Whale Cottage Portfolio Blog

A novel relationship between Hilton Hotels and the producers of the (Oscar nominated) “Up in the Air” has led to a most successful marketing campaign for the American hotel chain at little cost.

The fast-paced movie stars George Clooney in the lead role, and his love for being on the move around the USA, utilising his credit and loyalty cards to travel efficiently and cost-effectively.   When his boss threatens to ground him, his world collapses, especially as he is on the brink of reaching his one and only goal of 10 million frequent flyer miles.

The movie was shot at various Hilton Hotels, and “signature” Hilton products and amenities were used in the filming, reports the Weekend Argus.   The movie director Jason Reitman was a ‘Hilton HHonors frequent traveller scheme’ member before making the movie, and was familiar with the HIlton brand.   Most of the filming took place at the hotel group’s St Louis branches.  No payment changed hands, but the hotel group made accommodation and filming space available, and launched its own marketing campaign in conjunction with the movie.

Whilst the Hilton branding was visible, it never dominated, nor alienated the viewer of the movie.  In reading the article, the subtle Hilton branding became more evident.   Some of the Hilton products shown in the movie include the HHonors Diamond VIP card, MP3 alarm clock radio, room service menu, phones, uniforms, and name badges.   Services such as the Hilton HHonors check-in service, the shuttle service, the restaurants, and the hotel bathrobes, are shown.

A website www.hilton.com/UpintheAir has been created, to show how Hilton staff have helped frequent travellers and provided service by walking the extra mile.

“‘Up in the Air’ is set within the world of travel and Hilton is the most recognised name in hospitality, so our involvement provides additional credibility and authenticity.  Hilton links to the messages in the film in a seamless and subtle manner” said a Hilton spokesperson.

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com

Based on accommodation bookings, a most devastatingly poor September lies ahead for the first three weeks of the month.  Tourism players can be grateful that the 24 September public holiday falls on a Thursday, which can lead to locals making a four-day long weekend of it.

Rarely has a September looked so poorly booked ahead in Camps Bay, and Franschhoek.  The Garden Route remains severely depressed.   Hermanus looks a little better, especially with the Whale Festival over the long weekend having attracted good bookings ahead.  But the weekends earlier in September are not yet heavily booked.  

August, by contrast, was well booked ahead, and the Italian market was a most welcome buffer against the credit crunch.  Whale Cottage Camps Bay ended off the month with an occupancy of 60 %, and 50 % for Whale Cottage Hermanus.

FEDHASA Cape too has admitted that Western Cape accommodation has “taken a battering” this winter, reports Tourism Update Online.   “The five-star market has taken the biggest battering, but low-end accommodation seem to have fared better” said the hotel association’s Rey Franco.   He says that predictions for bookings ahead vary from good, to same as, and bad compared to a year ago.

Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com

Statistics SA has confirmed what all in the hospitality industry have been experiencing - income from accommodation fell by 5 % in the April - June period compared to a year ago, reports the Weekend Argus.

Had the Confederations Cup and the British and Irish Lions Tour, and to a far lesser extent the IPL, not taken place in this quarter, the drop in accommodation revenue would have been even greater.  June showed positive growth of 6 % on average, compared to the negative growth in April and May, proving that the IPL did not live up to its promised contribution to the economy and protection against the recession!   June has been the only positive growth month this year so far.

In Cape Town RevPAR (revenue per available room) increased by 14 % in June, the first month in 2009 with a positive figure, based largely on two rugby matches in Cape Town, with rates having been increased to R 880 per room on average over the match days, and occupancy increased to 51 %, the first occupancy increase in the 12-month period.

Stats SA also records the “number of stay nights” to have decreased by 10 % compared to 2008, with hotel income dropping from R 1,99 billion in the second quarter of 2008 to R 1,86 billion in the second quarter this year, a 7 % decline.   Guest house income grew by 2 %, and that of caravan parks and campsites by 8 % in the same period.

Whale Cottage Portfolio : www.whalecottage.com

The bane of the hospitality industry is a website called TripAdvisor.com, which carries reviews of accommodation establishments, restaurants and tourism attractions in cities, towns and villages around the world.   The reviews are written by travelers, and are extremely candid in presenting their feedback, often with photographs.

Travelers have become very confident in documenting their feedback, especially when it is negative, and so it is quickly evident that the majority of reviews tend to be negative – unhappy guests tend to express their views, while happy ones literally use word-of-mouth rather than TripAdvisor to communicate their happiness with a tourism product.   Yet the website carries a high degree of “credibility” amongst trip planners, in making their accommodation, restaurant and tourism attraction decisions for their holidays.

