Yesterday, TripAdvisor flew me out to Las Vegas for their second Master Class conference. The event detailed TripAdvisor’s expansive owner-focused developments and suggested specific ways for hoteliers to proactively manage their reputations. Daniel and I agree: it’s a great initiative. As for the conference, here are three things that they really nailed:

1. Pre-conference modules gave hoteliers a hands-on look at TripAdvisor’s newest features.

3. Group Q&A sessions were brief and immediately followed by opportunities for in-depth one on one discussions with presenters.

Bryan Payea – TripAdvisor’s head of Industry Relations – addressed a common concern: how to react if a guest uses the prospect of a bad TripAdvisor review to ‘blackmail’ a property?

Bryan suggests that hoteliers notify TripAdvisor of the potentially biased review ahead of time, inform guests that providing them with incentives for good reviews is against TripAdvisor’s policy and – in some districts – illegal, and remember that a very small percentage of these would-be blackmailers follow through with their threats.

Five more live-tweeted lessons:

Thanks for having me, TripAdvisor; we look forward to following your progress…

Hoteliers, what do you think of these changes?

I love talking with the managers of hotels and resorts that thrive online: we get a much more complete picture of how they are succeeding. TripAdvisor is one tool I use to locate the places that guests seem to love, and today’s interview features a resort that is rated by guests as #1 in the area.

Here, I talk with Michael Vogt, General Manager of the Layana Resort and Spa in Thailand.

Josiah: Tell us a little bit about your resort.

Michael: Layana Resort and Spa is a boutique 50-room resort, situated on Lanta island off the west coast of southern Thailand. The low-rise resort was built to take advantage of the beach setting forested hills behind.

How have you achieved the success you have on TripAdvisor?

Our philosophy is rooted in small size, luxurious accommodation, unobtrusive personalized attention, tranquility and peace, gracious Thai hospitality, and value for money. We work hard to ensure guest satisfaction based on our philosophy, and pay a lot of attention to detail.

Most of the time, this works well and is reflected in favourable guest comments on Internet forums such as TripAdvisor and HolidayCheck. But from time to time we drop the ball and this too is religiously reported, which in turn gives us the opportunity to further refine our product.

How are you encouraging guests at your hotel to talk about their stay online – and share their positive experiences with others?

This has been as issue of much Management debate. On balance, we have taken a conscious decision not to adopt any techniques to encourage our guests to talk about their experiences with us online. We have done this because we perceive the types of guests we attract don’t respond positively to being coerced or manipulated into becoming marketing tools for us. And yet they are glad to share their positive experiences as long as it remains their preserve to do so.

The closest we get to encouraging guests to write an online review is by providing direct links from our website to TripAdvisor and, for example, World Luxury Travel Awards to enable guests to vote for us.

In the past, which marketing tactics have performed best for you? Which ones don’t quite live up to the hype?

• Direct print advertising campaigns have provided disappointing returns
• Tour Operator brochure placements seem to be essential to keep a wide net of travel agents informed
• Returning guest loyalty programs are good – though we find guests tend to book with us because they want to, not because of the freebies
• Short-term tactical offers have limited impact from our experience
• Genuine added value promotions are attracting more bookings and are better than simple price discounting
• 3rd party representation in other countries is expensive but has shown positive returns when used as a new market entry tool

What’s the most exciting trend you see in hotel marketing? Why?

The internet is changing the way we market ourselves. But so is technology, and the ability to track guest online complaints, competitors pricing and promotions, and detailed and accurate guest preferences, provides us with powerful tools to target specific offerings with pinpoint accuracy

In time, the current reliance on tour operators to sell to the market will shift and instead we will be able to provide personally packaged on-line offerings directly to an internet-savvy audience

Mobile handheld devices and the applications they access, plus the enormous power of comparative shopping, will change the way the world buys goods and services. The hotels that understand, embrace and utilize this technology to the fullest will enjoy a marketing advantage over their less visible competitors.

Thank you, Michael!

Tailor Made Hotel from outside

A highlight of my trip to Buenos Aires last week was visiting the Tailor Made Hotel, and talking with owner Mariquel Waingarten. In a very short time, she has taken her new property to among the most popular design hotels in Argentina. Here is an excerpt from our conversation:

Can you tell me the story behind how you opened your hotel?

