In the past, a customer’s bad experience may go as far as several friends. Now, a negative hotel review can be viewed by almost the entire world literally in only a matter of seconds.

Determine when not to respond: Sometimes the best online hotel marketing strategy for dealing with negative reviews is to simply ignore them. If you can answer yes to any of the following questions, it may be smarter not to respond to the review at all:

1. Are other users of the website already disagreeing with the initial review?
2. Has the user left many negative reviews on the site – are they a ‘born complainer’?
3. Is this the only negative review out of dozens of positive ones?

If you have answered yes to more than two of these questions, it may be best not to respond to the review. When there is a ‘troll’ on a blog who is posting inflammatory comments, it is sometimes best not to fan the flames and let the fire burn out quickly.

Deciding to respond: You or your online hotel marketing team must assess each case individually and decide whether to respond and what action to take. If you don’t respond, you not only run the risk of the review ‘growing legs’ and spreading across the internet, but you miss an opportunity to retain a customer and to possibly right a genuine wrong.

Good responses outweigh bad experiences: In most cases, you can actually improve your reputation online by handling a negative review well. It isn’t only the customer in question that will notice, either; potential and past customers will often respond better to a hotel that is consistent, mature and proactive in its handling of bad reviews through internet hotel marketing.

Respond in a calm manner: There are two things you need to do before you start typing anything in your response box. First, try to determine the facts of the situation. Secondly, make sure you’ve calmed down and are seeing both sides of the situation before you start your response. Don’t write anything that sounds angry, sarcastic or negative, even if it is ‘veiled’.

Apologise for the way the customer is feeling: If it isn’t appropriate, you don’t need to apologise for the situation that occurred or your staff’s action. However, saying something like “I’m sorry that you felt so unsatisfied with your experience” in no way admits guilt, but does help to start on a conciliatory note and help appease the hotel customer.

Correct the facts if appropriate: If a customer’s bad hotel review is based on incorrect facts, correct them politely. Check with the owner of the review website also – if a review is libellous or false you may be able to have it taken down. Even if the facts are false, don’t threaten either the reviewer or the review site – you’ll only damage your hotel’s reputation.

For full article see Hotel Internet Marketing

As 3-D technology improves, more people will be tempted to sightsee from the comfort of their own home instead of actually visiting other places, the report says.

Trends in Japan, which often predict what will happen here, indicate the travel industry will need to offer far more engaging experiences to tempt youngsters from their armchairs.

Futurologist Dr Ian Yeoman, author of Tomorrow’s Tourist and a consultant on the report, said: “They’ve had deflation and also the Japanese consumer has gone inward.

“So what they’ve seen in the last ten years is that they’re spending more now on in-home entertainment and technology rather than travelling the world.

“That’s an indicator of what could happen here.”

The Future of Free Time report was commissioned by online travel and leisure firm lastminute.com.

It says: “Perhaps worryingly, a new generation will reject travel altogether in favour of gaming, social networking and ‘always on’ media.

“As in-home leisure is becoming more engaging, a group of young people will emerge who do not go out any more.

“Rather than travel, this group of Go-Nowhere-Gamers prefer to transfer their lives into the home, playing computer games and watching interactive 3D TV.

“They will find out-of-home activity too ‘action-poor’.”

The report, compiled in association with think-tank Future Foundation – experts in future trends – shows that spending on out-of-home leisure activities fell during the recession.

However, sales of in-home electronics have grown and since 2000 spending on in-home leisure has increased by 2.5 times in real terms.

The new research also reveals that since 2007 people have gained increasing enjoyment from in-home activities such as socialising via the internet and using games consoles.

Social networking has leapt 52 per cent in people’s views of what they find entertaining.

The report states: “In the future, in-home entertainment technology will be more exciting, more interactive and more visually appealing.

“3-D TV will have made its way into British homes, content will stream from the Web at the push of a button, we will interact further with shows and even influence their scripts and outcomes.

“The internet and social networking online will make online video communication smoother and more real.

“The home as a centre of free time will become more appealing and compete with out-of-home free time.

“A forecast of British leisure expenditure shows that out-of-home leisure will eventually recover following the recession. In-home leisure will, however, grow at an even faster rate.”

Experts have expressed their concern at the trend to experience things virtually.

Patricia Yates, of travel organisation Visit Britain, said: “I think Japan is quite a worry.

“You would think that real life experience is so much better than sitting at home playing around with it, how can they not see that?

“But that is a real trend we’ve seen in Japan. What if kids decide that they’re going to stay at home and play on their computer rather than go out and explore the world?”

The report predicts that in future ‘young people might choose online chat rooms to less attractive face-to-face interaction with friends’.

It adds: “In the world of a Go-Nowhere-Gamer, rather than go zorbing, rolling down a hill with friends, young people may stay indoors and take on the role of an action hero in a computer game.

“Rather than take a weekend break in Europe together with friends, Go-Nowhere-Gamers might wander on an imaginary planet together.”

To compete with the increased interest in virtual leisure, museums, galleries and exhibitions will have to make real experiences more interactive and more engaging.

