Sheraton Hotels & Resorts, the leading brand by Starwood Hotels & Resorts continues to lead the way on the Web Marketing front by embracing new web, travel and guest preference trends. The "Share & Belong" campaign was a huge success, with Sheraton guests sharing their travel experiences and photographs on Sheraton.com.

Now, Sheraton.com has set the bar even higher for the hospitality industry...as far as embracing the web and Travel 2.0 trends go. The company now features a Vacation Ideas section, incorporating a buzz cloud based on travel stories submitted by guests; a Special Offer Search Engine; RSS Feeds; Recommendations; Interactive maps and weather by geo-location...and even an introduction of 'Total Cost Pricing', where guests can see all applicable charges and taxes before making a booking!

Four Points by Sheraton, the Starwood Hotels brand that focuses on honest, uncomplicated comfort has just launched a few spots for television highlighting the brand's core values. In essence, the message is that "Comfort isn't complicated"

Just noticed that Google has added a page dedicated to Ad professionals or companies that manage multiple Google Adwords accounts for themselves or on behalf of clients.

Designed for professionals who currently manage or want to manage multiple AdWords client accounts, the Google Advertising Professionals program can help you become a more successful ad manager – for free.

eComXpo October 24-26 2006: The successful virtual exposition / tradeshow for eCommerce and Online Marketing professionals is back this October, and this time the entry is completely free.

What is it?
- First online virtual tradeshow for eCommerce Marketers.
- An easy, quick way to keep up with this rapidly evolving marketplace including email, search, affiliate, regulatory, branding, advertising, and technology trends and challenges.
- All the benefits of a top tradeshow, without the costs, hassles, or travel that make traditional tradeshows out of reach for 98% of participants.

A continuing look on the foray of the hospitality industry into the world of gaming and virtual reality...with Aloft featuring in the game Second Life. Aloft, a product of Starwood Hotels & Resorts made history a couple of months ago when it announced that they'd be building a virtual 'Aloft' hotel in the game. A great resource for those of you interested in following the developments of this fantastic initiative is http://www.virtualaloft.com/

Marketing has a central and powerful role to play in guiding a business to success. Beyond the creation and execution of brand communication, it holds the responsibility to be a brand evangelist, offering a brand world view that serves as context to all that a company does.

In looking at the way the great companies hold their brand, I suggest embracing these principles to help you on your journey to preeminence.

• Determine a single brand personality and ‘blow it out’ across all channels and audiences
• Move from a discount based to an experience based brand
• Commit to a marketing world view focused on developing personal relationships to achieve company goals, rather than anonymous transactions

The Talent Jungle presents our featured hotelier, our "chosen one". This feature highlights the talented and devoted professionals in the hotel & hospitality industry and brings out their epxeriences, strengths, background and more...in an effort to build a base of knowledge and connect people together.

Name: Hanne Vetaas

Current company and title: Crowne Plaza Kuwait, Executive Asst. Housekeeper

What is your educational background? Chef Diploma, Swiss Higher Diploma and BBA

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 22, 2006--Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. (NYSE: HOT) today unveiled its new extended-stay hotel brand: ELEMENT, a brand extension of Westin Hotels & Resorts. ELEMENT, formerly known by its working title Project ESW, will redefine extended-stay hospitality, incorporating smart design, modern style and a social environment into a category often associated with look-alike brands and generic features. The hotel has been designed to help guests to live their best lives on the road. The ELEMENT name, new logo and website, www.elementhotels.com, were unveiled this week at the 2006 Lodging Conference in Phoenix, Arizona.

English is widely used and abused around the world! Here's a list of signs and notices seen in foreign establishments and hotels around the world...that just cracks me up!! In the end...is 'some' knowledge of English better than 'no' knowledge at all? Enjoy!

