innataglance.com

What’s Important to Today’s C-Suite Traveller

Adam M. — 2011-10-25T14:07+00:00

Beyond a quiet, comfortable night's sleep, what does the senior business executive traveler need? We asked this question to hundreds of CEOs, COOs, CFOs, CMOs and CIOs in a recent survey. The results are straightforward, and provide a heads up for any hotelier wishing to adequately cater to this demographic. The Methodology We used a mailed survey with the selection of candidates chosen from directories of corporations with sales in excess of $100 million. The survey was conducted in the first quarter of 2011 and was distributed amongst C-suite holders in North America (78% of those polled resided in the USA; 22% were Canadian), asking only of their requirements for domestic travel only. Inferences about overseas travel or European/Asian travel habits should not be implied. Respondents who completed the survey received a financial donation to their specified charity with no additional compensation. A 30% response rate was received equating to 59 useable surveys, 53 of which were male. Given the limited female sample size, they were not deemed statistically significant to be included in the final analysis. The average age of the respondents was reported as 47. Income level was not asked, nor was marital status. The average executive canvassed spent 26 nights in hotels for business purposes through 2010. Over half of those polled worked for companies that had corporate rate programs with major hotel chains. While half of the respondents had a member of their staff arrange the hotel booking for them, interestingly, over 90% either specified, or provided input on the hotel selection for their stay. First Question "In addition to getting a good night's sleep (comfortable bed, quiet room, excellent HVAC) and the hotel's location relative to your needs, what other factors are important in your selection of a hotel room for a business stay?" There were 30 different items listed. For each one, the respondent rated them from 0 (not at all important) to 5 (critical). The individual scores were then summed for each item and averaged to provide an overall score out of five, adjusted for no response. The results clustered into three distinct groups: Top (4.1 - 4.8), Middle (1.7 - 3.7), and Bottom (0.4 - 1.3), with no statistical significance within each group. Here are the results: Items with a total average score of 4.1 to 4.8, ranked in descending order: High speed Internet access Friendly, courteous service at check-in Bottled water available Being recognized at check-in Express check-out National newspaper delivered in the morning High quality towels Check-in early and check-out late capabilities Prompt room service breakfast available Coffee and coffee maker available in room Welcome amenity Easily accessible power outlet to recharge cell phone or mobile device Accurate, timely wakeup call Items that scored an average of 1.7 to 3.7, ranked in descending order: News channels available on television Working desk with ergonomic chair and good lighting Bathrobe Iron and ironing board All day room service menu Voice mail Room security Top quality toiletries Map of jogging trails available Items that scored an average of 0.4 to 1.3, ranked in descending order: Turn down amenity Promotions or events/activities displayed in room Pay movies CD, radio or iPhone player Mini-bar Hotel store catalog and/or order form In-room magazines (Note: ranked the lowest with a 0.4 score!) Second Question "What is the average tip that you leave, per night, for the housekeeping staff?" Interestingly, 19% of those polled reported zero, with the average of all 53 respondents being $5.74. Third Question "What single charge added to your folio on check-out is the most frustrating?" (This was an open-ended question without any prompting.) Over half of the answers had to do with paying for Internet services. A close second was paying for bottled water. Fourth Question "What could hotels do better?" (Again, this was an open-ended question without any prompting.) The answers were broad ranging, with many of the surveys giving multiple responses. Here are the ones that were mentioned by at least four respondents: Stop charging for extras Free Internet and/or higher speed Internet services Free bottled water by the bed or for the road Faster car valet service Check-in and check-out via mobile devices Larger television Conclusions Senior executives, when on business, are no-nonsense travelers. Their requirements should be easily manageable by all properties. It also appears that Internet connectivity, both price as well as service speed, continues to be the premier pet peeve. Of note, the primary question stated ‘in addition to a good night's sleep.' Hence, this survey makes the somewhat naïve assumption that this can (and should) be accomplished. So, if all senior executives need is a good night's sleep, fast Internet connectivity and free bottled water, what differentiates your property from the others? Is it how your property is found through advertising or Internet searches? Is it your brand reputation? Is it your frequent flyer programs, or loyalty cards? This short survey indeed raises a host of further questions. However, the takeaway message is simple. If these basic, high-priority service needs are consistently met, then it will help with customer retention and free up resources to better plan the next steps. (Article by Larry Mogelonsky, published in eHotelier on October 24, 2011)

