Hotelier Highlights: July 10-16

Happy Saturday, everyone, and welcome to the newest installment of Hotelier Highlights: the week’s best hotel marketing posts, tech news, photos, and any other inspiring or entertaining stories that we stumbled across.

Thank you, Darnajat, for submitting this week’s featured photo to our Hotel Design group on Flickr: Morocco’s Riad Dar Nagath. In Darnajat’s words, “I cannot speak highly enough of this riad and it staff. There were places that I could sit and relax all over; I could mingle with other guest or just “vanish” into my own space if I wanted to…. From the moment I arrived, I felt at home; the smell of fresh flowers and the burning oils took my senses to another level.”

• Pandas and lobsters and Google, oh my; I’m so down with this digital metaphor. (iFindKarma.Posterous.com)
• Another metaphor-master, Scott Ginsberg, presents a feel-good guide to “defying gravity without defaming your good name”. (HelloMyNameIsBLOG.com)
• Hoteliers: are you having trouble finding passionate employees? You just need more “Spirit Fingers”! (HotelChatter.com)
• HotelChatter.com asks: Should guests get a hotel discount just for being a fan on Facebook? My opinion? Facebook “friendship” does not a loyal fan, make. Save those perks for guests that engage in meaningful follow-through.
• Holy, “glamping”, Batman! It’s another tree house hotel: Swedish edition. (HotelChatter.com)
• Just in: Luxury and Independent Hotels lead the occupancy rebound, with increases in all three key performance measurements. A few big names weigh in. (Hospitalitynet.org)
• Do you need to re-evaluate your “hierarchy of failure”? Seth Godin thinks so. (SethGodin.TypePad.com)
• Feeling a little lost? Check out Mashable.com’s 5 online tools for answering your small business questions.
• Yet another incentive for Hoteliers to invest in the Ipad: “Virgin is looking to expand into the publishing market with a new magazine called “Maverick” that targets the upscale international audience with content on entrepreneurism, technology and travel. The kicker is that Maverick will be an electron magazine only, first available on iPads and later available on iPhones and Android devices.” (TechCrunch.com)
• Then again, you might want to hold out for this year’s rumored Mac Book Pro and MacBook Air. (TechCrunch.com)
• Of course, you could also get a Microsoft tablet. Steve Ballmer insists that they’re pretty “hardcore”.(TechCrunch.com)
• More than half of travelers share vacation info on social media sites; HotelMarketing.com offers a few safety tips. We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again; you don’t want to be left out of this conversation.
• You know you love this guy; here’s why Old Spice is the archetype of a successful social media campaign. (AbcNews.Go.com) (Mashable.com)
• Last week, Josiah discussed the value of sharing your back story, and Mihir rose to the challenge. Do you have a compelling story behind your business? We’d love to hear it, and so would your guests. (MitaroyGoaHotel.com)

Would you like to be featured here? Upload your best photos to our Hotel Design pool, on Flickr.