• In a Tokyo Hotel: Is forbidden to steal hotel towels please. If you are not person to do such thing is please not to read notice. (sic)
• In another Japanese hotel room: Please to bathe inside the tub.
• In a Bucharest hotel lobby: The lift is being fixed for the next day. During that time we regret that you will be unbearable.
• In a Leipzig elevator: Do not enter the lift backwards and only when lit up.
• In a Belgrade hotel elevator: To move the cabin, push button for wishing floor. If the cabin should enter more persons, each one should press a number of wishing floor. Driving is then going alphabetically by national order.
[ Read More... ]

09/18/06 | Posted by awaig | Category Off Topic and Random

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Nearly everyone has heard of the Burj-al-Arab by now...touted to be the most expensive and possibly the best hotel in the world. Some say that the investment put into the hotel will never be recouped...but it still make great business sense, for the country...UAE...since it's yet another landmark thats put Dubai on the map. Burj Al Arab literally means "Tower of Arabia"

The Burj al-Arab does not have ordinary rooms; rather it is divided into 202 duplex suites. The smallest suite occupies an area of 169 square metres (1,819 square feet), and the largest one covers 780 square metres (8,396 square feet). It is one of the most expensive hotels in the world to stay in. The cost of staying in a suite begins at $1,000 per night and increases to over $15,000 per night; the Royal Suite is the most expensive, at $28,000 per night. The total cost to build and furnish the hotel has never been released. The Burj al-Arab features the tallest atrium lobby in the world (180 metres, or 590 feet). The atrium can accommodate the Dubai World Trade Center building, which, at 38 stories, was the tallest building in Dubai from the late 1970s to the mid 1990s. Source: Wikipedia

Intercontinental Hotels plans to create short web movies marketing hotels and resorts...much, I imagine, in the same spirit that the Starwood Hawaii post that was featured recently here.

"In the hopes of getting people into its swanky rooms, InterContinental Hotels and Resorts is aiming the camera at what's outside of them. Local online travel video producer and distributor TurnHere has begun producing short Web films about each of the lodging company's 140 worldwide hotel locations....The hotel's sponsored mini-movies will spotlight sights and places of interest surrounding each hotel. Keeping with TurnHere's mission to harness the charismatic appeal of neighborhood characters, the InterContinental flicks will be narrated by each hotel's concierge..."

The Talent Jungle presents our featured hotelier, our "chosen one". This feature highlights the talented and devoted professionals in the hotel & hospitality industry and brings out their epxeriences, strengths, background and more...in an effort to build a base of knowledge and connect people together.

Name: Mohamed Hussein

Company and Position: Area E-Business Manager - Egypt, Starwood Hotels & Resorts

Tell us a little about your educational background:
I graduated from faculty of Applied Arts, major Advertising in 1997, where I learned principles of advertising, marketing, history of Arts, Arabic fonts science and many more interesting topics that have sculpted my preliminary marketing perception. Then I've completed an Oracle Web Development Certificate in the year 2001, which enhanced my technical knowledge for the online communication channels.

Starwood has scored another marketing win, with Starwood Hawaii introducing seven mini-dramas to promote the hotels online - these can be viewed online as well as downloaded for the iPod!

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Hawaii has created seven independent dramatic films set on and around its seven properties in the islands, complete with central characters, original music and storylines. Despite their aim to lure travelers, the films have little mention of Starwood's brands, such as Westin or Sheraton. The shorts are distributed to travel agents on DVDs and posted online at Google video and YouTube.com, where they have received about 1,000 views each in the first two months.

You can also check them out here:

Alex Tew kicked-off the pixel advertising concept and made a million dollars in the process. It's a fact that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery...and successful ideas will yield a ton of imitations. Since the euphoric success of this simple but effective idea, it seems that almost every other webmaster has adopted the concept...perhaps on their way to their dream fortunes. But how many have actually succeeded?

I've even seen hospitality sites starting to adopt the idea, e.g. Hotelier.com (more), some with different approaches like free sections, enlarged views of ads, etc - but overall, most sites that have adopted this technique have very little to show for their enthusiastic efforts. The very reason that the idea was so popular and performed as it did was because no one had done it before...and this generated a tremendous amount of free publicity.

