New York Hospitality by Vijay Dandapani

Professional travel guide

Professionaltravelguide.com is a travel site that claims to be the world's most comprehensive source of "professional" information on hotels, destinations, restaurants and activities. The term "professional" refers to travel experts and agents (as opposed to user-generated content). In other words "industry insider" insights are now available to the everyday traveler. Professionaltravelguide has the following in its favor

- The world's largest hotel database - 159,000 hotels worldwide
- 10,000 professionally authored, unbiased hotel reviews
- Free destination guides to 7000 travel hotspots and free, customizable e-guidebooks

Sounds like a robust menu to start off! Will the professionals take away from the pervasive, powerful influencer - user generated content? Only time, eyeballs and room-nights sold will tell!

http://www.professionaltravelguide.com/

New York - The world's official holiday city?

It's nice to see shoppers throng the glittering stores of 5th Ave and jostle one another for better views of the Rockefeller Christmas tree - after stepping out from the disturbing weed-infested city of Will Smith's Dec blockbuster "I am legend. " NYC has always been the favorite destination of tinseltown's disaster-movie-machine and it might be be worth a poll to confirm that New Yorkers appreciate the attention!

Given NYC's irresistible attractions and superlative shopping delights, isn't it time to designate it as the world's official holiday destination? The Times Sq crystal dropping event is already the world's biggest New year bash. The Rockefeller Christmas tree is the world's most spectacular holiday tree! The Radiocity Christmas Spectacular is now a tradition - a holiday goodie not to be missed. The world's largest department stores call the city home. The most exclusive labels and the most enticing bargains find a place here. NYC is already considered America's chocolate capital and offers myriad lipsmacking options for the gourmet goodies shopper.

How would the official designation help?
- MTA would seriously consider adding more trains to help ease holiday traffic - by sticking to a regular schedule even on weekends for all of December
- Globally, people would find a reason to celebrate their holidays in NYC atleast once in their lifetime. The international tourist needs to feel more welcome in NYC.
- The holidays would be more about enjoying NYC's famous attractions rather than getting shoved around by milling shoppers everywhere you go. The city would think of ways to manage crowds (overcrowding is a serious epidemic in NYC on a normal day)
- Airlines would do more to catch up with hotels in the quality and performance of service in and out of New York
- Restaurants would serve up innovative fare during the holidays rather than dish out the standard year-round menus. A holiday city deserves a special menu, complete with local NYC culinary delights

It's about time NYC got some credit for being the crown jewel of holiday adventures - as the one and only city people anywhere in the world could call home.

Sidestep steps aside

The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) today reports that Kayak has acquired its competitor Sidestep. Kayak says that "the merger will make it the fifth-largest travel site in search volume". The WSJ notes that both "Kayak and SideStep are meta travel sites that search hundreds of travel Web sites, including airlines, hotels and sites like Orbitz.com. Kayak says there is less than 10% overlap among Kayak and SideStep users. SideStep will become a subsidiary of Kayak, but Kayak will maintain and develop each site separately". Meta sites like Kayak and Sidestep do not actually crawl the web but, as the article notes, rely on other search engines, principally in the travel sector, to display results.

Kayak's CEO Steve Hafner is quoted as saying that "by combining content and technology, the company will be able to make SideStep's interface work faster, and Kayak, which has been focused on perfecting the search process, will have access to SideStep travel guides, hotel reviews and downloadable tool bar". Less enthusiastic at the prospect is Henry Harteveldt, an analyst with Forrester Research Inc who notes that "12% to 15% of online leisure travelers use meta sites, roughly the same share as in 2006". That's unfortunate if true, as anyone who has used the two sites must surely have derived more utility than by merely limiting oneself to Orbitz, Expedia or even google; if nothing else, these two sites and others such as Farecompare serve to keep the big third party websites honest.

Cup half full or empty?

The Los Angeles Times' has a story on why Travelers should look at the bright side of 2007. The Times' travel writer Catherine Hamm notes that "it's tempting to look at the year in travel and note how we, as travelers, took it on the chin. Fuel prices increased, hotel rates crept upward, quality of airline service tumbled downward, traveler patience slipped noticeably and we used even less of our paid vacation time than ever".

She then goes on to ask a series of rhetorical questions including one pertaining to hotels - "Did you pay more for a hotel? Yes. But did you end up sleeping in your car? No". She rightly notes that "Hotels love us more than ever. Hotels seem to be the counterbalance to the airline experience. They want to be our friends. Some are trying to speed our way into our room by putting check-in kiosks in the lobby. Others are trying to give us all the high-tech toys we could ever want (though a pox on those luxury hotels that charge for wireless Internet access). Still others make sure we get a breakfast to help us start the day. We may be paying a pretty penny, but it's money well spent".

