Hotel Sample Responses

This week the assignment for my Introduction to Multimedia Communication was to respond to a pair of reviews left for two different hotels. Below are my responses as well as the original comments. How do you think I did?

Dear Travelwith3kiddos,

We are so glad that both your stays out our hotel were enjoyable. Although we have changed our name to Hyatt Regency Orland, we still retain the high level of service that you have come to enjoy. The Cappricio also has changed names to Fiorenzo Steakhouse but still has all the delicious food that you and your family enjoyed, even Ralph is still with us.

We apologize for the minor issue with some of the debris left over by one of the Florida storms. We always strive to maintain our premises and clean the pool as quickly as possible after the little Florida storms that are so common down here. Thank you for notifying us that this was an issue during your stay as we will try even harder now to clean our pool as quickly as possible.

v/r

Janis

Media Manager, Hyatt Regency Orlando

LUV2TRAVELWITHHUBBY,

On the behalf of the Hilton Fort Lauderdale Marina I would like to apologize for the issues during your stay. We regret that the unfortunate experience may have had an effect on your high school reunion as it is supposed to be a time to meet old friends and maybe some not so friends.

Since your stay we have changed management and are working hard to improve the quality of service we provide. Based off your review and that of others we have upgraded our amenities, changed the way our house service works, as well as added some other perks. We hope that the next time you come to Fort Lauderdale you do not stay in a tent on a beach but instead come visit us for an comfortable stay and enjoy the new amenities as well as other upgrades. Because of the inconvenience cause during your last stay please contact me so we can provide you with a discount as well some other perks to make it up to you.

v/r

Janis

Media Manager, Hilton Fort Lauderdale

Some number

Some e-mail

Expos, Events, ISPA, and IMC

This week in class was all about events, event planning, and how IMC plays into all things event. By event I mean conventions, trade shows and such similar events. One of the examples and case studies was the International Spa Association’s annual conference in sin city itself Las Vegas. The expo lasted three days from October 21st to October 23^rd.

Am I an expert in event planning? Absolutely not, not even close. However this expo and the week’s material is a great opportunity to learn about such events. So to learn more about events, share some of thoughts, and hopefully earn a good grade we will analyze the online presence of the ISPA 2013 Las Vegas Conference and Expo. For added excitement I will brake down the ISPA social media activity into The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.

Overview

The ISPA created a website specifically just for the conference that linked to all the ISPA social media platforms. There were no unique accounts just for the expo, instead all expo related posts were integrated with the regular ISPA posts on their regular pages. The ISPA has a blog, Facebook page, Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and a YouTube channel.

The Good

The webpage is great. It is simple to navigate, provides all the info about the conference, and links back to the ISPA page. After analyzing with a code checker the website seemed to be well built with very few validation errors and opened on mobile as well as different web browsers. The only possible issue was that the social media links were placed at the bottom of the page out of sight when the page first opens. This is not quiet bad enough to merit to be in the Bad section, it is simply a design choice, a choice I don’t agree with. If you are trying to drive up conversation on social media then it should be displayed prominently.

ISPA 2013 Expo Webpage

The show was promoted prior to it kicking off on almost all of the ISPA platforms. The Facebook and Twitter pages were filled with info and promotions for the ISPA 2013 conference. ISPA also promoted a lot of the companies which were scheduled to attend the event as well as their products. On Twitter ISPA heavily Tweeted and interacted with all the companies that were to attend. Every single day there were a dozen tweets about different deals, promotions, and highlighting different booths. ISPA also used a number of hashtags, especially #ISPA2013 specifically for the event. They also used hashtags identify certain companies and their products.

ISPA Twitter

 Facebook was updated daily, even multiple times a day, before, during and after the event. Just as on Twitter they not only promoted the event but all the different companies that were to attend. Unlike many other ISPA also utilized hashtags on Facebook. Although hashtags are only ever so slowly becoming popular on Facebook it can never hurt. Overall Twitter and Facebook were well executed before, during, and after the conference.

Pinterest and Instagram both had numerous images from the expo. They were posted by both the ISPA and the attending companies. The companies themselves were encouraged to post images to Instagram and Pinterest with the hash tag ISPA2013 so they would be syndicated on the ISPA profiles.

The Bad

Although I liked many of the posts on Facebook there were simply too many. The Facebook profile was simply flooded with posts, especially during the actual event. I understand the enthusiasm but I would get incredibly annoyed if my feed was filled from top to bottom with just one entities posts. I understand that this would not happen due to Edge Rank. I am not sure about the exact inner workings of Edge Rank but from my understanding over posting is penalized and this was definitely over posting.

The LinkedIn page no visible mention about the event apart form a short blurb at the beginning in the Summary section. I am not connected to the ISPA but was hoping for a bit more. The initial name makes no mention of the expo, there are no graphics from it, or any links.

