Just a few month’s ago, we wrote about how Starwood was the first to allow guests to post reviews on the Starwood website.  Now, Four Seasons is unveiling a brand new website with ‘social media integration’.  Those are fancy words that mean you can now share with facebook and twitter or connect with their pages.  Overall, the new website design looks terrific.  The photography is exceptional.  A few highlights from the press release:

As the first luxury hotel brand to fully embrace social media,Four Seasons moved digital to the forefront early on with Four Seasons Magazines Online , the introduction of blogs such as Have Family Will Travel, and a strong presence on social networking sites to suit the ways guests and travel partners communicate. The newFour Seasons website was thoughtfully designed in the same vein, to deliver an immersive and effortless experience tailored to every user. The brand’s signature service, locations and experiences are showcased through photo-rich, informative property and destination pages. Key features of fourseasons.com include: (more…)

We have been talking about hotels managing their internet reputation ever since the days of MySpace.  Yes, that long ago!  One of our recommendations was to allow guests to post reviews directly onto your own website, instead of a third party site like TripAdvisor.  Finally, a hotel company has gotten it right!  Starwood.com will now allow guests to post reviews (good and bad we assume) after check out.  Guests can post a review for a visit within 18 months after logging in and verifying that they were a guest of the hotel.  They currently have the following guidelines for posting reviews:

1. Keep your review focused on the hotel
2. Contact us if you have an issue that requires immediate assistance
3. Refrain from mentioning competitors or the specific price you paid for the hotel
4. Do not include any personally identifiable information, such as full names

NextAdvisor.com, a website that offers independent research on all different types of products from Auto Insurance to Web Hosting, just released their analyst on reward credit cards.  Three hotel branded credit cards made it into the top 8 with the Starwood Amex taking the top spot.  The other 5 reward cards are all airline cards.

The Starwood Amex returns about 2.1 cents per point, the highest in the study.  The Marriott Rewards card came in 7th place with a return of about .8 cents per point.  The Hilton HHonors card was 8th with a return of .5 cents per point.  For a full list, hit up the link below.

Source:

NextAdvisor.com

We have not checked in with our favorite financial blog, Calculated Risk,  in a while.  We are pleased to see the incredible progress hotels have made in both occupancy and ADR. Occupancy has now recovered to the median after falling off a cliff in 2008.  REVPAR is now about 3 percent below the median.  Check out the full details by clicking on the graph.

Source:  Calculated Risk

The latest ACSI (The American Customer Satisfaction Index) results are in.  Overall, hotels are really pleasing guests with a 2.7 percent jump from the prior year.  This year’s score was 77, the highest score since the index started back in 1994.  Hilton is on top for the fourth straight year with a score of 80.  Starwood increased 2.6 percent to leapfrog Marriott with a score of 79.  Marriott dropped 1.3 percent and is now in third place.  Here are the complete results:

1.  Hilton, score of 80, no change from last year

2.  Starwood, score of 79, up 2.6

3.  Marriott, score of 79, down 1.3

4.  Hyatt, score of 77, down 2.5

5.  All Others, score of 77, up 4.1

6.  InterContinental, score of 76, down 2.6

7.  Best Western, score of 76, no change

8.  Choice, score of 74, no change

9.  Wyndham, score of 73, up 4.3

(more…)

We have not seen much press on this California proposal for Hotel Housekeeping Safety.  The Huffington Post published an article the other day telling the story of a 69 year old room attendant who recently testified in Sacramento in favor of a bill that would force hotels to get rid of flat bed sheets in favor of fitted sheets.  The bill will also require hotels to supply long-handled tools for cleaning the bathrooms.  You can check out the bill here.  Some details from the Huffington Post article:

“When she isn’t sidelined by an injury, Nenita Ibe cleans 16 rooms a day at the Santa Clara hotel where she’s worked for 10 years. Since some rooms have two beds, that adds up to 25 mattresses per day, each of which needs to be lifted up on each side so that the 69-year-old Filipino immigrant can set the bedsheet properly. Luxury hotel mattresses can weigh more than 150 pounds these days. Ibe weighs a waiflike 125. The beds have taken a toll.”

