Hraba Hospitality Consulting

The rest that is cut off (hey I am a hotel guy, not a HTML guy) says “($42/month), would you?”  You can take the survey yourself right here: TripAdvisor Survey for Owners.

I will let the pic speak for itself.  I know it’s just a survey, but I assume some people might have a concern in regards to this?  How about: mom and pops, small innkeepers, non branded or flagged properties that don’t have a mega-marketing budget to leverage every site, and I could go on.  I know it’s only $500, but it adds up…. and if they were to really go through with this I assume it would be irrevocably damaging to their long term credibility.  Even Yelp has tiptoed around ethics issues with business owners, review manipulation, etc – but haven’t done something this obvious.  Of course, the question is:  In their quest to monetize, will TripAdvisor risk their credibility to do so?

Any thoughts?  Is it that big a deal?  Would it create an unfair gap between “haves” and “have nots”, or is TripAdvisor supplying link and phone info moot, because guests will call the hotel directly anyway?

Once again, Hotels Mag & Mr. Hartesvelt have come up with an interesting piece… this time in regards to “Random Acts of Marketing” and hotels PR people being a bit beleaguered in these times, and acting out accordingly.  I, once again, had too long a blog response and note that the comments section isn’t always the best place for banter… or at least I have trouble posting there at times.  In preparation of that, I linked the article above…. and put my own thoughts here just in case.

The best marketers are skeptics or operators that turned into marketers… because marketing has been a land of long lunches, little data, & arcane, questionable demonstrable results…. ALWAYS.  When times are good, the greased cogs and gears tick forward inevitably… often unnoticed (for good or bad).  In a down economy they just become a little more visible because of their obvious lack of connection or understanding of operations, budgets, etc.  There are some STUNNING marketing firms out there (a little plug for BMC.. the guys are so incredibly together it is refreshing, and astonishing)… and most of those are the ones big enough to admit 1) we are undergoing some major changes, and 2) we have little to no idea what is happening for the time being.  At least… if not hyperbolic relatively based in truth.

“New” marketers talk about getting back in synch, like the old system…. where, apparently, print media showed results.

Frankly.. I am not sure it ever did, and hopefully this new wave of social tools democratizing the guest experience will force the hand of marketing people to stop convincing their consumers that the brand is good…. and instead just focus on “gooding” the brand; making sure the hotel or entity is ethically orchestrating business in a way that will have consumers actively endorse their model and passively advocate it.

It isn’t about convincing people that a product is exceptional.  It’s being exceptional and allowing people to recognize that.  That doesn’t take place with marketing or PR… that takes place from within operations and management. Run a business well.. *then* hand it to marketers.  They might begrudgingly thank you that you just made their job easier.  More and more I see marketers admit with defeat that the message is no longer controllable…. and many don’t have a clue what’s going on.

But don’t worry marketer, most of the industry and business world is that way.  That’s what happens when consumers gain control for the first time in history.

Yes this is about sporks.  We will get there.

This article had this comment:

“As a linux and mac user at home and a very reluctant MS user at work (saved by a large smattering of open source progs here, thankyouverymuch), I can say without a doubt that the advert for Bing alone is enough to put me off. Even if it wasn’t owned by MS… “the decision engine”? Now MS is telling us that they have been keeping us locked in their OS for decades, but now officially, they want us to willingly hand over our ability to make decisions to them. Sure! Why Not? I hope google stays on top of MS on this one. And that Chrome OS winds up kicking Windows 7 in the tookis. That’s right. The good guy winning for once. – sorry. I’m ranty today.”

*aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand…* it made me think of something… something I hadn’t thought of in a long time.  Well, we will start with my thoughts, and then get to the spork analogy for business and life.

I am a ridiculous clouded out google fan boy.  I will say this:

1)  Google does “search” well, as well as innovation.. but….   Their google desktop has consistently been problematic for my machines (crashing, eating memory).  The Chrome browser is the single worst browser in the history of the universe.  That.. my friends.. is not hyperbole.  Maybe that is my opinion, but jeez… it’s a disaster.  I really don’t have much hope for the Chrome OS.

