HHotelConsult hoping to make sense of his brainpan’s thoughts, rambles, ambles, and more. Hotel Industry banter, social media thoughts, and general blather.
Cheers and good day! Your friendly neighborhood Hotelier trying to stay on top of hotel news, and travel info, and hospitality & management philosophy… oh yeah… and technology or social media. Okay okay… I am apparently trying to keep you updated on everything, and here is a little more from my corner of the internet…. endless relevant information filtered into a relatively decadent lunch sized chunk. Enjoy! Don’t hesitate to let me know your thoughts or comment… be well and big RevPar to you all!
Stop using 2009 rates in recovering economy! That’s about all I can say about this, because I would never want to encourage price setting and have the Feds after me. Still… if you all do it independently, well that’s just good business. Collusion, however, is a nasty word.
Neil Salerno with “Does Anyone Remember When A Suit Came With Two Pair Of Pants?“Beyond having quite a fine tailor, it’s a smart idea that Neil takes into the world of hotels skillfully, with a powerful and accurate piece on hotels, social media, websites, and more.
TOURISM IS SOCIAL – a 90 minute love note to the power and impact of social media in Hospitality, the need to have less manipulative marketing, and the need to create a powerful community advocating your brand.
Successful email marketing is all about reaching an appropriate demographic, that you can target more specifically, while not “spamming” people who don’t have the same interests, *but* are fans of your hotel. By setting up preferences in email marketing, Hotel Marketing Strategies has advised our world yet again! Think of a branded guest that loves wine and food, but not the spa… while you have other fans of the spa that are into health and not so much fine dining. Sure they cross paths often enough, but here is a way to target them individually and be even more successful. Well done Hotel Marketing Strategies!
Speaking of Josiah, well we have to say well done on this GOOGLE BUZZ primer for hotels and marketing people. Fantastic stuff.. learned a lot!
Attempting to reach affluents, luxury brand guests, online? Where here are some facts that may raise your eyebrows about their behaviors.
Some not so good news for you F&B people – or just more about the complexity of being green, community rooted, and sustainability focused…. like the implications of sourcing locally.
Service is the new Sales – a piece in line with listening, learning, being engaged and involved – and tempering traditional marketing methods that sell glitz and gooey glamour. That stuff is out this year, and true, refined, classical luxury is in. I know it’s just one of millions of hyperbolic or effusive blog titles in this world of too many posts, but I might say that service has always been on the front end of sales…. since the local Main St. Hardware store and before. Service has always been paramount in helping you sell.. this is nothing new. The article has some great points, though.
Hotels experimenting with social communities: Foursquare, Yelp, Blogs, Tripadvisor and more. Discussion about some of the ideas and methods hotels are using for interaction, listening, and community.
It’s Okay To Be Anti-Social? – I don’t always agree with what I am posting here so much as attempting to engage thought and discussion. I think this methodical approach to understanding the impact of social media is fading as more and more people find meaning and potential conversion from interacting with the online world. His sanguine points are well taken, however, and he does help get a bird’s eye view on this madness that is too much media. What do you understand? What do you have time for? This article probably helps in going over all of it.
It’s about time…. an affordable iphone/droid app for European hotels… Referred to as groundbreaking, but what isn’t at this point. I remember groundbreaking used to mean we just broke ground, and have 18 months (or lesS) from pouring concrete to opening the doors. It is much more ethereal than the brick and mortar world… but important, potentially useful news nonetheless. I haven’t contacted them to find out more, as I am Stateside. But this is something we all have our eyes on, and if you don’t… you should. Mobile is the future, and it’s fairly important (I assume you have been following my blog, and will spare you the endless linking).
If that isn’t enough for you, I would highly suggest the new Economist special article about Data… none of this is about business for you, or your brand. It’s about collecting data, and you are just part of something so big it will melt your head. Like issues of Privacy in the 2.0 age… and how it basically doesn’t exist anymore. Try controlling your brand’s message… sure, right after you figure out how to stop being stalked by the internet.
Google Wave starts to come of age – and real meaningful commerce is happening! If you can get past the fact that I was quoted in this article, maybe you can envision Google Wave this way: No more misplaced log book in PBX, and no more yellow sticky notes on the desk. That’s sort of how I want to play it…. NO MORE STICKY NOTES! =)
This is perhaps one of the most affordable, functional, and cool devices I have seen in a long time – zero sticker shock, stunning savings, obvious ROI, and green to boot. Amazing what these guys are doing - the future of waste management on hotel property:
Martha Stewart Wedding magazine and Hello Lucky take on one of my favorite escapes in the world… WILBUR HOT SPRINGS! (I am sharing this for no other reason than it’s a beautiful place! The pics from the print edition are out of this world!
