Hotels get beat up on the web as online travel agencies score deals

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Hotels were doing a great job of selling online before the recession hit. But, thanks to a healthy dose of innovation and greed, the global economy has been in rough shape, forcing those still traveling to hunt for deeper discounts and bigger deals. Unsurprisingly, this led to relatively strong market conditions for the online travel agent sector, particularly in the hotel space. For the hotel companies themselves, however, it’s been a bit rough.

According to travel industry research firm PhoCusWright:

The economic downturn has erased prerecession gains for hotel branded websites, as market pressures increase reliance on online travel agencies (OTAs). With occupancy still below 2007 levels and sluggish ADR [average daily rate] growth, OTAs will grow at twice the rate of hotel websites in 2010.

This follows proactive measures by hotels to improve their websites, with noticeable improvements leading to a 59 percent share of the online channel, according to PhoCusWright. Now, the suppliers are looking at a drop in share to 54 percent for 2010, with “similar growth patterns in 2011 and 2012 as hotels gain more control over OTA inventory.”

The battle of the brands, involving travel agents and their suppliers, is being engaged in the hospitality industry as well as the airline sector, it seems.

So, where do you think you’ll find your next hotel deal? Take the poll below to let us know!

Five ways to deliver a meaningful customer complaint

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Bad customer service bothers the hell out of me. I know I’m not alone on this: nobody likes receiving something less than he pays for. But for me, it’s something of an obsession, having worked in businesses where there is nothing quite like a “quality problem” to put the brakes on your career (or derail it entirely). And perhaps unreasonably, I have incredibly high standards – which I do reward commensurately, from gratuity to word-of-mouth advocacy. Whatever the driver, I am quite comfortable approaching a hotel or restaurant manager with both criticism and high praise, and I’ve found out what works and what doesn’t.

If all you want to do is go for the jugular when you get unacceptable service, don’t bother reading the rest of this: it won’t help you out. When you encounter a service failure, sometimes you have to fight every urge you have to win and stay focused on what really matters: delivering a meaningful customer complaint. In the end, you will feel much better about how you’ve behaved. I had to bite my tongue Saturday night at a hotel‘s resturant here in New York: it hurt, but in the end, I’m happier with the outcome (which is limited to my behavior, since the restaurant’s manager failed to take interest, let alone action).

So, the time comes to talk to the manager … here are five ways to do it effectively:1. Forget about free: nothing annoys me more than people who bitch and complain just to get a 10 percent discount next time. It’s as transparent as it is demeaning to all involved. The human race, quite simply, deserves better. O, the next time you have a service gripe, open with, “I’m not looking for anything out of this,” or “Don’t worry about a discount or free anything, I’m just looking to have a situation fixed.” It changes the nature of everything that follows.

2. Be constructive (and show it): focus what you say on the situation at hand, and explain your problem in detail. At the same time, offer ways that it can be fixed. Most restaurant and hotel managers, for example, will throw a discount or a comp at you (which, at least, is better than the airlines, who won’t help to remedy a situation without a struggle). This may make the immediate problem go away, but it doesn’t solve anything. If you’re specific and contribute something worthwhile, you’ll get better results.

3. Be calm and clear – but firm: yelling and screaming may give you some temporary satisfaction, but that wears off quickly. Wouldn’t you rather get a resolution that’s more enduring? Approach the situation with a cool head, and remain rational. If you make a point, back it up with examples from the experience that bothered you. Report the facts, so to speak, and be very careful to avoid a tone that comes across as accusatory. At the same time, however, you do have a right to stand up for yourself. Use it.

4. Follow it up in writing: this goes for both good and bad service frankly (email and letters rarely reflect the former, and it does make a difference). Even if you have a conversation, summarize it in email, and click send. This will add a bit of weight to your concern and increase the likelihood that it will be addressed. Also, it will keep the manager honest with his employer and himself.

5. Prepare to offer a second chance: okay, this can be tough after you’ve had a bad experience. If you have offered targeted constructive criticism that has been taken seriously, and you’ve been in touch with the establishment after your initial encounter, you do owe the property a chance to win you back. When you do return, you should thank the manager for any discounts offered but refuse them. If this isn’t possible, add your savings to the gratuity (if service warrants it). The experience alone should be your reward, not the financial incentive.

[photo by star5112 via Flickr]

Body parts found in backpack in Los Angeles hotel

by Melanie Nayer on

What was a typical day for a housekeeper in a Los Angeles hotel turned into a real life nightmare. During a routine cleaning of a room at the Continental Hotel in Los Angeles, a housekeeper picked up a backpack left behind in a guest room and found body parts.

The Los Angeles Times reports the body of 49-year-old Herbert White was found on Nov. 29 and was “cut up into five different parts – basically his limbs were removed.” According to the paper, a Pennsylvania couple have been charged with heinous crime. The Los Angeles district attorney issued a warrant for the couple’s arrest, charging them with capital murder involving torture.

The hotel is located in LA’s ‘skid row’ neighborhood. A security guard was called the night of presumed murder because of “commotion in the room.” When the guard went to the room, the couple promised they’d keep quiet.

Additional body parts were found wrapped in blankets underneath the bed, and a knife was found in the hotel room, the paper says. Continental Hotel representatives declined to comment.

[via USA Today]

Five real reasons behind business traveler hotel choices

by Tom Johansmeyer on

It’s not just flights – business travelers are easing up on cost when it comes to hotels, too. Rather than try to stretch their dollars until they squeal, road warriors are finally looking for ways they can be a little happier when sleeping in beds that aren’t their own (unless, of course, they’re sharing a bed with … well, you know).

Hotels tend to love business travelers, because they have cash to spend and tend to use it for more than just the room-night. Restaurants, bars and other services – these guys know how to open their wallets!