I lived in the neighborhood, and liked this property when I used to walk by. I finally built up the courage to make an offer on the building, and the Tailor Made Hotel opened within a year. The location is very important, as most of the hotels in Buenos Aires are concentrated in Palermo neighborhood. Las Canitas – where we are – is a lovely neighborhood: very residential and local. There a lot of good restaurants and shops, and it’s only a short walk to Palermo.

I like to travel, but there were many things I didn’t like about hotels I stayed at. I like going to expensive hotels, but I hate going there and then being charged for WiFi or paying $10 for a bottle of water. Design hotels can be a little bit pretentious, and it’s easy to feel a little out of place. This is weird, because I’m the guest and I should feel like I’m the queen.

So I wanted to have a nice hotel with good design and a concierge service that is friendly. There is a fine line between being too much and just being helpful and friendly.

Nowadays, when you travel, you always need access to WiFi. The fact that I have five rooms is an advantage, because I can put a computer in each room. For travelers, it’s a relief because they don’t have to bring a laptop or netbook. I’m really inspired by Apple technology and Apple design. All their products are really simple, and you really understand what they’re supposed to do.

So at this hotel we have a culture is based on three things:

1. Personal concierge service
2. Apple technology
3. No extra charges (We don’t charge for WiFi, laundry, phone calls or drinks.)

Apple Computers at Tailor Made Hotel

From the feedback I see on the web, your guests are very happy with the service they get here. How do you consistently provide excellent service?

At the very beginning, when a guest makes a reservation, we invite them to fill out a form online. Before they arrive, we already have some knowledge about their expectations for the trip, and what they are wanting to find here. So for example, they may say that they’re really interested in history or architecture or design or shopping – and then we can take this and prepare activity recommendations for their days here.

All the recommendations are personalized, and come from places me or Loli (the manager) find. We go and talk with the owners of the place and make sure the place has good aesthetics, service, and quality – it needs to have that mix. Guests appreciate knowing the places that I would go to myself.

I like wine, so every afternoon we serve our guests and I really like that moment. I like to see the city through the eyes of the guests who come here.

Which marketing tactics have you used to get the word out?

Our only marketing was personal effort: blogs, social media, and TripAdvisor. We built such a good online reputation that mainstream travel publications such as Condé Nast and Travel + Leisure contacted us to do a story. They were interested in us.

On Facebook, YouTube and Twitter we share things that we like — common interests with our typical guests: design, art, environmental issues, and hospitality.

Which marketing method has worked best for you so far?

TripAdvisor.

Okay, you’re number one in Buenos Aires — how did you do that?

Read more…

Today we’re going to talk with Micheal Rosney, and discover how the Killeen House Hotel consistently receives excellent reviews from their guests online…and how they received the TripAdvisor Travelers’ Choice 2009 award.

Josiah: Tell us a little bit about your hotel.

Michael: The Killeen House is a 23 bedroom Country House style of Hotel, located just outside of the town of Killarney: Ireland’s premier Tourist destination. It has been owned and personally managed by Michael and Geraldine Rosney since 1992. Mainly targeted towards the upper end of the International Leisure Market, it is a uniquely Irish property, with the emphasis firmly placed on good friendship, good food and good water pressure in the showers! As much as 70 percent of all of our business is either direct repeat business or direct referral from past Guests. This is a major plus for us, because it means that our Guests know exactly what we can offer them, and we know exactly what it takes to meet – and hopefully exceed – their vacation expectations.

How have you achieved the success you have on TripAdvisor?

We became hyper conscious – to the extent of being almost paranoid -  of it! When we first became aware of TripAdvisor a couple of years back, we immediately identified it as a tool that had tremendous potential for us to get the message and the ethos of our property out into a Marketplace that we otherwise had no hope of reaching. We made all of the great people working with us aware if it, and explained to them that this was an opportunity that we felt would have very tangible and positive long term benefits for the Killeen House.

We have always operated our business on the basis of treating our Guests firstly as individuals to be welcomed and looked after in a personal and individual way, and secondly as new friends, who we want to show a great time to while they’re visiting with us. And anyone glancing through the reviews we have garnered on TripAdvisor will be clearly struck by the big number of them that specifically mention the PEOPLE rather than the PLACE. Its not within our power to make the bedrooms bigger, or to order up 80 degrees of sunshine, but it is very certainly within our power to ensure that all of our Guests receive a uniquely warm and Irish welcome from all of us here in the Killeen House…..

How are you encouraging guests at your hotel to talk about their stay online – and share their experience with others?

Given that we are a small operation, we have ample opportunity here in the Killeen House to meet most of our guests on a personal level, If we find our for example that they have heard of us via TripAdvisor, than that is a natural opportunity for us to ask them to keep on spreading the word!