A new poll shows what people consider the most memorable hotel movie scenes of all time...frankly I find the choices a little strange (don't know if people were given fixed choices to rate...maybe this is the cause)

"The steamy image of Julia Roberts and Richard Gere in a luxurious bubble bath has been named the best hotel scene in a movie ever, according to a new poll."

Runners up in the poll include:
1. Pretty Woman - Julia Roberts and Richard Gere in a bubble bath
2. Psycho - The Shower Scene
3. The Shining - Danny Torrance (Danny Lloyd) facing the image of dead twins
4. Beverly Hills Cop - Eddie Murphy's reception desk rant
5. Indecent Proposal - Woody Harrelson and Demi Moore have sex on $1,000,000
6. Thelma and Louise - Brad Pitt and Gena Davis love scene before he steals her cash
7. Ghostbusters - the team trash a hotel dining room chasing ghost
8. Godfather - Al Pacino hears about father's shooting while having dinner with Diane Keaton
9. Trainspotting - Ewan McGregor leaves hotel room with the drug money
10. Pulp Fiction - Maria de Medeiros tells Bruce Willis she wants a 'pot belly'

Personally, I think Hotel Rwanda stands out in memory due to the very nature of the movie, the realism and harrowing images...plus the fact that the hotel serves as a refuge and a place of hope. But then again...memories serve us differently depending on taste and circumstance.

What is YOUR most memorable hotel movie scene?

Parsippany, NJ Sep 11, 2006 - Budget Rent A Car System, Inc. today announced that the Dunkin’ Donuts® free coffee promotion is back by popular demand. Budget customers will receive two pounds of Dunkin’ Donuts® coffee free after they’ve completed two qualifying rentals between now and December 15th.

“Last year’s Dunkin’ Donuts free coffee offer was a hit with Budget customers,” said Becky Alseth, senior vice president of marketing for Avis Budget Group, Inc., parent of Budget. “We’re happy to bring the promotion back and reward our loyal customers with something they value and enjoy.”

A few years ago, very few people had the knowledge or confidence in online travel bookings in India, not to mention the weak infrastructure that supported it. The last few years have seen a tremendous shift in the way people view online bookings - the success of the Indian Railways and some airlines in this field has greatly boosted the confidence of the average consumer, and online travel booking technology is becoming more and more sophisticated and targeted to the Indian traveller.

Some of the major hurdles a few years ago still pose a significant problem though, i.e. low credit card and internet penetration plus the number of SME's and family businesses that constitute the bulk of the active economy.

Still, a sevenfold increase in online travel spending is forecasted by PhoCusWright in the next couple of years...and this is cause for celebration and a pat on the back - the 'elephant' is fast becoming the 'e'-tiger!

Experts say that VFC's (value-focused carriers / airlines) could be the next growth drivers in the airline industry. Important to note that VFCs are not the same as no-frills airlines. Examples of VFC's include Flybe (UK), JetBlue (USA) and Kingfisher (India). A particular high-potential region is the Middle East, where development and travel is growing at a rapid rate.

"Value-focused carriers have emerged as a new airline model, merging the benefits of both traditional and no-frills carriers, according to Sabre Airline Solutions.

The company's consulting business president Nejib Ben-Kheder described VFCs as being identified by their focused route networks, simple fare structures, relatively cheap sales and distribution arrangements, limited array of partnerships and streamlined ground operations"

Anyone who isn't familiar with TED - Technnology Entertainment Design, an annual four-day event held in Monterey, California, attended by over a thosand industry-biggies, movers, shakers, innovators and creative artists. The event is a chance to share ideas, innovations, creativitiy, inspiration and more...all in an effort to build a better future for all of us. Check out www.ted.com for complete details and video snippets. Here is a great video of motivational speaker Tony Robbins at the TED Conference 2006 telling the audience how to unlock your hidden potential.

The discussions and ideas about Web 2.0 rage on...and the travel and hospitality sector seems to be listening too. Traditionally slower to jump onto the tech and web trends bandwagon, some hospitality companies are making an active effort to embrace Travel 2.0. John Bray of PhoCusWright discusses the initiatives taken by TripAdvisor, Yahoo! Travel and Starwood Hotels & Resorts (Four Points Website, The Lobby SPG Blog).