So, how do they choose? The latest Orbitz for Business / Business Traveler Magazine Quarterly Trend Report offers the five priorities that business travelers want when they decide to offer up their credit card information. While some are mundane, others will shock you:1. Give us a reason to be loyal: business travelers are whores for points, and that means loyalty programs top the list. Rather than save the company some cash, they want to make sure they won’t have to shell out to take the wife, girlfriend or mistress out of town for a few days.

2. Close to work: business travelers are interest in proximity to the reason they’re staying in a hotel. Speaking from experience, nobody wants to wake up in a hotel and then drive half an hour to visit a client. It blows.

3. All in one place: on-site amenities make life easier. That includes wifi, on-site cleaners and an exercise center. Nobody’s going to be happy wandering around town to find this stuff.

4. Size does matter: size of the bill, that is. For business travelers, hotel room rates still make a difference. Cheaper tends to be better.

5. The need to see stars: this one actually surprised me. Business travelers care about a hotel’s star rating. I never looked at it from that perspective but was always interest in choosing a place that didn’t feel third-world (having made a few bad choices along the way).

The least important factor? Well, that’s whether a particular hotel is on a company’s preferred supplier list. And, only a handful said that user reviews were “extremely valuable in their selection process.” As expected, sharing a room is almost totally out of the question.

Weekending: Varna, Bulgaria

by Meg Nesterov on


Back in September, the end of the Muslim month of Ramadan offered locals and expats like me an excuse to go on holiday while our American friends were celebrating the end of summer and Labor Day. With more time to explore than a typical Weekending trip, I checked out Turkey’s most western neighbor, Bulgaria, and fell in love with modern and medieval captials Sofia and Veliko Tarnovo.

The place: Varna, Bulgaria

Varna is known as the summertime capital of Bulgaria, a Black Sea beach town that’s a destination unto itself with several notable museums, an active cultural scene, and the gateway to the coastal resort towns.

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  • Unlike many of the purpose-built, touristy resort towns that litter the coast, Varna manages to maintain a nice balance of beach town and actual city. Pedestrian streets Knyaz Boris and Slivnitsa are great for window shopping and people watching day and night, and Varna has a handful of quirky and interesting museums to visit. The Archaeology Museum is one of the country’s best, and my visit to the creepily-cool Medical History museum (with nice Bulgarian lady following me around turning lights on and off as in VT) was one of my favorite travel experiences. Strolling the Sea Garden is a pleasant way to spend an afternoon, though the zoo is maybe the grimmest I’ve seen yet (I could have easily stuck my head into the lion’s cage with no interferrence) but with admission under $1, it’s hard to complain.
  • The variety of daytime diversions extends to nightlife too, with everything from sceney beach clubs to seedy casinos to dive bars. Indian Bar has an eclectic decor of Native American art and Italian soccer banners which manages to be more charming that offensive, while Saloon Bar is just the kind of place I’d love in my neighborhood: cheap drinks, good music, and a bartender that remembers you after one drink. Varna is also the birthplace to Happy Bar & Grill, a chain restaurant all over Bulgaria (and now in Spain too) that resembles a love child of Hooters and T.G.I. Friday’s, in the best sense. Happy has a vaguely nostalgic rock-and-roll Americana theme going on, a menu of Bulgarian food and pizza (they also have some sushi restaurants), and waitresses clad in miniskirts and nude pantyhose. There are several location including a tiki beach bar, and any of them are good spots to take advantage of free wi-fi, decent coffee, and as many ’80s music videos as you can handle. Varna is a bit pricier than other towns in Bulgaria but still a steal by Western standards.

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  • Lovely as Varna may be, the travel season is really limited to summer. While there is plenty to do in cool weather, there is greatly reduced transportation in and around town, many waterfront cafes will close in winter, and you’ll miss out on experiencing the summer scene. The Black Sea has been the hot weather refuge of many Europeans for decades and Varna retains some old-school (and Communist-era) flavor (see the above photo of the thermal pools frequented by the elder residences) while joining the modern world with boutique hotels and sushi restaurants popping up to serve a growing international clientele. If you visit Bulgaria in cold weather, your time would be better spent exploring the old towns and museums in central and western Bulgaria.
  • I’d be remiss in wrapping up a series on Bulgaria without pointing out the obvious obstacle: Cyrillic. Invented in Bulgaria and not Russia, the alphabet is less complicated than you think but takes some adjustment and practice to feel comfortable reading signs and maps. I was fortunate to travel with my Russian-speaking husband who could at least read the alphabet (though Russian and Bulgarian are as dissimilar as English and Spanish) but I got the hang of it quickly enough. Rather than trying to memorize the alphabet in advance, transcribe a few key and familiar words, such as your name, your hotel, and the towns you are visiting so you can begin to recognize the characters. Also, Bulgaria’s quirk is the reverse head nod: they nod horizontally for yes, vertically for no. This feels very foreign the first time you experience it but makes an odd sense after a few days.

Getting there

Most of the international flights to Varna are from Eastern Europe, though the great budget carrier Wizz Air flies from London and Sofia. Bus service is excellent throughout the country (about 7 hours from Sofia) or from Istanbul (10 hours) or Bucharest (7 hours), but train service is slower and less comfortable.

Make it a week

Rent a car or bus hop along the coast if the weather is good, taking note that if a town has a foreign name (like Golden Sands) it’s probably an overbuilt tourist town. You could also combine with other regions of Bulgaria. I fit in Sofia, Veliko Tarnavo, and Varna comfortably in an 8 day Saturday – Sunday trip, traveling between cities by bus and returning to Sofia for my international flight on Wizz Air.

Read about more Weekending trips here.