Speaking after the reviews site debuted on the Nasdaq stock exchange on Wednesday, president and chief executive Stephen Kaufer said the company was continually investing in new ways to screen out bogus reviews. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) in the UK is investigating TripAdvisor after receiving complaints from reputation management specialist Kwikchex about its content and the way third party websites use its reviews.

The ASA is due to rule on the first complaint early in the new year, it confirmed yesterday. This year saw Tripadvisor drop its long-established slogan “reviews you can trust”.

Kaufer said: “Some companies are trying to convince hoteliers to pay them money to plant phoney reviews. We’re on to them, sometimes were interacting with them, when we catch someone using them we give them a warning and then a penalty.

“Hotels know – just like if you try to spam Google – there’s a pretty big penalty and that can damage their business.”

Kaufer said reputation management firms should communicate to business owners that their social reputation is an important part of their marketing strategy, but find free ways to manage it.

“There are free things hotels can do like responding to a negative review on the site or leaving a card in a guest room inviting guests to share their experience on TripAdvisor.” Kaufer said the spin-off from Expedia would allow TripAdvisor to innovate, particularly in the social and mobile arenas, without having to get the go-ahead from its owner.

Read More at Traveloution

Search Engine Land reader Alex, who works in the hospitality industry, tipped us to this development and at least one of our SEL editors was able to replicate it on a search for “las vegas hotels.”

The Hotel Finder ad is listed as a “comparison ad” and is separated very slightly from the regular AdWords listings below it. It occupies premium space at the top of Google’s search results and pushes hotel ads and organic listings further down the page. The comparison ad invites searchers to select a hotel quality level and click a “Book hotels” button. It’s quite similar to the mortgage comparison ads that Google launched in late 2009. Comparison ads are now also available for credit cards, checking accounts, savings accounts and CDs (the money kind, not music).

Clicking on the Hotel Finder comparison ad leads the searcher to the Google Hotel Finder, an experiment that Google launched in July. The Hotel Finder is a somewhat innovative hotel search tool that mainly separates itself from some other sites by letting users draw shapes on a map to indicate where they’re looking for a place to stay.

Read More at Search Engine Land

Hoping to draw impulsive buyers addicted to daily coupon alerts, hotels and online travel agencies are introducing a flurry of new specials and features targeting those who book a room locally on the day of the stay. They include couples celebrating anniversaries; long-distance commuters working late; people without electricity; travelers whose flights are canceled; and suburban deal seekers who can’t resist a 30% discount at a fancy downtown hotel. Orbitz, which launched its Orbitz-Hotels app for iPad in the summer, says 65% of its mobile bookings are same-day reservations (vs. 14% on desktop). Orbitz will also launch a redesigned mobile website next week that will include a new tonight-only deals feature.

Hotel Tonight, an app featuring daily deals from hotels cutting prices by at least 20% for the night, is one of the most popular travel apps, with more than 800,000 downloads. Priceline launched its Tonight-Only Deals feature in October, selling discounted deals from hotels that disclose their names. (Priceline’s name-your-price auction doesn’t reveal hotel names.) About 60% of mobile bookings are for the same day, says John Caine, Priceline’s senior vice president of marketing. “There’s a certain portion of travelers who don’t like planning,” he says.

“In Connecticut, more than half the people were without power for days and days” after an October snowstorm, says Priceline CEO Jeff Boyd. “We literally watched the hotel reservations light up on our mobile devices.”

The hotel-tonight trend is part of a broader buy-now shift in the economy enabled by mobile technology. But hotels, especially independent properties, are willing to participate in this new sales channel because about 40% of rooms on average go unsold each night. Hotels also like the feature because they don’t have to commit a minimum number of rooms, says Sam Shank, CEO of Hotel Tonight.

“Technology is making it easier to fulfill the need that’s been out there,” says Andrew Kauffman, vice president of e-marketing at Marriott.

Read More at USA Today

Here are 5 strategies to stay ahead in online travel marketing;

1. Testing: A comScore executive estimated earlier this year that 75 percent of its clients are testing their digital creative in parts of their campaigns. That’s a good number. Testing must be done for creative but it must also be done for audience relevance, segmentation and timing. Testing is relatively inexpensive, effective and essential.

