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?

According to new data from comScore, TripAdvisor just became the #1 most popular website in the whole travel industry. With 35,382,000 unique monthly visitors, TripAdvisor surpassed Expedia by over 2 million visits.

Regardless of your approach to this site in the past, you must take TripAdvisor seriously now. (To the point of making it the center of your online reputation program.)

Take a moment to review these two articles we published a while ago:

Exclusive Interview: TripAdvisor Explains Guidelines for Marketers

Beating Negative Hotel Reviews: An Action Plan for Proactive Reputation Management

There has been some buzz on Twitter how Wynn Las Vegas (@WynnLasVegas) built a following of over 300,000 fans within six months. While they do a great job interacting with their fan base, the sheer number of people following them is remarkable — especially when most big hotels fail to pass 10,000 followers.

So how did they do it?

According to @HHotelConsult, Wynn Las Vegas appeared in the “suggested user” list that people see when signing up for Twitter.

This is a massive advantage. It’s better than publicity, because now the hotel has a way to communicate with all these people. As the New York Times explained in an article this summer, those on this list become Twitter “kings.”

So maybe the bigger question is…

How did they get on that list?

Microsoft and Yahoo recently announced a major partnership to develop their search technologies. This is an important development in the search industry, so I wanted to briefly share the facts with you.

What happened

Microsoft and Yahoo created a partnership where:

• Microsoft’s technology and Bing! algorithm will power Yahoo search
• Yahoo will become the exclusive sales force for both companies’ premium (large) advertisers
• Self-serve (smaller) advertisers will use Microsoft AdCenter for both platforms
• Each company will maintain their separate display advertising businesses

The agreement will last for 10 years. However, the deal must pass regulatory approval in 6 months, and will take at least 2 years after that to complete.

Why it’s important

Basically, this alliance was formed to make a stronger competitive alternative to Google. Since Google currently has around a 78% paid search market share, it was often not worthwhile to develop separate ad campaigns for the Yahoo and Microsoft platforms (especially for smaller properties).

Hotel advertising implications

Nothing will change immediately: this is a long-term deal. It will take many months (if not years) to fully realize. But it’s encouraging to see a serious competitor to Google in the search marketing space. The combined R&D capabilities of these two companies could drive innovation…which is always a good thing.

What’s your opinion on this development?

Today Hyatt Hotels CEO Mark Hoplamazian announced the launch of @HyattConcierge – a new 24/7 global concierge service on Twitter. Barbara from USA Today’s Hotel Check-in blog followed up with her thoughts.

Hyatt Concierge on Twitter

Apparently, the account will be staffed 24/7 by customer service agents around the world. Hyatt already provides round-the-clock service by phone and email, so it was just a matter of training the agents to type responses in 140 characters or less. As Adam said, it’s amazing no other major hotel brand tried it earlier.

John Wallis, global head of marketing for Hyatt, explains the company’s thoughts on Twitter:

“Whatever we did, it had to be with the theme of going the extra mile, providing additional service. We really believe that it is a concierge service rather than a promotional tool.”

I like that mentality. It will be interesting to see how this works for Hyatt…and how many other chains try it themselves.

Today, travel meta search engine Kayak relaunches its TravelPost.com hotel review site, competing directly with the more established TripAdvisor. According to the Boston Globe, the new site “will pull 1.4 million guest reviews from more than 200 websites and room rates from 5-10 websites. The upgraded site will also feature filters that let users pick which websites are searched and find reviews written by guests who share the same interests or demographic details.”

This meta review approach is very useful for travel planners. Google already does this in their local business listings, and with so many review sites available, it’s helpful to have everything in one place.

Linda Fox at Travolution quotes Kayak co-founder Steve Hafner in a bit of cross-company sniping: “Consumers and hoteliers are woefully underserved by websites like TripAdvisor, who appear to care more about their bottom lines than providing relevant content and a seamless experience.”

Whether you agree with that statement or not, the TravelPost interface is a bit less cluttered with the advertising you find on TripAdvisor.  Founder and former CEO Sam Shank has an excellent post (with screenshots) explaining on the network effect TravelPost needs to overcome:

The hotel review business is a strong network-effect business, approaching a natural monopoly like the online auctions business. Travelers want to write a review where the most readers are, and travelers want to read reviews where the most reviews have been posted.

However, there are opportunities for TravelPost to gain market share. The fact that TripAdvisor does not share revenue with the reviewers (like Tripr does), presents a good way to build up the review base.

What do you think: Is TravelPost just another me-too site, or is it a force to be reckoned with in the future?