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How Hotels Can Use Tablets

Adam M. — 2011-10-03T14:03+00:00

In case you haven't noticed, there's this great new piece of technology gaining massive acceptance, generically called the Tablet PC. Your guests will be arriving with them. Your competitors will be finding ways to use them. So what are you doing about it? If you're not convinced that this new technology is important, consider this: Apple, the world's leading tablet computer manufacturer, shipped over 10 million iPads in Q2 2011 alone, nearly quadruple the amount of laptops (MacBooks) they sold in the same period. On an industry scale, sales of tablets are up about 400% year-over-year, while sales of notebook PCs have basically plateaued. This adoption rate is faster than just about any new technology to hit the marketplace in recent history, including the DVD player, PC, or smart phone. The first question to ask yourself is whether or not your hotel is tablet friendly. Have you checked your website on a tablet to see how it looks? Can customers book from a tablet as easily as they can on a computer? Most tablets will only have two plugs - one to connect to a computer or power source and another for headphones. Without an Ethernet port, you better have WiFi available for your tablet guests and ideally, at no additional cost. Excuse the pun, but hardwired internet just doesn't cut it anymore. Once a guest arrives, there are many other interactions where tablets can make a strong impression. Rather than having your concierge show someone a paper brochure for an amenity or activity, why not present it to them on a tablet? It will impress your guests and allow you to show them a variety of material without interruption; introducing and enticing them to use more of your services. At your restaurant, try showcasing your wine list with an app for users to browse by type, price and vintage. You'll save big on reprints. Many wine list apps today can integrate with your inventory to only show those that are presently available, as well as ideal food pairings. You might even consider using tablets to replace the paper menu all together! At check-in, consider having a tablet available so that your front desk staff can use them to up-sell rooms. It is easy to create simple presentations on features and benefits in a quick slideshow of illustrious photography. What about behind the scenes? Think about how your staff members can keep track of guest requirements. Integrating a tablet app with your property PMS can go a long way to help reduce the waste associated with daily room printouts as well as speed up internal communication. Applications such as the dashboard system I have developed, Inn at a Glance, are designed to work seamlessly in a tablet configuration for this purpose. These are just some of the ways that tablets can integrate into your hotel's operation. Mind you, it's not an overnight adjustment because there is the fixed cost of purchasing each unit and there are some security issues (never mind that you might have to install WiFi throughout your hotel). However, with their exponential adoption rate, you'll need to be tablet-compatible and tablet-chic if you want to attract the younger tech-savvy crowd. Best get with the program before it's too late! (Article by Larry Mogelonsky, published on eHotelier.com on September 27, 2011)

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Inn at a Glance Launches New Service Alert Feature

Adam M. — 2011-08-10T16:26+00:00

Version 2.5.3. has now officially launched, fit with the new Service Alerts feature, which gaurantees that managers are able to respond to guest requests and maintenance issues in the timeliest manner possible. This recent system enhancement provides the following user benefits: Specific issues can be identified and brought to the attention of managers across all departments, allowing for a coordination of efforts. As soon as problems are relayed to hotel staff, the front desk is also notified. Resolved and unresolved items can be organized by a color-coded system. Past service alerts are archived in the system, allowing the property to keep an accurate record of all items. Contact our sales team to try a free 30-day trial and see for yourself how Service Alerts will help your hotel.

