a consultant, I would love to amicably talk and wax about social media, and the user vs. owner, plus any future plans you have lined up that you can talk about.  Your site is fascinating, and would love if there was someone I could chat with?  It might go through this list much quicker, anyway.  Sorry about that.

4)      Is there a plan or conversation about verification processes or ideas to help verifying that reviewers actually stayed at the property (or that management is truly management?)

5)      Are you willing to talk about or give numbers on your reviewers?  Like, how many reviews does the average reviewer write, or what percentage of reviewers write a single review?  Just wondering.

Please have someone call me, I would love to talk shop, and get a better understanding of how you do things.  Cheers, and I hope this finds you well!

Sincerely,

(me)

I just sent this to some local hotel people, but I think this is important to all hoteliers:

Some articles should be sent around to your internal management team.

It is funny though… finance and tech employees do have this problem. But hotels are so different… and anyone that is at the position we are at (hotel management/operators), we ground it out for years working harder than most humans will ever imagine.

Managing Facebook Generation:

http://www.economist.com/opinion/PrinterFriendly.cfm?story_id=12853955

Gen Y go to work:

http://www.economist.com/business/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12863573&fsrc=rss

This is interesting…. Managing Feedback Junkies:

http://www.economist.com/business/displayStory.cfm?story_id=12863565&source=hptextfeature

talking about the below site:

http://www.rypple.com/index.shtml

This is a *ahem* fictional *ahem* response to a business owner responding to a reviewer on yelp.

————————————-

I adore you.  I simply adore you.  Thank you for taking the time to write.  I will try you again, albeit I will respectfully have my own opinion regardless of the outcome.  What is refreshing is you are yet another example of why I don’t know about yelp, in general.

1)  I am taking down my second review, and I am altering my first…. check it out.  It should be for the best.

2)  please keep interacting with yelpers like this… as well as other online reviewers (you can check your brand on twitter (it may be too young to be there), as well as see if chowhound, mouthfuls, eater sf, or any other outlet like Zagat has found you and written you up.  Tripadvisor and Zagat both have review areas and chat boards for restaurants (obviously).

3)  I am a long time yelper, albeit it may not look like it.  Over time I have become very, very skeptical of the business model and usefulness of reviews.  I think, at some point, a critical mass of reviews (coupling 1 stars with 5 stars, and then the mid range ones) will average almost everything out to 3 stars.

The networking effect is powerful here, but the ad model is weak and the site isn’t making any revenue.  What’s more, the management seems to be busy orchestrating a hipster social scene while ignoring the hypocrisy of searching for money from merchants, while doggedly ignoring their pleas to verify reviewers in lieu of their caddy, inane, rude, unprofessional, or just moronic remarks.  the more I watch yelp…. the more I think it is totally idiotic.  the problem is that people are latching onto it without understanding it, and it gets more credit than it deserves.  As a business owner you understand that much of it is stupid, while the tool it presents business from a marketing and client relations perspective is incredible.

But you get uniformed people who don’t get F&B, free standing establishments, or this market.  Or exactly what *you* and other incredible chefs are trying to do.  And these people are writing reviews that effect your business.  I have a problem with that because the uninformed public actually latches on to reviews and believes them.

There is enough difficulty in this economy in general, and in this market for food&bev….  you don’t need yet another yelper being rude and dismissive, judgmental or flip about all the hard work you put into building your brand and base.

what really bugs me about those that yelp:

instead of wanting to resolve the situation or actually help the restaurant, business, or what have you….. they wait to get home and bitch.

Instead of professionally dealing with a negative or unpleasant situation as it happens, and grabbing management…. yelpers simply wish to ramble inanely.

If this was a better tool to resolve problems, I would be convinced.  For now, it seems like really loud and sadly impacting locker room talk (Thanks Mr. Anderson).

Thank you again for responding.

Just kidding.  But get past it.  It is no longer an issue of money preventing you from getting to social media.  Because social media, whether you like it or not, is getting to you (yes a double entendre – it is effecting your brand, as well as driving many of us nuts).  So stop pining for hard graphs and data all of us skeptics desire, and realize this is a new concierge and you gotta foot the bill or get eaten up!

Enough scary “make the first sentences interesting nonsense”.  Let’s talk shop.

I really think you can take steps to make *parts* of it measurable… but you will never fully measure it.  Just like print “impressions”.  I never trusted print media and how you measure impressions to begin with.  Forcing your product in front of a face via TV or print ads doesn’t necessarily mean you are doing a good job reaching consumers.  Social media is even more difficult measure.  Ad revenue modeled network sites are not monetizing even the strongest of networks (think youtube, facebook, yelp, linkedin: not one is profitable).

There are so many of these articles about social media and ROI, such as this, this, and this.  They are all fantastic articles to be sure, but I think even talking about ROI might be lofty at this stage.  As much of the massive print media campaign budget moves into the online realm, some of that money can be dedicated to a Social Media Optimizer (SMO or whatever you want to call it), and you utilize that person with the same mentality as a concierge or doorman.  It is someone that provides a face to the hotel, added value proposition, and brands the image in the mind of the guest.  But the person handling your social media needs to be adept and deft.  Hell, I thought I was getting good at this, and I still get overwhelmed with the complexity in how to most appropriately handle responses.

But, the issue isn’t traditional ROI anymore.  The issue is the return on ignoring social media, possibly the return on influence It is about learning what you can about social media.  There are endless fantastic articles out there.  Like this Frause article “It’s okay to be anti-social“, which provide simple, concise explanations for the old school marketers eager to catch up!

But it is obviously not about social media and ROI anymore.  At least, not to the same degree.  Now, it seems there has been an awakening to the necessity of joining in, engaging the consumer, and starting a conversation.

Some say, ENGAGE OR DIE!

