We’re doing a live show tomorrow afternoon, and perhaps we can bring this up then…..

I am not a big fan of mystifying Social Media. Web 2.0 or 3.0 is to wage for me, and I rather focus on the technology and the trends.

I agree that we are beyond the basics of Social Media, and need to focus on the next steps. And I like that you guys brings up discussions like this.

I am big fan of using various listening outposts, and so far in general I find that the guest is setting the standards for the Hotel Industry when it comes to Social Media. We see a lot of great travelers blogs where they utilize Social Media to express their hotel experience.

And I think we need more discussion around some of these elements, so that more Hotels can implement this and be source that link the guest experience with what the Hotel actually are capable of providing. This is where I see that we can put more focus.

Maybe we can look into more niche related Social Media words, but else it is like Guillaime says most of the Social Media authorities use the same terminology.

At the moment there is not really good mobile reservation system, but it will come. Location based systems is just a minor step in the right direction. At the moment you just earn ‘brownie’ points with Foursquare and Gowalla. But I am confident there will be more advanced options there in the future. We are already seeing special deals there.

Maybe you can connect the service up to the member service in some way where you already have credit card on file. My bank offer today services via mobile phone. So it is not long before I think mobile reservation will be a reality.

One question I have, and maybe Guillaime that works with TripAdvisor has some thoughts about this – What Impact do you think it will have that Facebook now has acquired the Social Travel Recommendation Site nextstop?

Cheers.. Are

However, how much the Internet has actually improved the bottom line in the industry? Have we seen an increase of occupancies? Average room rates? REV PAR? Gross Operating Profits? While the Internet and social media have revolutionized the way we promote hotels and sell rooms, are we spending less on sales road shows? Have we seen a decrease in sales departments payroll? Or have the savings simply been re-allocated to the newly created large e-commerce departments?
In other word, if technology has increased the efficiency and rationalize expenses, has it been only balanced by a dramatic increase of all sorts of new expenses?

Or have the buyers (guests) been the only big winners in a revolution that was initiated by the sellers (hotels)? Have the hotels lost out at their own game?

I have started writing a white paper about the above and I would love to hear your opinion and experiences. Please feel free to share here http://bit.ly/9Ln8dH or email me.
Thanks,
Fabrice Burtin