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Friday, October 8, 2010

This week In Hotel # 4 (use of video, the transition to digital Publishing, Foursquare)

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Hotel Blogs - Let's talk about hotels: This Week In Hotels #4 (use of video, Shift to Digital Publishing, Foursquare)Hotel Blogs - Let's talk about hotels« This Week In Hotels - live broadcast on Thursday |Main| How hoteliers & restaurants can start using Foursquare »

Friday, July 23, 2010This Week In Hotels #4 (use of video, Shift to Digital Publishing, Foursquare)

In this week’s episode of This Week in Hotels, Josiah and I discuss:

Different ways your hotel can use video onlineTypes of video to produceSites to distribute toA free tool that allows you to submit your video to all the major video sharing sites at once (TubeMogul)Is distributing your video really worth it…when you look at the metrics?The problem of Tokio Hotel on YouTube hotel search resultsWhy YouTube and others (Vimeo Dailymotion are more powerful than ever)The role of hardware like the iPad in encouraging social media use among your guestsListener question: Does the internet REALLY change the hotel industry? Is profitability up?The shift to digital publishingIntroduction of Foursquare and how it might help your hotel direct marketing with your prospects

Prefer to listen on the go? I know I do, and that’s why you can download the MP3 audio here.

We need your questions for next week’s show! If you have one, please leave it in the comments below…or use Twitter with hashtag #twih

Posted at 07:59 PM in ThisWeekInHotels | Permalink

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Salut Guillaume,

c'est vraiment pas mal votre vidéo, le concept, le format sont inovants et le contenu est très interessant... bravo a vous deux, je vous suivrais souvent.
Idée pour le prochain Week in Hotels: les methodes, trucs et astuces pour promouvoir gratuitement (ou pas) son etablissement sur internet
Thomas

Posted by:Thomas |Saturday, July 24, 2010 at 10:52 AM

Salut Thomas! Content que ca te plaise. N'hesites pas a nous donner des suggestions ou questions. Guillaume

@Penny Stocks Your ongoing spam starts to really piss me off

Posted by:Guillaume Thevenot |Saturday, July 24, 2010 at 08:21 PM

I really enjoyed this discussion and look forward to future editions with great anticipation. This is not a commercial (!) but we've recently added virtual tour and video technology to our website in addition to still shots as, like you, we believe less text, more multimedia, more interaction is the way forward. Obviously, visitors need factual data, but an honest image or video, as opposed to over-professionally enhanced ones, and honest reviews and comments, will surely tend to sway increasingly savvy spending decisions. The problem in some parts of Europe (Mallorca is one of these places) is that managers and proprietors of hospitality businesses can be rather conservative about all this "new" stuff!

Thanks for the blog and best wishes.

Posted by:Mike Goggin - My Mallorca Info |Monday, July 26, 2010 at 02:34 PM

Hi Guillaume! Great post and it's exciting to hear that hotels are incorporating video more and more. I look forward to watching as the usage increases (and also to staying in touch!)

Regards,
Adam

Posted by:Adam Peterson |Monday, July 26, 2010 at 07:00 PM

@Mike - Thank you for your support. It's great to hear your experience with videos and virtual tours. I know the hospitality sector can be averse and conservative using new technology and new online tools but this blog is trying to prove the contrary with concrete examples of hotels using 21st century marketing to their own benefits

@Adam - Hi! Great to hear from you. Sorry that I didn't follow up on the offer a while ago. My head was spinning and couldn't keep up with emails. Again sorry.

Posted by:Guillaume Thevenot |Tuesday, July 27, 2010 at 10:57 PM

Re. hotels and video. I think the hotel has to be careful - do you want them to appear too professional? I like Josiah's idea of using flip camera, make it look good, but, not staged.

Foursquare hasn't really taken off in the UK yet, but I can see potential for local businesses to use this to attract new customers and award regular's.

Posted by:Darren |Wednesday, July 28, 2010 at 08:54 PM

Hotels and video has such huge potential. I would prefer to see many short clips over the promotional montage they often do, but both is even better.

