mobile computing heaven

The race is on.

The Westin St. Francis in San Francisco’s Union Square is among the first hoteliers to sign up with LodgeNet Interactive Corporation to implement its Mobile Internet Devices and integrate them into their own hospitality system.

In English, this means Westin guests can order in-room dining, book a spa appointment, make golf reservations, sign up for their reward program points and even change the in-room temperature and electricity controls through their iPhones and Blackberries. Basically, guests’ smart phones replace the concierge function, which will no doubt trigger a rebuttal from the National Concierge Association. But let’s face it: the name of the game has always been “be relevant or be run over.”

The project is in the pilot stages this summer; LodgeNet says it should roll out more test markets between now and the end of 2009. Anyone who wants to see this technology in action can stop by the company’s booth at HITEC at the Anaheim Convention Center June 23 – 25.

It’s a smart move for anyone who read the American Hotel and Lodging Association’s 2008 study on customer satisfaction. A whopping 82 percent of guests say they care most about their wi-fi services, even over in-room entertainment systems and airline check-in kiosks.

Which could explain why Omni Hotels — the first luxury hotel brand to give guests free wireless access in their rooms — is focusing more on the basics. It signed with BelAir Networks to upgrade its network design to accommodate mobile computing. “With nearly 50 percent of our guests using wi-fi and their bandwidth demands continuing to accelerate, we sought a high-performance network partner” says Richard Tudgay, Omni’s IT veep.

Photography: Westin St. Francis

I gladly paid $5 for my first cable car ride on this trip.

This week I have the good fortune of occupying a very prime piece of real estate — a condo near the crossing of the California and Powell cable car lines in San Francisco. Since the cable car is our main form of transportation while staying here, it’s gotten me thinking about how governments and attractions can reap maximum tourist dollars without gouging locals.

A few years ago, San Francisco raised the price of a cable car ride to $5. I think this was very wise — after all, many of the tourists lined up at the turntable spent thousands of dollars to travel to San Francisco, and one of their goals was to ride a cable car and be photographed doing so. It’s an attraction. What’s $5 for a tourist experience? It’s an experience, by the way, that I still find kind of fun when I’m not standing with someone’s elbow in my throat.

But what about the folks who live in the building where I’m staying now? They need to take the cable car to get home and are not willing to fork over $5 each time. No problem! They can buy a monthly Muni pass that gets them on all the city’s transportation for $45. That will pay for itself in less than a week of cable car commuting.

Other localities haven’t handled visitor vs. local pricing quite so elegantly. When we lived in China, for instance, we were constantly irritated at being charged 30 times the local price to see attractions like the Forbidden City. And nothing raises Hawaii visitors’ hackles more than finding out they paid three times as much as a kama aina (local) to play golf. This online discussion shows that dual pricing can really turn budget travelers off to a country. The worst examples are when the pricing policy is not posted but instead is sneakily imposed on visitors.

So why doesn’t the cable car scenario make me mad? I think the key is that San Francisco found a way to charge less to locals by selling them a different product, one that is equally available to visitors — just less desirable to them. And by the way, visitors like me who are going to take the cable car more than once can buy a Muni pass that covers a few days or a week and still save. And no one feels like they are being ripped off or discriminated against, which I think matters much more to visitors than the actual dollar amount they’re paying.

Can anyone think of other examples where a government or attraction manages to get a little extra revenue out of tourists without making them feel they’ve been had?

Photo by Pargon, used by Creative Commons license.

Who says San Francisco is less fun than Las Vegas? Send the bankers to Chicago!

I felt bad enough this week when my new home city, Chicago, was named one of the most miserable cities in America. But then my old, equally beloved home city, San Francisco, got kicked in the teeth too.

Goldman Sachs, under fire like most banks for spending lavishly on executives while accepting bailout billions from taxpayers, moved a conference at the last second from Las Vegas to San Fran. Because then it wouldn’t look like they were spending money to send their employees somewhere fun? Or maybe it’s that they’ll save so much money by relocating to a super-cheap city like SF.