2) I have zero time for Bing.  It doesn’t work well (yet?  more use the better it gets?) for me…. but the idea of it being a “decision engine” is all marketing and nobody is literally assuming they are giving MS the ability to make decisions for them.  The Pareto principle is going to have me waiting and seeing whether it is worth any time at all… so for the time being they are not going to make any decisions for me at all.  What’s more, the only thing I find myself typing into Bing is “Google” and I wonder what percentage of people are doing that (tongue in cheek)

3)  I want google to kick butt.. big time.  I like them… they could do better with back end customer service, but they are trying.

As divisive and outlandish a blogger might like to be in regards to opinions, it never really is that simple, is it?

I am conservative in business, and I see a trend that I am not too thrilled about, and it might be wise to consider.

Enter….

The problem with this situation is precisely about the spork…. the spork is a simple, complete analogy for most situations…. it’s not just about business, it’s about the overriding human condition.

The spork has prongs far too short to actually effectively pick up peas, or meat; just as the spoon is far too shallow to actually be used for soup or the like.

By trying to be efficient, adaptable, and multifunctional – it miserably fails at everything.

Nintendo is a good example of not falling prey to that… as Sony and Microsoft launched into this world of being too many things… DVD, gaming, sound, computer, “media centers”, Nintendo leaned back and said… “Go for it.  You guys be “too much”… we will be the game system everyone buys and connects to your media centers.  It is far and wide the industry leader in gaming, 2 to 1 vs. competitors.  I am not a gamer, don’t own a system, and am more likely to go online and play a free donkey kong knock off…. but I still have to thank Nintendo for that.  It does, however, offer an interesting view of business:  An acumen for knowing your limitations, and knowing what you do well.

I am not saying Google should stay put and not play this technological game of Risk and world domination…. nor am I suggesting that MS should sit idle in this rapidly redefining tech world.  I am just saying they both run the risk at failing at everything by trying to be too many things.  Of course, their shareholders would never let that happen, right?

Mr. Jeffrey Talajic from OpenPlaces.org just published a fantastic post that crowdsources opinions about top 2.0 travel related sites.  In my response, as is known to happen, I rambled on about some things outside of his needs… like more insider hospitality related sites and opinions on the state of some search and 2.0 offerings.  I figure that I can share that here to keep the conversation going… cheers all!  Jeffrey’s “best travel 2.0 sites” blog post is *HERE*

Some of my favorite’s of travel 2.0 =
You seriously can’t ignore Trip Advisor.  I thought they would take a hit about admitting fake reviews, but it basically made them look proactive in buttressing the validity of the site.  They are in a precarious position right now, and need to make an effort to convince their content generators, and readers, that it is still worthwhile to write, and read, the reviews.

I LOVE the look and feel of UpTake.  A lot.  It aggregates from multiple review sources, and relays a very accurate, simple profile about the properties.

Seatguru is a life saver… knowing what you are in for on the plane ride is massively helpful, and at 6′6″ it is important to be able to guage whether the upgrade is worth it, or vital.

The single greatest shopping place is Kayak.  Nothing compares, nothing can touch it.  Even if Bing tries to cheat off Kayak’s answer sheet.

I need to go on record as saying Bing has performed miserably to date.  Some of the stories are hilarious… people searching and clicking on the first “suggestion” and immediately downloading a virus, etc.  I am not impressed with the times I have tried to use it.  The TechCrunch readers had some stories about advertised fares not actually existing, and so on….

The time wasting side of me adores Flickr’s search, and zoning out on Flickr’s travel photos.

For industry stuff, Hotel Chatter, and Hotels Magazine online seems to populate most of my news.  Of course my Blog too. =)

Finally….. I fought myself… but Yelp.  If you check out my blog you will see me rail on that quite often -  I loathe it at times.  Much of it is sophomoric, pendantic, and narcissistic, and that might be both the users and HQ.  That being said, within 5 minutes of setting down in almost any town I can find out the best place to get fast dry cleaning for the spilled coffee during my flight, the hippest, non tourist trap dinner spot to take a client, find where to get the best sushi for my lunch the following day….. and a cool shop near a post office to get some errands done.  It constantly amazes me how functional a travel tool it is.  It might not be what you are looking for…. but I think it is incredibly useful.