“Hotels connecting dots to online reviewers” plus 2 more |
- Hotels connecting dots to online reviewers
- TDY Lodging Acquires Biz Lodging and Corporate House Rentals
- 10 Dirtiest Hotels in the U.S.
| Hotels connecting dots to online reviewers Posted: 07 Jun 2010 04:54 AM PDT Message from Five Filters: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it. (Tribune Media Services) -- Hotels want to know who you are, especially if you're reviewing them anonymously. An increasing number of image-conscious properties have begun connecting the dots between unbylined write-ups that appear on such popular travel sites as TripAdvisor or Yelp, and your personal information, such as your loyalty program preferences. If you write a positive review, you might expect a reward from the hotel -- a gift basket or a discount on your next stay. Pan a property, and you could get a concerned e-mail from the general manager asking you to reconsider your review. Or even a black mark against you in the chain's guest database. John Baird, a lodging consultant in Jacksonville, Florida, says that hotels now use locations, dates and usernames that appear online to triangulate a guest's identity. Once they find a likely match, the review is added to a hotel's guest preference records, next to information such as frequent-guest number, newspaper choice and preferred room type. "If the post is positive, I can give them a gift basket when they return," he said. Negative? That can generate an e-mail inviting the guest back for a free stay or offering frequent-stayer points as an apology. "I think matching reviews with guest names is a great idea," he added. But travelers aren't sure. After hearing about one international hotel that retaliated against travelers who slammed the property, Helen O'Boyle, a Seattle-based computing consultant, is troubled by hotels that name-match. Once identified, she said, the travelers were tagged as "problem guests" in the hotel chain's reward program. O'Boyle is careful not to reveal any information that might help a hotel identify her online. "Let's just say that I'm glad my ratings site nicknames don't look like my real name," she told me. "And now, if I'm writing a bad review, I fudge the dates a bit and don't mention any particular calamities that might be identifiable with what the hotel knows I experienced -- just in case." Online review sites such as TripAdvisor don't forbid the posting of personally identifiable information. Unregistered visitors can access details about any user, including an age range, gender, location, "travel style," whether they travel for business or pleasure and even who they travel with. Registered users can send another reviewer a private message through the site. Although TripAdvisor has an extensive privacy policy, the site readily admits, "No Web site can guarantee security." April Robb, a spokeswoman for TripAdvisor, said the site considers any effort by a hotel to pressure a guest to remove a negative review to be "fraudulent." Whenever a hotel owner attempts to contact a guest who has posted an unflattering review, a warning appears: "TripAdvisor may penalize owners who attempt to remove reviews through inappropriate threats or coercion," said Robb. But privacy policies aren't the biggest obstacles for hotels trying to connect the dots. Rather, it's a hotel's inability to match a name with absolute certainty that makes this exercise more art than science, according to Barry Hurd, the chief executive of Seattle-based 123 Social Media, a reputation management company that works with more than 500 hotels. "It's hard, because the review services try to anonymize the reviews and the data. They want people to just tell the truth and to assure them there won't be any repercussions," he said. "Hotels, on the other hand, want them to put a name on the review -- so that they know who you are." Both Hurd and Baird, the Jacksonville analyst, say that an overwhelming number of hotels want the information for the right reasons: either to reward a nice review or to reach out to a negative guest to patch things up. And that may be true, for now. But Hurd says that technology is evolving so fast that in the future, every hotel representative could have a toolbar on his or her computer that reveals everything about a guest at the click of a mouse -- every review, guest preference and even the likelihood that you'll be positively or negatively inclined toward your stay. There's no telling what hotels could do with that information. Since the first column I wrote about hotel guest profiles more than a decade ago, I've been deeply concerned about my own privacy as a traveler. Any time a hotel delivers my favorite newspaper or leaves a fruit basket with apples (Pink Ladies) I get a little suspicious. How did they know? If they found a way to connect that information with what I write about the hotel industry, I'd probably be reading the Pennysaver and eyeing a fruit basket filled with brown bananas. That hasn't happened yet. But it could be only a matter of time. O'Boyle's advice works for me, but I'd offer a few additional recommendations. Don't use your real name when you review a hotel, and make sure that your Internet handle doesn't give away anything about your identity. Zero out your geographic location, and wherever possible, don't answer profile questions such as "I travel with" or "My travel style." And never, ever, include any information that could identify you in the review itself. That's one dot you probably don't want a hotel to connect with another. (Christopher Elliott is the ombudsman for National Geographic Traveler magazine. You can read more travel tips on his blog, elliott.org or e-mail him at celliott@ngs.org). © 2010 CHRISTOPHER ELLIOTT DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC. Five Filters featured article: Into the Abyss. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| TDY Lodging Acquires Biz Lodging and Corporate House Rentals Posted: 07 Jun 2010 05:00 AM PDT Message from Five Filters: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it. WASHINGTON, June 7 /PRNewswire/ -- TDY Lodging (Washington, DC) announced its latest string of real estate acquisitions in the furnished home rental and furnished apartment rental market. TDYLodging.com, one of the world's largest providers of furnished house rentals, furnished apartments, and hotels for the government and military, will now expand its market share in its latest string of acquisitions. The acquisition of BizLodging.com and CorporateHouseRentals.com will allow TDY Lodging to expand into the extended stay lodging, extended stay hotel, furnished executive apartments, and furnished home rentals market. With an excess inventory of homes and apartments for sale in the market today, property owners in need of steady income are leasing out homes and apartment units to rental companies -- the short-term apartment lease and short-term furnished home lease market is booming. Matthew Foster, a military veteran and founder of TDY Lodging, told reporters at IB Newswire, "These recent acquisitions will allow us to provide even more exposure for property owners who need to fill their vacant properties with quality tenants looking for short-term and mid-term leases." For more information on TDY Lodging, please visit http://www.tdylodging.com, email info@TDYLodging.com, or call 1-888-805-7188. This press release was issued through eReleases(R). For more information, visit eReleases Press Release Distribution at http://www.ereleases.com.
Five Filters featured article: Into the Abyss. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| 10 Dirtiest Hotels in the U.S. Posted: 07 Jun 2010 05:19 AM PDT Message from Five Filters: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it. Three California hotels are among the dirtiest in the nation, according to a new list released by a travel website. TripAdvisor released its list of the ten dirtiest hotels in the nation based on reviews and pictures from guests. On the list is the Desert Lodge in Palm Springs. On the TripAdvisor website, one reviewer from San Diego said, "Staying at this place is like sleeping on the streets of Calcutta." Other reviews however suggest the hotel is a family-run business with staff that's "super accommodating." Here's the list from TripAdvisor: 1. Heritage Marina Hotel, San Francisco, California First Published: Jun 3, 2010 9:26 AM PDTFive Filters featured article: Into the Abyss. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
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