Does social media make your head hurt? Here are a few helpful resources for hotels

Putting together a social media program is a daunting task. You’re navigating uncharted territory, and it feels like everyone is watching. Fortunately, there are a few sharp people out there who have published some great online resources to guide you through the clutter. Some of them even understand the hotel business. Here are a few I’ve found to be particularly helpful.

But first, a tip: These sites link to other sites, which in turn link to even more sites. Resist the urge to click until you’ve gotten through the links on this page. Otherwise it’ll suddenly be three days later and you’ll be more confused than when you started.

1. Hotel Marketing Strategies. Blogger Josiah Mackenzie, a self-styled “social media pragmatist”, provides hotel-savvy advice in a clear, practical manner, with lots of helpful links. Check out Beating Negative Hotel Reviews and his other site, Blogging for Guests.

2. O’Rourke Hospitality. Wise words from an internet marketing company that works exclusively with the hospitality industry. See the interviews with social media guru Chris Brogan about hotels and social media and hotel websites.

3. Hotel Internet Marketing. Some good advice from Worldwide Revenue, an internet marketing company. See the Tips for Hoteliers section.

4. Hotelmarketing. A news aggregator for hospitality marketers. Check out The Time is Now and do a site search for “social media” articles.

5. MileStone Internet Marketing. Another internet marketing company that specializes in the hospitality industry. See Social Media Strategies for Hotels.

6. Hotel blogs. Guillaume Thevenot reports on what hotels are up to in the social media and blogging world. Scroll down for his list of hotel blogs and other blogs worth checking out.

7. Sample blog 1: The Roger Smith Hotel. A great example of what a hotel blog can be. The two guys behind this New York hotel’s social media program are so enthusiastic you want to stay there and meet them. See eConsultancy’s interview.

8. Sample blog 2: Opus Hotel. Okay, so I’m the author, but this was the first-ever blog written by a hotel manager and it continues today to provide an irreverent insider’s look at the hotel business—even though I’m no longer the GM.

There are lots of great resources that are not hotel specific. They’ll make your head spin, but they provide great how-to articles. My favorites include Chris Brogan, Social Media Examiner, Convince and Convert and Altitude Branding. For inspiration, I visit Seth Godin and Malcolm Gladwell.

Finally, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention a few of my own articles: Who is the Voice of Social Media in Your Hotel? and Online Reviews: the Bane of a Hotelier’s Existence? And just for fun, check out Online Reviewers to Watch Out For.

Be choosy about what you read; otherwise you won’t get anything else done. Follow your favorites on Twitter so you can scan their tweets and decide if you want to read more. Also, subscribe to a few of the hotel news aggregator sites, too numerous to list here.

This should keep you busy for a while. Good luck, and let me know if I can help. And if you know of any hotels that are doing a great job with social media, I’d love to hear about it. Click here for my contact info.

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In a San Francisco hotel, a symbol of turbulent times

Last weekend I was in San Francisco to do research for my next book, and while there I did my usual sweep of hotels. San Francisco has some great hotels, but signs of the recession are everywhere. One area that stood out was the lack of fresh flowers in public spaces. I've seen that trend in many cities, but San Francisco has the most creative replacements. In the lobby of one luxury hotel all the vases were empty.

The above arrangement wins the award for ingenuity, if not for aesthetics. When I saw it next to the elevators, I thought someone had thrown up in the planter. Upon closer look, it turned out to be an arrangement of colored moss and pebbles. The image struck me as a symbol of the turbulent times the hotel industry has endured of late. Everywhere I travel, I see employees looking pale and shell-shocked, as though they had climbed onto a train for what they thought would be a pleasant country ride and it turned out to be a backward looping rollercoaster.

Strictly for research purposes, on my first two nights I stayed in a lackluster chain hotel that shall remain nameless. Early the morning of my departure, a letter was slipped under my door. “Dear Valued Guest,” it read, “We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience that you experienced." It went on to say how important customer service was to them, and to assure me there wouldn't be any more problems.

The letter was signed by no less than five managers, as though they had all come in overnight to discuss my complaint and to draft this note. Impressive. Except the letter wasn’t personalized and had been photocopied -- a form letter. What puzzled me most, though, was that I hadn’t complained about anything. Had they read my mind? Or do they send this letter to all guests, assuming something must have gone wrong? It remains a mystery.