Whilst the intentions of the website owners was very honourable in setting up its website, it appears to not have understood the human nature of both reviewers and of tourism product owners.

Tourism product owners have known for some time already that TripAdvisor is used by many vindictive guests, who may have experienced something to their dissatisfaction during their stay/meal/visit, and then tend to use TripAdvisor as a blackmail tool – “compensate us fairly or we’ll go to TripAdvisor”.  Those tourism product owners that stand firm against blackmailing guests run the risk of a string of negative reviews on the website, and unfortunately one negative review can set off another reviewer and colour the content of the reviews.   Tourism product owners have also observed that in their vindictiveness, the reviewers do not hold back in their abuse in disparaging the management of the establishment concerned, in exaggerating detail, in dishonestly describing the details, and in not giving credit for any reductions, freebies or any other compensation given to the guest.   Guests who have read the negative reviews, and still decide to visit a tourism product, are much more sensitive and judgemental, and could become negative reviewers themselves.

TripAdvisor offers tourism product owners the opportunity to send a Management Response, but they have very strict guidelines in the content they allow – one may not say that the guest (reviewer) is not telling the truth, one may not mention the name of the guest (most are written anonymously), one may not disparage the reviewer in any way, even if the management have been disparaged, or if the guest made mistakes or broke the rules.   A Management Response on TripAdvisor can come across as being very defensive, especially when written by an emotional owner/manager, and may do more damage than not responding at all.

Something tourism product owners have also picked up over time is that some negative reviews are written by competitors, who wish to slate their fellow hoteliers, restaurants and tourist attractions, to gain more business.   This is a low form of doing business, but is not visible to guests.   TripAdvisor would listen to an owner’s feedback if such a review has occurred, but the affected party will not be able to prove who the perpetrator is, and that it is not a guest writing a review.

It has also understood that some tourism guests are offered incentives by tourism product owners to write positive Tripadvisor reviews.

Now the shoe is on the other foot, in that TripAdvisor has received negative media publicity about its shortcomings, and has had to admit that many positive reviews have been written by the owners/management of the tourism products, a practice that product owners have known to be going on for many years.  News reports of late show that a number of TripAdvisor’s 400 000 products have been flagged as such by TripAdvisor on its website, until the owners can prove the contrary, reports Die Welt.  The red box next to a product states that TripAdvisor has reason to believe that the property has tried to manipulate the popularity index and rating of the product. As soon as the products show they are keeping to the rules again, the warning is removed by TripAdvisor.

Where does this leave travelers who want to plan their trip, and who relied heavily on the website?   Perhaps they should consider the following:

1. How long ago was the review written?  Most establishments are devastated in seeing a review, and will address a reported deficiency immediately, if they have not done so at the time that the guest stayed. 
2. How many reviews are there per year/month?  The average guest house would have about 100 couples visiting in a month, and if a review frequency is only every 6 months, then the review only represents 0,2% of the total visitor numbers, and therefore should be ignored. Even one review a month represents 1 % - no establishment can run at zero defect, and because product staff are human, and their guests are human, it is inevitable that one cannot please all the guests all the time!
3. Is the review constructive, even if it carries negative information, and does it praise at least some aspects of the product?  If there is nothing to praise at all, the reviewer shows his/her bias
4. Read between the lines – put yourself in the owner’s shoes, and evaluate whether the response and actions attributed to the owner/manager are reasonable, especially if the product has been operating for a number of years.
5. Check for a pattern – is the same complaint coming up, or is it a rant about a different aspect of the property each time.  Understand that maintenance and repairs are a constant challenge for hospitality establishments, and it is reasonable to expect that something could be operating less than satisfactorily.  The establishment must be given a chance to fix the problem or to make good to the customer in another way, before TripAdvisor is approached.
6. Read other websites to obtain a full-rounded picture of the establishments, and do not rely on one website such as TripAdvisor only.   In South Africa all professional accommodation products are graded between 1 and 5 stars, and every year the properties are re-assessed, adhering to ever more stringent guidelines.  Check with the Tourism Grading Council if the TripAdvisor reviews reflect the property, for an alternative opinion.
7. Try to speak to guests who have stayed there before – they will be best able to give a fair review, even if they have not written a review on TripAdvisor
8. Check the length of the review – the longer it is, the angrier the reviewer is, and the less likely it is to be balanced.
9. Check the rating of the review - it is evident that most reviews are 1 out of 5, or 5 out of 5, rarely in the middle.   This does not provide a balanced picture, and often a pattern of a positive, followed by an extremely negative, review is observed.  No product can range between extremely fantastic one month to extremely terrible the next month.  What usually differs is the guests, and not always the product.