An impressive LEED Platinum for a hotel, Napa’s Bardessono. I would like to take the time to point out that the incredibly complex reuse project from the NPS and ECB/Fort Baker Retreat Group, Cavallo Point, was just awarded LEED Gold. Being NPS land, historic buildings, and completely “green” presented an interesting array of problems (aka opportunities), and I am happy to say 2 years after opening it’s doors, it has finally received it’s status. It is a shining light for the Bay Area, a stunning addition to the National Parks and GGNRA, and a model for future development being ethical and about sustainability. I applaud both these properties, especially knowing how complex the LEED process can be!
This is sort of scary, but nothing new to our industry: Hotel industry needs flexible graduates. “Skeleton staffs don’t bode well for hospitality students preparing to enter the market today. As if the long hours and weekends shifts in the hospitality industry weren’t unattractive enough, students entering the job world in today’s economy are forced to be more flexible than ever, often taking jobs outside of their geographical preference and much lower on the corporate ladder than they had hoped.” Honestly – if I had known the hours I was going to work prior to starting my career in hospitality, I don’t know if I could have done it. Of all the things I have dealt with in my life, the hours as manager at every property were dehumanizing and exacerbating. Looking back, I don’t know how I did it for over a decade. But that is what our industry is… high pressure, fast paced, grueling grinds, and the self delusion that it is as important as saving lives and that it will all be better tomorrow – oh, and that “lateral promotion” you took to get out of the department you are currently pigeonholed in… was totally worth it. (a little cynical humor, of course – not at all from my career. Riiiiiiiiiiight).
Why do hotels have so much trouble answering emails? This is an epic, well timed, post. It’s a HUGE problem, and not enough companies have corporate policies. It becomes a disaster for communication if people think they can reach you, but have zero real access to you. It makes our industry look bad, and it has to stop. On the up side…. if you make it a priority to reply to emails, and it becomes everyone’s priority, maybe they will slow down with better communication. More phone calls, less emails (including those horrible passive ones hiding the real question of “why haven’t you answered my emails?) – but that might just be wishful thinking.
Hotels converting F&B space into meeting space. A lot of hotels are looking for revenue, and this was an actual conversation we had with a client in the last couple weeks…. nice to see the article agreeing with us. Lounges and comfy spots don’t generate revenue – but meeting space does.
Augmented Reality is buzzed about for a reason… and not just because it is PHENOMENALLY AWESOME. But it may actually create business, even for small businesses.
Is geolocating the future of hotel marketing? I love that hyperbole, I really do… but let’s just leave it at “a really important, impacting development” before waving the white flag at all other types of marketing. I actually think it is… for one, there’s FourSquare. But I don’t like getting *too* carried away. =)
Foursquare does have some strategic growth; First Zagat, then Chicago. Some pretty big stuff happening, and it makes me excited that with all this activity, and other industry people cloning their format in multiple ways, Foursquare seems aware and fluid enough with a solid enough business acumen, to withstand the turbulence in this crowded arena. They seem smart, and I think you need to keep an eye on them. If you haven’t gotten a google alert from them about someone “checking in” to your hotel or business, trust me… you will.
The future of marketing in hotels? This is a tech guy with idealistic notions of what hospitality *COULD* do – with money, foresight, more labor, and planning. It’s a good idea, some luxury brands might try to get there with this as a gimmick, to start….. but interesting and enthusiastic read nonetheless. Beyond that, I liked the idea… and don’t mind plugging him. He has got to be one of the only people out there that I know building Iphone (and I assume Android as well) apps that has even the most rudimentary understanding of the hotel business. A lot of people are yapping about apps in our industry…. we might not be able to afford one, but for those that moved enough of your 2009 marketing budget online, and have a bit to spare…. check him out.
An interesting blog about the development of social media in the Kenyan hotel industry, and can possibly be extrapolated to other small inns and boutique properties that don’t have the monster marketing budget, but know there is an audience to reach.
The UK heats up about online hotel reviews, looking for some sort of validation process for Tripadvisor. Is this another aspect of GPS & Geolocation that could help curtail fraud and shill reviewing? Whatever the case, I think the industry can handle itself…. it’s in their best interests. Getting the government involved to regulate seems a bit much. The only winner when you start legal proceedings are the lawyers. Very few other people actually win besides them.
Social media as customer service for hotels. Thank you for not saying social media as a way “to sell” or “drive revenue”. Social Media may have a valid ROI, but this is more about being a cost of operations than a revenue stream. We can all drive revenue with it…. but it is simply more important to *ENGAGE*. Because in the end, ignoring it will cost you.
Here’s an odd piece – great thoughts… horrible grammar. I didn’t understand this, so I include it to see if you have any thoughts?
That’s it! Just thoughts and links and interesting stuff! A real post is coming soon, I promise!
