Mr. DiLeva

Social Media & PR

'Wikis and Widgets and Blogs! Oh, My!' - What Web 2.0 Means To Hospitality

By Michael DiLeva, Executive Vice President, The IDT Group

Isn't it just like that pesky Internet? It snuck up on us hoteliers in the late 90's and just when you've made the last "tweaks" to your rate parity, SEO and channel optimization strategies and are ready to put your feet up on your desk, let out a sigh of relief and go back to "business as usual" (if there is such a thing anymore), along comes Web 2.0 to throw everything into chaos again!

What exactly is Web 2.0? Well, like a lot of things surrounding the Internet, it can have different meanings and encompass a wide range of concepts depending upon your perspective. Generally, however, the term "Web 2.0" refers to the next stage in the evolution of the Internet to shift even more "power" to individual users. You're probably more familiar with Web 2.0 than you realized. Got a page on MySpace, read a movie review on a Blog or looked up something on Wikipedia lately? They're all great examples of Web 2.0 developments and they're just the tip of the iceberg.

As the saying goes, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." And ironically, the impact of Web 2.0 on hospitality resembles the impact the first wave of the Web had on our business. Just as hoteliers oblivious to the Web were shocked in the late 90's when perspective guests stopped calling their 1-800 number and started instead to log on to dot-com intermediary sites, hoteliers who think that managing their reputation means prepping for a site visit from AAA will be equally blind-sided when they find their occupancy declining due to some rather critical comments on Trip Advisor.

Blogs - "Everyone's A Critic."

Of course, we all seek to treat every guest as a VIP. But remember when you knew that you had a property tour planned by a Meeting Planner, a site inspection scheduled by a rating entity field representative or got a tip that the local Food Writer was going to dine in your gourmet room? You'd try just that little bit harder to ensure that everything was just right. Today, thanks to Blogs (personal Web Logs where users provide commentary on subjects of personal interest), every stay by every guest could have that same impact. It's not unlike The Odyssey (think back to that High School English!) where Homer preaches that one should treat everyone equally since you never know when a guest may be a god in disguise. Today it's a real possibility that every guest could be a "critic" with the legitimate ability to significantly influence your business.

How so? Well today there are an estimated 50 million blogs worldwide and the Pew Internet and American Life Project estimated that the "blog population has grown to about 12 million adults" in the United States alone. Considering that the International Telecommunication Union projects the total number of Internet users in the U.S. at 124 million, that means that over 9% of everyone on the Web is actively blogging. To put that in perspective, if you have a 200-room hotel running at 70% occupancy, odds are that 14 guests in your hotel right now have a Blog. And when you consider that bloggers by nature write about their own perspective and experience, it's possible that they could be writing about your property sometime during or following their stay.

Essentially, blogs are the old "grapevine" on steroids. Whereas only a few years ago, we only had to worry about the fact that dissatisfied guests would on average tell 10 of their friends (while satisfied guests only told 5), today that same dissatisfied guest can reach millions with their story. "So what?" you say? A global study by Neilsen recently found that 78% of consumers find recommendations from fellow consumers (i.e. "word-of-mouth") to be the type of "advertising" that they trust the most. So when you combine the sheer volume of blogs with the level of credibility that they project, the bottom line is that hoteliers have no choice but to pay attention to this significant new medium.

The good news is that blogs are not all bad. After all, with all of the money that we as hoteliers spend on comment cards, focus groups, mystery shopping and other forms of guest satisfaction research, blogs give us a deep understanding of our guests' needs and experience for nothing more than the cost of an Internet connection (high-speed of course!). Plus, since you're not the only property out there that people are blogging about, entering the blogosphere can also give you robust insight into your competition and industry trends.

Step One - Listen

The first step in a blog strategy is to take your property's "temperature" - that is to log on and learn what people are saying or have said about your hotel. This can be as simple as typing your property's name in Google or visiting any one of the popular travel forum sites such as Tripadvisor.com or igougo.com. There, you're likely to find some very "interesting" comments on your property - some valid and perhaps, some a bit unfair.

As an example of what you might find... While randomly searching for information on a leading four-star hotel in New York City on an enormously popular travel blog (both to remain nameless to protect the innocent!), I came upon a scathing review from an individual describing himself as a "frequent guest" of the property. The guest described several service failures that were either only remedied after waiting several days or in other instances, were never addressed at all during his stay. Overall he described his stay as "disappointing" and "not up to the standards he's experienced" in the past.

So what's the big deal about a negative review? After all, people know that there are always two sides to every story right? Well, kind of... Tamar's "2007 Social Media for Brands Report" does say that only about half (52%) of consumers are "put off" by negative comments posted on online forums and social networks. What's frightening, however, is that the same study also noted, however, that "Travel products and services were identified as the sector most at risk from negative comments on social networks with almost six out of ten (58%) saying that negative comments would lead to them abandoning a purchase."

It's not just the rare catastrophic service failure (let's face it, they happen occasionally to even the best of us) that we need to worry about. Research published in the Journal of Consumer Satisfaction noted that even minor problems and inconveniences will cause significant negative word of mouth. In a services environment such as hospitality where there are so many points being evaluated by the guest (check-in process, bed, shower, television, room service, etc.), there are more opportunities for a service breakdown somewhere along the experience chain. Therefore, there's an even greater likelihood that a guest could be blogging about even the most isolated and innocuous service failure and that those very comments are keeping guests away from your door.