I just say that this is a lovely opportunity to really listen to consumers (filtering out the annoying nonsense we all need to ignore)… to really connect, and help your brand identify with the consumers that you want.  It is a fantastic tool that is still in its infancy…. and we should all stay as informed and learning on the way.

So… you can’t ignore it.  And it will cost you more in the long run to not participate in this “happening” where carefully manipulated brand images will become vastly more intricate and complex in their control, while real power has begun to transfer to the consumer for the first time in the history of marketing and advertising.  Actually… it might be the first time the consumer or public has had such a tool to really take back power from an elite class manipulating their own image.

This might be a bit much, but I can say this…. learn, join in, and enjoy!  Let employees on all levels of the property join in as well.  Tell them to post appropriate youtubes videos involving work.  Let them join in and twitter.  Of course front line employees will need to do this back of house, but the more your brand is included in the social media conversation… casually, naturally… without forcing it or being manipulative… the better presence and awareness people will have of your brand.

As for the cost in having someone manage this?  It may be more than a line employee.  It needs to be someone savvy, with the interest of the brand primary in their mind.  From excitement about a guest having a good time, to intelligent damage control, it is likely they won’t be an hourly employee.

There are, of course, talented and incredibly capable hotel social media consultants that can help with this.  Like me!

If you cannot afford anyone in these times (an obvious possibility), you might have to do some late night self training, and start logging into these places and developing yourself as the brand image and take care of it.  If not, it might be possible to distribute the responsibility across management.  Have rooms handle tripadvisor, and the restaurant handle yelp.  Split tasks and quiz the employee population and see who is excited about social media.  The sales assistant or HR rep already logging into facebook during work hours might be that person!

If someone on your staff seems excited, you could possibly get them involved, helping to bolster their identity with the company… resulting in staff retention… which is ROI right there!

Ha I proved it!

Whatever the case… get past the ROI conversation, get involved, be yourself, and have fun!

Some local friends were chatting about the yelp court case… amazing the momentary hubbub that it caused.  All of a sudden everyone was a flitter with concern.. and now it is business as usual.

A lot of people thought the doc was a jerk.  Others thought the guy was standing for free speech.  Well let me tell you… I doubt he was a bad guy, and it certainly wasn’t about free speech.  It was just a wreck of a case, and there was nothing legitimate there except two wide eyed people dragging their own name through the mud.  They didn’t think it would get as big as it did, so they settled.

I don’t think the doc was a bad guy, necessarily.  I think he doesn’t get social media, and acted inappropriately, to a fault.

But I think the fact it settled so quickly was interesting.  These guys weren’t ready for the limelight, and they just wanted everything fixed.  But the public is clamouring for news on the way Yelp works.

And it does, but doesn’t, work very well.  So it is this duality that is starting to get picked up, and people are anxious for the resolution to these ongoing concerns.

I think this is all indicative of Yelp’s massive immaturity (young and dealing with new issues) coming to a head, and things going awry while their management insults people on threads, then deletes the threads when it isn’t comfortable…..

and the rest of the yelp crew is cold calling merchants with a hard sell all the while ignoring them while they create a social scene of hipsters that they can finally…. be.. .cool… enough… to … be… part … of.

This stuff has to be sorted out.  An egotistical doctor that doesn’t get social review sites is a perfect patsy to gel the power of the web 2.0 tools.  Hopefully this will start a conversation about how to fix yelp’s imperfections and flaws.

TWO FIXES that actually come from the flawed trip advisor:

1) Multi tiered rating like trip advisor.  A main overall star rating, but then a rating for cleanliness, service, food, etc.

2) Instead of trying to get money from merchants, and then ignoring them in favour of teeny bopper yelpers that cannot even spell…. allow businesses a discourse with clients.  Responding *TO* clients isn’t necessarily important or effective when you are talking about immature folk, ignorant people, or types that just want to rail against you, let alone shill reviews, etc.

This is a social, public conversation.  Business owners should be able to respond, rebutt, or remark in kind.

AND LAST ONE:

3)  START THINKING OF VERIFICATION PROCESSES PEOPLE.

the first social review site that can find a way to verify the actual transaction at the business will develop a more honest, trustworthy, and sellable brand.

Let’s make a definitive list of who hotels should follow, for the new guys that come in trying to wade through all this.

Hotels should find other hotels, for industry awareness, networking, and for the more cynical lot, to “track the competition / opposition”.

=)   (can you use happy faces in blog posts??)

I *will* go on the record as saying I think it isn’t so much about “competition” anymore as a value proposition for the customer coupled with niche or specific amenities that set your property apart from others.

I don’t think this climate of brand marketing needs cutthroat business practices targeting competing brands and setting yourself apart from them.  There are too many choices to focus on one competitor, and… not to zen out too much… a brand or hotel property needs to look inward, and focus on themselves, their operations, and their ethos.

But as for new hotels on twitter, there are ways to impact their market, and the INCREDIBLE responses I received from some other industry folks were a real treat (thanks people!)…. and it seems almost everyone is inline:

Hotels should follow hotels.  It is good partnership, networking, and socializing.

Hotels should look in their local arena.  Geographic searching of important twitterers and people that might be interested in your product is imperative.  One of the fantastic things is that friending people isn’t considered spam at all.  In fact, Twitter is “OPT-IN”, which is a wonderful tool for people to regulate their endorsement of your brand, while still allowing you to search out network hubs and important influencers in your markets.

If you have any other thoughts as to how hotels can effectively establish their presence… please comment!

also… here is a great article for reasons that hotels, or more to the point “product placements”, don’t succeed.  Follow FAIL!

Wow.

My blog posts in the last couple have been longer rambles than I have ever previously threatened you guys with.

Whoops.  Sorry, and I will cut them shorter, methinks.  Cheers all.

=)