And The CMO of Morgans talking about their “Recess is on” recession campaign by staying and being “outrageously” cool. I will tell you what…. I am including this because I just think these guys are way off. Time will tell…. but using words like psychicgraphic.. is idiotic. Their new campaign is “get dirty (two dirty martinis), get wet (big bathtub), get blown (in room salon services). They are, apparently, adding value… and asking guests to trade up. It just feels like a syrupy mess of creepy and scummy come together. Which is why The Clift in SF, likely, is known as “The Place where locals go to cheat on their wives”. Ugh.
Sorry I have been to busy to blog, everyone. I have about 10 hanging about, and will get through them in the next couple months. Cheers, be well, and happy new year!
I actually got into a conversation on linked in today! Go figure… I haven’t used it much as the “professional facebook”, but every once in awhile meaningful discussion about the industry pops up…. even then I typically don’t dive in. But it is interesting…. so much conversation about the recession being over, and hoteliers, ownership, and properties are popping up their heads to see if they see their shadow. As real winter looms, our proverbial “winter of discontent” wanes. But instead of being rife with joy… let’s cast our doom & gloom nets out a bit. If you look anywhere in media – fear and panic are often confused and countered by people’s desire to find the light at the end of the tunnel. There are two types in this debate…. the sky is falling, or it’s looking up.
Well… I am cautiously optimistic. The Dow hit 10,000 today, briefly, and a “painful recovery” is nothing in light of 80% of economists saying “The Recession is Over”. What’s more – It isn’t just the normal public mags, but trade mags are being VERY cautious in saying… “recession lifting, let’s get back to it!”. In fact, not many are even highlighting articles about it… it is just a general “how to weather the rest of it”, “ideas for getting out of the recession” and the like. There are articles like this (and here about a community’s B&Bs, and I have seen many like this about international markets) all over the internet… little niches surviving or doing great!
It is a good feeling to see people conversing about an end to our economic woes. Of course, I don’t forget that it is the talk and panic that drives the initial problem, as well as talk and optimism that can drive us out of the “mud” on our bottom line…… that is……decidedly….. black. In fact, that negativity and existential concern about hotels and their future still pervades the news feeds. But let’s not give the time of day to those who pander to the lowest common denominator… let’s look at a tried and true brand who’s consistent and professional tone to the industry is a good earmark for our collective concerns: Marriott’s blog post.
I think it sums up the problem we hoteliers currently have… we would like to celebrate the dow at 10K, or the economists reporting, en masse, “it’s getting much better!”. The problem is the reality, and that many hotels in standard, normal markets can feel the pinch for some time longer.
Another reason to hesitate…. we are growing, but current growth is *slow*. I don’t have the articles on me, but I do know that lenders are still holding all the keys because the value of properties since 2007 have basically halved (Hotel Business Vol. 18 No. 19 Oct 7-20, 2009)… which is ground shakingly tragic. The foreclosured and distressed will hit the market soon, and more problems will be discovered than are currently known. But on the other side of this coin, it is time for equity and ownership to start finding PHENOMENAL deals. Everyone should be able to buy a hotel in the coming year (joke)….
Economic recovery and slow growth is one thing… but we are hotels, and we might need to take a closer look at the national unemployment rate. The economy might be recovering, but our industry is so COMPLETELY controlled by labour and unemployment, I am worried it will give a false sense of security when certain segments might still get hit hard. I saw Tom Callahan the other day from PKF in San Francisco, and he said the basic consensus is that we will not hit q4 2007 or q1 2008 ADR and RevPar until 2014… which is…. depressing. But it is only a climb up from here. As long as you retained some rate parity, the property should be able to bounce back. If you are like Vegas, you may have dug a hole so deep, you will have issues “digging up”. =)
(To be fair, even some people think that Vegas is finally on an upswing, or at least battling the recession. True their tourism is down, their rooms are empty…. but finishing City Center in a climate like this is amazing, and frankly… although they are reducing flats @ $2000 / sq ft possibly to below $1000 / sq ft…. I am shocked 55% of it has been sold.)
All this being told… I think the slide and panic is over. Our awful day at the beach is done, and what happens next is shaking out the blanket to clear the sand…. and we will see what is jarred loose from the hotel economic fabric. The problems that are still to come are not pro-longed troubles for hotels, it is simply the back end of the recession working itself out. Until then…. buckle up…. I doubt it will be too bumpy a drive home, but it’s gonna be a long ride.
Yes I am fully aware of how many metaphors I used in this. =) Good luck EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU… be well, hang tough… and see you on the other side!
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.
Mr. Kirby from Hotels Magazine has written a great piece about @hiltonsuggests and their new model of using twitter. In light of that, the massive amount of new twitterers/followers since my posts about the development of an “e-concierge / Concierge 2.0″ role, as well as how to effectively establish and utilize your brand using the tool of social media… I thought I would expand a bit and touch on it again.