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Double Deviations: Two Wrongs Never Makes a Right

Adam M. — 2011-06-13T16:37+00:00

(This article was authored by our President, Larry Mogelonsky, and published on eHotelier) When does a service issue become an outright problem instead of just a temporary inconvenience? What is the "tipping point" that provokes a guest to write a comment in TripAdvisor, or worse, never return to your property? And, most importantly, once you find this threshold, how do you ensure that things never reach this point? The new age verbiage for this process is a "Double Deviation;" a term you've probably heard in passing, and yet, it's one you should have on the back of your mind at all times. To draw upon my engineering background, customer complaints follow an initiation and propagation couplet. That is, a problem only becomes a problem when guests are not adequately compensated for the initial error, or when a second error occurs. I will use a recent trip to Philadelphia as an example. My wife and I spent the weekend at a downtown luxury property. (To avoid embarrassment, I'll leave out the name of the property.) The first morning we chose to dine at the hotel's minimally-crowded restaurant and were not impressed in the least. We waited a full 10 minutes for our simple order of bacon and eggs to be taken and another 20 for it to arrive; cold and with no apology forthcoming. Having a table near the kitchen, we could hear the staff chatting it up all throughout our half hour hang-up. Unacceptable. We left without touching our food and complained to the front desk, then went off property for real food and activities. Returning that evening, we found a rather contrite note and a fruit basket in our room. Apology accepted. In our mind, the issue was fully resolved by the positive response by the staff. We chalked this up as a technical fault. It did not impede our travels and we are not above thinking that there may have been other extenuating circumstances outside of the staff's control. Then came the coup de grace. Housekeeping had cleaned the bathroom without leaving any towels. A minor grievance, negligible even, but it set off a flood of bad memories from that morning. Once was okay, but twice was utterly deplorable, no matter what the compensation. Needless to say, we agreed to never stay there again. When asked about our trip to Philly, a foremost topic of discussion was always the horrible service at our hotel. This property not only lost a customer, but many other prospects. Perfection is not Required No property is perfect all the time. Even the best of us have slip ups. It's only natural. The challenge is to handle these situations in a capacity necessary to prevent a double deviation. I was willing to look past one hefty fault, especially given a sufficient admission of guilt. But two mistakes proved in my mind that the hotel just didn't value us as customers. Everyone has a slightly different comprehension of this double deviation. For guests like myself, the fact that they made the effort to acknowledge their error was enough to quell my doubts. However, had they not granted reparation, then that action by itself would have counted as the second strike. Others may not be so lenient. A more audacious guest may deem a letter of apology and an evening fruit tray as unsatisfactory, expecting compensation within the hour of the incident. Although I like to think these people are in the minority, nonetheless, it should be the responsibility of the front desk to coordinate an immediate response. The correct interpretation and anticipation of personal reactions to gaps in service is a critical tool to prevent double deviations and bolster your property's reputation. Here are some questions to ask yourself: How are your line managers made aware of issues that arise out of direct contact with guests? Are team members in direct contact with guests empowered to rectify situations immediately without their manager's approval? Are grievances and their effective resolutions documented and shared with the team for further learning? Does your training program identify immediate problem solving strategies? Do you monitor TripAdvisor and other ratings services to identify unresolved issues as a lesson for improving services? Immediate Communication is the Key Double deviations are almost never a one strike policy; guests will give you another chance to demonstrate your clemency. Whenever a guest complains, you should "red flag" that individual to ensure that they cannot find reason for a second reprimand. Immediacy is the critical factor here. Simply put: the sooner you identify the issue, the sooner a resolution plan can be initiated. Take advantage of the modern communication tools that are available to you - phones, text messages and the Internet. Our experience indicates that you have to address the problem the day of - and certainly at the latest before the guest leaves your hotel. Learning about such mistakes at or after check out is simply too late, and your brand will suffer.

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How Fast Are You?

Adam M. — 2011-04-15T14:56+00:00

Good morning! Check out the link to a brief article on 4hoteliers.com about the speed of your hotel services. Although the piece is mainly about how best to handle initial sales, it does have inferences for once guests are on property. It's critical that service is expedited so that the guest is satisfied as soon as possible. Guests view a hasty response as a sign of respect; that you value their business. Nowadays, you have to be able to mobilize quickly for any consumer request. And always remember that this alacrity of service has a lot to do with how you communicate and organize the different departments at your property. Inquire about our services to see how we can help.

