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Please note that the author's opinions published on this site are of his alone and do not necessarily reflect those of Guillaume's current employer.This site is neither sanctioned nor endorsed by Guillaume's current employer and is a personal effort and initiative by Guillaume Thevenot.All care but no responsibility is taken for errors and ommissions.All material on this site may be reproduced with permission of the author - Guillaume Thevenot and appropriate acknowledgement.Stats

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

This week (hotel distribution, a free OTAs freemium) hotel in # 8

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Hotel Blogs - Let's talk about hotels: This Week In Hotels #8 (Hotel Distribution, Direct vs. OTAs, Freemium vs. Free)Hotel Blogs - Let's talk about hotels« Good discussions on LinkedIN |Main| The most anticipated hotel opening in London - W hotel London #1 »

Friday, August 20, 2010This Week In Hotels #8 (Hotel Distribution, Direct vs. OTAs, Freemium vs. Free)

In this week episode #8 of This Week in Hotels, Josiah and I discuss:

Section 1: Back and Forth

- the balance of indirect distribution vs direct distribution

- is it possible to work without online travel agents

- how to you keep you hotel website the best channel for the best rates

- thoughts on the latest article of Wired founder Chris Anderson The Web Is Dead, Long Live the Internet

- freemium model vs. free

- Twitter applications (Seesmic, Tweetdeck, HootSuite)

Section 2: Hotel site review analysis

- this week we are reviewing Mafia Island Hotel resort website

Section 3: Questions from the audience

- no questions this week but feel free to throw some at us for next week show by using our Twitter accounts @hotelblogs and @HMarketingHelp

Prefer the mp3 to listen while exercising or commuting? I do, too. Here’s the download.

For next week, we would appreciate if you could send us:

story ideasquestions you havewebsites to review and analyze

Posted at 12:15 PM in ThisWeekInHotels | Permalink

Technorati Tags:distribution, free, freemium, hospitality, hotel, island, mafia, ota, seesmic, tweetdeck, twitter

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TRIPADVISOR DIRECT LINK IS ONE OF THE BEST LInk
we use it for our two hotels and this is really powerful

all you say in your analys is 100 % right that is what I do evryday and that work , regarding the security I recommend you bookassit they have the pci

Posted by: SI HOCINE |Friday, August 20, 2010 at 03:52 PM

@Si Hocine - thanks for sharing your view on your experience with TripAdvisor. Are most booking engines PCI compliant?

Posted by:Guillaume Thevenot |Tuesday, August 24, 2010 at 06:56 AM

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Tuesday, October 5, 2010

This week in hotel # 10 (translation options, such as the location of the Facebook)

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Hotel Blogs - Let's talk about hotels: This Week In Hotels #10 (Translation options, Facebook Places, and more)Hotel Blogs - Let's talk about hotels« This Week In Hotels #9 (Translation options, Facebook Places, and more) |Main| Why hotels are farms and OTAs becoming grocery stores »

Monday, September 06, 2010This Week In Hotels #10 (Translation options, Facebook Places, and more)

[Prefer to listen? Download the mp3 recording here]

If you want to jump to a specific point in the conversation, here are the topics:

2:45 – Should you offer free wifi? (We debate the issue)

5:00 – Could offering free wifi improve your online reputation?

5:45 – Which is better: free, slow wifi or fast & paid?

8:45 – Hotels – tell us what your Internet costs are

13:00 – Some research on what amenities guests want most

15:00 – An interesting case study from Ritz Carlton on Twitter

18:30 – This example is just a logical extension of the core values held at Ritz Carlton

20:10 – Case study of hotel pre-opening, where all employees began blogging

22:45 – Question: how to handle construction and avoid disappointed guests?

26:00 – Opening a hotel during construction all at once vs. a gradual opening

This Week in Hotels, Episode 10 from Josiah Mackenzie on Vimeo.

Posted at 11:00 AM in ThisWeekInHotels | Permalink

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Hey thanks for the mention guys! This Week in Bed - new episode is here by the way:

http://bedandbreakfastclub.co.uk/this-week-in-bed-episode-2-paying-for-toilet

(plug type - blatant and unapologetic)

Lots of stuff talked about this week...

Wi Fi should be free - absolutely no question. The reason it isn't - because people keep paying for it - generally business travellers who don't care because 'the company is paying'. Wrong.

Construction should always be talked about and guests should always be told about it - again, no debate.

It should be done in a way to limit the number of cancellations but hotels should expect not to be running at a high occupancy when doing construction work.

I agreed that 40% off for construction work should be offered. Josiah's point that reviews hang around for years is extremely valid.
Reviews are so important that by not telling people about construction you could completely ruin the business.

Posted by:Paul White |Monday, September 06, 2010 at 01:45 PM

As a Best Western owner (and an owner representative within the global Best Western brand)I'm happy to share my experience of free WiFi at Best Western Hotels and to answer Guillaume's question. Over 2 years ago it was clear from commissioned research and customer feedback that chargeable WiFi created negative perceptions of the hotel. The opportunity was there for a global brand to be first to offer this service across all Best Western hotels worldwide. We had an opportunity to stand out from the crowd amongst mid-market hotels. The proposition was placed before hotel owners who voted for this brand standard to be adopted with a 1 year lead-in time. No financial assistance was offered to hotel owners. If free WiFi was not offered by 2008 then the hotel would be in default at its next annual quality assessment. Failure to comply would lead to termination from the brand. The free WiFi service is now offered by 100% of Best Western hotels worldwide. Our guests love it. I operate two hotels in Scotland and I know that my guests book me over other mid-market other brands because I offer free WiFi. I personaly stay in numerous hotels every year and only choose hotels which offer free WiFi. I also influence the selection of a major annual conference for over 400 delegates and we only select a hotel which offers free WiFi.

Russell Imrie

Posted by:Russell Imrie |Tuesday, September 07, 2010 at 09:22 AM

if u want to visit India...u must visit BINSAR..awesome hill station
http://www.imperialheightsbinsar.com/
and this hotel is the best one there..good food, good service and peaceful environment..

Posted by:Abhishek Khulbe |Wednesday, September 08, 2010 at 04:52 PM

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Monday, October 4, 2010

This week in hotel # 4 (video, digital publishing, Foursquare push)

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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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