Hotels, restaurants and consumers: what to look for on review websites

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Have you ever gotten mad after a hotel stay and, in the heat of the moment, dashed off a nasty review on TripAdvisor or Yelp? I was talking to some friends about this recently, and it seems the natural human reaction is to give feedback after a negative experience and to stay relatively silent when all has gone well.

Almost all of us have been there.

After all, there’s nothing quite like the feeling that your hard-earned cash has been sunk into an unsatisfying experience to get the blood boiling. When you get bad service or have a room that just doesn’t measure up – especially if you’ve spent hundreds (or even thousands) of bucks on your hotel stay, meal or flight – you need an outlet for your disappointment or anger. You may feel like you’re doing a service to the next traveler who’s thinking about following in your footsteps.
Well, it’s this situation that’s hit the news recently, with hotels and restaurants planning to sue TripAdvisor over the reviews left by its users. In Detroit, according to Slate, 24grille, a Detroit restaurant, tried to go after TripAdvisor over one anonymous comment, before giving up:

The suit went nowhere, as 24grille’s lawyers realized that the Communications Decency Act of 1996 gives sites like TripAdvisor immunity from being held liable for user comments, and they dropped the claim. (TripAdvisor, which screens reviews and reserves the right to remove any it deems dubious, did eventually delete the comment in question.)

At stake for all sectors of the hospitality industry is reputation, which comprises a large part of their brands. And, let’s be realistic: brand is what makes the sale in this industry. So, it pays to protect it at all costs … but in the right way.

The Slate article ponders the effectiveness of litigation, with the author “convinced these lawsuits are a terrible idea,” because it won’t provide sufficient brand or financial performance protection. Rather, the smarter move is to look for patterns to see if there are any ongoing or systemic problems that need to be addressed.

This makes perfect sense.

When I read a review – on Yelp, TripAdvisor or even from a professional critic – I take the extremes with a grain of salt. Further, I take the time to look at all the available feedback. One bad experience can be caused by anything from a bad day for the service provider (yes, entire companies can have bad days) to unrealistic expectations on the part of the reviewer. I’ve talked to a number of hospitality consumers who approach reviews with the same care and skepticism.

This thinking would work for hotels and restaurants, as well. Slate continues:

When we scan reviews online, we aren’t looking for gothchas-outlandish, one-off tales of awful experiences. Instead, we look for patterns. We make judgments based on the themes that emerge from many reviews, not from the crazy charges that appear in one or two. As such, there’s an obvious way for businesses to improve their online standings. Rather than trying to suppress a few negative reviews, they ought to work like mad to offer the kind of service that inspires a whole bunch of positive reviews.

When there is something worth noting, hotels and restaurants would be wise to pay attention. TripAdvisor, Yelp and other user-contributed review sites represent another channel by which guests can provide feedback, and ignoring them is tantamount to turning your back while a customer – disgruntled or not – is speaking.

The goal, therefore, is to sift through the anger and find the information that really matters – for management and guests. Look for trends, and use that to make a decision.

[photo by espensorvik via Flickr]

Hotel death undiscovered for two weeks: do not disturb

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Be careful when you hang that “Do Not Disturb” sign from your hotel room doorknob. It may take people forever to find you. This is exactly what happened to Kieran Toman at the Hyde Park Towers Hotel just north of London. On July 9, 2010, he left that instruction on his door.

Unfortunately, the 39-year-old starved to death after doing so. His body, described by The Daily Mail as being in “an ’emaciated’ state,” wasn’t found until July 23, 2010. The staff was instructed not to enter without his permission, but the awful smell caused a maid to check out the cause.

Toman had booked a five-month stay at the spot, once home to Jimi Hendrix, but after those first two weeks, the remainder of his reservation was moot.

[Via Business Insider, photo by R.B. Boyer via Flickr]

Airlines and hotels: the travails of accommodating a recovery

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Market conditions are turning for the travel and hospitality industry. More people are leaving home behind for a while, and they are again willing to open their wallets to do so. Especially in the highly coveted business travel sector, seats are filling and rooms are being occupied. So, it would stand to reason that airlines and hotels would move to address the increase in demand. Unfortunately, accommodating growth can be risky in these industries. Every step must be made carefully and deliberately, with a plan for taking existing demand to a higher level.

Think about your local grocery store. If cans of corn start to sell aggressively, the store can examine the trend and order more for the following week. It may have to allocate a bit of extra shelf space, perhaps at the expense of canned peas The risk isn’t that high, though, because demand can be handled in smaller increments.