Yeah, right. San Francisco is one of the most expensive cities in the United States, and besides, the companies likely actually lost money with the last-minute switch, since they reportedly paid hefty cancellation fees to the Vegas venue.

It was all for appearance, and the appearance is, apparently, Vegas is a pleasure-dome, and San Francisco is a boring place where you’ll all get a lot of work done.
I’ll pause a moment so all of you who have actually been to both cities can finish chuckling.
Las Vegas more fun than San Francisco? I guess to some people. But if I worked for Goldman Sachs and found out I was headed for SF instead of Vegas, I’d be thrilled. My travel costs would be covered by work, so I wouldn’t care about that $100 change fee I’d be paying the airline, or about the cost of last-minute hotel accommodations.

In Vegas, after the meetings I could drink watery drinks, play slot machines, eat in fancy restaurants and maybe watch Blue Man Group. All that has its charms. But in San Francisco? My choice of fantastic restaurants is multiplied by 100, and not just in the cha-ching price range. My choice of evening pursuits range from my favorite Mission District hipster bars to a concert at the Fillmore to options not suitable for mention on a family Web site (OK, they have naughty in Vegas too, but I bet it’s not nearly as colorful.). If I skip out early, a sunny walk along the marina trumps sitting by a hotel pool any day. And on the weekend I could slip off to Tahoe to ski or down to Monterey to kayak.

I think San Francisco should be very, very insulted by the relocation of this conference — even though their tourism industry needs the revenue. If Goldman Sachs really wanted to show they’re not frivolously spending, they should have moved their conference to somewhere truly miserable.
Like Chicago.

Photo by Erik Purins, used with permission.

Hotel Nikko San Francisco

I will be attending  Eye for Travel’s Social Media Strategies for Travel conference on March 10-11, 2009 at the sleek Hotel Nikko in San Francisco. This is my first Eye for Travel sponsored conference.

The conference is intended to deliver “best practices from innovative travel companies that have cracked the social media nut and have real case studies, best practices and analytics to discuss.” They make a convincing argument to attend the conference by promising we can learn how to measure and monetize social media.

After reviewing the conference schedule, I am most interested in four of the twelve featured sessions (and yes, the networking drinks receptions are 5th on my list):

Eye For Travel comes to San Francisco

1. Case Studies on Social Media: How to Measure and Monetize Your Campaigns

Like most conference attendees, I like case studies and the nuts and bolts of how to do something new. Invariably, I discover a nugget of an idea I can take back to my desk to build an idea or augment a marketing campaign.  I am interested in hearing how Intercontinental Hotels Group successfully (or not) incorporated social media into their marketing efforts.

2. Combine Search and Social Media to Drive Traffic to Your Site

This will be presented by Scott McNeely of Viator, Inc. and I hope he will discuss the positive and negative effects on their site from the multiple social media changes they made last year including the addition of  reviews and ratings, a blog and wish lists.  I want to know what worked, what did not work and how they plan to improve the results.

3. Of course, I will listen to the Spotlight on Semantic Web:  How and When will your Business be Affected? This is being presented by Yen Lee, president of UpTake and Ken Leeder, CEO of RealTravel. I know our perspective, but I am curious about RealTravel’s take on the semantic web and how they will continue to use it to build their business.

4. The third session is Social Media Marketing: Why A Holistic Approach Pays Dividends with speakers from Marriott International, Southwest Airlines, Parker Hospitality Group and TravelMuse.   I hope they focus on how to determine the right combination of tools, UGC and blogging.  I am interested in finding right social media mix for the right effort and for the right investment.  I hope one day the ROI on social media will be as straightforward as the old traditional media buy (this much will get you X). But I don’t see that in the social media marketing future  yet.

I will be blogging about the conference. Please let me know what aspects of social media and travel you are interested in learning about. I can be your voice on the conference floor.