ISPA LinkedIn

The Ugly

YouTube. I would give a longer description but it is hard to describe the complete lack of anything. The expo presents a great opportunity for both the ISPA and the companies to create videos about anything spa related. Tips on how to relax at home, how to pick a spa, what’s the latest in facial treatments, anything would have worked. Videos like that would have promoted both the ISPA and the event to other companies for the next years expo but also would have given extra exposure to the companies themselves. It is hard to explain a spa experience in just text and an image, video would have been a great medium in which to show of everyone and everything at #ISPA 2013.

A Review of Marriott and Marriott's Web Presence

Marriott and the Web.

Last week I looked at Marriott as an example of Integrated Communications. This week we will look a little bit more in depth at Marriott’s web presence and the company’s website. Before we dive deeper it has to be noted that Marriott is a large company that is also the parent of other chains such Ritz-Carlton, Courtyard, and Renaissance Hotels. Many of the Marriott and subsidiary local hotels also have their own websites which are separate from the main website. It would be impossible to analyze every single hotels and chains website so we will look at the main Marriott website and how it relates to their flagship hotel chain.

Architecture of the Website

If you type in www. marriott.com and take a look at the desktop version of the website you will immediately notice that it is an active JavaScript page. You can click on any of the five rectangles they will switch places allowing the user to move to another part of the website. The very initial screen allows the user to reserve a hotel room for the location and date range required. The other four screens discuss deals offered by Marriott, member rewards, and highlights the other Marriott owned hotel chains.

www.marriott.com main page.

The bottom bar of images is scrollable but the Get Connected button is always in the middle inviting the user to read blogs by Marriott, connect with them on multiple social media platforms or add Marriott to your RSS feed. Below the buttons there is a list of all the Marriott owned chains and links to respective websites. All the websites for each independent chain open as an inlay in the main Marriott website.

If you click on any of buttons or links such as Explore & Plan or Meetings & Events the pages look visually the same throughout the website. The reservation menu, meeting scheduler, and rewards menu all look very similar making it easy for the user to brown among the website without being confused. If you skip to any of the sub-pages from the main landing page the structure of the page remains the same with a static top menu bar and all options or links listed in a bar or JavaScript pop up on the left.

The mobile website is a very simple, flat gray page. It only has a total of five links and a link at the bottom to the Marriott mobile app for both iOS and Android. As your browse through the mobile website the page remains a dull gray with five to six links per page.

The Design

Each of the different chains have a unique color scheme, however the Marriott main page and all Marriott pages retain the same color scheme. The menus are metal gray and the page has a white background. This carries over to Marriot’s social media pages such as Facebook and Twitter. Marriott’s Instagram page breaks from this color scheme but this is mostly to Instagram’s restrictions on how profiles are displayed.

Among the grey menus and white backgrounds majority of the pages have images from different Marriott hotels or destinations in vivid color. This stands out against the otherwise matted color scheme. Some other pages within the website have lists of locations or options instead of a menu side on the left side. The

Social Media and Content

The Get Connected button on the landing page takes the user to what could be called the social hub of Marriott’s webpage. The regular reservation and member rewards tabs get replaced by a number of different topics about Marriott such as Culture and Hotel Development. As typical on the left hand there is a menu that contains buttons that link to Marriott’s social media profiles and the ability to add them to your Yahoo and Google RSS reader.

Deals, information, and info about the different hotels are continually updated throughout the website. The most updated part of the website are the deals and special offers from Marriott. Each continent, region, and hotel is neatly listed and updated. Some of the deals are reflected on Marriott’s social media channels but social media channels don’t focus too heavily on advertising Marriott or special deals.

The Push and Pull on Marriott.com

The Marriott website has very little push marketing involved. There are no pop ups or automatically playing videos. You can sign up for e-mail lists or follow Marriott through your RSS but there isn’t even direct advertising for that. The website does have a ton of pull advertising with deals and guides embedded on almost every page. Many of the pages display large, colorful images of beautiful locations across the world where there are Marriott hotels. There are member’s rewards and rewards credit cards but there is no content being directly pushed through the website.

On the web Marriott utilizes SEO and buys advertising space on Google, Bing, and Yahoo. By searching specific cities either Marriott or one the subsidiaries will pop up as an advertised page.

What Could Marriott Improve?

 

Personally I would say that I am not a huge fan of the grey and white color theme. Although the colorful images stand out vividly in the color scheme the page overall can look drab at times. The links and lists utilized on the website are also a drab grey with no hint of color anywhere.

Although Marriott’s social media accounts are well ran the social media page on Marriott’s website is not as well done. The social media buttons on the left hand menu are barely visible and not all of Marriott’s accounts are listed. The RSS feed logo for Yahoo is the old Yahoo symbol as is the Google logo although that is barely noticeable. This page is also the only location where the social media buttons are located. If they would be placed throughout the main Marriott webpage it would improve the flow of customers between the social media accounts and the website.