hotels | Digital Crosstalk

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Brian and team, who work for a digital marketing agency run this Digital Crosstalk blog.
Occasionally we might blog about companies and people we work with but for the most part we'll simply be blogging about stories and events which we find interesting.

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18th
AUG

Pricing error sees Venice hotel rooms offered at €0.01 a night

Posted by Brian | Filed under hotels

: Image via Wikipedia

It could have been the bargain of the decade but you had to be quick to take advantage of it! However, the deal was wholly unintentional and blamed on a computer error.

The Crowne Plaza Venice East Quarto D’Altino – a four-star hotel situated only 15 minutes by train from Venice – inadvertently offered rooms for the kingly ransom price of €0.01 – one euro cent, causing a stampede of bookings which filled the hotel until 2010 according to a report from NewsTin. Rooms at the hotel normally cost between €90 and €150 per night.

Before the error was recognised, the hotel had received the equivalent of 1400 room bookings on the night the rate appeared on the hotel’s website. The bogus rate was first believed to be the work of a hacker, but it was later found to be a case of simple human error at the offices of the hotel’s parent company in Atlanta, Georgia. The hotel is part of Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG).

However, the hotel is to be applauded despite it losing out on some €90,000 revenue as a result, and has committed to honouring the rate for those customers who hold a valid booking confirmation, although it was stated bookings would be non-transferable.

Perhaps other retailers should take note and consider honouring prices and rates quoted in error as a means to generate some positive PR?

Tags: Hotel, Intercontinental Hotels Group, Venice

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3rd
AUG

Hotel guests beware: There be pranksters about!

Posted by Brian | Filed under hotels

: Image by Chuckwrox via Flickr

The next time you stay in a hotel and the phone rings, listen carefully to what the person on the other end of the telephone has to say – you may be the unwitting victim of a new craze.

Hotel prank calls swept across the United States throughout June and July, where pranksters would call random hotel rooms, make up an excuse to the occupant to stay in the room and then get them to trash it! Included among the numerous pranks to be played on unsuspecting hotel guests are:

A caller in Arkansas posing as a sprinkler-company employee persuaded a motel employee to do more than $50,000 in damage as part of a “test” of the motel’s emergency alarms.

In Daphne, Alabama a caller ordered a guest to turn on the sprinklers for a non-existent fire. The end result was damage in excess of $10,000.

And in Nebraska, a Hampton Inn employee was convinced by a caller to pull the fire alarm. The caller later also told the employee that the only way to silence the alarm was by breaking the lobby windows. As a result, the employee enlisted the help of a nearby truck driver, who then drove his rig through the front door.

And now it appears theprankster craze has hit the United Kingdom, and the Independent newspaper carries a report of a couple who were targeted by pranksters with American accents. The callers asked the couple, who were staying at the Corus Hotel in the Lake District, to remain in their rooms due to a gas leak and were advised to place a wet towel along the bottom of the door and to break the room window.

However, the couple in question had the presence of mind to call the hotel reception and confirm the incident, to be told no such incident existed!

So next time you’re in a hotel room and the phone rings, listen for an American accent asking you to trash your room. If you get one, you might want to ask yourself if what you are hearing is indeed true, as you might not be on Candid Camera.

And whatever happened to simply putting itching powder in the bed, or replacing the Imperial Leather with dirty face soap anyway?

Tags: corus, hampton inn, hotels, jokes, pranks

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24th
JUL

United Airlines don’t break guitars… oh yes they do!

Posted by Brian | Filed under air, blogging, hotels

Most people would have simply ranted and raved when their air carrier lost or damaged their luggage, but Canadian singer Dave Carroll went a step further than simply complaining to his carrier, United Airlines, when he penned his ditty ‘United Break Guitars’ in protest at the airline’s refusal to accept responsibility they had broken his prized Taylor acoustic guitar at Chicago’s O’Hare airport last year.

The song was accompanied by a video which went on to become an internet phenomenon, attracting four million views on video sharing website, You Tube, which is owned by Google. It was so successful that after nine months of trying and failing to gain admittance from United Airlines, the carrier has now paid up.

“You broke it, you should fix it/ you’re liable just admit it/ I should have flown with someone else or gone by car,” Carroll sings, “’cause United breaks guitars.”

However, sadly for United Airlines the damage isn’t going to stop there, despite the settlement as Dave is in the process of recording a second track, which will form part of a trilogy against the airline by the singer. The original song even managed to cause United Airline’s share price into a temporary drop, such was the publicity surrounding Dave’s ditty.

United Airlines aren’t the first company to become embroiled in an internet slanging match between customers and companies and they won’t be the last either as the upsurge in social media websites continues to create a rebalance in communication between consumers and businesses; helping to spread both the good and bad word about customer experience.

In a Twitter post, United Airlines admitted they made a mistake and would donate $3,000 to a music charity, but also that they liked the video if not the song. The carrier even hinted that they would like to use the video as a training aid to ensure a better level of service for their passengers.

United Airlines

Dave says he is no longer angered by the incident and he no longer cares about getting compensation, despite repairs to his guitar coming in at some $1200 – which still doesn’t play correctly. He will however press on with the second tune, which will feature his dealings with United Airlines’ customer service agent Ms Irlweg, who flatly refused Dave’s claim for compensation; with a third track following later.

Tags: airlines, complaints, Dave Carroll, United Airline, United Break Guitars

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19th
JUN

Travelodge announce plans to launch 100m fund for hotel buys

Posted by Brian | Filed under hotels

Image by TheGirlsNY via Flickr

Budget hotel chain Travelodge have unveiled plans to launch a £100million property fund which it will use to acquire smaller hotels struggling in the current economic climate.

In a joint venture, Travelodge will partner with Anglo-Indian property fund manager, Meghraj to source and acquire between eight and fourteen hotels which will be leased under the Travelodge banner.

The new partnership – called Tamesis Capital – will, according to a Times report seek to raise £40million of equity and £60million of debt which it will use to acquire and convert hotels and lwill be eased by Travelodge.

Megrhraj is already an investor in 15 Travelodge hotels and aims to raise half of the projected equity figure from its high-net-worth clients, while it hopes institutions will fund the remainder.

In a statement, Paul Harvey, Travelodge’s managing director of development revealed that many hotel owners and administrators had contacted the budget hotel chain looking to sell their premises but wildly fluctuating valuations had scuppered any chance of business being done.

However, with more and more small hotel owners looking to cut losses while others end up on admistrators’ books, the expectations on values for such properties have become more attractive to Travelodge; enough for them to consider taking some on and further expanding their reach towards cost-conscious travellers.