The review that I highlighted was posted on a well respected worldwide travel blog by a self reported "repeat guest" with several stays within the past few years and a recent four day stay. It makes you wonder... What is the lifetime value of this guest? And how much future revenue has the property potentially lost from this disgruntled guest? And how many other prospective guests have or will read this negative review and decide to stay elsewhere? And... how many reviews like this are out there in cyberspace about your property?

Step Two - Join In!

What was really surprising about this posting is that even one month after the negative review had been posted, not one representative from the property posted a public response. And this was a property that has "received an award of excellence" from the same travel blog so obviously they knew of the site yet they weren't being proactive in either reviewing comments or responding to them.

In today's environment where everyone gets their say, hoteliers need to be pro-active blog readers and contributors. After all, with the egalitarian nature of the Web, your response to a guest's postings should be as valid as theirs. Of course, as a representative of the hotel, you may not be viewed as completely impartial, but as long as your comments are honest (throwing in a couple of "you're right - we screwed up and we're sorry!" comments when they're applicable are helpful), they'll go a long way to establishing our comments as credible and your property as a hotel that cares about your guests and their experience.

By being a pro-active blog reader and contributor, you can quickly respond to negative reviews, and thus protect your brand, maintain your reputation, restore the confidence of prospective guests and establish win-back strategies with valuable past guests.

Step Three - Start Blogging Yourself

Once you've established a defensive or "reactive" strategy of making sure that you respond to negative blog postings, the next step is to go on the offensive and start blogging yourself. After all, as we learned after Web 1.0 and the disintermediation crisis, if you can't beat 'em (or stop 'em), join 'em! The key, however, is that your blog can't just be a repurposed version of your Web site. If it's overly commercial or at all perceived as a "company organ," it'll defeat the purpose and be at the least a waste of time, and at worst, a "turn off" for potential guests.

So what do you blog about? What everybody else does - what they know or what they like! As demonstrated by the remarkable popularity of reality television (think the "Real World"), consumers love "behind the scenes" insight. A Hotelier's blog could be just such a vehicle - a peek at the inter-workings of a hotel that would actually be interesting to perspective guests and even add some cache to the brand itself. What may seem mundane to us as hoteliers might be entertaining or even informative for a reader - such as a discussion of your recent struggle over whether or not to buy plasma or LCD TVs for your guest rooms. Or how about some of the interesting personal services that you provided or coordinated for a VIP guest (like picking out all of the brown M&Ms for that hot new rock band during their stay). What about an entry on how you soothed things over for a nervous Bride, how you rode out a nasty storm that hit your areas or the process you went through to remove trans fats from your menu?

While opening up your brand to the masses is scary, you could even consider adding blog features to your own Website. After all, if a guest had a bad experience or is disgruntled, there's no shortage of places for them to post a comment about it. By allowing all guests - happy and disappointed - to comment about your property, you're demonstrating a fairness and confidence in your product that will impress perspective guests. Plus, it will keep you on your toes and give you an added incentive to respond to service failures in a timely and proactive manner. And of course, there's nothing to stop you from providing incentives to your brand "apostles" or "raving fans" to post their favorable comments so the scale is always tipping in the favor of positive postings.

What you blog about isn't as important as the fact that, by blogging, you'll become a part of the dialog and position yourself and your property as though-leaders who have a passion for and care about the business. And who wouldn't want to stay at a hotel staffed by competent, passionate professionals?

The Bottom-line

If you're not staying on top of the "blogosphere," you should be. By regularly consulting blogs relevant to your hotel, you'll not only gain first-hand information about your business based on real-world experiences - experiences that are undoubtedly influencing the behavior of potential guests - but you'll also have the opportunity to join in on the dialog yourself and respond to what's being said or refute negative characterizations that do not adequately reflect your property.

Essentially, there are two types of blog participants: passive blog observers and pro-active blog contributors. At the very least, hoteliers should be passive blog observers. With just a few clicks of your mouse, you can conveniently read content about your local marketplace -- all served by a world-wide collaborative electronic community. Picture yourself walking into a capacity filled stadium, with countless numbers of people that all care about your market. By simply being in attendance, you have the ability to eavesdrop on every single conversation. Investing the time to "listen" to these conversations will inevitably help you better understand your local marketplace and your competitive environment, and in-turn, better serve your customers.

If you have the time or the staff, it's best to be an active blog contributor. Most blogs provide the opportunity for readers to respond to information and offer an explanation or alternative opinion, which presents the ultimate opportunity to address negative commentary about your site. And by contributing content to a blog, you've effectively created your own one-to-many communications model. Your response to a customer's inquiry or compliant or shared opinion about a topic of discussion is available at all times for the world to read. Just as a blog can erode your brand, this powerful medium can also help you to protect your brand's reputation, share knowledge, respond to negative publicity before it escalates, solicit and gather feedback, build credibility, provide appropriate advice, attract and persuade prospective customers.

Blogs have an important role to play in the mass distribution of information because of their focused communal content. If you're looking to learn more about what people are saying about your property, or if you'd enjoy a place to interact with people that share your passion for hospitality, then you should definitely enter the blog world.

Michael DiLeva is executive vice president of The IDT Group. He has near experience in the hospitality and gaming sectors, and has provided marketing, technology, CRM, networking and consulting services for major hotel companies in the US, France, UK and UAE. He holds a BS in Marketing Management from Rutgers University and a MBA from Saint Joseph's University. He completed an executive leadership program conducted by the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business and serves on the Technology Advisory Board for Penn State's School of Hospitality Management. Mr. DiLeva can be contacted at 215-487-3522 or mdileva@theidtgroup.com Extended Bio...

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