Posted by:hotels travel |Monday, August 02, 2010 at 02:30 AM

What an interesting idea, services like this are becoming more and more available.

Posted by:Hotels Clifton |Friday, August 20, 2010 at 12:52 PM

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Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Most anticipated Hotel opens in London-W Hotels London # 1

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Hotel Blogs - Let's talk about hotels: The most anticipated hotel opening in London - W hotel London #1Hotel Blogs - Let's talk about hotels« This Week In Hotels #8 (Hotel Distribution, Direct vs. OTAs, Freemium vs. Free) |Main| Got a bad review, so what? »

Friday, August 20, 2010The most anticipated hotel opening in London - W hotel London #1

Day -178

I know that maybe I came up with a very catchy headline but I genuinely thinks the W hotel in London is probably the most anticipated hotel opening in the English capital for a long time after the St Martin Lane.

Not only the hotel will be located in a prime location of Leicester Square by the Swiss clock but also would have all the movie premieres nearby.

We are still very far away from the opening which is scheduled to happen in early 2011 (February 14th 2011 says their website). The pictures of the site taken this week say it all.

The exterior seems quite minimalistic for now and reminds me of the W Boston in a way.

If you want to know the starting price, just go to their website as they already accept bookings from February 14th 2011. The king bedroom starts at £309 which seems to me very high for the 1st month of opening.

I have my doubts about whether they can stick to February for the grand opening.

So let's start a countdown and I will keep you updated about the progress of the development.

Posted at 03:10 PM in Hotel Chains, Hotel Development | Permalink

Technorati Tags:2011, design, development, hotel, leicester, london, opening, square, starwood, w

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Fantastic submit once again mate. I believe you’ve hit the nail about the head there. It does not ought to be challenging yet mose men and women fail to recognize the basics.

Posted by:maria |Saturday, August 21, 2010 at 09:36 AM

A real cool Building, hope they can open it just in time. Like it!

Posted by:Pichlarn Fan |Monday, August 23, 2010 at 04:09 PM

@Maria - no worries, not sure what you make such a statement though

@Pichlarn Fan, thanks. I keep you posted with development

Posted by:Guillaume Thevenot |Tuesday, August 24, 2010 at 06:49 AM

very cool but i want to see inside.

Posted by:jade |Thursday, August 26, 2010 at 08:18 AM

very cool but i want to see inside

Posted by:jade |Thursday, August 26, 2010 at 08:19 AM

Great job. This is nice post and thanks for sharing this post with us.

Posted by:Renta Car |Thursday, August 26, 2010 at 08:34 PM

Good going..!! i like your blog on hotels and waiting next to publish really appreciating..
Thanks for sharing this information...

Posted by:Hotels in Gurgaon |Tuesday, August 31, 2010 at 06:32 AM

Can't wait to see this go up! Especially with a comparison to St. Martin's Lane. It's hard to top a good location- glad to see this one is well-situated.

I took a look at the location on the map- it's right around the corner from Jade Garden http://www.thepurplepassport.com/picks/London/Restaurant/jade-garden/ where there's a list & map of nearby places- good to know W hotel will be close to so many good eats, museums, shopping, etc... Like I said, location! location!

Thanks for keeping us updated!

Posted by:PurpleShanen |Tuesday, September 14, 2010 at 12:39 AM

Hello Guys,

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Posted by:Hojoday TonaBeach |Tuesday, September 21, 2010 at 10:35 AM

Hello Guys,

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Posted by:Comfort Inn |Tuesday, September 21, 2010 at 12:32 PM

It's really beautiful and modern building, need to visit on occasion. Thanks for your blog.

Posted by:Anatoly |Friday, September 24, 2010 at 05:30 PM

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This week In Hotel # 9 (options for translation, Facebook, and more)

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Watch episode 9 of This Week in Hotels – with Josiah and I discussing the latest technology trends, and how your hotel might use them:?

This Week in Hotels, Episode 9 from Josiah Mackenzie on Vimeo.