And along the same vein, the Wall Street Journal's blog has an article headlined "Hotels Deck the Halls for Holiday Travelers". The article notes how "This holiday season, vacationers had better be in the spirit because wherever they go, they are going to be running into a lot of tinsel and gingerbread. From Chicago to the Caribbean, hotels are ramping up their seasonal decorations and specials this year in a big attempt to lure the increasing number of travelers who want to go anywhere but home for the holidays". Furthermore, hotels worldwide are acutely aware that families constitute a big proportion of travelers during the holiday season and are taking note that "many families don’t want the kids to miss out on Santa and snowmen even if they are headed to the beach. (Who cares if Santa is wearing swimming trunks?)". The biggest deals are in the biggest cities like Chicago and New York where business travel after the first two weeks in December tends to peter off, thus enabling affordable rates for families who seek to spend Christmas and holiday travel away from home.

Beyond that, those hotels nationwide that have invested vast sums in upgrading their FF&E, adding amenities such as i-pod docking stations and providing higher quality fittings and even service with a view to developing their client base will undoubtedly be the winners and standout in the leaner times that surely lie ahead.

Trends

Its' that time of the year when a round-up of trends and top-ten lists are in order! For travel marketers, it would be nice to have the following info to enable better decision-making in the new year

1) The top ROI generating online media - we know search is #1 but review sites are catching up as a very important influencer. What about contextual ad networks, banners, email marketing?

2) The top travel sites and why they are really tops - price, ease of website use, variety of offers, customer relationship management, destinations, brand, web 2.0 technologies. Each "best of" site must be evaluated for its audience and how it fulfills their expectations

Social networking and video are thought to be the next big initiatives in engaging the consumer. Here are a few lifestyle trends surely impacting travel

- The national obsession with fitness, transfats and healthy lifestyles. It's all about YOU staying young, healthy and beautiful!
- The suddenly relevant focus on the environment and green practices. Being green is not about being cool , it's about being responsible (rising sea levels, smoggy skylines and melting glaciers are catching up with us). Ecotourism is no more an empty phrase and having the ability to choose an eco-friendly hotel on travel sites is not a far-fetched thought.
- The sudden uptick in adventure travel & activity vacations - The Internet and web 2.0 technologies have spawned a new generation of budding writers, photographers, hobbyists and adventurers. People can experience new cultures from the comfort of their desktops and test-drive exciting adventures before actually purchasing a package. Reviews, videos, ratings & virtual tours have rendered international destinations less exotic and more next-door. International travel and foreign sojourns are suddenly fashionable.
- Social networking and connecting have crossed the workplace - it's all about being connected in the brave, new world. From geeks & travelers to housewives & sports enthusiasts, everyone can finally share their views, make new connections and express themselves. Social networking has contributed to making the web a much smaller world.

As online travel becomes more competitive, parnerships and alliances among the major players may become important as everyone fights for the same customer. Specialty travel sites with expertise in specific areas may do better than sites trying to be everything to everybody at all times!

Green Monday and travel

There is one more lesser-known Monday when the cash-registers ring loudly for Internet retailers. It's the second Monday of December and rung in a whopping $667 million last year. "Green Monday" is catching up on the popularity charts of bargain enthusiasts and cyber deal-hunters.

This year the Internet marketing machine has seemed more aggressive than ever with red, green and free shipping bombarding surfers at every opportunity. The travel and hotel industry needs to tap the potential of blockbuster internet shopping days to their advantage - make it easier for shoppers to ferret out the best travel deals and holiday packages. Throw in freebies and the occasional sweet surprise - offer joint promotions with top retailers and aggressively market one-day only deals.

Holiday Gifts and hotel gift cards

Ever wondered why gift cards, a soaring component of holiday sales is less associated with travel and more with the Best-Buys and Macys of shopping!

1) Agreed travel rates keep changing and a fixed-value gift card might not do much at a time of soaring demand and sold-out rooms. But why is travel so hard to gift?

- Preferences - People have myriad preferences in hotels, airlines, activities, packages and destinations. It's hard to keep track of someone's "traveler" profile .
- Hotels and airlines are rarely in a mood to reward customers outside of what they offer them during an actual stay or flight.
- These days, travelers have got into the "review and book" mode for the smallest of trips and hotel stays. They are fussier about where they stay and how they travel.

Perhaps, a holiday travel registry with traveler profiles and preferences could guide friends and family in making a decision about gifting travel. This could also apply to weddings and preferences for honeymoon destinations.

Boom time for baby boomers?

