1. According to me, the most interesting subject that has been covered during the
conference DDIH is the one about the online reviews and the great intervention of Mr
Friedlander. The online reviews do not give a totally objective opinion of the hotel
they are about. To prove it, 2 lectures very interesting:
http://www.economist.com/blogs/gulliver/2009/06/the_trouble_with_online_hotel
http://www.hrabaconsulting.com/blog/2009/06/12/well-done-tripadvisor/
If I want to book a hotel, I will definitely take more into consideration the experiences
of friends or colleagues and if possible, I will ask some professionals about the hotel
and its reputation.
It is obvious that the hotels themselves are posting positive comments about their
chain and hotel and that leads to distorted information and an unfair competitiveness
since it is proved that the number of bookings is closely related to the number of
online reviews.
So who can we trust now? (Not the new sites such as Oyster http://www.oyster.com/
that does not prove anymore than TripAdvisor). The alternative that the speaker Mr
Friedlander outlined through its work is a genius and cheap solution for hoteliers. I
also think that the alternatives could simply be the tourism books by hospitality
professionals, such as http://www.sawdays.co.uk/ as well as
http://www.goodhotelguide.com/. What could be more effective than the good old
solution?