2. Find growth areas: Once a travel company integrates a testing mentality they can be more aggressive and innovative about finding growth areas. Is it a destination? A new target audience? An underestimated holiday? Find something that can produce incremental growth.

3. Customize messaging: Even with the uptick in travel ads online, too many companies still rely on a few executions. If you want to be innovative, create a dozen of them based on microsegments. Take it to the next level and partner with cutting edge ad platforms that offer dynamic creative executions. Dynamic creative capability essentially creates custom ads for individual customers in real-time. For the travel category it can take a generic message such as “low fares” into specific fares for specific destinations based on individual customer preferences and behaviors.

4. Audit customers: Are the affluent customers still affluent? Have the older customers in the database travelled recently? Are business travelers using their loyalty program points? A rigorous customer audit will answer these questions and enable travel companies to execute against them.

Read More at HotelMarketing.com

Sixty-six million Chinese will travel overseas this year, a 15% increase over last year, and 100 million will be global travelers by 2020, according to the United Nations World Tourism Organization.

On the back of three decades of spectacular growth and development, China recently became the second largest economy in the world behind the United States. The country has also become a major market for the world’s leading international consumer goods companies.

Many travel brands are trying to capture the attention of this very valuable new customer segments, but not without challenges and disappointments, due to various reasons.

1. Spot the China travel trends

• The China travel market is growing both domestically and outbound, and the UNWTO predicts that Chinese outbound travelers will exceed 100 million by 2020, with international destinations beyond Asia on the rise.

• The internet is used to “plan & tell”, however offline travel agents are still the dominant distribution channel, even though online channels are growing.

• Chinese consumers are moving towards an experienced-based choice model from a price-based choice model, demanding higher quality services, and moving from traditional tour groups to more individual travel experiences.

2. Understand the Chinese consumer

• It is critically important for travel suppliers to offer China-ready services, from hot water cookers for instant noodles and slippers in the hotel room, to Chinese dishes such as Congee at breakfast, to Chinese language services from Chinese menus in restaurants to Chinese-speaking staff to Chinese audio guides for destinations and museums.

Read more at: tnooz.com

Regions outside of North America that showed greater strain in bookings included Europe, the Middle East/North Africa and isolated areas in Asia-Pacific. However, these locations still maintained increased revenue streams at the broad regional level over both 2010 and 2009. Rates were upheld for the leisure channel overall, rising +2.5% over 2010 globally, and +4.3% in North America.

“The truth is we’re in a weak global economy, which has impacted the pace of the travel recovery,” said Mike Kistner, chief executive officer of Pegasus Solutions. “As the pace has slowed from the gains made in 2010 and the first part of 2011, leisure demand has still climbed against the odds. In fact, the reality of tighter capital markets and resulting restrained supply growth is ultimately beneficial for occupancy and rates.”

Corporate travel has been labeled the ‘muscle’ behind the travel recovery as October global distribution system (GDS) bookings grew by +4.0%, with North America sustaining an increase of +3.3% over prior year. Corporate travel rates also showed sturdy growth, as average daily rates (ADR) increased almost +3% over prior year globally. North America realized an increase of +4.0%, almost reaching the year-to-date growth pace of +4.6%.

Read more at: hotelmarketing.com

Kinnitty Castle, Co.Offaly celebrate their 14^th week at the top of the list, Well done.

Download the list as a PDF here

(List correct as of 7^th November 2011)

The list is by no means final so if you feel we’ve missed you out, please let us know by commenting below and your hotel/group could appear on next weeks list.

The list is based on the number of fans the Facebook page has and is open to all hotels in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.

This list only considers Facebook Pages as opposed to groups and personal profiles.

A Page or a Group, which is better? Well the answer to that depends on you and what works for your business.

Facebook Groups:

1. Set up for more personal interaction, they are highly active and require constant engagement.
2. Connected to the profile of the people who administer them.
3. When you post something as a group administrator, it appears to be coming from you and is attached to your personal profile.
4. Groups are great for organizing on a personal level and for smaller scale interaction around a cause.
5. If the group is under 5,000 members, group admins can send messages to the group members that will appear in their inboxes.
6. Permissions settings make it possible for group admins to restrict access to a group, so that new members have to be approved.
7. Groups can’t host applications.
8. You can advertise your group.