[The video was a little messed up this week...probably the fault of my software. Sorry! You may want to just listen: Download the mp3 recording here]

Prefer to read our discussion? Here are the highlights:

The transcript wouldn't have been made without Katie (so thank Katie on her Twitter account pease)

[1:30] Josiah and Guillaume discuss the recent launch of Facebook Places. Why should your hotel follow geo-location developments?

Josiah: On the last few episodes, we’ve been discussing this topic – everything from how you can use Four Square for your business, down to… will Four Square be acquired by another service, or is Facebook going to offer or launch a competitive feature – and that’s exactly what happened only a few hours after we finished recording last week’s episode.

This is their entrance into geo-location; this is how they’re going to engage the 500 million people that use their network and I think that is going to be the key to their success. But only one week into the program… it’s a little to early to make a judgment call about whether there’s going to be a strong return on their investment.

Guillaume: So, have you ever experimented with Facebook Places?

Josiah: I’ll be trying it out more in the weeks ahead, but I have to say that I’m pretty impressed. For me, a service is only useful if my friends are using it, or if I can be connecting with people. Wiith Facebook Places, I can see if my friends are at a venue, for example, if I’m at a concert, or… a sporting event, I can see if my friends are at that venue; we can connect that way. You can check in some of your friends as well.

Guillaume: Well, I didn’t play around with Facebook Places, but to me, it was another additional feature that allows you to post where you are… so all of this is already available. I think the difference, maybe, is that it’s instant communication. The difference between what I’ve been using, Four Square, versus Facebook Places, is the “gaming” aspect, where I can be the mayor of a place, I can earn some badges. Facebook… there’s nothing. I don’t see what sort of advantages I’d have, in the long run.

Josiah: Right. I think that’s a good point, because these two tools are quite different in that regard. Like you say, in Four Square, you’re competing with the whole Four Square community: who’s there most often, and Facebook is more, well, the title of their blog post announcing this is “Who? What? When? And now, where?” So, they’re trying to tap the location element to the Facebook network, but to date, it’s not really competing against the larger group of people that are visiting your favorite establishments.

[7:50] Do you agree with Guillaume that “Four Square’s days are numbered”?

Guillaime: There’s no way around it; 500 million against 3 or 4 million users is going to be difficult… I think their days are probably numbered.

[9:23] In what way does Four Square have an advantage over Facebook Places?

Josiah: I think the company has a cool technology and a very passionate user base. From what I’ve seen, the Facebook users who are using Facebook Places, it’s sort of a passive, “This is kinda cool; it’s not too difficult, you know, why not try it?”. But Four Square people are much more engaged with the network…

Guillaume: Yeah, just watch these spaces in your free time: Twitter, Facebook, blogs. There are different free places where you can benefit by getting new customers to knock on the door of your hotels, and leave Facebook Places, and Gowalla and Four Square for later. I think it’s too soon to invest too much time in this.

[10:45] How can hotels decide which languages to use for their social media communications?

Josiah: So on the topic of location, I know you wanted to talk a little bit about languages that hotels are using on their website, in their communications. Let’s talk a little bit about your thinking on that. How do hotels decide which translations to offer? Which localized bits of information or social network they should be engaged in? Is there a criteria people can use for that?

Guillaume: It’s been an ongoing dilemma. When you launch a website for a hotel, the first thing you’re going to do is have it in English, because you want to reach as many people as possible, and then you go after other languages that are related to your targeted prospects. So if I’m let’s say, a hotel in a Spanish resort, there’s a good chance I want to have it in Spanish and English and German and Dutch, because that’s my target market. What I’m seeing sometimes, is that when I go to the hotel chain website – and I’m not talking about The Big Guys, I’m talking about the smaller guys – they push instantly, as a default, the local language.

Have you thought about localizing your promotion in different languages? It’s great to open a Facebook account, and a Twitter account, but most of it is pretty much done in English. Why don’t we open an account for Spanish travelers, or French travelers? What do you think of that?

Josiah: Would it make sense to create a separate Twitter account for each language that you wanna be engaging people in? Or do you think it’s good to just mix all languages into one account?