It is exciting to see brands establishing themselves as I had envisioned… not vapid spam marketing, but being leaders in helping guests. Hospitality is the name of the game, and the only way to build your brand isn’t to market it, so much as effectively position it, with deference to your guests and not your marketing department.
Kirby’s post talks about active searching for guests, instead of the passive approach; letting them come to you. Albeit a massive undertaking for a flag like Hilton, it will also be incredible effective. I have been doing this for a couple years, and it really works. If you are a property with hot springs… search hot springs. If you are a property in a wine growing region with fine dining… I think you get it. Fact is, this is INCREDIBLY time consuming, and I have backed off of it a little in need of positioning and building the social media presence for a number of clients… but there should be a point I am back to having the time to filter through aggressive wide netting of google alerts, backtype, twitter search, and other RSS’. In fact, I think I totally melted down at one point through a blog post, as noted here.
In fact… the following will start to really help you position your property on something like twitter:
1) Firmly commit yourself to the geography and history – know your story, know where you came from, and know what your offerings are, what makes you special.. and share it!
2) Ingratiate yourself to the community – share city and county wide news, events, stories, photos, etc. Celebrate the Juniour Varsity going to state, or the new art gallery exhibit. People don’t often care about a hotel. They *do* care about what matters to *them*. If you share and come together over similar interests, you will start to matter to the social web. Become a leader in information about your surroundings and tap into people’s interests. It isn’t all about *you*. It isn’t about wanting to sell your rooms, talk about your rentals, or pitch your restaurant. If you are myopic enough to think only of yourself, you won’t be as relevant as if you represent yourself as part of a community. Don’t just offer a room rate, talk about what makes a room special – from the historic quirks to green room design. Instead of selling your bike rentals, talk about the incredible trails & picnic day trips in the area. If you have a nice restaurant, talk about all the local farms you buy from and the guests you have, instead of just putting a discount/special out there. If you have a spa, tell a story about one of the favourite therapists instead of just saying “1/2 off”. If you have meeting rooms to sell…. talk about one of the cool groups that came to the property and why they excited you. Involving more than just yourself will stimulate and open up conversation. Could I go on? Obviously… but I am assuming you are getting it. Social Media is *NOT* a print ad. It is a relationship, networking, and interaction. One sided, spam-like deal tweets will only help you get recognized long enough for the people to ignore you.
3) Build a culture and humanity around your property… not just a shallow marketing effort. You need to humanize and personalize your activities online. If you are nothing more than an RSS feed for your hotel, people will walk away. You need to show you are a real person… so wear your quirks and emotions on your sleeve. If you are an emotionless robot, people won’t notice you… but if your energy, personality, and even idiosyncrasies, show through… it will truly create a more meaningful and real experience for other users. If you play at the deferential professional being obsequious with no character… that will only reflect on your hotel in a negative light. You need to intone and create a sense of “soft and comfy beds”, rather than sterile hallways littered with emotionless automatons. Always be professional, but for criminy *BE REAL*!!!!
4) Then… after all this…. you become the Concierge 2.0. Help anyone and everyone REGARDLESS of whether they are utilizing or recognizing your brand. You cannot be so disingenuous that you will only engage people you think will bring you business. You have to cordially, professionally, and earnestly engage anyone and everyone. Not because you are trying to brand your hotel… but because you are a real service provider that is inherently interested in fulfilling guests, helping the community, and creating harmony in people’s lives. This isn’t advice…. this is a way of life.
Hospitality is about service, consistency, and making people happy. Don’t make it more complex than that…. Follow that as an ultimate guideline in creating your business online, as well as in the real world. You are there to stay open, pay your employees, and hopefully walk out with a little profit (someday). But the only thing that will keep you there is the community, and the community is filled with living and breathing people that need to be respected and treated with integrity… online and off. If you treat social media as a marketing tool, you are not only going to miss the point, you may actually damage your brand. But if you are real, engaging, enthusiastic, and humanize your property, you could become indispensable to the people and surroundings of your area.
Once again, I got carried away with a response to a blog post, and decided to expound on it. I am sure this counts as real business right?
Newsweek’s Budget Travel has a great article about TripAdvisor trying to deal with the long coming revelation that many of their users and reviews are not legitimate. This is, frankly, a huge blow to the site, and should pose a happy problem in it’s early adolescence as they deal with all the changes that come along with growing into adulthood. Frankly, I am thrilled that this may provoke User Generated Content sites to seek the same verification model other sites have.
At any rate, this is vital to all of us, and it recalls some of my previous post (which I seem to mention once or twice):
One scotch fueled evening my jocular side protruded a wee bit and I became a prankster. To be honest it wasn’t to learn the lesson I did, rather just good fun. I speak of the Ryan Air Twitter spoof of mine, which got considerable attention in traditional media (namely because Ryan Air claimed @ryanaironline was their account). It helped me realize that there is a grave concern for brands and trademarks, and both the businesses & social media sites should have a vested interest in a verification process of brands. There is a serious risk of hijacking and damaging people and businesses, with inauthentic people (or dim ones not realizing pranks and social media can go viral) damaging a brands reputation.