The report suggests: “While now, interactive theatre may seem like an innovation, in the future, movies might be interactive.”

Get the full story from the Telegraph

This is so important as this is your brand that someone could be messing around with.

One of the examples of what is coming through was a hook trying to get you to click on the link. There was a little rude so I won’t include that as an example. I work with Hootsuite so I have a link previewer which is certainly helpful on occasions where your not to sure about the DM. (Direct Message)

So what do you do if your account has been compromised?

Have you noticed:

• Unexpected Tweets posting from your account.
• Unintended DMs (direct messages) sent from your account.
• You are unable to log in to Twitter (and you know you haven’t changed your password or username).

If so, you please take the following steps according to Twitter.

Reset your password and Revoke Connections

1. Reset your password.

If you can log into your account, change your password immediately from the Passwords Tab in your Account Settings. You can also use the Twitter password reset feature to request an email with instructions for resetting your password. Select a strong password you haven’t used before.

2. Revoke connections.

Once you’ve logged in, visit the Connections tab in Account Settings. Revoke access for any third-party application that you don’t recognize.

3. Update your new password in your third-party applications.

If a trusted external application or widget uses your Twitter password, be sure to update your password in the application. Otherwise, your account may be temporarily locked.

If You Still Can’t Access Your Account see www.status.twitter.com where you’ll also find more information about Safe Tweeting.

Five years ago, Gmail was just email. Later we added chat and then video chat, both built right in, so people had choices about how to communicate from a single browser window. Today, communication on the web has evolved beyond email and chat — people are sharing photos with friends and family, commenting on news happening around them, and telling the world what they’re up to in real-time. This new social sharing is valuable, but it means there’s a lot more stuff to sort through, and it’s harder to get past status updates and engage in meaningful discussions.

Today, we’re launching Google Buzz, a new way to start conversations about the things you find interesting and share updates, photos, videos and more. Buzz is built right into Gmail, so there’s nothing to set up — you’re automatically following the people you email and chat with the most.

We focused on making the sharing experience really rich by integrating photos, videos, and links. No more fuzzy little pictures: Buzz makes it easy to quickly flip through photos and experience them the way they were meant to be seen: big and full-resolution. And videos play inline so you can watch them without opening a new window.

You can choose to share publicly with the world or privately to a small group of friends each time you post. And you can connect other sites you use, today there’s Picasa, Flickr, Google Reader, and Twitter, so your friends can keep up with what you’re doing around the web — all in one place.

To make sure you don’t miss out on the best part of sharing, Buzz sends responses to your posts straight to your inbox. Unlike static email messages, buzz messages in your inbox are live conversations where comments appear in real time.

You can follow the specific people whose posts you want to see, but Buzz also recommends posts from people you’re not directly following, often ones where your friends are having a lively conversation in the comments. If you’re not interested in a particular recommendation, just click the “Not interested” link and your feedback will help improve the recommendations system. Buzz also weeds out uninteresting posts from the people you follow — collapsing inactive posts and short status messages like “brb.” These early versions of ranking and recommendations are just a start; we’re working on improvements that will help you automatically sort through all the social data being produced to find the most relevant conversations that matter to you.

For all those times when you want to share something but aren’t in front of your computer, Buzz is also available on your phone. When you’re out in the real world, a lot of the information you want to share often has to do with where you are: for example, you may want to talk about a new restaurant you discovered or the score of the game you’re watching. So rather than simply a small screen version of the desktop experience, Buzz for mobile brings location to the forefront and makes it easy to have conversations about places. In addition to checking out buzz from people you’re following, you can also see nearby buzz from the people around you.

We’ll be rolling out Google Buzz to everyone over the next few days; you’ll see a new “Buzz” link under “Inbox” when it’s on for your account. We’re still working on some features to make Buzz work well for businesses and schools, so it isn’t yet available in Google Apps, but stay tuned. If you want to learn more in the meantime, visit buzz.google.com or check out the Help Center.

Source: Gmail Blog and Google Buzz

“It’s particularly encouraging to see that travelers are finally recognizing packages are the easiest way to save big bucks.”

Travelocity’s most recent poll shows a dramatic increase in travel intentions, indicating traveler confidence is on the rise. Travelocity’s second Traveler Confidence Report finds that nearly half of respondents plan to increase their travel in 2010 as compared to 2009. The Traveler Confidence Report gauges travelers’ plans and attitudes now as compared to six months prior and one year prior. The following findings are based on the intentions of more than 2,000 North Americans surveyed by Travelocity.

Traveler Confidence Report Highlights:

• Travel Intentions Up: Significantly more respondents (49 percent) plan to increase their travel in the year ahead, compared to 21 percent six months ago and just 10 percent in 2009. Another 44 percent plan to travel “about the same” as compared to last year. The number of travelers planning to decrease travel is down significantly to 7 percent, from 34 percent one year ago and 24 percent six months ago.

• Decreased Hotel Rates Have Positive Impact: When asked how lower prices would impact travel plans, 33 percent said they would stay in a higher star-rated hotel; 30 percent said they would take a trip they had not expected to take; and 18 percent said they would extend their stay.