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When Should You Change Your Director of Marketing?

Adam M. — 2011-03-29T16:01+00:00

Larry, our President, has had another article published on eHotelier.com discussing what role a Director of Marketing should fill to properly develop a hotel's brand. Follow the link to check it out!

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Active Versus Reactive

Adam M. — 2011-03-24T19:42+00:00

Are you active in correcting service issues before they become problems, or do you simply react to what guests say about your hotel online? This debate over being active or reactive is the same ageless conundrum as foresight versus hindsight thinking. Obviously, everyone wants foresight, but knowing a specific means for this goal is not easy at all. Predicting the future never is. In the past, I’ve argued that assessing your online reviews and qualitative opportunities to grow is a plus. It definitely is, and I would deem it vital to monitor these critiques at a minimum of twice a week. However, it’s not enough. If you are always responding, then you’re always a step behind. Eventually you have to meet concerns before they are publicized. Using the hindsight of researching past reviews, you will get a strong idea of what drives the average consumer into complaint mode. If the problems have occurred in the past, then it will likely happen again soon, and if you can pick out where the communication structure breaks down, then the battle is already half won. Being proactive in this sense means that you take the time to ensure your staff fully comprehends the necessity of next level service, so that they can identity trouble on their own. It also means that you think of hypothetical situations in the same vein as what’s already happened, and then use your channels to get the word out that these problems might arise. Hoteliers’ foresight means knowing what guests will expect and looking to how you can surpass those expectations. A nice buzz word to encapsulate part of my argument is the notion of the ‘double deviation’. Guests are not likely to complain immediately after something goes wrong. It is when the initial mistake is not satisfactorily corrected that they take to the streets. Part of your foresight should be developing an appropriate “compensatory checklist” so that any mistakes can be trumped by a more than sufficient apology. I would deem complimentary meals, wine or spa treatments as reliable ways to make amends – and they are only reliable when your staff members are informed about the exact issue. So how does Inn at a Glance™ fit into this picture? First, if every staff member has a quick point of reference for events, departmental notes and travel schedules, they will have a better indication of how to prepare for possible logistics deficiencies. Knowing who the weekend Manager-on-Duty is at any given time can be vastly important for decision making when a dilemma presents itself at night or on a weekend. Second, for handling these ‘double deviations’, Inn at a Glance™ works wonders for getting the message out about urgent tasks. Let’s put this into an example for modern times. A guest feels particularly wronged by a certain action while at your hotel, so much so that he or she posts about it on twitter. Your social media manager finds this grievance, then relays it on the Managers’ Home Page with recommended actions. Other staff members are alerted to this update and will be better able to respond in kind; the Inn at a Glance dashboard kept open to get the details right for this delicate arrangement. Inn at a Glance™ acts as a perfect communication bridge for your social media manager, public relations team and marketers, and the rest of the hotel. In this case, although something was not up to snuff at the outset, if you can communicate to that guest that you care about their criticism while they are still on property, it will make a world of difference.

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Do You Have a Crisis Communications Plan?

