• 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.

• Cornell hotel school has their 2009 wrap up, 2010 report, & another couple studies… like fairness & perceived differences in rate differential, or cases in innovative practices.  If you don’t look at anything, I suggest you take a gander at this…. chock full of info, especially the 2010 report with articles and excercises for marketing, spa, F&B, Operations and more!

• 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!

• Some good news!  Hotels are gaining attention from lenders, travelers are ramping up leisure trips, and some interesting insight into your luxury branded guests…..

• 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.

• TOURISM IS ALL OF US blog chats about “filling seats” (a la movie theatre analogy) with social media in hotels.  An interesting approach to understanding what your internet presence really is….

• Optimizing your hotel’s “Social Graph” - a great and simple visual way to understand social media’s impact on your guests and potential guests.

• 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).

• Are you sick of too much info?  Too much data?  Does it feel numbing as you sit by and try to beat the internet every day?  Well… MS has innovative approaches in how to sift through massive amounts of raw data and content with “Pivot”.

• 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! =)

• It isn’t about you… at all.  It’s about them.  I am starting to realize this about everything… social media, website development, new marketing… it’s “what can you do for me, what have you done for me lately”.  Well, hotel blogosphere goes on a bit in regards to this, and reminds you that it might not be about what you know, but what, fundamentally, it means to potential clients.   What’s more, he hits the nail on the head in regards to hotel websites, relevancy, and standing out.

• 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!

• (Also… if you hadn’t been aware of what’s going on here, social media in travel becomes legitimate business force)

Sign of the times – Ritz Lake Las Vegas to close 2nd May.  The economy may be leveling off it’s slide, but foreclosures lurk everywhere.

Gulliver points out a fairly brilliant honors scheme hatched by Intercontinental Hotel Group over Hilton’s disastrous alteration of honor awards points.

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.

Interesting and thoughtful piece on being a cautious, calculating restaurateur & entrepreneur in these times.  Fact is, it pays off big in a lot of situations.

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.

Here are some interesting thoughts on Luxury Lifestyle and Travel Trends for 2010

Is Social Media the next Search Engine?  Some people think it is, just as we find out Facebook directs more online users than Google.

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.

Speaking of Tripadvisor… here are a couple best practices for a top ranking.

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… anyone that wants to look at and figure out this abstract from a couple UK universities:

A model of hotel occupancy performance for monitoring and marketing in the hotel industry

Spas adapt to these rough times:

appetizer sized spa portions… down economy forcing a reorientation of full sized treatments

green recoverings – donating used linens for the needy
a simple, PHENOMENAL program that would be easy, and beneficial, to implement.

What would google do? – vilifying google for content distribution

Gradigio / Hotel Marketing Strategies – Josiah’s best of 2009 and Strategies for 2010

Social Media integrated with email marketing for hotels

How sustainable tourism effects travel and your wallet

Google study suggest marketing imperative to travel

Some great books for the businessperson just entering social media, and trying to make sense of it.

La Croix meets hotel uniforms to equal high fashion on the frontlines

Google’s Real Time Search, and hotel social media marketing

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!

An aside about the hotel industry if I may:

Industry wide, we are not adapters… nor are we pioneers.  One of the most respected men I know in the industry told me an old industry joke:  “Pioneers were shot in the back.”

ROI is hard to justify when it comes to pioneering new technology that is buggy and will probably fail.  Anyone ever had to rip out faulty construction three days before opening will attest trying the “newer” tech isn’t always the “safest” tech.  And don’t get talking to me about radiant flooring used in commercial hotel projects.  Ugh.

So, it has been hotels standard operating procedure to do the following:

Wait for some other “idiot” (said endearingly) to pioneer the tech.  Let *that* person waste all their money trying it, figuring it out, and then fixing it when it breaks.

After 6 months, you take what they did, *AND WHAT THEY LEARNED*, and do it right, better, and cheaper.

This is a fail safe business plan to be sure, but it does backfire.

So back to the current state of things, IE Hotels Backfiring.  If you are a hotel and don’t get social media peruse the below.

Hotels seem to have a somewhat guarded and defensive approach to social media.  Even the wise properties that are innovative, internet aware, and with strong marketing teams… they are at times LOST.  Scared that their old marketing trends are dying, and now their rolodex and contacts and college degree are quickly becoming a vestige, or worse… irrelevant (that is marketing degrees are now sort of moot if you were in school over 5 years ago.  Yeah it hurts, I am getting old as well). I am not so quick to think it isn’t of merit… but it will take some fixing to get old marketers communicating with new marketers.  It is like the dorky book scientist that needs to explain his innovation to the public but cannot find a simple way to describe what a “Differential Microwave Radiometer”* does.

So… we have hotels looking at social media as a compartmentalized outlet for people to bitch about something with other bitchers (pardon the colloquialistic expression… just imagine you are at one of those managers meetings during a lunch hour with those “types”… you know?).

But it isn’t that.  Well it is.  Actually.  Just look at my previous post.  Sure I attack the consumer, but I must take a swing at the stodgy old hotelier once inawhile too.

Social media is a vital tool for a couple reasons.  One is that you can retroactively “hear” consumers and respond, both directly to them and about the situation.  How you respond is up to you…. like employees fishing comment cards out of the box and ripping up the ones with their name (saw it happen, never did it), or getting these comments to the department heads: GM for serious issues, Rooms for cleanliness issues, Maintenance for broken hooks, etc.  It can actually help you run your business, sure!

But what is more important is where it is taking your brand, and what being aware of social media can do for your brand in the coming 100 years.  Reidentifying, repurposing, and shifting your old brand (that was pushed through old media efforts) into this new world of anti-marketing and all advertising becoming spam.

The upshot is that you can reorganize your business into something with purpose, meaning, ethos, and intent.  Instead of pushing a terrible product (no offense, anyways I mean the other guy reading this) on people with glam marketing tactics like direct mail pieces and flashy billboards (that was tongue in cheek), you reorganize your structure to understand and yield to consumer demand and interest.

Finally, that one human to one human connection exists between social reviewer and business.  When you start seeing how the new market works, and how the new consumer handles businesses (in this case a hotel) you will be able to go from pushing your product, to listening, learning and then packaging your product into something not so much “sellable”, as something highly “DESIRABLE”.

Force fed consumers are a thing of the past, and now consumers create individuality with their demand for quality products to endorse.  People are empty vessels to fill with your brand if they so identify or appreciate the intent behind it.

Realize this.  It isn’t about selling a product anymore.  It is about creating a product people want.

When your brand / hotel / business stops pushing itself on a million people that don’t care about you, and really listening to the 1000′s that do… and modeling yourself to the market…. is when you will start being successful in this post-advert world.

(* a microwave instrument that would map variations / anisotropies in the CMB)

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!

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.

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.