The core product isn’t as flexible in the travel and hospitality business. As people look to book more rooms or flights, a hotel or airline can’t simply add a bed or a seat. Airlines can add routes (or restore those that have been cut), but that creates a new problem.
Assume that demand for a particular route has grown from the norm to the point that another one third of a plane’s seats would be filled. New revenue is coming in the door, but cash is also going out to cover the cost of operating the flights. To make this growth profitable, the airline may have to fill more of the seats on that new flight. To accommodate demand, essentially, the airline will have to create even more.

This is the reasoning behind United Continental CEO Jeff Smisek’s remark on an earnings call recently, as reported by the Associated Press, “We will not grow for growth’s sake, but only if we can maximize our profitability by doing so.”

For the hospitality industry, the challenge can be even greater. A major chain may see an opportunity to take on more guests by adding another property, but this doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time, effort and capital to get a hotel up and operational, especially in a major city. During the time it takes to plan and execute an expansion, market conditions can change substantially, as the hospitality industry learned with the credit crisis of 2008. Real estate and financial market conditions can have a magnified impact on the hotel business, and the underlying drivers move far more quickly than those supporting increases in rooms capacity.

Projects already in the works in 2008 left the industry with more supply than it needed in 2009 and 2010, and demand for rooms, according to travel industry research firm PhoCusWright, isn’t expected to return to 2007 levels until next year. This means that net growth won’t begin until 2008.

Think about it: plans that may have begun to be executed in 2007 won’t deliver results for at least four years, maybe even five.

Managing supply and demand in the travel industry is, to say the least, a tricky business. Traveler purse strings are starting to ease, making life much rosier for airline and hotel company income statements. Taking advantage of this opportunity, however, is easier in theory than in practice. This year and next, we’ll see how the hotels and air carriers manage the perils of potential.

[photo by disparkys via Flickr]

Top four strangest hotel requests

by Tom Johansmeyer on

What do you ask for when you visit a hotel? I tend to like a bathrobe that has all its belt-loops intact and a desk that is as far away from the bed as possible. Also, I’m a stickler for service. Well, apparently my needs are pretty conventional. Best Western just put out a list of the most unusual demands made by guests, according to the Sydney Morning Herald, showing just how weird people can be.

You may have a vivid imagination, with an uncanny ability to sense the absurd and see it crystallize in your mind. Well, I’m here to tell you that you’re an amateur. You have to be pretty unusual even to think of the unique stuff people have requested from hotels.

Take a look below at the four strangest hotel requests out there. 1. Spiriting and healing pets: Reiki for animals … really? Who gets an idea like this?

2. I like to watch: One group wanted a chaperone for sex addicts, although, I think the other word for this is “spectator.”

3. The blues: There was a party that wanted a meal comprised only of blue food. I’m wondering if it was a technicality to get kids who objected to “greens” to eat their vegetables.

4. A desire to labor: A lawnmower convention organizer asked if his guests could cut the grass on the grounds, in order to demonstrate how the products work.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald:

“We always try to accommodate our guests’ requirements – no matter how off the wall they may be,” said Tim Wade, head of marketing at Best Western. Although he admitted that a visit from members of The Tall Person’s Club of Great Britain had to be put on hold after the hotel in question were unable to locate enough seven-foot beds.

So, how strange are you? Leave a comment and let us know the weirdest thing you’ve craved – or even asked for – at a hotel.

[photo by .guilty via Flickr]

Wyndham’s Tryp hotel to debut in New York

by Melanie Nayer on

The New York hotel scene is heating up, again. More hotels continue to open their doors to guests of the Big Apple, which means more options for every price range and personality.

Next up on the New York hotel scene: Wyndham’s newest hotel, the Tryp by Wyndham.

The 173-room Tryp New York City – Times Square South is currently under construction at 345 West 35th Street between Eighth and Ninth Avenues, and is scheduled to be completed by the second quarter of 2011. The Wyndham Hotel Group acquired the Tryp hotel brand from Sol Melia in June this year, bringing over 90 “select-service, mid-priced” hotels to cities including Madrid, Barcelona, Paris, Lisbon, Frankfurt, Buenos Aires, Sao Paulo, Montevideo and now, New York.

The Tryp New York City will offer fitness guest rooms, allowing guests to work out in privacy, as well as function space, a business center and a community fitness centre.

While we wait for New York to open, Tryp by Wyndham is already planning the opening of hotels in Berlin, Medellin (Columbia), and Madrid by the end of the year.