The writer of the Hotel Marketing Strategies blog spoke to Michele Perry, Vice President of TripAdvisor, and asked her for some guidelines regarding TripAdvisor.  Her advice was as follows:

1. Owners should read the feedback and should improve problem areas.
2. Do not offer any incentives to guests in exchange for a review – “a free night, a coupon off the next stay, a discounted meal, etc. – is strictly against our rules”.
3. Owner are invited to register on www.tripadvisor.com/owners, to learn about the TripAdvisor tools for owners/managers.
4. Negative reviews should be addressed via the Management Response service on the website.   “…how a property reacts to the criticism is more important to prospective guests than the negative comments themselves.”

Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com 

The Department of Labour’s new Minimum Wage for the hospitality industry is applicable from today, as detailed below:

The wage increase, based on inflation plus 2 %, does not take the credit crunch into account, as it was designed two years ago.   Many a worker may wish to retain his or her job at the current level than to be made redundant due to a further financial burden on employers.

Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com

Wines of South Africa (WOSA) is planning to bring wine journalists to South Africa during the 2010 World Cup, to enjoy the soccer and wine feast the country has to offer next year, reports Cape Business News.

Su Birch, CEO of WOSA, said that many wine producers are planning to bring European importers to the country for the top soccer event, and have designed incentive programs.   “Our intention is to ensure visiting foreign trade and media are exposed to our producers and activities in the winelands while they are here.   We’ll give them a taste of true South African hospitality for which we have become famous.   They’ll experience the spontaneous African warmth and excitement surrounding the games and get to taste our wines in a new context” she said.

Given the 2010 World Cup focus, WOSA will not be putting on Cape Wine in 2010, and will next host it in 2012.

Birch recently received the honour of being named “Woman of the Year” by The Drinks Business, a British journal, “for her role in the enormous advances made by the South African wine industry on international markets over the past decade.”  South African wine exports have grown three-fold in the past ten years.

South Africa is the ninth largest producer of wines, and represents 3 % of total world wine production.  Currently just over 400 million liters are exported from South Africa, a growth of 17 % compared to the year before.  Sales have grown by 27 % to the UK, by 12 % to Germany, and by 26 % to Sweden, the top three South African export markets.

Mmastsatsi Marobe, CEO of the Tourism Business Council, has said that tourism could be one way in which the South African economy can be stimulated, as reported in Travelwires.

She said that while individual accommodation establishments have seen a decline in occupancy, the IPL cricket and British and Irish Lions Rugby tours are good for the national economy, and demonstrated that South Africa is a viable destination for sport, business and leisure.

She identified a number of tourism trends that can stimulate the economy:

1.   Local tourism is on the up, at the expense of international tourism.  In the UK 20 % of British holidaymakers will travel in their own country this year.

2.   Going on holiday is a means of escapism from the doom and gloom of the effects of the credit crunch.   “Tourism provides a psychological lift to the psyche of the public”.

3.   Green is gold, in that tourists are becoming more discerning in expecting their accommodation to be environmentally responsible.

Marobe called for more young persons to be employed by the tourism industry, as they are the future of the tourism industry.

“…we all have a role to play in stimulating the economy through tourism - keep visiting, keep hosting, and keep investing” concluded Marobe.

South Africans received two pieces of good news on the eve of the Worker’s Day long weekend:   the interest rate decreased by 1 percentage point, and the price of petrol will decrease by 3 c per litre on Wednesday 6 May.  

The third 1 % point decrease in three months is excellent news for cash-strapped South Africans, who are starting to feel the effect of the global credit crunch.   For the hospitality industry the steady decrease in the interest rate is a welcome relief as the industry goes into the seasonal winter slump between May and August.

While the petrol price decrease is only 3c per litre, it is a welcome reversal of the steadily increasing price of petrol since the beginning of the year.   The stronger Rand at the moment may be part of the reason for the reduced petrol price.

The first World Cup 2010 language training has started, resulting from an initiative by the Argentinian University of Buenos Aires’  Language Centre, reports the Cape Argus.  

The University has tied up with a local company called Armiger, and is starting Spanish lessons in Mossel Bay, teaching tourism players, security staff and emergency services staff.   Spanish is one of FIFA’s top five languages.