Social Media is young. FB beat out myspace because it is better at replicating and verifying the real world (although it can’t actually do anything more meaningful than provide a wonderful marketing data gathering opportunity for FB, coupled with a nice phonebook)… but it was verifying that the person was the *reality* based person, which quickly attracted people to it. If you aren’t relevant to any networks, or aren’t genuine… you quickly become invisible.
As user generated review sites follow a similar path, these things will stabilize. It is very young, and still in the myspace period of fake profiles and people… but as twitter adds verification services & FB starts considering verification due to trademark infringement issues with it’s new URL program: , it will be obvious for User Generated Content Sites to authenticate, across the board. I am not sure if open ID and attaching accounts to mobile phones is the simplest way, but if something doesn’t happen quick the sites will implode through sacrificing the only thing that makes their business model feasible. I am sure Tripadvisor has seen the start of accounts closing due to the breach in ethics.
We will wait until services like Yelp and TripAdvisor grow into the awareness of what they have created. People sardonically jest “the internet is serious business” when it comes to this sort of stuff. But it is. It isn’t just 2.0. It’s a massively powerful tool that completely reorients the consumer model, putting control into the hands of the people, and out of marketing and PR companies, possibly for the first time in capitalism’s history. The message can no longer be managed, and PR doesn’t work the same way anymore. You are only as strong as the advocates and endorsers that believe in your brand. Ethics is paramount.
The only way for these sites to continue their validity is by echoing the sentiment of their own taglines: Tripadvisor’s “get the truth… and go”, or Yelp’s “real reviews, real people”. If they commit to intelligently policing their own site by being completely transparent, authentic, accountable, and earnest, they should be able to emerge better than before.. They might need to take a huge dip in registered users, as well as delete a lot of existing content. This open and honest method of dealing with this situation will undoubtedly sacrifice trust in the short term, but it is the only way for a social media site to maintain the trust that they leverage for business.
It will hurt… but this is an opportunity for them to re-organize into a leaner and more valid site than ever before. Most people saw this coming. Let’s hope it isn’t something they try to spin away or ignore… instead of doing what is right and being honest, while doing everything they can to curb the problem.
I admit concern about the idea of having to hire non-revenue generating staff to handle the massive clean up project, and the fact the money simply might not be there to handle it. However, it is obvious they are quickly responding, like April Robb from Tripadvisor commenting to Christopher Elliott. I do like the warnings they put on some hotels, but it could be markedly arbitrary?
We’ll have to see.
Not sure what age social media is at right now, but it is certainly hitting a painful growth spurt.
A colleague and I were bemoaning the difficulty with modern customer service, and the fact that so many tech support numbers are no longer offered as toll free unless it is someone like HP or Dell. Per usual, I fanatically inject my own experiences into the situation, and muse about the long and wild road of in-room phones at hotels… specifically the way technological innovation and advancement has, constantly, caught our industry unaware to the point that we shoot ourselves in the foot.
It isn’t right not to have access to free phone tech for a product, but it is the way modern business is happening. Telephony has altered greatly (understatement) in the last two decades…and property level we are still calling them “PBX”. What’s more is that the IT guys at hotels are well versed enough to know just to ignore it. I have seen one or two try to explain.. “Well the PBX doesn’t really exist anymore”, the GM will point to the operator, and then the IT guy capitulates with a shrug.
We hotels used to gouge consumers for phone calls because they had no choice, and it was a BRILLIANT revenue stream. Then came calling cards, and hotels started losing lots of revenue… and per our typical furrowed brow, it took us a couple years to figure out why. Even dial-up modems for AOL and prodigy services were a complexity to us… which is why we started charging people to call out to 800 numbers. Of course this garnered more distrust from guests about our call accounting, but it also got the enraged guest at the desk who had left AOL connected for 3 days and owed the hotel $5545 for a 2910 minute phone call to an 800 number. I had at least 3 of those that I can remember… and those people were all completely, and totally, hysterical. Not the funny kind, either.
By the time we admitted to ourselves that the revenue stream was lost and started charging enough simply to cover costs… hotel guests had already decided to never trust in-room phones ever again. Calling cards were used almost exclusively, and guests now have cell phones that simply makes in room telephones, for all extensive purposes… obsolete. This has been patently obvious in the last 5 years…. in-room phones are nothing more than an intercom now, which is why telephony solution providers are trying to make them into a marketing gimmick with big LCD colour touch screens, etc. What’s more is that anyone silly enough to install payphones on property has them regularly taken back out within 3-5 months because it simply isn’t profitable for the companies to maintain them.