Facebook Pages:

1. Access to a Page, however, can only be restricted by certain ages and locations.
2. Page admins can send updates to fans through the Page, and these updates will appear in the “Updates” section of fans’ inboxes.
3. There is no limit on how many fans you may send an update to, or how many total fans a Page can have.
4. Pages can host applications, so a Page can essentially be more personalized and show more content.
5. Pages can benefit from social ads that publicize the fan connection between a Page and a specific user.
6. Pages are better for brands, businesses, bands, movies, or celebrities who want to interact with their fans or customers without having them connected to a personal account, and have a need to exceed Facebook’s 5,000 friend cap.

Neither Groups nor Pages have great moderation features. If someone posts spam on your Group or your Page, you have to remove it manually, and you can also remove specific members.

So it’s up to you who best suits your business right now and going forward.

Be sure to check back every Monday to see if your hotel has made the list!

Street View on Google Maps has provided many hours of novel entertainment in looking up houses, friends’ houses, your elementary school, that park you fell asleep in that one time. But satisfying a small bit of voyeurism is not all Street View can accomplish. Now Google is using these images as a marketing tool for businesses that want to show off their interiors.

In order to have your businesses’ interior photographed, you must fill out an application with Google. If chosen, you will be contacted by Google’s photographers to set up a time for the shoot. Google owns all rights to the photos, including the right to keep one up, even if you object to it. In order to have an image removed, you must submit a request for it to be taken down. Google asks that you tell customers and those in the area you are holding the shoot on the day it happens. If people are in any of the shots, Google will blur their faces or simply not put the photo up.

According to a Google spokesperson, the company has already worked with thousands of businesses to shoot these 360 degree interior views. Photos will be available both on your Google business page as well as the Google Maps Street View.

Read More at VentureBeat

The tool enables users to search for a hotel within a named destination by editing a shape on a map. Users can also view hotels within the shape as a list and by clicking on a ‘book’ button are provided with advertisements from online travel agencies and the hotels enabling users to compare prices.

Property reviews are also provided from Google Places. The US test of Hotel Finder was unveiled in July and covered the main online travel agencies such as Orbitz, Priceline, Expedia and Travelocity. Prices from a number of Europe-based OTAs are also featured including booking.com and easytobook as well as the websites of the hotel owners.

In August Google began integrating technology providers, with Trust International the first, to sit alongside OTAs and property websites. Easytobook marketing boss Wouter Blok says the extension of the tool is ‘huge’ for the company and adds that easytobook plans to ramp up the amount of inventory it provides to Hotel Finder.

In his blog, he points out that the more Google pushes Hotel Finder via adwords, the better it is for his company because it creates a level playing field with the OTA giants that are integrated.

Read More at tnooz

“Many people in this room are already our clients and we have mutually beneficial interests. Our priority is to answer traveller queries quickly and efficiently with the most relevant response we can and ultimately lead them to transact with you. We want to create a circle of Googly happiness. But Huddleston then went on to unveil new hotel and flight search technology which prompted some concerns from the industry audience.

Google Hotel Finder and Flight Search have already been launched in the US and Google plans to roll them out internationally.Using maps and calendars, customers can search the best flights and are then directed to the relevant airline. Huddleston denied that this would compete against online travel agents

“OTAs are really important partners. We have no plans to enter that space. We are providing the information, not facilitating that booking,” he said.

When asked how flight searches were prioritised, he said it was not based on a pricing model “It’s done by a combination of the price and timing. It’s not done by payment mechanis”.

Huddleston revealed some trends about online bookings, forecasting that one third of the world’s travel sales will be made online by 2012

“UK consumers are some of the most mature and sophisticated when it come to buying travel online,” he said.

“Nearly 90% of travel buying decisions are influenced by online, whether it’s at the research or booking stage.”

According to Google statistics on trip research, travellers look at an average of 15 sites, at least twice, and spend an average of two hours 24 minutes researching.

Read More at Travelmole.com