Adam M. — 2011-03-22T13:04+00:00

Larry is keeping his scribe duties in good form. Check out his latest article on ehotelier.com. ----- The pictures from Japan are utterly devastating. Destruction on an epic scale and the deaths of thousands of innocent people are hard to fully comprehend. My immediate thoughts go out to the families of loved ones who perished. With this in mind, I ask the naïve question: could it happen here in North America? The short answer is a definite yes. Nowadays, the landscape of New Orleans still reels from the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina and California shares in the earthquake-prone ‘Pacific Ring of Fire' alongside Japan. It could happen, often in the most unpredictable and tragic ways imaginable. Some ten years ago, I was working in Manhattan on property during the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Witnessing firsthand the crisis management undertaken, the memories of this incredible situation and the approach taken by hotel staff are permanent reminders of the crucial nature of this task. Nothing can fully prepare an ocean-front property for a full-scale tsunami. The loss of property is unimaginable. But at the same time, it is a fundamental responsibility of every hotel and resort operator to ensure the safety of his or her guests. Your property does not have to be located on the ocean to be subject to risk, either through natural disaster (earthquakes, for example), or manmade tragedy (such as a fire on property). Planning is Mandatory In the wake of the catastrophe in Japan, I quickly polled a dozen luxury properties to better understand their preparatory status (names withheld to protect their identities). Thankfully, all claimed to have a procedure for crisis management of some sort. However, only one had a clearly defined crisis communications plan - one that had not been reviewed in several years. In this era of social media and otherwise rapid communication, I find this totally unacceptable. This is a project that should be assigned as a top priority to your Director of Marketing in conjunction with your Risk Management Team. It should be undertaken now, not later. Your failure as a general manager to act could cost you, both in terms of revenue management as well as long-term protection of asset value. Crisis Communications Checklist At a minimum, your crisis communications plan should include the following precautionary factors: A complete contact list for all senior staff, including home telephone and cell numbers, as well as personal (not property) email accounts A contact list for senior advertising and public relations staff Permission lists for your website, blog, Facebook account, Twitter account and any other company social media A series of protocols that identify who will be the spokesperson for your property and how communications are to be handled by staff during a crisis An incidence reporting structure to document issues and responses Training tips on dealing with the media Sample scripts for news releases and your social media outlets Testing Your Communications Plan We recommend a separate in-depth team meeting to address crisis situations. Apart from reviewing the plan, role play can form an important part of bringing the plan to life. As an example: Split into teams and assign each team hypothetical scenarios for which they have to manage. Have them follow your crisis communications plan, craft responses and note any suggestions that must be made to properly handle each specific event. Your team will appreciate the challenges and be better equipped to supervise a difficult state of affairs. Most importantly, be sure to revisit your plan every year. An ideal reminder might be to coincide this with your annual budget planning. The Crisis May Not Be on Property Crises that affect your business may not occur on property. A regional crisis can be just as detrimental to your business. Some examples worthy of consideration: a flood or earthquake in your major feeder market, the closure of your local airport, or a breakdown of utilities such as electrical power or fresh water. The Bottom Line All of us will probably be faced with a crisis at one time or another. No matter what the ordeal, the situations are always stressful. How we as general managers deal with these situations are the true tests of our ability as hoteliers and communicators. Having a crisis communications plan reduces the risks that stem from such miscues. You owe it to yourself, your staff and your guests to be as prepared as possible. ----- (Article courtesy of ehotelier.com)

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Will Online Booking Sites Kill the Planning Committee?