San Francisco has a range of hotels, from the grand and traditional like the Fairmont, the Palace and the Ritz Carlton to a plethora of boutique hotels oozing with personality from Joie de Vivre and Kimpton. My favorites include Hotel Vitale, the St. Regis and Clift. After I toured a number of traditional hotels, it was a breath of fresh air to check in to the Clift. At first I feared I'd be escorted out by security for not being young or cool enough, but the staff were so warm and welcoming I was soon acting like I owned the place.

San Francisco is a bargain right now, but it won't be for long. There are promising signs that the economy is recovering, breathing new life into hotels -- and hopefully into their flower programs. Now is a great time to go.

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Craig’s List: Hotel Industry Trends in 2010—Heavenly Deathbeds, Corporate Quilt-making and DickAdvisor™

In the midst of all the doom and gloom, I think we could all use some levity. Here’s my annual list, a bit of an irreverent spin on predictions for trends in the hotel industry in 2010.

1. Hotels to rival used-car salesmen in price integrity. Attempts to curb rampant discounting in 2009 by offering value-adds like free breakfast and parking will prove futile in 2010 as hotels panic over weak demand and drop rates even further—without taking away the value-adds. Meanwhile, a prized mathematician at Cornell proves once and for all that discounting does not increase demand, but is denounced by the hotel industry, who announce another fire sale—third night free!

2. Hotels shoulder burden of bargain-hunter economy. Airlines, who stopped fussing over trifles like customer satisfaction years ago, will counter periods of weak demand by simply canceling flights and hiking fares. Car rental companies, who apparently missed the memo about the Great Recession, will continue to charge premium rates for substandard cars. Meanwhile, travelers will expect bargain rates from hotels while refusing to tolerate lapses in quality and service.

3. Bungled bundling. In an attempt to offset losses, hotels will craft packages more complex than cell phone plans, hoping to confuse travelers into paying higher rates, but will end up only confusing themselves and giving away even more.

4. Flagrant spending is back! (just not for you). Luxury went mass-market in 2008, then in 2009 became a symbol of shame and excess after people discovered credit has limits. Now it’s set to make a comeback—as a niche market. The glam world of private jets and champagne Jacuzzis will revert to its originally-intended audience: billionaires, royalty, celebrities, bankers and hotel doormen.

5. Lifestyle: the new luxury. Filling the void created by conversions of luxury hotels into RV parks, lifestyle hotels will open at a rate of one every 3.7 seconds. Brought to you by the big-box chains, these boutique knock-offs will cater to the conscientious traveler’s demands for eco-friendly practices (as long as it doesn’t cost more), social responsibility (provided no extra tipping expected), and affordable style (quirky patterns and garish colors that will have guests screaming for the days of all-beige hotel rooms).

6. Hotels join the social media conversation. No longer willing to remain silent while guests misbehave and then post nasty, biased reviews on TripAdvisor, the hotel industry will launch a website of its own called DickAdvisor™. Employees will post candid reviews of guests, rating them on manners, tipping, honesty, brainpower and tidiness, and providing details on alcohol and porn consumption, late-night visitors and missing and damaged hotel property.

7. Travel goes virtual. Advances in mobile phone technology will allow travelers to check in to hotel rooms remotely, raid the mini-bar, sleep, attend a meeting, and check out, all without leaving their home.

8. Safety first, service second. Faced with threats from the swine flu, terrorism and reverse peephole viewers, hotels will install full body scanners at check-in to weed out terrorists, virus carriers and pervs and redirect them to the nearest competitor. Employees will use hand sanitizer sprays like mace to keep sniffling and leering guests and other vermin at bay, with a special fire-extinguisher format for groups.

9. Heavenly Deathbeds. As the economy recovers, nonessential amenities will creep back, and hotels will resume the quest to build the ultimate bed, adding “essentials” like 3,000 thread-count sheets and seventeen varieties of pillows. This trend will take a tragic turn, however, when a hotel guest discovers a room attendant buried deep within the layers of his bed, having suffocated there while attempting to make it. Thereafter, hotels will strip beds down to a mattress and pillow, charging a fee for everything else.