Guillaume: Well, the good news is, it is possible, thanks to Twitter applications that help you manage multiple accounts…

Josiah: Or, just think… who do you have on your team that would be able to facilitate this? For example, one resort that I work with in Canada has a lot of seasonal workers, a very international staff: people from Italy, Germany… there’s at least 5-6 different languages represented on their staff. And if you could just have each of those people maybe tweet out a few times a week, then you don’t need to think about, “How can we manage this relationship with all these different translators?”

Guillaume: Something that I’m sure they’re conscious of is the cost of translation. When you start translating a website, you want to make it right. You want to really professionalize the translation, making sure that it is understandable, and that’s why you have to make some choices about how many languages you want to cover on your website, your Twitter account, and Facebook. What have you been doing with your hotel website?

[16:40] Why is it so important for hotels to speak their guests’ language?

Josiah: I think this is so important because… even if someone understands English – they read, they speak English – I saw some study done a while back; people are more likely to purchase something – and this may have not been in the hotel industry, specifically – but, people in general would rather purchase something in their native language.

I’d like to kind of wrap up this topic with some really practical steps. How would a hotel decide what languages they need to be offering? Do they look at past guests’ records? Are they looking at Google Analytics to see which language people are coming from? Do you have any ideas on that?

Guillaume: They should have in their sales plan, marketing plan… “Which guest am I trying to attract? Which nationalities am I likely to get, based on my location? Based on what things are around my hotel? And how can I get to those guys? Could I do this as well myself by offering a good translation on my website, and be able to get direct bookings?” Those kinds of things need to be factored in. Do you have something to add?

Josiah: An effective translator will know how to communicate your intention into something that’s regionally and culturally appropriate for your target audience. So if you have someone on your team already, if you have multi-cultural staff, think about how you can take people who are already working for you and involve them in the process of translating and reaching more people.

[21:13] Should hotels offer a guest-referral-discount through social media channels?

Josiah: Question number one is from someone who sent it in anonymously. I have the email up right up here; they want to create sort of a hotel referral deal for their social media users. For example, you get two of your friends to book a room at the hotel and receive 50% off of your stay with them. The question is, “Have you seen anything like this before? Do you think the idea could work?”

Guillaume: I think it’s innovative. It’s probably worth a try. It depends on how old the hotel is. If the hotel just opened, I think it’s a great idea. You need to start somewhere, right? The question then is, how are you doing this? And how do you measure this?

Josiah: That’s a big one. Tracking is the biggest issue in my mind, at this point…

[23:31] Should hotels reward guests for taking satisfaction surveys?

Josiah: Okay, so the second question is around the topic of incentives, as well, and Brent sends this in. He’s working with a group of hotels in the U.S. and he saw a campaign done by a hotel in Hollywood, where they’re rewarding guests who take their guest satisfaction survey with money. And so, he thinks that, “Hotels should reward valuable customers, but not necessarily for completing a satisfaction survey” because he thinks that, “Guests are very savvy and will see right through this.”

I think the bigger question behind it is, “What’s the best way to encourage people to take a survey?” It’s all in how you ask for it, right?

Guillaume: A detailed survey is definitely a good way to understand where you can really make a dramatic change, but if it’s a long survey – it takes half an hour – I understand hat you might actually reward people for their time, but usually those kinds of surveys are done face-to-face, or over the phone…

At the end of the day, people will definitely respond if they think they’ll contribute to a better product.

Josiah: Well it all comes down to giving the right incentive, right? I think the people that you’re asking need to think, “Okay, this is actually going to improve my life.” People are selfish to a large extent, and if people see that their feedback and their insights will have a direct impact on making their life better, their experience better, the product better…

I’m a very big fan of one-question-surveys. The ultimate question being, “Would you refer us to your friends and your family?” I was on a website the other day that said something to effect of, “What did you come here for, and were you able to find it?” And it was a two button “yes or no”, and it probably takes about two and a half seconds to give this feedback. That would give you some good insights, and a lot of responses.

[31:20] What can hotels do to maximize exposure through the GDS?

Guillaume: Okay, so another question that was sent to me on Twitter about half an hour ago was, “What can hotels do to maximize exposure through the GDS?”