Adam M. — 2011-03-10T18:42+00:00

Our President and Founder has been published on hotelinteractive.com again! Read the transcript of the full article below. ---- I remember the first time I was invited to an “Executive Planning Committee Meeting” at the Toronto Four Seasons in 1982. New to the business at the time, as the ad agency account executive, I was told this was quite the honor! Back then, out of respect, you addressed the GM as “Mr.” which seemed quite old-fashioned, even for the 80s. Fast-forward 25-30 years: Remarkably, planning committee meetings have not really changed. The same management positions meet to review the same issues that their predecessors discussed. Yet, look at the changes that we have experienced: the Internet, revenue management, automated meeting RFPs, online travel agencies, and a myriad of systems designed to improve management decision making. But the biggest game changers have nothing to do with the systems designed to enhance the hotelier’s success. Rather they are the ones that evaluate performance: online booking websites, otherwise known as the “banes of existence” for any hotel GM. Aside from word of mouth recommendations, third-party sites like Expedia, Travelocity, Orbitz and the behemoth that is TripAdvisor are the premier research tools when seeking a new travel destination, all boasting user-generated reviews that can make managers cringe. All a reader has to do is log on, pick out a hotel where they have online proof of a past visit (sometimes not even required), then type their heart’s content. Click submit and voila! Barring any expletives, the review will be posted about two days later. Showcased as a new comment, it will have status at the top and most viewed portion of the page. Due to the efficient layout of these sites, it’s hard for web users not to notice the latest critiques, and a steady stream of inflammatory remarks may work to turn potential customers away for good. Even when the issues are small, they all appear bloated by their online facades. For example, one person might rate a stay as two out of five stars with the sole reason listed as a shortage of towels. Granted this is a problem, but hardly a deal breaker. Reviewers sometimes mark down the quality of their rooms based on almost independent issues such as the pricing of restaurants or the friendliness of staff. All it takes is one finicky little thing to go wrong and a five diamond resort now looks like a bunch of cubic zirconia. If you’re a GM reading this, you’re probably either nodding your head or grimacing over a similar past experience. Is it really fair to label a place as a “bad experience” due to a 10 minute wait for the concierge? Should these tech-savvy patrons really be entitled to the same level of influence as seasoned travel writers? I think not. And yet with the preeminence of the Internet, these misinformed critics will continue to rise in power over the future of the industry. And there’s almost nothing managers can do, outside of checking these sites everyday and responding to complaints after the fact. But the reviews are permanent, and unless all operations are immaculate, users will always seem to find something wrong to debase an otherwise sound excursion. My agency’s hospitality clients are pleading with me, “How do we address our TripAdvisor ratings?” Well, excluding a multimillion-dollar renovation, it all boils down to guest services. Based on an independent analysis of over 1,000 different TripAdvisor comments for properties rated in the 4 or 5 Diamond level by AAA, we found that over 90% of all commentary, either positive or negative, relates to service issues. This brings us back to the hotel planning committee meeting: why has this meeting failed to adequately address the service issues that are so critical to the property’s success? Nowadays, senior hotel managers, at least those in the planning committee, are few and far between. For instance, the Rooms Division Manager might have under his/her direction: an Executive Housekeeper, Engineering and Maintenance Manager, Front Desk Manager and Reservations Manager. And each of these team leaders might have line managers reporting to them. With so many layers, the transmission of critical information often gets muddled as it moves up and down the totem pole, hampering the decision-making process. Thus, to address guest service issues, you have to first address the lines of internal communication. But alas, every hotel manager I know is totally overloaded with work. Throughout North America, the ‘Great Recession’ has reduced the ranks of middle management and the hospitality industry is not immune to this trend. There are fewer assistant managers, and more work for everyone else. Schedules are often staggered, further hindering exchanges. The result is that those attending planning committee meetings often have less time to sort out how their own teams are functioning, let alone knowledge of the action steps needed to boost internal communication channels. Managers now need to ensure that guest services are far above par to mitigate the online debacles that these third-party sites propagate. It’s time for hoteliers to use technology to fight technology. To survive in this new era of speedy information dispersal, managers must fully embrace smart phones, social media and web-based monitoring systems – all potent tools for heightened communications. With any luck, over a short period of several months or so, these kinds of upgrades will work wonders to create an effective means towards more positive reviews. After all, the majority of people only view the most recent comments, so if you improve today, there will be greener pastures tomorrow. ---- (Article courtesy of hotelinteractive.com)

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How Hotels Can Use FourSquare