Thankfully, we frequently receive notes and e-mails from our Guests after they have departed, telling us how much they have enjoyed their stay with us. Again, a great opportunity to ask them to post a TripAdvior review of their experience. We have found that after the initial first number of reviews, that it almost becomes a self-perpetuating thing

Read more…

For our next interview, we’re talking with Dave Craig, General Manager of Hotel Teatro in Denver, Colorado, USA. In addition to receiving great rankings on TripAdvisor, the hotel was named one of the Top 50 Large City Hotels in the US by Travel + Leisure magazine, and rated the top Denver hotel in 2009 by Zagat.

Josiah: Tell us a little bit about your hotel

Dave: Hotel Teatro is a boutique hotel located in the heart of downtown Denver. While the property is a registered historic landmark we typically don’t market it as such because virtually every space has been remodeled with state of the art décor and technology. Teatro is Italian for “theater” so the hotel has a theatrical influence in the design and artwork.

How have you achieved your success on TripAdvisor?

Hotel Teatro has an inherent culture of exceptional service. We hire our hospitality professionals very carefully and work diligently to train them to 5 Star & 5 Diamond Standards. We have the ability to involve our associates in many of the global decisions that affect the way the hotel operates so there is a strong sense of ownership. Our team is empowered to make active decisions that will create a successful experience for our guests. We have seasoned operational managers on duty 24 hours per day, 7 days per week so there is always intense scrutiny over our daily operations.

We also spend the first portion of every staff meeting reading our newest TripAdvisor reviews aloud to the group. This establishes a forum for recognizing favorable performance and for developing solutions where we have areas of opportunity.

How do you encourage guests to share their experience on TripAdvisor?

We are blessed with many wonderful guests, a large number of whom have been returning to Hotel Teatro for many years. Every day we receive cards, letters and e-mails of thanks. I make certain to respond to each one personally and whenever I do, I typically finish my correspondence with a phrase like the following:

Thank you for taking the time to relay the details of your experience at Hotel Teatro. I am so glad that you had a wonderful visit. If you’d like to share your experience with others, I encourage you to do so at www.tripadvisor.com.

What other internet marketing tactics is your hotel focusing on right now?

I am continually amazed at the viral nature of social media websites. I don’t think that even Mark Zuckerburg, when he established Facebook, could have foreseen its exponential growth. It appears that business CEOs have learned from their teenagers that the speed and volume of communication has changed forever the way that we do business. The social media sites are becoming business media sites as more business adopt their own pages in these environments. Yelp, Facebook, and Twitter are ultimately where our clients are sharing their experiences, but TripAdvisor is clearly the most highly recognized source for unbiased travel feedback.

What marketing tactics have performed best for you? Which don’t live up to the hype?

Ultimately we recognize that today’s travel consumer is much better educated than the traveler of even 5 years ago. Periodicals such as US Today and the wide variety of internet channels provide exciting new resources that result in a consumer who knows how to book more efficiently, for better value and has developed higher expectations. Consequently we recognize that their travel experience is not just an airline flight, a hotel, a dinner and a trip to the theater, but all of these things combined. In this experience economy we work diligently to provide as many of these services as possible and to involve ourselves in each to ensure a high quality experience. For example, if appropriate, we will have a guest services associate escort our guests to the theater to ensure they find their way, obtain their tickets and are off to a good start.

Because guests will report their first hand experience, without edit, on the internet, the value of that documentary is quite valuable. Due to the increased demand on this kind of information, other sources such as straight advertising carry less value and consequently we have come to shift our dependency accordingly.

Can you give an example of this in action?

We had a couple arriving at the hotel. The husband had left to run an errand and the wife was pulling the car to the curb, while trying to manage two crying babies. Our bell captain could clearly see the frustration on her face and offered to help. Through near tears she said “I just wanted to get settled and go to my favorite Chinese food restaurant, but with these two crying babies, that will never happen!” The bellman, seeing her plight expediently got her settled in her guest room, then went to the Chinese restaurant of her choice, picked out her favorite entrees, brought it back to the hotel and had it plated on beautiful china and silver and had it delivered to her room. The guest was amazed and it began to be her favorite ‘hotel story’ which I heard again and again due to the viral nature of sites like TripAdvisor.

Thanks for your time, Dave.

Our recent article about TripAdvisor’s top London hotel got me excited.What additional hotel marketing and management lessons could we learn from other top guest-rated hotels? I’m going to start a little series interviewing management at these TripAdvisor all-stars to find out.

