Hraba Hospitality Consulting » hotel philosophy http://www.hrabaconsulting.com/blog HHotelConsult hoping to make sense of his brainpan's thoughts, rambles, ambles, and more. Hotel Industry banter, social media thoughts, and general blather. Mon, 30 Jan 2012 23:35:11 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 TripAdvisor Ethics Watch – Pay to list phone and website? http://www.hrabaconsulting.com/blog/2009/08/27/tripadvisor-ethics-watch-pay-to-list-phone-and-website/ http://www.hrabaconsulting.com/blog/2009/08/27/tripadvisor-ethics-watch-pay-to-list-phone-and-website/#comments Thu, 27 Aug 2009 22:06:10 +0000 Michael Hraba http://www.hrabaconsulting.com/blog/?p=814 taethics

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?

]]> http://www.hrabaconsulting.com/blog/2009/08/27/tripadvisor-ethics-watch-pay-to-list-phone-and-website/feed/ 1 What do you say about managers not in the room? or “Hotel Managers: Don’t get caught unaware like you did during the optimization period of the 90′s” http://www.hrabaconsulting.com/blog/2009/03/12/what-do-you-say-about-managers-not-in-the-room-or-hotel-managers-dont-get-caught-unaware-like-you-did-during-the-optimization-period-of-the-90s/ http://www.hrabaconsulting.com/blog/2009/03/12/what-do-you-say-about-managers-not-in-the-room-or-hotel-managers-dont-get-caught-unaware-like-you-did-during-the-optimization-period-of-the-90s/#comments Fri, 13 Mar 2009 00:38:25 +0000 Michael Hraba http://www.hrabaconsulting.com/blog/2009/03/12/what-do-you-say-about-managers-not-in-the-room-or-hotel-managers-dont-get-caught-unaware-like-you-did-during-the-optimization-period-of-the-90s/ Remember being a young buck in the industry?  Remember when they didn’t have solitaire, or even windows based PMS?  Standing at the desk in an empty lobby gazing into nowhere, or on the overnight sneaking away from the desk to create a makeshift sandwich from the walk in?  Remember thinking you always did more work than managers?  I consider myself a pretty nice guy; amicable, easy, and good at communicating with almost everyone.  But there was a manager or two… I would find myself muttering things under my breath.  Bad things.

But as a manager, my ears became bionic.  I think they would *actually* curve towards the direction of the whispers or furtive eyes having a private conversation.  You know those moments…. when you walk in and *KNOW* line employees were talking about you.

It makes you think, what the hell are they saying when I am not in the room?

I knew I was an awesome manager, and even if they were speaking kindly (**”oh he’s cute”**, no doubt) I would be suspicious as all get out.  I am an insecure type, so it would eat me up.  I think it was good in the end, because I became an even more hands on manager, and really worked in the trenches with my staff.

So part of my philosophy was always being available, present and accessible.  Being visible, and letting others know I was there for them prevented a lot of unfortunate situations.  I was able to resolve situations immediately upon noticing them, reinforce the quality of the brand, improve morale, root us in the community (long chats with locals about this and that), and probably prevented some bad talk about me, and more…. just by being an active, present manager.

What’s more, if you leave the room and don’t come back, people start speaking pretty freely when they know no one can hear them.  This, of course, is not good.  This is that guest or employee unleashing tirades with impunity.  You need to be there for them.

Well think of a twitter account like that.  Think of all your social media accounts like that.  It’s your online concierge department, and you are the manager.  A good manager is present, and available.  When you are, people know they can go to you, interact with you, utilize and trust you.  If you aren’t available (hiding in the back office reading the paper), you are missing opportunities and not doing your job… employees and guests alike are feeling ignored.

This is why you need to establish your social media presence.  This is why you need to reply to reviews… so reviewers know you are there and will review you more professionally.  This is why you need to search social networking sites, so you can assist in people’s conversations about you, or questions in regards to your offerings.  This is why RSS feeds become important, piping updates from Blogs to Facebook and more.

Otherwise, all your employees and guests that are online will know you aren’t in the room.  They will say whatever they please, and possibly consider you irrelevant. What’s worse, they might not consider you at all. You don’t want people knocking on your lobby door, asking questions and choosing their next stay when you aren’t listening. It isn’t just about missing out on an opportunity, it’s that ignoring it could be a real disaster.


]]> http://www.hrabaconsulting.com/blog/2009/03/12/what-do-you-say-about-managers-not-in-the-room-or-hotel-managers-dont-get-caught-unaware-like-you-did-during-the-optimization-period-of-the-90s/feed/ 0 Operational Management for Hotels, and the Facebook Generation http://www.hrabaconsulting.com/blog/2009/01/16/operational-management-for-hotels-and-the-facebook-generation/ http://www.hrabaconsulting.com/blog/2009/01/16/operational-management-for-hotels-and-the-facebook-generation/#comments Fri, 16 Jan 2009 19:38:08 +0000 Michael Hraba http://www.hrabaconsulting.com/blog/2009/01/16/operational-management-for-hotels-and-the-facebook-generation/

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

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