Hotels top target for hackers

by Tom Johansmeyer on

According to online security trade publication DarkReading.com, hackers went after the hotel sector more than any other in 2009. And, they didn’t get caught: it took hotels an average of 156 days to discover a security breach. A study by Trustwave’s SpiderLabs of 218 security breach investigations in 24 countries found that 38 percent hit the hospitality industry, 19 percent for financial services, 14 percent for retailers and 13 percent for food and beverage.

So, why are hackers poking around in hotel systems? Credit cards!

Hackers are looking for payment information that they can steal and use elsewhere. This information that can be converted to cash quickly, says Trustwave SpiderLabs executive Nicholas Percoco. Other sensitive information wasn’t nearly as popular, with the likes of financial, authentication and healthcare information good for only 1 percent of what was stolen.

Everyone is an instant winner in the Great Gogo Race

by Scott Carmichael on

Flying a Gogo Inflight Internet equipped plane any time soon? Head on over to the Great Gogo Race for a chance a winning a free session, or a discount code. Best of all, everyone that plays is a winner.

Once airborne, your winning code can be used for a second chance at winning – Gogo is giving away an Asus Eee PC Netbook computer every single day of the contest (which runs till February 28th).

To enter, simply point your browser to gogoinflight.com and click on the contest link. If you are already airborne, you’ll want to use the airborne.gogoinflight.com. Those links work on your computer and mobile phone.

To make your chances at winning even sweeter – you are allowed to enter every three hours. Best of luck!

Follow a Museum Day on Twitter becomes Internet phenomenon

by Sean McLachlan on

Today’s prize for obscure made-up celebrations goes to Jim Richardson, organizer of “Follow a Museum Day on Twitter”, which was celebrated Feb. 1 all over the Internet. According to the folks over at Culture24 it was the hottest topic that day, shoving aside a scandal involving the captain of England’s football team and the release of the iPad as the most popular subject tweeted in the UK, US, and Canada.

No longer content with traditional methods of research and education, museums are reaching out by getting Internet savvy and keeping visitors up-to-date via flashy websites and Twitter. Travel writer and Italy expert Angela Nickerson points out that hundreds of museums are on Twitter and gives five reasons to follow them. She also has a good list of more than a hundred personal favorites. Richardson has a list by country on his website.

Following museums is a great way to find out about the latest events, and you can check while traveling with your mobile phone. For example, recent additions to the British Museum’s Twitter feed tell you about intriguing artifacts from the museum’s collection, an upcoming film screening, and links to other UK museums.

Unlike some Twitter feeds, museums tend to only put out quality information. You won’t hear what the curator had for breakfast or how bored the guards are at work. These are the kinds of feeds that can make Twitter useful rather than a massive time waster. You can find out more by logging onto Twitter and checking out #followamuseum.

Salt Lake City uses Facebook contest to get you psyched

by Tom Johansmeyer on

The #1 Fan Sweepstakes for the Salt Lake City CVB’s Facebook fan page kicked off on January 15, 2010 and runs until February 12, 2010. The goal is to get the number of fans pumped up to 5,000, while giving potential visitors information about everything Utah: from skiing to genealogy to Mormonism to convention business. Already, the number of fans has almost doubled — from 1,200 to 2,200 — indicating that the new Facebook push is working.

This is a trend that’s becoming increasingly common: travel companies and destinations are turning to Facebook to promote themselves and attract tourists. Recently, JetBlue and the Mexican Council for the Promotion of Tourism kicked off Facebook programs to attract interest and (hopefully) generate the sort of interest that will help them overcome the severe travel industry slump that we’ve been coping with for more than a year now. For Salt Lake City, which has been executing an aggressive media campaign, the move into social media isn’t at all surprising.

According to Inside Facebook, the #1 Fan Sweepstakes isn’t the first push that the Salt Lake City CVB has made on Facebook. Rather, it reflects the lessons learned from previous efforts. Says Shawn Stinson, Director of Communications for the CVB, “We started with a number of different Facebook fan pages: ski, visit, genealogy, meetings, and that didn’t work. It was too littered. So we went to simply Visit Salt Lake.” The straightforward approach is anchored in this new initiative. According to Stinson, “This contest in particular is being used to drive an increase in our fan base because we are looking to distribute more and more information via Facebook.”

The grand prize is a ski trip for two that is packed with extras beyond airfare and lodging: ski passes and a FLIP video camera are included, and the winner is expected to shoot video for a blog about the trip. Other prizes include a set of Dynastar skis and bindings, a two-day Ski Salt Lake pass valid at any of the four resorts in Salt Lake and 20 Ski Salt Lake belt buckles and t-shirts.

Are you a fan of Gadling on Facebook yet?

Business travelers on the brink of scoring free internet access

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Having to pay for internet access in hotels is nothing more than moronic. If the revenue is such a big deal, hotels should just slap the $9.99 — or whatever it is — onto the room rate and tell us they’re giving it away for nothing. But, nothing’s worse than spending $250 a night and having to pay another fee to connect to the web, which you’re going to have to do even if you’re on vacation, let alone traveling for business.

The slump in the travel business is giving business travelers more negotiating leverage, which they are using to score free access to the web. The need to put heads in beds, and business travelers still command the big budgets. Back in my corporate travel days, I’d spend $1,000 or more simply on the room … every week. Most leisure travelers don’t come near that on an annual basis — and my spend was modest compared to executives with the approval to satisfy more discriminating tastes.

So, you’d think hotels would want to keep business travelers happy, right? And since internet access is what’s most important to this group of hotel buyersSome upscale hotels, like the new Andaz chain from Hyatt, are rolling internet access into their rates, while major chains such as Hilton, Marriott and Starwood are giving in to business traveler demands but not changing their policies (to avoid setting a precedent they’ll be stuck with when the market recovers).

For the hotel business, giving up the internet money isn’t easy. The industry is at its 20-year low point, with revenue per available room-night (RevPAR) off 17 percent last year. The top properties suffered RevPAR declines of 24 percent. So, when Toni Hinterstoisser, general manager of the Andaz Wall Street, calls internet access charges “an easy way to make money,” it’s clear that the fee is a hard one to give up. Easy money is the best kind when the travel market is in the tank.