Today we’re going to talk with Adele Gutman, VP of Sales & Marketing at HKHotels. All four of their Manhattan properties are among TripAdvisor’s top 10 New York City hotels, including the Casablanca Hotel and the Library Hotel.

Let’s begin.

Josiah: Give us a little introduction to your hotels.

Adele: Let me share what I wrote on our website, which I think says it all:

HKHotels & Hospitality is a family owned and operated collection of small luxury hotels in New York City that takes a unique approach to the art of hospitality. Each of our small European-style New York hotels has its own distinctive personality and charm. What they share is a commitment to providing timeless beauty, exceptional value, and an outstanding travel experience for every guest visiting NYC.

HKHoteliers care about people, and we care about building lifelong relationships with our guests.  To achieve that, our philosophy is to hire the kindest, happiest people we can find, people who are naturally inclined to love to help people. Then, we develop their natural talents and train them to become professional hoteliers so that they are more than simply their title, whether it be Bellman, Guest Service Agent or Housekeeper; they are all professional luxury hoteliers dedicated to providing personalized luxurious service to each traveler who crosses their path.

All four of your Manhattan properties are among TripAdvisor’s top 10 New York City hotels. How did you do it?

Several years ago when we first began to notice TripAdvisor, we saw that one of our hotels was number seven, and another was number 56. Because one of our hotels was at the top of the list, it never seemed out of the realm of possibility to have them all up there. So, this may sound very “Oprah” but seriously, several years ago we “set an intention” to have all of our hotels in the top 10%. We started making a big deal out of the reading of every review at our morning meetings, to observe what our guests really responded to and learn what we could do better. We shared ideas between the hotels, and included all our staff, including every bellman and housekeeper in the process. Our staff loved it.

We strive to hire the nicest happiest people so between their good nature and the training they get at the hotels, they take so much pride in the appreciation of the guests, and it is addictive. The result, at least for us, is a team of people who are strongly motivated to make the guests happy.  Happy staff make for happy guests and vise versa. With the right support from the leadership in terms of empowering staff to take initiative, it is self perpetuating.

Sometimes, hotels have a problem bridging the “offline to online gap.” How are you encouraging guests at your hotels to talk about their stay online – and share their positive experiences with others?

We believe that satisfying your guests’ needs and expectations is not going to get you any reviews. If you want your guests to shower your hotel with good word of mouth, both on and offline, you have got to wow them with exceptional service and a unique experience that leaves them with something to talk about. If they get home and their friends, colleagues and  associates ask them how their trip was, you want them to be able to say, “you’ll never believe what an awesome hotel we stayed at. They had this, that and the other thing, and the people there, that was the best part of all.”

Casablanca Hotel

Let’s move beyond TripAdvisor. What other internet marketing tactics are your hotels focusing on right now?

We are a small company, so our time is limited, but we are tinkering with Citysearch, Yelp, Facebook and Twitter.

But TripAdvisor is the powerhouse that brings guests to us from Europe, Asia, Australia, and South America. Nothing else comes close.

Anything online that has little to no cost yet drives visitors to our website, we love to work on. We have about 1,100 fans between the four hotels on facebook, and that is with no financial investment and really, just a small amount of time, so it gives us another way of communicating with our audience and strengthening the bond with our clients.

In the past, which marketing tactics have performed best for you? Which ones don’t quite live up to the hype?

Giving each hotel a bit of a concept, a unique identity, gives the guests and the journalists a hook to rest their story on. The Library concept in particular is so unique, everyone loves to talk about it and write about it. Creating interesting packages at the hotel also gives people something to talk about.  We get a lot more play and exposure from that than anything else we can do.

We really avoid paid advertising, because we feel our resources should all go towards things that enhance the guest experience instead, but we have on rare occasion traded for some print ads. We never felt any big benefit from that as much as we do from the on and offline word of mouth. Free wine and cheese in the evenings makes people happy. That is what performs well for us.

Library Hotel

What has been your biggest obstacle in designing or launching your online marketing campaign? How did you overcome it?

We came to realize that there was no shortcut or easy way out. We had to make the time to learn about internet marketing for ourselves as opposed to relying on outside experts, and test our ideas, evaluate the results, and continually grow to become experts for our own needs. If you have a true entrepreneurial spirit at your business, there is no one outside the company that will care as deeply about the results as you will.