By the way – that might be my only professional advice in this post, along side the historical ramble…. stay away from that “slick” nonsense. LCD screen phones are nothing more than an annoyingly bright & pricey business card for in house outlets where guests are already likely to contribute incremental revenue. These phones are a gimmick, and they are part of the technological in-between period of telephony companies trying to generate need and create a new niche for them while everything swirls up in the air. These “hubs” will become something incredibly powerful, and useful… but the new tech coupled with cost and lack of dynamic functionality (beyond being flashy) makes them a poor investment for the time being. For now, think of in-room guest phones as IP “intercoms” for your next project, and you will save a lot of money. Heck… you may start having guests order room service online before calling on the room phone…or they may plan travel without even considering a voice call – like GPS enabled hotel booking apps, or basically just making an app to make every department available by PDA as seen at the Malibu Beach Inn. Even Choice Hotels has an incredible mobile app that not only sells their brand, but it enables an entire community of brand endorsers.
So in this panic of the phone industry changing, everyone has been hit… robots handle call volumes of humans, 800 numbers are incredibly expensive, and customer service has tanked in general because of it. In 20 years we went from fully staffed calling centers with live operators to a computer voice that handles the volume of 20 employees’ worth of labour. With cell phones all but destroying traditional landlines, they have also made the 800 number obsolete. When it is used, it is strictly for high end marketing, because no one else can afford it. It usually only goes to the departments that generate revenue (SALES) and the guys doing all the real work have the fun of not having one, then fielding complaints from already unhappy consumers that have just been further inconvenienced.
As we continue forward, I think the traditional phone will die, but rise a bit like a Pheonix – the same thing existing in a different form. It will not only take on the traditional rolls, but also a hotel intercom, then soon to be an internet hub… and slowly integrating with other guest room controls and being not unlike the new Verizon Hub, which demonstrates that you can have a phone that is highly adaptable and functional. Think of it as the Looney Tune cartoon “House of the Future” where panels & buttons on the wall call outside, surf the web, program the house settings, washes, cools, power management, etc. The only thing is that we are a long way off from that kind of functionality…. and for now spend as little as possible on both ends. As for 800 numbers, if the department’s revenue can’t cover it without impacting business, it simply isn’t a wise choice.
In the future, however, someone in your hotel will also have grown up playing around with making apps, and you will have your first person on staff managing the 2.0 of your hotel. I like to think this would be a salaried position from a truly innovative management company, but I am aware this starts with property level people engaged with the brand that have extra time and know how. As for the salaried position, we shall see. I know we are all looking down the road at Concierge 2.o, and few of us might have thought that could be possible. Now with IP, Google Voice, and even browser enabled chat sessions… there is an exciting future of unending real time communication with brand advocates (returning guests) and potential clients.
These conversations about archaic forms of communication will fall to the wayside during the tremendous fervour for hotels’ future comm abilities, where we will have to adopt a more pro-active and less wary view of technology, so the hospitality industry can be carried forward by technology and the advent of 2.0 – at the intersection of commerce and the community that is selling your brand.
I was ranting and raving about not being able to keep structure or organization with social media, so I took some time to find some useful programs to help me out. Well…. this is pretty cut and dry: A quick, succinct post for you to be made aware of (and yet another onslaught from) useful social media tools. Social Media is simply a tool in itself… so they are tools for tools. With some of my friends’ more sophomoric moments of wit… they might suggest including myself would make it a third tool. =)
A list of 10 tools that you might know of, or might not. As many of these lists go you will likely act as I do…. Stoic, dismissive, and blase… I will find myself say, “I know all these already,” ……. and then my eyes humble me by finding an exciting new gem.
1) I am very pleased with Google Voice. The sheer amount of functionality is not only superb… but it is useful without being daunting. I do not know if this is public yet, but if you forgot about your own Grand Central account… go ahead and log in, because that is what Google Voice was built on. Basically, among other things, the real timer saver is voicemail messages that can be both emailed or texted to your phone, and they provide transcripts that are voice to text. Need to hear the 14th our of 22 voicemails IMMEDIATELY? Never wait again. Hell.. just read it.
2) Flock browser, which I extolled here. It integrates Digg, Flickr, FB, Youtube, Twitter, Myspace and more into a convenient sidebar… if you like a pic or article, auto-upload from your sidebar without leaving the webpage. It has an RSS reader that killed Google reader for me… it has a media bar that is insanely simple to use for download/upload, and I can post blog posts on the fly. It has saved so much time I cannot even tell you…. it also remembers all accounts, I.E. 6 gmail accounts, 5 flickr, 6 youtube, 3 blog accounts, 2 FB, etc. Incredible time saving tools there.
3) As for the managing of multi-twitter accounts, I like twhirl. I know there are other options, and I am all ears, but for now this provides a simple way to post relevant articles or have conversation thoughout the day from a desktop dashboard environment of multiple accounts. When they are all grouped, I lose my mind, so I like seperate streams.