Definition: Web 2.0 is a term often applied to a perceived ongoing transition of the World Wide Web from a collection of websites to a full-fledged computing platform serving web applications to end users. Ultimately Web 2.0 services are expected to replace desktop computing applications for many purposes.

The jury's still out on an acceptable definition of Travel 2.0, but it has to do with going beyond traditional web offerings and embracing user-generated content and social media.

MySpace Is Fastest Growing among Top Web Brands, Google Maintains Double Digit Growth

NEW YORK– August 10, 2006– Nielsen//NetRatings, a global leader in Internet media and market research, announced today that user-generated content sites, platforms for photo sharing, video sharing and blogging, comprised five out of the top 10 fastest growing Web brands in July 2006. Image hosting site ImageShack ranked No. 4 among July’s fastest growing Web brands, increasing 233 percent, from a unique audience of 2.3 million to 7.7 million (see Table 1). Heavy.com, a video sharing site, took the No. 5 spot, increasing 213 percent, from 965,000 to 3.0 million unique visitors. Photo sharing site Flickr followed at No. 6, growing 201 percent from 2.1 million to 6.3 million unique visitors. Other user-generated content sites that made it into the top 10 fastest growing Web brands were MySpace, with a 183 percent year-over-year increase, and Wikipedia, with a 181 percent year-over-year increase.

myTELUS.com and eHotelier report that companies (including Starwood Hotels, Starbucks and Whirlpool among others) are participating in a project called "the Hotel of Tomorrow", to discuss and develop models and ideas for hotel rooms and amenities of the future.

"The hotel of the future may also offer downloadable settings in which guests can choose personalized sounds, aromas and even colours or other visuals. There's even a prototype of a bathtub covered in memory fabric that conforms to your body, and the project predicts that new technologies might create products like regenerating rugs, which repair themselves after guests walk on them.

Another future trend identified by the project involves the construction of pre-fabricated modular hotels that can be embedded in jungles and even oceans, allowing travellers to experience exotic locales without using up or disturbing local resources to create buildings from the ground up."

This is a superb initiative by Gettys, a Chicago design firm, and the Hospitality Design Group and should lead to quite a few interesting concepts and innovations - looking forward to the results of this one! Some of the results will be showcased at the HD Boutique Expo.

Work – a word much used and abused, like the very act itself. A definition of the word “Work” offered by the dictionary – “Physical or mental effort or activity directed toward the production or accomplishment of something.” The thesaurus offers other alternatives…labor, employment, job, vocation, occupation, effort, labor, toil, drudgery…the list goes on…and so does the meaning of the word and the work we do.

A heartfelt tribute and adieu to Steve Irwin, Croc Hunter, who met an untimely end today while diving off the coast of Australia. Officials speculate that the stingray barb to the chest may have triggered a fatal heart attack for the 44 year old adventurer. Steve will be fondly remembered by fans, for this daring and quirky personality and his exciting forays into the hidden natural treasures so few of us ever see ourselves.

"SYDNEY (Reuters) - Steve Irwin, the quirky Australian naturalist who won worldwide acclaim, was killed by a stingray barb through the chest on Monday while diving off Australia's northeast coast, emergency officials and witnesses said."

Sue Pelletier blogs about the new, wacky and creative marketing campaign by Volkswagon, called the Emissions Index - check it out here: www.egoindex.com

"Volkswagon, in what I think is a pretty brilliant marketing campaign, came up with Ego Emissions Index, a site that assigns ego-ratings to just about everything."

Those working in the hotel / hospitality industry have plenty to complain about...long hours, too many complaints, not enough compliments and 'thank you's, lower salaries...just to mention a few. So it's no surprise that many have come up with ways to describe the industry and the role that these "unsung heroes" play. One particular version that really cracks me up is a description by Rolf Oppenheim...

AN HOTELIER MUST BE:

A DIPLOMAT
A DEMOCRAT
AN AUTOCRAT
AN ACROBAT
AND...