The Financial Times (subscription required) has a report on how baby boomers' "resolve embodies the spirit of a generation like no other in US history. The 77m “baby-boomers” – born between 1946 and 1964 when the optimism fostered by victory in the second world war and rapid economic development prompted Americans to procreate – have been the largest and wealthiest demographic cohort in the country for more than half a century". The report also notes that "unlike previous trend-setting generations – such as the “New Dealers” born between 1936 and 1945 and the “Silents” that preceded them – the boomers do not appear ready to step aside in favour of younger blood. On the contrary, new research by McKinsey, the management consultancy, found that boomers will instead tighten their grip on America’s economic levers over the next few years". Furthermore, the boomers will have a networth of $26trillion by 2015 - a mere seven years from now.

The implications for the economy of the "retirement" of baby-boomers has produced reams of paper that cover virtually every aspect from the over-wrought social security crisis, that some say will cripple the economy, to the paucity of workers and shortage of health care. What has not been covered, or at least not often enough, is the spending power of the boomers and its impact on the economy as they move into their latter decades in life. The FT report notes how America "ought to be busy devising novel ways to lure these ageing big spenders". And apart "from pharmaceutical companies and financial services providers, which have traditionally targeted older consumers, there are few signs that large companies have recognized the giant opportunity presented by boomer consumers". That list ought to include hotel companies as well as the industry like most others have focussed their efforts "on teenagers and the young" as per Jeff Taylor, founder of Eons.com, an internet portal for older people.

A Mckinsey & Company study quoted in the report notes that "one of the unwritten rules of good consumer marketing has traditionally been the focus on younger people because they are open to change and willing to spend." As per David Court, from McKinsey’s worldwide market and sales practice. “For marketers in the last few decades, the core of the market and boomers were one and the same thing”. But that will change dramatically around 2015 beginning when "the 18-49 age group will grow by only 1m people in the next 10 years, compared with the 22.5m Americans set to enter the 50-plus bracket".

The most telling aspect of the foregoing is the enormous spending power in the hands of the boomers. Hospitality companies have for the past five plus years been focusing on Gen X and Gen Y but as per McKinsey's study that's not where the money will be. So what should hotel companies do to go after a diverse and arguably fragmented group that will have most of the discretionary dollars but most definitely does not want to be labeled as "old"? For starters, that means designing rooms, websites and equipment that are functional for people who are long-sightedness and less dexterous with their hands. However, that does not mean going away from technology as most boomers are very gadget friendly if not obsessive and certainly fairly web-savvy. But attention to easy to do aspects of the room like a rheostat based switches for every light source that vary intensity along with door handles that facilitate easy gripping are a good start. It also means that any promotional advertising in-house or elsewhere is not overtly age oriented while at the same time remains "user-friendly".

Additionally, there will also be a substantial market of boomers whose "sense of entitlement" developed from years of pampering by marketers but who will, nevertheless, be less well endowed financially. The FT notes that those likely will look for value of the kind promised by a "Jet Blue" or "Target" and will almost certainly shun the Wal-Marts of the world. That represents a challenge and opportunity for hotel franchises. The challenge lies in not emphasizing either their target market's age or cost while highlighting value. The latter is best exemplified by two competitors from the auto industry:- Volvo and Subaru. No prizes for guessing the vehicle of choice for boomers.

Train service and travel

A recent report on Amtrak's performance provides a promising outlook on train travel. For long, the roads have ruled American travel. Rising fuel costs, stressful, overcrowded highways and pollution have taken the romance out for road-warriors and die-hard drivers! Amtrak recently reported a 5th straight year of gains with revenue growth being the highest in the North East (14% over last years' ticket revenues)

Hotels and other travel companies could do well to explore the potential of the rail for joint promotions and stress-free getaways! Most travelers have had enough of worrying about how to get there and would like to just sit back and enjoy the ride!

A yen for pricing

The Japan Times reports that the Mandarin Oriental Tokyo hotel "is offering an extravagant Christmas night to one couple at a cost of ¥14 million" That amounts to approximately to $126,000 for one night! What does all that money get the guest? According to the hotel "The guests will stay in a 250-sq.-meter suite with a Christmas tree bedecked with ¥11.5 million worth of jewelry, including diamond watches and bracelets that will be theirs to keep. The couple will be picked up by chauffeured limousine from any location in Tokyo's 23 wards and taken to the hotel in the Nihonbashi district. They will have a dinner prepared in their room by a chef".

While not knowing how much the diamond watches and bracelets cost, there certainly is a lot packed into the deal. Is that the most expensive hotel package going during this holiday season? The hotel claims that "A hotel stay in this price range is unheard of" and went on to note that "We want our guests to enjoy quality time that would be quite out of the ordinary". Certainly appears extra-ordinary.