Online conversations regarding your hotel continually reinforce its online perception to your target audience. Therefore the importance of tactical social media and blogging activities cannot be ignored. Hotels are finding out the hard way that conversations about them are happening online and online communities can be breeding grounds for speculation and rumours. Using social media to manage this risk and to deliver positives to counteract any negatives can be more than just effective in terms of negating any bad press, but also to build your positive “brand noise” and create “brand buzz” around your hotel’s website.

The results are out for the 21st Annual Freddie Awards, which are designed to award excellence among frequent travel programs in the airline, hotel and credit card industries. Lots of familiar names again, with SPG (Starwood Hotels) bagging 8 awards in 7 categories. View the complete list of winners here.





tags: freddie-awards, hotels, resorts, airlines, credit-cards

Starwood Preferred Guest® Rewards Travelers “Night After Night”: Guests Have Unlimited Opportunity to Earn 500 Bonus Points per Night and 5,000 Bonus Points Every 10th Night at More Than 890 Hotels Worldwide

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y., January 7, 2009 – To kick-off its 10th anniversary celebration, Starwood Preferred Guest® today announces the launch of a rich, new promotion that rewards members with 10,000 bonus Starpoints® for every 10 nights stayed now through April 30, 2009.

Developed in direct response to member feedback, the “Night After Night” promotion heralds the return of the wildly popular reward of 500 bonus points per night. But the nightly rewards are now richer than ever with the addition of 5,000 bonus points for every 10th night stayed. Both new and established SPG members have an opportunity to earn unlimited bonus points during this period and can begin accruing immediately by registering at www.spg.com/nights.

I’ve been racking my brain for the last few weeks over what to write about. The interesting thing is that it’s not lack of choice that’s been the trouble…it’s too much of it! From the excitement caused by US underdog Barack Obama’s win and the promise of a brighter political future… to CNN’s Wolf Blitzer causing a buzz with his first-ever “holographic” interviews in the newsroom, there’s been plenty going on to keep techies and armchair futurists abuzz. And while CNN’s holograms weren’t really holograms when you cut to the chase…one development is very real…the advancing global recession that we’re slowly coming to grips with.



Hospitality media has been filled with reports about dropping profits margins, especially in hard hit areas and suggestions to hoteliers on how to best tackle the market situation, i.e. tough it out, work smart and dust off your selling shoes. What surprises me, though, is that while the hotel industry continues its distribution war with online 3rd parties with super-deep advertising pockets, it still continues to ignore its most lucrative booking distribution channel…its guests!

Was having a look at Marriott's Youtube channel and happened across this new dance video Marriott has added for TownePlace Suites:


David Elsewhere is everywhere in the new TownePlace Suites by Marriott. Check out his gravity-defying dance moves. Don't try this at a home. Instead, try it at TownePlace Suites. Let the new hotel design move you. Enjoy and pass it around.

Frankly, love the idea but the watching the video the whole way through was quite a painful task (unlike the earlier International Ad Marriott released featuring various dance moves coming together)... not sure if Marriott plans on using snippets for a TV ad campaign, but short doses of this concept may be just what the Ad doctor recommends!

The new Marriott Hotels & Resorts commercial, directed by Howard Greenhalgh for AMP is a beautiful work of art, with every type of dance flawlessly combined into one fluid motion...a message well delivered, I say! Watch the complete 1 minute version below:

STARWOOD HOTELS & RESORTS LAUNCHES SPGTV.NET, a portal dedicated to the Starwood Europe Africa & Middle East TV channel Starwood Hotels & Resorts launches SPGTV.NET a website based on the TV productions of SPGTV the first lifestyle TV channel designed by a hotel industry and presently broadcasting in Europe Africa and Middle East in more than 280 hotels and resorts, with individually tailored versions for each of the company brands.

The latest series of Hotels.com commercials posted on YouTube, leveraging the power of the consumer review today...quite funny and effective. Enjoy!

Hotels.com Commercial - Guest gets a fur coat:

Hard Hats and High Heels (a.k.a - don't try this at home!): An entertaining video from the soon-to-open Westin Dubai Mina Seyahi Beach Resort & Marina (Jumeirah Beach Dubai) of a visit by 120 members of the American Women's Association of Dubai. The resort, which is set to open it's doors in May 2008, promises superlative dining, entertainment, rooms and sporting action, and in combination with the existing Le Meridien Mina Seyahi promises a strong competitive edge for the Mina Seyahi Complex (first conceived with the Dubai International Marine Club).



tags: hotels-in-dubai, videos, funny, humor, american, awa-dubai, westin, dubai, mina-seyahi, uae, united-arab-emirates, hotel, resort, jumeirah, beach, starwood

Above - the P&O Cruises "Shiver" Commercial P&O Cruises launched a set of commercials at the end of December 2007, with a distinctly "different" feel. The commercials have been received with mixed praise and criticism... I for one like them, especially "Shiver" above... a little chilly, but then again the commercial certainly leaves a lasting impression and remains in memory. The message is also beautifully communicated - the direction, editing and camerawork is brilliant! Watch the other two, Butterflies and Weight below... not as haunting as Shiver... but also well created.

Hyatt Hotels & Resorts has launched Hyatt Retreats, a new collection of value-added packages available worldwide. Whatever mood strikes, Hyatt’s Amour, Balance, Awaken and Explore packages offer the solution, accentuating the special offerings and distinct location of each participating Hyatt hotel in over 45 countries. In addition, through January 31, 2008, Hyatt Gold Passport’s partnership with MasterCard Worldwide® offers guests the opportunity to earn 2,000 Hyatt Gold Passport bonus points when booking any Hyatt Retreats package.

Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts, Asia Pacific's leading luxury hotel group, is offering five-day/four-night “Pre-Olympic Vacation” packages at its four Beijing properties. Available until 30 June 2008, the four specially designed themed packages give leisure travellers insight into the multifaceted Chinese capital in the lead-up to the 2008 Olympic Games.

All four packages feature visits to Olympic sites such as the Bird’s Nest and Water Cube. Highlights of the “Art and Sport” package include a Peking Opera School tour, dinner at the late Peking Opera Master Mei Lanfang’s private mansion and a tour of the renowned 798 Art District, a hub of Chinese contemporary art. Guests will also visit the Beijing Sport School, where they can watch China’s future Olympic medalists train.

Helping High-Achieving Business Travelers Experience the Ultimate Stay Using international dance forms as a metaphor to express its global reach and the synchronicity of its staff, Marriott International, Inc. (NYSE:MAR) has launched a dynamic and sophisticated multi-media advertising campaign to support its global, nearly 500-hotel-strong upscale, deluxe Marriott brand.

The world’s leader in hotel group intelligence products and services has just made it even easier to stay on top of the ever-growing group sales competition. The Knowland Group is rolling out a series of improvements to its READERS 2.0 technology, which is already the country’s largest hotel reader board service.

With READERS 2.0, hoteliers and sales managers can already track the daily business activities of their competitors, receive detailed sales leads, and have access to historical data in their chosen markets. Now, users will be able to search through hundreds of hotels by the market of their choosing, and will be able to view the average number of daily events and the average number of square feet of meeting space used for each hotel. Users can also now add and remove hotels from their competitive set reports on the fly based on their searches, and have the freedom to schedule the delivery days for their competitive set reports. In addition, hoteliers will be able to manage their own system users.