Congratulations to Mr.Khemraj Lakai on winning the Talent Jungle Summer Competition! Khemraj is SSTH alumni and is currently engaged in the field of hospitality education and recruitment consulting.

You can read and comment on Khemraj's article on the Talent Jungle or the Tourism and Hospitality Diaries. Khemraj's prize was a lifetime email address with the Talent Jungle as well as a homepage on the portal, which will be put up at www.thetalentjungle.com/khemraj.

Here are some Ad Spots run by Hilton Hotels in 2006:

Hilton Hotel 2006 TV commercial "Sand Castle"

This strategy+business article examines the crucial role that a company's customers play in defining innovation and future development.

"Cisco's example may not be typical, but neither is it rare. Procter & Gamble has begun to share some of its computer modeling and market research techniques with Wal-Mart, Tesco, and other distribution channels. This includes the celebrated P&G "moment of truth" research, which tracks consumer attitudes at two critical times: when the product is chosen and when it is used. To be sure, many of P&G's biggest distributors are also rivals that offer their own private labels, so there are risks to sharing this type of proprietary innovation platform with them. But the rewards are even greater: They include ongoing close ties with retailers, who often share their own innovative tools for analyzing (for example) how store layout, shelf space, and signage influence purchase decisions. Together, these manufacturers and retailers can develop a relationship that transcends any particular innovation tool or technique."

Here are some recent TV spots run by Westin Hotels and Resorts.

The Westin "Breathe" Campaign:

The LHW will be migrating to a new global CRS system later this year. This should give member hotels access to the latest technology while giving the whole group a tech boost. The current toll-free numbers will remain the same, though and travel agents will continue using the "LW" code for GDS bookings.

The Leading Hotels of the World, Ltd. has begun preparation for the massive global migration to a CRS developed by TRUST International, following an extensive evaluation of the current technology and service providers. The cutover is scheduled for November 30, 2006, after which time all member hotels will use the same reservations platform to control all distribution systems and channels managed by The Leading Hotels of the World, Ltd. This state-ofthe-art technology will enhance the competitive position of Leading Hotels, the foremost luxury hotel brand, and will enable each hotel to immediately implement new marketing programs on a global basis.

The well-known LHW (Leading Hotels of the World) has seen a record number of applications this year for membership. The Leading Hotels of the World, Ltd. is the prestigious luxury hospitality organization representing more than 430 of the world’s finest hotels, resorts and spas, and is the operator of www.lhw.com. The LHW also maintains offices in 24 major markets across the globe.

Year-to-date, a record 355 hotels have applied for membership in The Leading Hotels of the World, the highest number ever in the company’s 78-year history. “This is an indisputable indication of the vibrancy of our business,” commented Paul M.McManus, president and chief executive officer. “The hospitality industry has traditionally turned to The Leading Hotels of the World, Ltd. for its exceptional value and unrivalled brand recognition, yet the number of applicants this year has been remarkable.” Of that group of hopeful applicants, only 24 -- a mere 7% -- have been accepted, due to the company’s exacting level of quality and service standards.

"NORWALK, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 31, 2006--Priceline.com(R) (Nasdaq: PCLN) announced today the launch of a new, enhanced Name Your Own Price(R) hotel reservation service full of new features requested by priceline.com customers."

"Priceline.com listened to customers' suggestions for how to make our Name Your Own Price(R) hotel service even better and is pleased to respond today the addition of several frequently requested enhancements," said priceline.com's Senior Vice President, Hotels, Tim Gordon. "In addition to offering the best deals on or off the Web, priceline.com's Name Your Own Price(R) hotel service now provides significantly enhanced speed and convenience."

PhoCusWright analysts present what they see at six important travel tech trends to watch out in 2006. These include:

(1) Electronic Snacking / Increased access to a variety of info snapshots, sound bytes, etc.
(2) Social networking and social media
(3) Dashboards, Data Mining and Dating
(4) The use of alternate distribution channels
(5) Rich media use with increased broadband penetration and
(6) Mapping technologies and services.