There is so much great advice available on the internet for people who seek it out. People are so generous about sharing ideas. We are still in the learning process, and perhaps always will be, but everyone at our company has begun to embrace the work and we are getting better at it all the time. The thing I feel we really are strongest at is the key to making any business a long term success. We build our business brick by brick by making sure everyone who checks out is delighted enough not just to return but to create more future business through referrals both on and off line.

Do you have any favorite marketing resources you would like to share with our readers?

I have my Google Reader programmed to send me anything that gets written on the internet about Internet marketing particularly with regard to hospitality. That’s how I found you, Josiah!

What’s the most exciting trend you see in hotel marketing? Why?

I guess would have to say that I really have my eye on Twitter. I am not doing much for the hotels on it now, but we just launched a new restaurant in the Broadway Theater District called Montenapo (@Montenapo) so I am experimenting with the joys of Twitter there.

We are just in the baby steps, but already, there is no doubt about it: Twitter has definitely brought new customers to Montenapo who would not have found us otherwise. And it’s free so you’ve got to love that!

Thank you for your time, Adele.

This post is by guest expert Rajul Chande.

As of July 2009, The Egerton House Hotel is currently the number one guest-rated London hotel on TripAdvisor.  I recently met Jonathan Raggett, CEO of Red Carnation Hotel Collection, to try to understand how it got there.

This group runs a stunning 4 of TripAdvisor’s top 6 London hotels at present, including the Egerton House.  It’s an enviable position to be in.

But the focus here is on the Egerton House: this is after all the current “number 1″  and was also the venue of our meeting.  How did a relatively unsung and small (30 bedrooms) hotel make it to the top of the charts?

Before revealing some answers, let’s peek at a few recent TripAdvisor guest comments which have lifted the Egerton House to top spot:

The above comments clearly highlight that staff at the Egerton House possess bucketloads of character and charisma.

From what Mr Raggett told me this is not accidental.

They consciously recruit “characters” with personality and flair.  So for example you have Antonio at the hotel’s bar who is famous for his martinis.

Head Barman Antonio struts his stuff at the cosy Egerton House bar

Then there is Alex who not only checks you in but may also sing at your table!  There’s also friendly Murat – one of the managers who cheerfully showed me around the hotel.

All the staff I ran into had a calm and relaxed attitude.  This isn’t always the case in luxury hotels which often have an overbearing formality in the air.

The staff here seem to be driven by an expectation of success rather than a fear of failure.  This frees them to be themselves and excel.

I also noticed that the hotel cultivates a distinctly cosy and intimate atmosphere – helped by its small size.

It’s a place that doesn’t stand on ceremony and is rather a hotel where guests can simply chill out, unwind and feel pampered.

Mr Raggett told me that although great effort is made to recruit the “characters” described above, continuous training is equally critical.

There is a focus on “TNTs” (“Tiny Noticeable Touches”).  So for example, guests’ favourite drinks and newspapers are remembered, their favourite music arranged in advance in their rooms and so on.

Training is also tailored to the hotel’s specific needs and driven by continuous “mystery shopping” rather than generic standards.

This – as well as the emphasis on personalisation – echoes the approach taken by Claridge’s.  And to the extent that you can usually stay at the Egerton House for a few quid less than Claridge’s, it offers good value.

Rooms at the Egerton House have a comfy, traditional style

When I walked around to see some rooms, I found them nice but fairly standard fare for a luxury hotel.  They were immaculately presented but I don’t think you’d choose this hotel on the strength of its rooms alone.

For me the hotel’s main asset is the intimacy and warmth conveyed by the surroundings and above all the staff.  It’s a unique establishment run by a talented team with great attention to detail.

With only 30-odd rooms to supervise they know the hotel inside out and obviously feel comfortable and confident within its walls.

The manageable size also makes it easier to deliver unusually consistent performance.  And I think that this consistency and the hotel’s special intimacy are what make it a deserved number 1 on TripAdvisor.

Location-wise, Knightsbridge is one of London’s upscale neighbourhoods and very close to Harrod’s, so it is perfect for shopping trips. You’ll come back to the hotel bar with your pile of shopping bags to be greeted by one of Antonio’s G&Ts or martinis!

Rajul Chande writes about London hotels on his blog, LondonHotelsInsight.com

Josiah’s update 30 July 2009: At the time of the article’s writing, the Egerton House was #1 in London. TripAdvisor rankings change weekly, and the hotel is now at position #3. However, the two hotels that overtook it are sister properties under the same management – which makes this article’s lessons still very important.