“Eleazar Dumuk, who, like Ibe, works for Hyatt and is from the Philippines, testified that she and her colleagues used to have long-handled mops — but one day, they suddenly disappeared. “It’s probably just cheaper for the company to have my coworkers and me get on our knees,” she testified. “I came to this country not to work on my knees but to make a just, humane living.” A spokesperson for Hyatt did not respond to requests for comment.”

The article says it will cost California hotels about $15 million to switch from flat sheets to fitted sheets.  Fitted sheets are also harder to clean, store, and transport.  The article is definitely worth a read.  Also, be sure to check out the comments section.  There is a pretty lively discussion happening.

Really interesting article in the Los Angeles Times about a hotel in Koreatown that owed the city of Los Angeles about $3.5 million for unpaid occupancy taxes.  The hotel did not pay so the city had the Sheriff’s Department sit in the hotel lobby around the clock and seize all of the cash that flowed into the hotel.  From the article:

“Since Tuesday, several plainclothes sheriff’s contract employees have been stationed at the hotel round the clock.  Their orders: seize the cash that flows into hotel coffers.  Sheriff’s spokesman Steve Whitmore said the department has already collected $40,000, which will be handed over to the city.  An employee at the hotel, who would speak only if not identified because she fears retribution from her bosses, said the keepers are “nice guys” who sit around the hotel lobby all day and night.  At the end of each of her shifts, she hands them a record of how much money she has collected and puts it into a vault, from which the keepers later collect it. Some money is left so the hotel can pay its staff.  The employee said guests have been less happy about the arrangement.  As part of the debt collection, she noted, the staff at the front desk, bar, restaurant and coffee shop have been instructed to take cash only.”

Wow.  What a mess.  Don’t get behind on your occupancy taxes!

AAA just released their 2011 list of Five Diamond Hotels.  For 2011, AAA added 15 new hotels to bring their total Five Diamond properties to 179.  This elite group comprises of just .3 percent of the more than 59,000 AAA Approved and Diamond rated properties.

Here is the full list (by state, international hotels at the end):

 (more…)

Check out these videos of the new ASSA ABLOY mobile key.  It allows guests to check into their hotel via cellphone and then use the cellphone to open the key in the guest room, completely skipping our friendly Guest Service Agents.  They are testing the keys at the Clarion Hotel in Stockholm.

Here is ASSA ABLOY’s video of the keys in use in Stockholm:

ASSA ABLOY also has plans to make all of our locks accessible by cellphone.  Check out this video:

According to a survey by J.D. Power & Associates, free Wi-Fi is now the most important thing for hotel guests in nearly every segment of hotels.  The LA Times reported on the results in the article found here.  From the article:

Of guests staying at mid-scale hotels, 96% said they got free Wi-Fi, as did 64% of guests at budget hotels, according to the survey of guests who stayed in hotels from May 2009 to June 2010. None who stayed in luxury hotels said they got free wireless Internet.

We are surprised that 96 percent of guests in mid-scale hotels are now getting free Wi-Fi.  The free Wi-Fi spread at an incredible pace.  We are not surprised that no guests reported free Wi-Fi in luxury hotels.  Free Wi-Fi is a selling tool and makes little difference at a luxury hotel.  From the article:

At the Ritz-Carlton luxury hotel chain, the fee for Wi-Fi access is a top complaint among guests, said Ritz-Carlton spokeswoman Vivian A. Deuschl.  Although some Ritz-Carlton hotels offer free Internet access in the lobbies and other public spaces, the hotel chain based in Maryland will continue to charge for the service in guest rooms, she said.

We are actually surprised by the lack of wireless internet in guest rooms or the poor quality of wireless internet in guest rooms.  Many hotels still offer wired internet only.  Not having Wi-Fi will actually cost you business.  Many guests now travel with Wi-Fi only devices, such as the very popular iPad.  In fact, this holiday shopping season, we are going to see more tablet computers from almost every manufacturer.  By next year, you will see many, many guests with Wi-Fi only tablet computers in your restaurant.