4) As for managing twitter accounts, try out TWEEPULAR. Easy bulk follow, bulk unfollow, and more. Very cool.
5) This is old hat, but for managing scheduled tweets, and more to the point *brand keywords*, try Tweetlater. I sell it short here… it does a lot of stuff, and I still haven’t grasped all it’s offerings.
6) I also use Twitterfeed to pipe in about 500 RSS to about 10 twitter accounts. I doubt you will need it like that, but you surely can find relevant corporate hotel or property level blog feeds into the account while still using it for conversation. Very efficient, and very useful.
7) URL SHORTERNER – With Twitter moving away from tiny.url, I must say I was immediately mesmerized, captivated and moved by BIT.LY. Not only will you be able to post to your twitter account from there, it manages multiple twitter accounts *AND* post to FB, among others. Bit.Ly wins…. with functionality beyond the above!
Following online conversation: Blogpulse, Backtype, & Social Mention. I am fairly certain Social Mention should cover the other two, but it doesn’t hurt to set up alerts and field them as they trickle in. Or flood. Depends on your brand.
9) I don’t really like Digg, but I use it. That being said, Delicious.com with it’s simpler and new URL, works for me.. really well. Does anyone use Reddit? Digg is too confusing for me, and apparently Reddit has a lovely little community going on. But Delicious is by far the easiest to search, log, and come back to, at least.. for me.
10) You may also want to consider cross posting / status updating sites… which can walk a fine line between heaven and disaster. You may want to look at Ping.FM as the industry leader for the time being. But with many on the way, even ones on the verge (hello AtomKeep).. and if you are interested in something that allows you to crosspost, manage 60 accounts and more…
Try HelloTxt. It’s a newer (at least.. to me) site I am *REALLY* excited about, and albeit remaining calm and skeptical, it seems to be able to manage all 12 twitter accounts, linked in, FB etc… but what is big about this one is that it seems I can manage FACEBOOK PAGES…
That means that a hotel can post independently to a twitter account, a personal twitter account , a personal FB account, and a Branded FB page, as well as a (single) branded Flickr account, a branded wordpress blog, and more. I am very excited to see how I utilize HelloText with Flock. But being able to do this from ONE SINGLE LOCATION? That is unusually exciting to me. I need to get out more.
Life might be getting easier for us, little by little. Of course these will be obsolete by the time twitterfeed picks up this parsed RSS 30 minutes from clicking *publish*
Yet another ambly, rambly post from a caffeine fueled hospitality dork.This is more waxing than anything, and is a state of affairs and insight rather than some exciting insider news.Hopefully, if you actually finish it, it will just make you nod your head and think a bit.This is about how we spend out time…. and however it ebbs, however fast; it’s an issue nowadays. “The only reason for time is so that everything doesn’t happen at once.” Might be easy for Albert Einstein to say that…. but it sort of seems like everything *is* happening at once nowadays.
You know what we do.I know what we do. We goof off all day long online! <ducking>
Ha ha… I kid I kid! But there are moments I feel a hairsbreadth from snapping, lost and boggled while in the stream… panicked with glazed over and angry eyes just trying to read the matrix. Then a client calls and wants me to explain what I am doing? Yeah right… like I have to answer to them (tongue firmly in cheek).
So we social media people do a couple things.Of those things, I think we mainly get overwhelmed with the depressing fact that, of the 100% of things we see, only a small percentage of the data is relevant. Beyond the natural conversation, CRM, and carrying a torch for your brand…. I think most of us start our mornings by filtering content, right? And … OH!… so much content!
Sometimes during this process, I come close to forgetting to walk Pavlov, or eat lunch (like today), or take a break… or look up. Sometimes when I do look up, it’s 9pm. Frankly, I *have* started to get a unique balance of work/life between all these influences, something especially complex in that so many of these social media platforms cross back and forth from the personal world to the professional realm. It isn’t easy to balance, but I think we are all getting there.This isn’t about work/life balance however, but if you have any good tricks let me hear them!
Honestly, some of my aforementioned dementia is rollicking good hyperbole, but I *KNOW* you are aware of what I am speaking about. I am a hotelier at heart and in practice, but now I am part of this league of social media people with some very peculiar problems. As for this chaotic side to our job that is less about conversation and more about keywords – what would we like to call it? Content management? Data filtering? I know we have to have google alerts, rss’, twitter searches, flicker searches, and an endless amount of other minutia. I am not sure how much of my day is spent *working* versus *filtering*. What’s more, unless you are deft with boolean logic, the sheer volume of stuff that comes our way into readers, email reminders, and feeds is insurmountable. More and more I find I am choosing my battles, and scarily deleting whole streams of keywords that just don’t feel relevant enough vs. the amount of time I would need to comprehend all of them.
