One Burnt Breakfast And Your Reputation Will Be Ruined In Seconds

One of my last posts about Trip Advisor taking over the accreditation system prompted a comment by a company called Eezeer. They have a mobile review application, which is something you need to watch out for.

It's one of the many 'NOW' applications floating around on mobile phones that are set to change the way in which the world interacts. Instead of waiting 'til guests get home to write a review, they simply upload a picture from their phone, write a few words and off it goes out in 'Real Time' on a Twitter like feed on the Eezeer network. 

If you are in the hospitality industry and plan on increasing profit margins by providing inferior food or service, then you better watch out because consumer finger tip power is to become very frightening. 

Eezeer's main goal is to keep an eye on the airline market in America, where more use of wireless networks is allowed on flights. One simply takes a pic of the appalling nosh served on flight and send it out, telling others not to fly with said airline.

These kind of products will soon be common place and within two years' time I predict that if your sausages are burnt or your eggs too runny then within seconds they'll be subject to worldwide incrimination. It's just Trip Advisor on the move really, but the cool bit is that reviewers are monitored by GPS, so have to be in the place they are reviewing. This will cut down on fake reviews as rival B&Bs and hotels will have to come and stand outside your gaff to tell everyone how bad you are.

As a forward planning traveller 'NOW' reviews are far more appealing. If someone writes their feelings about service there and then it is far more likely to give an accurate account of their feelings of the situation and will be more interesting. I know the reason that I don't write Trip Advisor reviews is that I don't always have a clear recollection of everything that happened when I'm at home and my mood generally becomes far more forgiving after the holiday.

When 'NOW' reviews combine with 'NOW' accommodation decisions, that's when things will become even more interesting.  

Planning ahead for accommodation for people, especially in cities will soon be obsolete. Here's a little scenario for you of a city traveller's movements:

You, the future traveller arrive at a city, ready to stay anywhere you fancy. You look on your phone on your Eezeer (or any other similar) network and find the most recent/live reviews of hotels in that city.You choose one based on the best reviews and value for money. You then book the stay on your phone, just by a click, because your phone automatically links to your cc details. 

You find the hotel via GPS and check in by putting your phone through an electronic scanner (like the ones at Tesco, lol). 

You feel satisfied with your stay and are grateful to those reviewers that helped your booking decision so are obliged to write a review of your stay over breakfast and repeat the process again. 

God help your hotel if your beans are burnt.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I've Seen The Future, And The Future's Mobile

You may or may not know that I spent the end of last week hobnobbing with industry bigwigs at the Travel Distribution Summit. Everyone with the ability to wear a suit mumbled about Mobile Internet. And then, (after a few post conference Kronenbergs!) I saw it... The future of how your customers will find you

You may know all this stuff already and I had heard of it, but up until now I've ignored it. There's so much techy stuff around that I just have to deflect most of it. I'm scared that I'll become a robot and out of touch with the real world. I want to be a real person for readers of this blog, and not a lazy writer that becomes obsessed with tech and updating the blog using other people's techy discoveries.

However this is important, very important and I truly believe that to be one step ahead of the game you need to learn all about it now.

There are two companies in America who are big news. Foursquare and Gowalla. They have basically combined the world of Google Maps with social media. Users log in to Foursquare from their mobiles and then update their status telling everyone where they are and what they are doing. 'I'm singing at a Karaoke Bar', 'I'm at an Art Gallery'. The idea is that other Foursquare users can meet each other in the real world as they know each other's locations. Each user gets points for being the most exciting or active and they then get freebies or special offers from local companies signed up to the scheme.

Yahoo recently had a $125 million bid turned down for the Foursquare application.

What's important about this for you is not the game or the company names to remember (Facebook may soon be taking over this space) but the advancement in technology and how this will become very important for your B&B.

I truly believe that lots of customers will soon no longer pre-book accommodation online. They'll wait until they reach a city/town and then walk around looking at their phones/sat navs. Like real-life signs, there'll be signs on their phones through Google maps from accommodation providers with rooms available.

The user will see a sign, click on it and read the last 10 reviews from Trip Advisor, they'll have a look around the room pics, click to book and stroll in (like David Essex) with a booking number.

It's exciting for independent hoteliers because this really will level the playing field out there and while the online world as we know it is awash with large hotels using 'distribution channels' to reach to the top of Google, this will no longer be the case when reality and virtual combine. So long as you have a 'sign' present on a location map, then you have as much chance as the big chains to reach the customer.