Yesterday I met with Steve Stollerman of TVTrip at their offices in Paris. Below is an excerpt from our conversation:

What does TVTrip do?

TVTrip provides professionally produced videos of hotels. Travel planners can use the site to see what a hotel is really like before booking a room. Hoteliers can benefit from direct bookings and increased exposure. We operate in 15 markets, and are expanding to 25 next month.

What is your competitive advantage over other video review sites?

Consumers want professionally produced content. They like the videos shot the same way around the world. They dislike videos created by hotels that look like infomercials. We shoot a minute-long overview of the hotel, then separate videos of different rooms or hotel amenities. The viewer can access all information (rooms, rates) all in one place.

You say you’re independent, and the site is free to use for consumers. How do you make money?

We make money through CPC generated leads to merchant sites (hotel direct sites and online travel agencies). We also earn money through advertising and licensing our video catalog.

Does the hotel have an option which payment arrangement to use with you?

Yes, they can be part of the check-rate (on a CPC basis) or take part in TVtrip’s preferred partners program – which is a flat monthly fee.

Okay, if I’m a hotel owner, why should I use you?

It’s an affordable way to get into video. We’re doing well in this climate because we are a middle-ground solution: not really expensive like a high-end video production company or low end like user-generated content. TVTrip is high quality, low cost solution.

You get filming of your hotel in HD by professional cameramen, editing, hosting of the video (bandwidth costs are taken care of), and you get the video on your site in multiple languages. The content of your hotel is translated into 24 languages, and distributed around the world.

Explain the video production process

First you contact us through our website. We have cameramen ready in all the key cities, which gives us the flexibility to respond quickly. For hotels that are in secondary markets or remote places, there may be travel costs involved. The reason the setup cost is so cheap is that we finance most of the video…we absorb costs for filming, editing, encoding, translation. That’s the added value we’re providing consumers and hotels. The setup fee is a fraction of the total cost, more of a security deposit.

Now the videos have no voice-overs, right?

No they don’t. The reason is that we decided early on that video is the universal language. We did, however, translate titles and information into 24 different languages. So users in each country will be able to navigate the video player in their own language. Our player also shows rates, photos, a description of the hotel, and a map of the area – which the view can access without leaving.

Can the hotel place the video you produce on their own website?

They can’t place the exact player we use on our website, but they can have the video embedded on their website. Your website visitors will then be able to view the video, but it won’t have all the features as on our website.

How would you recommend hotels use the video for best results?

The video needs to be in the website’s hotel description or on the “about us” page. It should accompany the website visitor as they view the room descriptions. Doing this typically helps conversions.

Do you have any plans for mobile distribution in the future?

Great question! We’re still waiting to see how this will play out with all the operators. I think committing to mobile now would be a little premature just because things are still so much in the air with all the providers. But I think it’s not a question of if, but when. For the guy who just landed and doesn’t have a hotel…being able to view and book a hotel room on his Blackberry or iPhone makes a lot of sense.

Thank you for your time, Steve. Visit the TVTrip website to learn more, or watch a sample video of Ku’Damm 101 in Berlin.

Highlights from panel discussion:

• Frequent travelers are usually the earlier adapters in mobile technology.
• Don’t just take your existing web content and adapt it to mobile. Create mobile-specific content.
• Notifications of travel changes is what makes the mobile platform unique.
• Many hotel booking systems are too complex to use on a mobile. Will the future bring saved payment/profile information that eases this process?
• In the US, 30% of iPhone users say it replaces their laptop usage
• In Japan, more people access internet on their mobile than with a traditional computer
• For many people in India and China, the mobile internet is their only access to the internet
• Web-based content could eliminate the need to for traditional smartphone apps. However, there are cases when it’s good to have an application that does not rely on internet access.
• The user doesn’t care of your service is an app or online, they only care about ease and speed of use
• Advantage of apps: you can use device-specific features (like iPhone location services)
• Travel suppliers are taking the lead in mobile innovation, not travel intermediaries
• International data roaming is a big barrier and issue to work around

What is the “Semantic Web?” It doesn’t exist…yet. But we’re at a point where technology and available content could enable it.

“The Semantic Web is not a separate Web but an extension of the current one, in which information is given well-defined meaning, better enabling computers and people to work in cooperation.” – Tim Berners-Lee

10 years ago, we would ask a friend or consult a guidebook for travel suggestions. 5 years ago, we began to get “Web 2.0″ with user-written web guides.