10. Vegas is out, Iowa City is in. The corporate meetings segment will rebound in late 2010 with a new era of cost-consciousness in the wake of the “AIG Effect”. Popular excursions like all-night tequila-and-stripper blowouts in Vegas will be replaced with authentic experiences like cabbage soup cook-offs and quilt-making in the Amish heartlands.

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A Hotel Prepares for the Winter Olympics

After a sleepy year, the hotel industry in Vancouver and Whistler is about to get a blaring wakeup call. From February 12 to 28, the 2010 Winter Olympics are expected to draw 250,000 spectators, plus top athletes, foreign dignitaries and international media. Hotels in Vancouver are now sold-out for sixteen consecutive nights in a month they’re usually screaming for business.

Given the sheer volume and the related security concerns, suppliers to the Games will face a number of logistical challenges. Hotels have the added stress of being a twenty-four-hour operation. That means long days and lots of overtime for staff, who may be reluctant to waste what little downtime they have battling traffic to get home and back again.

Typically, when employees work back-to-back shifts hotels put them up in a guestroom for the night to ensure they’re perky for guests in the morning. But with visitors now fighting over scraps of private homes, campgrounds and RV parks, that won’t be an option during the Olympics. Nor will crashing at a friend’s place. Spare rooms, sofas and inflatable mattresses will be taken by out-of-town friends and relatives. Or paying strangers. The demand for accommodation has brought new meaning to the term “Go for the gold!” Employees who do make it home might discover that their enterprising spouse has rented out their side of the bed to a small Norwegian family.

Over dinner recently, I asked Opus Hotel Vancouver General Manager Nicholas Gandossi about his plans. “I’m having a cot installed in my office,” he tells me with characteristic good-nature. “That way I can avoid the commute.”

Across the table, his wife Nicola, who works at another downtown hotel, shoots him a look. “And what about our two kids at home, honey?” she asks.

Nicholas scratches his chin. “Oh. Right. The kids.”

There’s no room for a cot in Opus Executive Chef Don Letendre’s office. “I’ll be sleeping in the storage room,” he tells me. “It won’t be the first time.” And his family? “They’ll be heading to Palm Springs. That way I can work around-the-clock guilt-free.”

At a hotel I worked for in Toronto, when we overbooked and the city was full we used to roll cots into our meeting rooms and house guests there, supplying free alcohol and snacks and positioning it as a super-fun slumber party. Guests were not amused, but it was better than sleeping in the street. During the Games, however, virtually every inch of meeting space has been pre-reserved for Olympics-related functions.

Employees may have to settle for catching a few winks leaning against a wall or spooning with a side of beef in the walk-in cooler. “My team will be bringing in sleeping bags and using the housekeeping office as our sleeping quarters,” Opus Executive Housekeeper Julieta Laliberty informs me. “That way we can be available 24/7.” But given the stockpiles hotels will require to service guests and cater events, employees may find themselves jockeying for space with cases of Okanagan wines, smoked salmon and maple syrup.

Another concern is that freeloaders will crash the party, clingy parasitical types who are almost impossible to get rid of. No, not the in-laws. In Sydney, the 2000 Olympics were blamed for a serious bedbug outbreak after the Games. The H1N1 virus is another avid traveler who loves to mingle in large groups. As precautions, staff of Opus and other host hotels will be welcoming the world not only with bright smiles and glowing hearts but with complimentary hand sanitizers and mattresses encased in plastic.

Despite the challenges, there’s no question that hotel staff in Vancouver and Whistler are pumped and ready for the Games. To ease the pressure, temporary employees have been recruited and reinforcements are being sent from sister properties. At Opus, where offsite catering commitments alone will require an additional 150 employees, a group of bilingual staff from Opus Montreal will fly in to lend a hand. With all the excitement around, sleep might only be a distraction.

Along with the cot, Nicholas has had a 52-inch plasma-screen television installed in his office. “Purely for professional reasons,” he assures me, mumbling something about video-conferencing. Right. I’ll bet that whenever Canada makes the finals in a sporting event, employees will be crawling out of storage rooms, closets and room service carts to watch the spectacle, and it’ll be standing-room only in the GM’s office.

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