The frustrating thing is that a monkey (or bright lemur) could perform a decent chunk of this. There are great solutions for these time and data management issues, such as Radian6, but they provide a whole new level of work and have a price point some of us cannot justify.So, many of us our relegated to doing our own work… HEY NO FAIR!
The problem with the amount of time consumed by this is that it keeps us from the real conversation and CRM duties we are being paid to accomplish.For proper yelp and tripadvisor responses, or the courting of potential clients on twitter, you need a fairly robust intellect bolstered by a grasp of how to inject professionalism, personality, and passion into your interactions, coupled with the tactful skill of being deferential *and* confident? That stuff isn’t easy…. but then these same people are sitting and filtering keywords and conversations for relevancy…. A mind numbing task that a smart 6 year old could do for you.It isn’t a bad idea really… I think they work real cheap.
Whenever I get somewhat insecure or OCD-tweeked with the robotic like filtering of keywords, data, images, and the basic conversation… I just remind myself that someone has to do it. It is sort of like a B-52 bomber right? The guys up top had a job to do navigating and bombing, while us little brand watchers in the belly of the plane have to survey the landscape…. watch what’s going on… and shoot when necessary(The coffee this morn was so strong it beat up that weak analogy).
Basically what I am saying is that it is part of a larger picture, and is basically moot.For our purposes, it is just a daunting necessity…. And part of our world.In fact, I see that it is getting its hooks into me… a casual 2 minute weekend web search for dinner reservations or a movie showtime can turn into an exhausting foray into my new drug.While my fiancée readies for our evening excursion, I am sneaking about like some philanderer, furtively injecting my head with this addiction via rss feeds and alerts.As she emerges from our bedroom I scurry away from the computer for fear of getting caught dosing myself and basking in the dimly lit glow of my screen. “But someone might be mentioning the brand!” I think to myself.I realize that social media’s speed *DOES* mean that you need to be on top of it, and join in the conversation as soon as it happens -But there is a limit.
This *huge* aspect of our job is tantamount to trying to beat the internet.Just a friendly reminder that isn’t possible. So what’s the point here?Why the complaining if there is nothing to be done about it??
The issue is the client.
Not only do clients not always “get” social media (that is why they have hired you), but they also may have sneaking suspicions about how much work you are doing versus playing.All the boomers like to talk about “productivity in the workplace dropping”, but if the old days of business were anything like “Mad Men” I think a little playing online during the day is just fine, compared to being drunk on scotch at half past ten (sounds lovely, to be sure).
In the end, this all may be born of my insecurities.I admit I have some concerns with relating the work we do for clients, and resolving the best way to inform them of it.I have spoken about Social Media ROI and getting over it, but I saw a very sanguine and concise point in a blog comment recently:“I know it’s hard, but this is business and it just isn’t right that we can’t measure it”.It’s true.It’s business.It needs to be measured.I think we will get some level of measurement someday, but it’s still evolving.For now, I still think the ROI is the “return on ignoring” social media…. But it still doesn’t make it okay that we can’t get a grip on it.
My clients are happy whether or not they “get” social media, because the end result has been more bookings, better brand image, and people talking about them.Therefore, they are incredibly trusting and supportive, even in relation to the above issues.We social media people need a lot of room, and a long leash, so we can really dig in and gets are hands dirty.But many of my clients don’t understand some core aspects of what we do… namely the amount of time we spend just *getting* to the conversation.Sometimes the important conversations aren’t that apparent, or don’t just come to you via your facebook page.What’s more, I am concerned about measurement for *me*, and not just my clients.This, again, is about time management.At the end of the week, or month, I would love a way to hand over all my work in the form of a single document, spreadsheet, etc, as compared to the lengthy phone calls I need to have.When clients don’t understand social media, and you start showing it to them in the form of work accomplished (building a twitter account and participating, or commenting on a blog, etc)… it may just go over their head.I have seen a number of shrugged shoulders and a “well you have obviously done something….”.I know it is our job to get across what we are doing, but most of what I am doing now is showing them the actual conversation and chatting about it at length… let’s look at twitter, then flickr, then youtube, then…. Aaaaaaaaaaand my day is over and once again I haven’t gotten to any real work.Ha.There’s the rub.Forget sleeping or dreaming (for the Shakespear fans)
All of this is more consumption of time (yes… same as this post too), and it just adds to the dilemma of actually getting work done when you are simply filtering data on the front end, and trying to explain the work you did on the back end.Informing your clients about your work is vital, and if *ANYONE* has ingenious thoughts or methods of efficiently and succinctly relating your social media campaigns to your clients.. I would love to hear them.
Until then, don’t try to beat the internet.Not only is that impossible, but if you literally do it your laptop will be busted into smithereens, and your router will be in shambles. =)Time for lunch at 2pm!
Following online conversation: