See my Think Tank Jing! For more information, watch the videos concerning the 3D Printer and visit the website of the 3D Print Show
Enjoy!

Our ASAT : Facial Recognition System

No two faces are alike (except for twins of course), what could be more exclusive?
By coupling that exclusivity with extra-targeted customer service and messaging, hotels can provide their customer with a priceless experience.

Upon walking into a hotel, an elegantly crafted facial recognition system greets you (sending you a text message on your mobile for example), instantly individualizing your unique experience by determining your age, gender, purchase history and preferences as well as all the information the customer is willing to share thanks to social medias (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn,..)

The system informs you of new services, current entertainment options, restaurants neighboring the hotel, and upcoming promotions that may interest you always based on preferences.

If you like, the system will upload selected information to your mobile device via Bluetooth and if it is a big hotel, will also use your phone's geo-location to guide you around.

This could be a revolutionary improvement to the customer services, for the front office or the concierge.

Tissot's Augmented Reality Adapted to Luxury Services and Product Providers

WOW

 

 

 

Meet Augmented Reality, the new technology to try your favorite items.

Tissot, the swiss match manufacturer launched it but other luxury brands such as Hugo Boss among others already tried it.

 

The Augmented Reality screen can be applied to jewelry or even clothes too. 



Use your imagination, for what else can you use the Augmented reality screen?

LifeStyle Content

An example of LifeStyle Content is Jenn-Air's blog.

The Jenn-Air Master Class Blog provides content relating to food, design and lifestyle by the brand’s team of experts ( a group of kitchen experts commissioned by the brand to give consumers advice, by offering editorial content via its new blog).

The Jenn-Air Master Class Blog presents content about kitchen design, culinary arts, entertaining and innovation and articles are written by the brand’s team of experts.


How can a hotel without a "lifestyle vibe" develop an effective content strategy?

I believe the most important thing about developping an effective content strategy is knowing what are customers interested in, what do they like and what would they like to know.

A hotel could concentrate its content in luxury, events, recipies of their restaurant, interviews (of the Chef for example or any other employee of the hotel),... It can even be any other thing that reaches to have a link with the hotel. Let's say for example a celebrity comes to the hotel and does an interview at the hotel's bar. Post the interview in the blog...

A hotel must attract customers interest by posting or writing about customers own interests. A blog is a way to engage customers. Content offered may simply be an added bonus for brand loyalists.

WOW!

Eco-systèmes is a website that helps you find a solution for any high-tech product you want to get rid of in order to organize recycling.
53% of French people stock devices they don't use. It is the "it can always be used" complex.
Eco-systèms offers a personnalized solution for each customer and product: recycling centres, collection centres in shops or solidarity networks and even sharing or donations via Facebook.
You can have an eco-systèmes account too if you often use it.
What if Hotels create their own account?
This website is just French, not international. But maybe similar sites can be found or created!What do you think?

WOW!

Tavi Gevinson was 11 when she started her first blog.
Today, she seats in the front row of fashion weeks and she is one of the most influencial people in the fashion world.
Is it because a kid can be more honest or more critical than an adult that fashionist love her? Immagine what can people do, what you can do if a child of 11 years old can do it!
Don't underestimate yourself!Passion is all you need to be sucessful in what you do!

My Pinterest

http://pinterest.com/bstephaniev/following/

The Botanique Hotel

Brazil opened on November 1^st 2012 the Botanique Hotel and Spa in the hills of Campos do Jordao. This luxury modern designed hotel that offers only Brazilian services but not any kind of services, reinvented services! For example, instead a cellar with thousands of wines, only Brazilian labels are proposed. There are no front desk, no concierge service, no housekeeping department, your stay will be followed by a ”Curador da Experiencias”, namely an “experiences guardian”, instead of an outsourced horse ride, backride on one the horse of the private stables, you will find Brazilian books in the library, Brazilians stews at the restaurant, Brazilian treatments at the Spa and of course, the design is purely Brazilian too! If you are searching for a relaxing stay surrounded by wild nature, silence and comfort on over 280 hectares, this is your hotel!

It is amazing how Brazilian hotel industry has burst in the past year. Of course the country is preparing itself for the FIFA World Cup of 2014 and The Olympic Games of 2016. At the beginning the trend was too learn the European know-how and the European experience and to make European-style hotels. One could think that it is normal in a globalize world to have a standardized hospitality, like any other product or service, equal or very similar in each country. But now, the Brazilian industry has understood that it can and must create its own hospitality. They have the means and they have the potential and this hotel is the perfect example!

The fact that all services and products are local adds a sustainable aspect to the hotel. Ultimately, it has it all! What comes up in my mind is just: Europe, prepare for high quality standards of Brazilian hospitality!

Study: How Guests Select Hotels Around The World?

Apparently, the first reason why travelers select a hotel is because of its location. Follows the price and past experience.

Other factors are a friend’s recommendation, the brand’s reputation, the role of promotions, the power of loyalty programs and the impact that online reviews have on hotel selection.

The ranking seems to me quite surprising as we can tend to think that with all the digital presence and the SOLOMO development of hotels, the first factor would be the brand’s reputation or other guests’ experiences.

This study could allow hotels to rethink about different ways to appeal to guests but it seems that they have already understood them.

It seems to me that there is a contradiction. Either they haven’t done the survey to the right segment of population, either the answers were incomplete.

However I suppose this can be a lesson to hotels that do not depend on their location but that in order to face their competitors and increase their booking have to promote themselves better and increase their visibility…

To conclude, in my opinion, this study is not a very revailing one. But may be I am wrong and market trends are different.

McDonald's Games Comparison

McDonald's Games Comparison

SoLoMo

SoLoMo from vstephanieb

Presentation by Guillaume CHABRIER, Miguel MEDEIROS and Stephanie VALENZUELA. Case Study: Small Business Saturday

Booking.com: Your Worst Best Friend?

Booking.com now claims to be the number one online hotel reservation service in the World, and its flat commission model has been replaced by one of bidding for position on the first page of a destination, with hotels paying over 20% in commission to be on the first page.

Hotels might be receiving significant revenue from the reservations that are made through the site, but if they depend on Booking.com for their reservations, they have little bargaining power

That’s why hoteliers have with Booking.com a love-hate relationship. They are unpleased by Booking.com’s attitude to be the reservations leader but they can’t do without it as it really sells too much! “Many consumers consider that all hotels are on booking.com, at least all that matter”. The paradox here is that clients adore Booking.com and hoteliers detest it and that is what link Booking.com and hoteliers.

I have worked with Booking.com and it is unbelievable how they can be so persistent on their aims! They never give up! And unfortunately there is nothing you can do to avoid it because you need them. My manager even went to establish a price ridiculously high on the last room available in the hotel so to sell it directly instead of selling it on Booking.com. The relationship becomes really cynic.

But Booking.com’s influence can be balanced by hotel digital marketing. And the most important actions I believe are to have a great looking website as the majority of consumers prefer to book directly with the property (in the hotel I worked, this was the case) and to diversify the channels of reservation choosing the ones most relevant to the hotel’s segment. In this particular hotel there were not really implementing this and as it was an independent boutique hotel, in my opinion it could have been a good idea to get the hotel listed on mrandmrssmith.com for example.

So, to conclude, I would say that Booking.com is an inevitable partner of any kind of hotel (in fact, the hotel cited was one of the first to enter on Booking.com within all the hotels in the region) but, its sales can be abated, replacing them by other booking channels but most importantly, by trying to increase direct bookings.

SoLoMo Case Study: Louis Vuitton and Jeipang

Louis vuitton case study from vstephanieb

Louis Vuitton Brand page on Jiepang Louis Vuitton offers Checkins to fashion lovers in China

Increasing Direct Bookings - Sharing Ideas

Group:
Stéphanie Valenzuela
Benoît Poirier
Alexis Sananikone
Aurore Bruna

Key points:

• Multiple methods of payment when booking on the site
• Offer complimentary incentives/discounts when booking on the site
• Develop the portfolio of languages to make it accessible to a larger number of future guests (especially in order to address emergent markets such as China, Russia, Brasil...)
• Create a mobile site
• Develop a regional platform of booking with other hotels in order to reduce booking costs

Actions an Independent Hotel should take to get their faire share of Direct Bookings

Digital IQ

• What is meant by Digital IQ?

Digital IQ is a company (or a brand) use level of digital tools such as sites, mobiles, social platforms, digital marketing and its efficiency in using them.

• What are the components of Digital IQ?

The 4 sectors of Digital IQ are:
                      - 20% of Mobile (compatibility, optimization, and marketing on smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices).
The components of the Mobile sector are: - Mobile Site: Compatibility, Functionality, Transaction
                                                                     - iOS Applications (iPhone & iPad): Availability, Popularity, Functionality, iPad Differentiation.
                                                                     - Android & Blackberry: Availability, Popularity, Functionality.
                                                                     - Mobile Innovation: SMS, Geo-local, Instagram, Other Mobile Marketing Innovation.

                      - 20% of Social Media (Brand presence, community size, content, and engagement on major social media platforms on global and select property accounts).
The components of the Social Media sector are: - Facebook: "Likes", Growth, Post Frequency, Applications, Responsiveness, Content, Interaction Rate, F- Commerce.
                                                                             - Twitter: Followers, Growth, Post Frequency, Online Voice.                                                               
                                                                             - YouTube: Views, Number of Uploads, Subscriber Growth, Content, Interactivity.


                      - 30% of Site (Effectiveness of brand site)
The components of the Site sector are: - Site Technology.
                                                              - Site Search & Navigation.
                                                              - Reservations.
                                                              - Property Pages and Destination Guides.
                                                              - Customer Service.
                                                              - Rewards / Loyalty Programs.
                                                              - Social Media Integration.
                      - 30% of Digital Marketing (Search, display, and email marketing efforts).
The components of the Digital Marketing sector are: - Search : Traffic, SEM, SEO, web authority.
                                                                                     - Display Advertising & Innovation: Text & Banner Ads, Retargeting, Cross-platform Innovation Initiatives, Presence on Emerging Platforms: Pinterest, Tumblr, Google+.
                                                                                     - Blog & Other User-Generated Content: Mentions, Sentiment, TripAdvisor Reviews.
                                                                                     - Email: Frequency, Content, Social Media Integration, Mobile Optimization.

70% of Brand pages are inactive

A study of 5.7 million (!!!!) Facebook pages proved that companies still don’t know how to use social media efficiently. Social networks present a real opportunity to companies, especially in the hotel industry and brands must to learn how to use these potential benefits and engage their customers through this new channel.

Less than 2% of businesses like restaurant, cafés, spas post more than 100 updates per month on their Facebook profiles whereas celebrity pages see their number of fans increasing day to day.

So, we can say brands have to be more like celebrities! Comments, likes and shares will allow them to reevaluate their reputation but also to make them a place in customer’s hearts. Let’s admit it, it is not very well known if a company ignores conversations on its own page….

So, what do you say? Do you think our generation could help these companies? I see a very appealing job opportunity here!

Designhotels.com

Designhotelsc.com from vstephanieb

Which booking option is most effective for independent hotels: Brand Portals, OTAs, Reverse Auction Sites, Hotel Site, Hotel Site with Facebook Fan Rate Offered, Mobile Booking App?

Let´s analyse each option one by one. To use a brand portal or a hotel site the hotel has to be already well known so that the guest could book directly. Otherwise the hotel won´t be found unless an effective SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is being applied to the hotel. The goal for an independent hotel is not to enter a battle of prices. This, on the contrary, could affect its reputation. The hotel has to mantain its standard. That's why reverse auction sites don´t seem a good booking option to me for this kind of hotels. This doesn´t mean that the hotel can´t offer promotions to their guests. A hotel site with a Facebook fan rate offered can be a good option to do this. The hotel is able to present its promotions. Social networks help winning the loyalty of guests. However,in my opinion,it is not the best option either. Mobile booking apps are more and more current nowadays. Smartphones are mostly a global accessory. So this could be the most logical, best booking option. Nonetheless, there are still people reluctant to this option. Either because they don´t have a smartphone, either because they don´t know how to use it. Finally, it seems to me that the most effective booking option for an independent hotel are OTAs. On this sites, guest have the most complete information about any hotel by just writing the name of the city they want to go. They have a general description of the hotel (address, email and phone number included) with photos, reviews from past guests, an average grade decided by guests, different rates and promotions and availability. Of course this characteristics could be found on the other booking options but I believe OTAs are the fastest way to find a hotel that is not necessarily well known and that maybe doesn´t have the same marketing budget than a great chain of hotels.