Adam M. — 2011-03-07T14:30+00:00

Our Founder and President, Larry Mogelonsky has been published on hotelinteractive.com. Read the transcript of his article below: ----- A question that should be on every hotelier’s agenda these days is: How do we use social media to reach our customers? Many companies already have a strong plan already in place for the big three: Facebook, Twitter and the corporate blog. On top of this, most savvy businesspeople are sufficiently acquainted with the ins and outs of social bookmarking sites. However, hoteliers should take note of the latest tech trend, that of mobile sign-in services. The big players here include the likes of FourSquare, Gowalla and Facebook Places. For the sake of not being overly complicated, let’s focus the remainder of our attention on FourSquare – a company that grew a purported 3400 percent last year – even though all three work by similar means. FourSquare is designed for smart phones as a fun way for people to state to their online community where they are at any given moment. Once a person has an account, they “check-in” to wherever they are via their phones and this serves as their online status. FourSquare uses GPS technology to verify where the cellular is in the world and to keep things honest. On top of this, people can be awarded “Mayor” status by having the most check-ins for any given location, or earn specific “Badges” by logging in from a given combination of places. Sounds like fun, but how does it apply to hotels? Well, take Gap for instance. Last year, they launched a notorious FourSquare campaign where anyone who checked in at one of their locations received 25 percent off their purchase. Other large-scale corporations have followed suit – even offering additional discounts for holding mayoral status. This doesn’t exactly transfer to independent lodges or mid-sized chains that lack access to national advertising channels and the programming resources to seamlessly integrate these types of services into their operations. FourSquare boasts that they are universally applicable for small businesses and the hospitality industry, albeit a word of caution. Like most of the contemporary social media tools, if you don’t plan ahead and know your customers, then you might as well not even try. First, there aren’t enough people who understand FourSquare, let alone use it on a regular basis. The 3400 percent expansion statistic is a tad bloated as it encapsulates users who have made an account to try the novel software and have since lost interest. Metrics for FourSquare’s second full year on the market should be more realistic in this regard, but the fact remains that the service still primarily caters to a younger, tech savvy demographic. The boomer and mature populations are still catching on to the likes of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, and it’s likely that they won’t be “checking in” for next few years. Moreover, at its present juncture, FourSquare is an urban craze with only the big metropolises sharing in the excitement. Like MySpace and Friendster, it’s still too early to decide whether this is a bees-knees or just another Internet dud. That being said, there are some definitive strategies for hotels, especially if they are trying to reach out to a younger crowd. With many users forwarding their check-ins to Twitter or Facebook, it’s an excellent way to garnish some free press across several networks. Usage can also be encouraged by placing a notice in the window or leaving a “Please Check-In on FourSquare” marker by the entrance. Hoteliers seem to be an obvious benefactor of this new wave of social media as they already work within a place where you check-in. By extension, FourSquare could serve as an “online concierge” in some form or another. This is something that would need to be constantly monitored – easier said than done. Gourmands have already largely gained from FourSquare’s recent deals with third-parties like the New York Times and Zagat, and so this could be great for promoting a hotel’s in-house restaurants. The developers behind this location-based network appear to have a long-term plan for aiding their users and subscribing businesses alike, as noted when they launched FourSquare 2.0 in September 2010, which offers recommendations on nearby places and activities. So, the question remains, do you get on board or not? It’s one thing to register a company on FourSquare; it’s another entirely to maintain it and exploit it as a promotion vehicle. Judging its practicality on this level, most evidence points to no. Your time spent on this niche service would be better allocated to the bigger, content-oriented networks like Facebook, Twitter and your blog. In addition to this, FourSquare may soon feel the full wrath of Zuckerberg as Facebook Places stretches its clout. Even with its present day cool factor, FourSquare is at a relentless disadvantage when sized up to the vast expanse of network that Facebook Places already has to build upon. In a broader sense, what’s important here is to be a forward thinker and to be receptive to the ever-changing world of cyberspace. Just look at the rise of Facebook; it’s only in its seventh year. FourSquare turns three on March 11, 2011 and who can really say how fast it will grow. One thing is for certain: emerging social networks favor first movers. That is, if you are planning to commit to FourSquare, do it sooner rather than later, and give it 100 percent. Whether it stands the test of time or not, FourSquare is a hot product for 2011, especially when astronauts like Doug Wheelock are checking in from the International Space Station and unlocking the NASA Explorer badge in the process. Adopting mobile sign-in services may just be the edge you need to lure in a new crowd. ----- (Article courtesy of hotelinteractive.com)

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