Well, first of all, you need to make sure of who you’re competing with on GDS. Remember – I think – it’s about 500 thousand hotels in the world; GDS is about 100 thousand. So, of those hotels in your location, who are you competing with? Another thing to look at is which market you want to target. Are you on the GDS to have international coverage and just target everything, or are you on the GDS because you know that this specific GDS – whether it’s Travel Port, or Amadeus, or Saber – have a good footprint in, let’s say, Mexico, for instance? That’s something you should know, because there are clear markets for different GDS.

Josiah: And make sure your GDS partner has the right firepower to support your hotel. That’s crucial.

Guillaume: The last point I wanted to make about exposure on the GDS is, make sure that your hotel’s information is accurate, up-to-date, and that you share a lot of pictures, as well. And let’s not forget other languages. GDS do support other languages, so make sure that you have your description and amenities translated.

Josiah: Good show today, and as always, if you have any questions, let us know, either through Twitter or through a comment on one of the blogs. We run this show to answer your questions, to help you look at everything that’s going on in the world of technology and hotels, explain it, and hopefully make your hotel more profitable.

Guillaume: Right; thank you, guys. Enjoy the rest of this week, and see you next week!

View the original article here

Monday, October 4, 2010

This week In Hotel # 5 (FourSquare, Online Concierge, Hotel site review)

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Hotel Blogs - Let's talk about hotels: This Week In Hotels #5 (FourSquare, Online Concierge, Hotel website review)Hotel Blogs - Let's talk about hotels« How hoteliers & restaurants can start using Foursquare |Main| Show on your Twitter account that you care (or at least try) »

Friday, July 30, 2010This Week In Hotels #5 (FourSquare, Online Concierge, Hotel website review)

In this week’s episode of This Week in Hotels, Josiah and I discuss:

Can Foursquare (and other geo-location apps) really benefit your hotel…or is it just a waste of time?Change is in the air…or is it? Daniel Edward Craig wrote an article getting a lot of buzz: Is the role of the concierge going away? We talked about how Hyatt’s Andaz brand is eliminating the front desk and concierge AND giving away free amenities. Is that something other hotels should imitate? How how John Wallis (VP Strategy at Hyatt) and his team are disrupting the front desk at their hotels. John, if you read this, we would love to have you on a show to discuss this further...Question from our audience: How do you know which travel websites are safe to use your credit card? (Plus, how someone tried to steal my identity this week…)New feature: we review a hotel’s website on the spot. Today we analyzed a hotel in the Peak District in the UK called The Bridge End
Ciaran’s Hotel Website Marketing workshop in Dublin in September

Do you prefer the audio version to listen on the go? Grab the mp3 file here.

We need your questions for next week’s show! If you have one, please leave it in the comments below…or use Twitter with the hashtag #twih

Previous shows can be found right here.

Posted at 07:43 AM in ThisWeekInHotels | Permalink

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This is the best chapter I've read your blog ah very own characteristics ah! I like this style ah

Posted by:nike shox NZ |Friday, August 06, 2010 at 03:12 AM

Great post! Thanks for outlining the various options for when things at the airport go wrong. I will definitely keep the alternative flight and hotel finder applications in mind if I'm ever (hopefully not!) in this situation.

Posted by:Whistler Flights |Monday, August 09, 2010 at 07:25 PM

Hat’s off. Well done, as we know that “hard work always pays off”, after a long struggle with sincere effort it’s done.

Posted by:BA |Monday, August 09, 2010 at 07:28 PM

@Nike Shox - Thanks buddy

@Whistler - not sure is this on topic but I will give you the benefits of the doubt

@BA - thanks your kind words and your support. We try to get better every week

Posted by:Guillaume Thevenot |Tuesday, August 10, 2010 at 10:21 PM

Interesting blog....nice to read

Posted by:India vacation packages |Wednesday, August 11, 2010 at 01:23 PM

You have a point. Very insightful. A nice different perspective.

Posted by:Hotels Melbourne Australia |Thursday, August 12, 2010 at 07:38 AM

i like those glasses

Posted by:jay |Thursday, August 19, 2010 at 05:05 PM

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