Now, as the amount of UGC explodes and there are millions of reviews, there is a new problem: understanding what is important in all that information. A hotel’s previously cohesive brand message has been fragmented by hundreds of different customer sentiments.

The Semantic Web draws intelligent conclusions from all the information. In the old web, content was king. With the Semantic Web, context is king. It’s a move from a data-centric view of the world to a knowledge-centric view of the world.

For example, TrustYou summarizes all UGC, and provides a one-line summary. (German example: hotels in Berlin)

The Semantic Web connects social media to revenue, customer satisfaction, and loyalty.

Springwise points out how The Algonquin Hotel in New York City is successfully blending its historical past with innovative new technology.

Guests there have the option of borrowing a Kindle pre-loaded with a book of their choice:

In keeping with the hotel’s literary history, the Algonquin’s eBooks on Demand offers Kindles loaded with a variety of best-sellers, modern classics, and, of course, books penned by the hotel’s Round Table members such as: Fanny Herself and Buttered Side Down, by Edna Ferber and Love Conquers All by Robert Benchley.  Additional titles can be added upon guests’ request.   Kindles are loaned on a first come, first serve basis for use in the hotel’s legendary lobby or in the comfort of one’s own guest room.

This is a great example of something we’ve discussed earlier: hotels using new technology as marketing to attract guests.  By offering this level of personalized service, the hotel can differentiate itself and get free publicity.

Image via Wikipedia

What do your customers want from you?  Specifically, what do they want from you when they’re mobile?

That’s the question you need to answer when building a mobile marketing campaign.

If they’re interacting with you on their phones, they need something – now. Think what this could be and how you can solve it from their perspective.

It’s probably basic information like:

• Your phone number
• Your email
• Your address
• Directions from where they are (perhaps from Google maps)
• Important hours (check in, check out)
• Special promotions

They don’t need to access your whole website, just the basics.  Consider making a separate, very basic website with just this information.

Or, start off by making your existing site mobile-friendly.  (This is easy with blogs.)  Mofuse.com offers a quick & easy converter.

An accessible website is one aspect of your mobile marketing campaign, but what about personalized communication?

Begin with people you already have relationships with: your best guests.  Ask what they want most from you (special rate alerts, etc). Only send what they ask for, and only as often as they ask.  You must be extremely sensitive to privacy issues, since nothing will hurt your relationship than sending unwanted messages.

However, if guests have specifically requested mobile communication from you, SMS is a good place to start.  Most people are familiar with text messaging, and nearly every phone supports it.  Some companies that specialize in SMS communications include MobileStorm and i2SMS.

The future of mobile marketing for hotels will undoubtedly involve proximity awareness, giving you the ability to serve relevant information based on the user’s location.   But for now, it’s important to make sure your basic hotel information is fully accessable to mobile users.

Today I’m joined by Kevin Sturm, a hospitality technology consultant, to discuss some trends taking place in the hotel industry.

1) Kevin, thank you for joining us. First of all, can you tell me a little about yourself and how you help hotels use technology?

Sure.  To put it about as briefly as I can I help hospitality venues with the evaluation, purchase, implementation, and optimization of hospitality technology systems.  I focus mainly in hotels and resorts, but also work with stadium/arenas, restaurants, and food service operations.  My goal for any client is to simplify their technology decisions.

I spent a large portion of my career on the vendor side of technology.  Those years of experience taught me a lot about how a hotel can benefit from technology solution, as well as how they can get stung.  If a hotel is purchasing a new system, I make sure all their needs are clearly defined and implement a decision process that quantitatively and qualitatively evaluates each system.  I’ve found this works very well, and generally much better than the historical RFP process.  For customers that are generally happy with their systems but want more out them or still have highly manual processes, I provide assistance in optimizing their systems.  Often this ends up being complex system integration projects.

2)  A little while ago I wrote on how Sheraton is using interactive tables in their lobbies.  Do you see information entertainment like this gaining popularity in the years ahead?

I do.  I’m not sure Microsoft Surface technology is were it is though.  It’s cool and fun, but I want to see for a hotel how it is either decreasing costs or increasing profits to justify the still high cost.

I think we will see apps for the iPhone and iPod Touch (and other personal devices) make headway in information entertainment with hotels.  It’s more personal (the device is mine and/or I can take it with me) and it’s already at a high adoption rate because of a palatable price point.  For high end resorts it may be more cost effective and memorable to provide guests with an iPod Touch that has the same interactive solutions as the interactive table, and provides a way for the hotel to send personalized marketing and messaging to a guest.  Information entertainment is and will continue to gain in popularity.  I’m excited to see what we have not seen yet that can immediately provide value to hotels.