• Travel Budgets on the Rise: The majority of respondents (56 percent) did not have a predetermined travel budget for 2010. Of those with a predetermined travel budget, 34 percent plan to increase that budget.

• Travelers Committed to Saving Money: An overwhelming 76 percent of respondents are at least somewhat likely to book a vacation package as a way to save money.

“Great deals, especially on hotels, have given travelers confidence to hit the road and take to the skies in 2010,” said Genevieve Shaw Brown, Travelocity’s senior editor. “It’s particularly encouraging to see that travelers are finally recognizing packages are the easiest way to save big bucks.”

Find out more at Travelocity.com

This scenario is not science fiction. It, or one similar to it, happens every day in airline cabins as tech-savvy passengers use social media tools to disperse information among their networks. Are airlines ready for this new world?

Although most of the industry is engaged online to some extent, there remains a lingering notion among a number of legacy airlines that social media is, to quote one senior executive, “just a silly fad.” Perceptions like these are reinforced by the fact that social media has yet to make a measurable impact on the bottom line of any carriers. But airlines such as JetBlue Airways and Virgin America are betting that their investments of time and resources in social media will pay off in the not-too-distant future.

While social media continues to evolve and the tools used to reach an engaged online community may change, the paradigm shift in customer habits is here to stay, say media analysts and airlines that have bought into the concept. “Shame on those airlines who think they can ignore this and that it will go away,” says Henry Harteveldt, a travel industry analyst with Forrester Research.

JetBlue has more than 1.4 million followers on Twitter, the micro-blogging site that allows users to update their networks in 140-character posts, called “Tweets.” That is more than any other airline, and among the higher number of followers of any corporation. JetBlue’s attention to social media requires significant resources. A team of six in the corporate communications department monitors the feed until the last passenger has left the last airport each day, says Morgan Johnston, manager of corporate communications.

Get the Full Story at Aviation Week

A package holiday price war is being predicted as companies seek to capitalise on a recovering market in 2010.

Turkey is leading the way as value-conscious travellers seek to avoid eurozone holiday spots, according to the Co-operative Travel

The leading travel retailer reports that bookings across top 20 destinations for next summer have seen a 26% increase in the last three months as the market begins to recover.

Dalaman has seen an increase of 82% and has taken over from Majorca as the number one overseas destination for UK holidaymakers in 2010.

The average price of a package holiday to Dalaman is £516, £79 per person lower than the average break to Majorca (£595), according to the travel agency group.

Get the full story at travelmole.com

Over the last 10 years the way we travel has been revolutionised by the web. Many of us waved goodbye to high-street travel agents, newspaper classifieds and hours spent staring at endless Teletext pages, and logged on to new hi-tech services.

As the web began taking hold of the public’s imagination, the burst of sites and services began shifting the way we thought about travelling, making the idea of grabbing a bag and jetting off cheaper and easier than ever. In fact, the swell of activity in the travel industry seemed so lucrative that it was one of the cornerstones of the dotcom boom.

The boom itself may have ended ignominiously, with many of the individual names crashing spectacularly, but our approach to travel itself remained irrevocably altered.

Britain’s travel revolution circled around a pair of innovations that had the web at their heart.

Get the full story at guardian.co.uk

In continuing with my series of quick social media tips I’m covering some tips for business use of Facebook here. I’ve actually written about some of these tips in great detail before, but this can act as a quick primer for folks who like their info snack sized like this.

1. Fan page – Facebook had personal profiles and groups from the start, but a few months ago they added to the function called fan pages and made them more business friendly. Any business on Facebook should create a fan page for their business and start optimizing additional content there. The cool thing about fan pages is that it’s now a lot like having another web site.

You can add applications, newsletter sign-up pages and events and promote them to your friends on Facebook. When someone becomes a fan of your page, your updates on the page show up on their wall giving additional exposure. I wrote a pretty comprehensive post on the subject of Facebook Fan Pages here. Also, check out the Duct Tape Marketing Fan Page – http://www.facebook.com/ducttapemarketing – note the brand optimized URL – that’s pretty new and something you should take advantage of.

Get the full story at ducttapemarketing.com

Both Priceline and Orbitz reported higher revenue and profits than expected in the third quarter, despite a travel industry-wide lull. So, why are the online travel agencies doing well when other aspects of travel are flailing?

Some say it’s because the leisure travel market is recovering faster than business travel, but I also think that an online travel agency has far less risks than a major airline or hotel chain. In fact, from previous reports, we know that such Web sites are muscling lower hotel prices when possible and can be seen as competitors more than collaborators. In several scenarios, OTAs gain profits while their member hotels lose them. Many critics of the Web sites say it’s the price hotels and airlines are paying for not offering great deals directly to consumers.

The trouble with the OTAs is that for many consumers, they cease to have an identity. While William Shatner is probably the highest-profile spokesman (although he’s probably on par with the Travelocity gnome) many consumers have little or no recognition of each Web site or loyalty to it.

Get the full story at bnet.com