3)  How else are cutting edge hotels using technology as a drawing card for tech-savvy guests? Free WiFi no longer is enough, right?

I think this really depends on the hotel segment and the type of travel.  I fit the tech-savvy guest profile pretty well, and decently fast free WiFi is still a major plus for me on business travel.  My other requirements have little to do with technology, rather just good guest service.  But if I’m traveling on leisure and staying at a high end resort I have different requirements.

There is some cool “newer” technology out there.  One I personally like is a device that allows me to connect my laptop or iPod to the television and play the movies I have for free.  Allowing guests to easily access the entertainment content available on the Internet, things like streaming TV and iTunes, is going to be a big move for hotels.  Historically it has been that hotels have tried to stay ahead of the guest with technology: Pay-per-View movies, WiFi, flat screen TV’s.  But the expectation is changing.  Tech-savy guests want a hotel to have the same conveniences I have at home.

There is another technology that hotels can use to draw the tech-savvy guest, and that is green technology.  The demographic of tech-savvy is also often green-savvy.  I think Smart Room technology is going to be an interesting draw in the future.

4) If I don’t have a lot of money to spend on technology upgrades, what are the most cost-effective additions I can make to my hotel?

This is a good question, especially given the current economic situation.  But my answer applies even when a hotel can afford a new system.

The best advice I can give to a hotel is to invest as much time as necessary into making sure the current technology systems are setup correctly for the business goals.  Much too often I find hotels recently replaced a technology system only to have the same or similar struggles with the new system.  When money is tight the best thing to do is make sure you current solutions are configured to meet your business goals, your staff is WELL trained on how to use them (buy training if you need to), and that actual problems with the system don’t get resolved by the “we’ll work around it” approach.  A hotel should be contacting customer support when any problem arises, as work-around processes are often expensive and inefficient.

If all of the systems are working well and there is budget for a single purchase I would recommend looking into an analytics or business intelligence system.  But that is a difficult recommendation as each venues requirements are a little different.  As mentioned above, smart room technology may be the right choice for a hotel to decrease operating costs.

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To learn more about how Kevin Sturm can help your hotel, visit his website or contact him directly:

Phone: 805.425.0594
Email: kevin[at]kevinsturm[.]com

BreadCrumbz, a navigation tool for mobile phones, uses the built-in camera and GPS location tracking to build a picture-based map.  Watch the demo on YouTube:

I believe this is just the beginning of a trend.  Pictures will become the future of directions. Put your website ahead of the competition by offering directions to your hotel in pictures. Small, hard-to-find urban establishments have the most to benefit from this technology.

You could take this a step further and offer custom walking tours of local attractions.  The possibilities are limitless.

New York’s Pod Hotel has started using an online forum that allows guests to meet each other before arriving.

The budget hotel, which caters to the young, hip crowd, offers many high-tech amenities: iPod docking stations, free WiFi, and flat-screen TVs.  But its PodCulture forum is most innovative.

After registering, guests are sent an email with a code that allows them to register on the forum. Once there, they can begin communicating with other guests under categories such as “Eat With Me” and “Shop With Me.”

The full story from The Globe and Mail contains even more information on the broader trend of making your hotel a destination.  I’d recommend you take a moment to read it.

The vast majority of travel websites operate on a price comparison model.  While industry giants such as Expedia and Orbitz have dominated the scene for years, the market seems ready for a new way to approach travel planning.

Uptake.com, a Palo Alto, California-based startup, could represent the new wave of innovation.  Instead of just comparing prices, the site clusters information from around the web to present user-friendly themes such as “romantic getaway.”

“Our goal is to aggregate and collect all the information out there, especially on unstructured content like reviews, blogs and articles,” co-founder Yen Lee told Entrepreneur magazine. The company targets people who may not know their exact dates, and can be overwhelmed by the huge amount of travel information on the web.

As new startups like Uptake make it increasingly easy for travel planners to access multiple sources of information about your hotel, the need for a comprehensive web presence becomes even more clear.

Cleartrip recently announced the addition of Panoramio photos to their hotel booking engine.   Panoramio is a photo sharing website that organizes pictures by where they were taken – putting them on a map.

If you manage a hotel website, you could use Panoramio’s API to access their database of over 12 million photos, and help visitors get a better understanding of what there is to see around your hotel.

Using new technologies like this helps you create an destination resource website.  By guiding a potential visitor’s discovery process, you reduce their need to go elsewhere for this information.  It sells through education.  (And you just might reduce your 3rd-party booking fees.)