“Hotel Finder is Alive!” or “Who Stole My Natural Results?”

Finally, Google’s Hotel Finder is being inserted into results. I know what you’re thinking, “Hooray!” or “Who cares, its just another map tool” or even “Why do you keep writing things in quotes”…

All valid comments.

Personally, I think its a cool tool. The search function with Hotel Finder is pretty slick. Being able to search for a specific area within the map is cool. But I’m not so much concerned with Hotel Finder as a tool, but Hotel Finder as a result in search.

The real issue I have with this is not so much with Hotel Finder itself (though the fact that the OTA’s are given yet another place to stick their prices and links is troubling to me). My big issue at this point is with the clutter that exists on the results page because of it.

When performing a broad search for hotels, the results page is so weighted down with “Google” that you can’t even see results for your search. In the example image, notice how much of the page is covered with paid ads and Google Places (maps results)…. all items that on-page website SEO has NO impact on.

Ads, Places and Hotel Finder - Oh My!

So while on-page keywording and link-building is our day-to-day focus here for our hotels, buying an ad on Google and placement on their map are what fill the search pages.

I don’t usually have issues with Google’s results pages as a user, I can easily avoid the paid results and find what I’m looking for by scrolling through the page and subsequent pages.

What worries me is the inevitable day when there are no pages to click, just various Google Apps filling the web. Maybe its just me.

- Jeremy AKA themantis13

The TripAdvisor Extortion Phenomenon

B E D B U G S: The 7 most terrifying letters in the English language to a hotel owner or manager (granted, that’s only 6 unique letters – but its 7 in total, right?) In this day and age saying “the hotel has bed bugs” is like screaming fire in a movie theater… mass panic ensues and very shortly there’s an empty building.

One of the great things about review websites is that you can inform others on how great or poor your experience is at a given property. The raw, unpolished, unfiltered reviews that make it on these sites are seen as the antithesis of the glossy images and marketing copy of a hotel’s website or commercial. “Yep, the website had a picture of a giant pool, but in reality it was tiny… and shockingly there were no models just hanging out poolside either.”

The problem with the unfiltered, anonymous nature of these reviews is that it allows for complaints that, even when disputed, permanently damage the reputation of a property.

As Kramer once said, “the cat is… meeeeooww… out of the bag!” 

But what if this is just an imaginary “cat”?

To be sure, there are issues out there. Poor service, dirty rooms, and “broken elevators” do exist. For the most part, you fix the things you can and apologize for the others and just do better in the future. However, there are times where reviews are so erroneous or faked that responding and disputing is not worth the time and effort, removal is the only course of action.  Therein lies the issue.

TripAdvisor cares only about volume of reviews, whether blatantly faked or accidentally posted to the wrong hotel; TripAdvisor is highly unlikely to ever remove a post.

And this is where the scammers have their field day.

Recently, we had a guest who was clearly out to make a quick buck at the hotel’s expense. He claimed that there were bedbugs in his room. He demanded that he be compensated for this and that if he was not he would “make sure every channel available would be aware of this incident”.

The problem with his complaint is that the Health Department and the pest control company (which has to be compensated by the hotel) that came to the hotel to perform inspections; BOTH reported finding NO evidence of bedbugs.

Even still, this guest posted on TripAdvisor about how he was attacked by bedbugs, that the manager of the hotel was incompetent, and that the hotel refused to compensate him for his luggage, clothes, blood loss and his night of sleeping on the floor (apparently, he forgot to mention “pain and suffering”). The guest went so far as to quote “Yelp reviewers” who made the same bedbug-related complaints. However, the ONLY Yelp review for this hotel was from this same guest; posted on the same day, using the same username and with some of the exact same verbiage.

So with written documentation proving there were no bedbugs, evidence from another website that shows a complete fabrication in his TripAdvisor review and the fact that anyone with half a brain can see that he was out for money, all on our side you would think TripAdvisor will remove the review.

And you would be wrong.

At this point, after TripAdvisor’s extensive non-existent review of this incident, they have told us to go pound sand. The review shall stand! The hotel will just have to suffer the consequences of allowing an extortionist to book a room.

As long as sites like TripAdvisor allow for guests to post unfettered commentary without any form of proof, there will be those who use this to take advantage of the hotels and other businesses. Quite simply, “pay me to keep quiet, or I’ll tell the world” is the new “slip and fall” grocery store scam. Assuming that TripAdvisor will never allow the hotels to fight back on their site by removing this garbage, our only recourse is to wait for to criminals to try and then provide as much information to the contrary and allow the court of public opinion to weigh in.

Sadly, that’s the way it has to be… just not the way it should be.

- Jeremy AKA themantis13

Why Does Hotels.com Feel The Need To Change My Google Places Number?

This blog began like so many other Social Media outlets for me, with high hopes for engaging commentary on life as I see it. Turns out, they have all followed a similar path… a couple of thoughts followed by months of neglect (Think I’m joking? Check my Google+, LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter feeds… sad, very sad). Hey, at least I’m consistent.

Speaking of consistency (killer segue!), it’s time for another rant on Google Places listings! You’re psyched, I know. But this post has a bit more focus, I promise. At this point I’m fine with the fact that Google has no regard for the business owners. It’s their database after all, so they’re gonna do as they please. And until some other amazingly functional search engine comes alone, it appears we’re going to have to play the hand we’re dealt – in this particular instance I mean that I’m going to have to verify the listings for a couple hundred hotels over and over again since the data is being changed.

No, this post is not about Google. It’s about Hotels.com.

We’ve seen phone numbers changed by random 3^rd parties more times than I can remember over the past 3 years, but this week a curious thing happened; a supposedly reputable entity changed one of our hotel’s numbers to one of theirs.

I kinda expect garbage like this from stupidhotelaggregator.net sites… but to have a company like Hotels.com do this was shocking to say the least. Crazy thing is, I did a little digging and found some other hotel eCommerce folks who’ve run into the same issue with Expedia (who just happens to be the parent company of… wait for it… Hotels.com!). So, Hotels.com changes the phone numbers of a hotel’s Google Places listing and Expedia does the same thing. Hmmm. Makes you think.

Look, OTA’s are wonderful. People who are not loyal to a single brand get to view lots of options and in the end pick the cheapest place with the prettiest photos. Good for them.

The issue is that hotels have to pay a commission on that booking. All the while, they have a perfectly functional website where this guest could be booking (at a better rate to boot – cheaper for the guest and no commissions for the hotel, the proverbial win/win). So while it make be lousy for the hotel to have to pay a commission for a guest they could get for free, it’s the nature of the beast, a necessary evil that at times actually helps fill those last few available rooms for the property. It’s just business.

But having a traveler log onto an OTA and CHOOSE to book through them is 100% their prerogative. The issue is that changing information on the web to trick guests into booking through the OTA is well beyond being just business. We’ve entered the area that I like to call “being scum”.

Granted, there’s probably some moron with Hotels.com going rogue and thinking they are helping by changing info in Google to drive more business to them. But as a company, if actions like this are condoned, what other ethical gray areas does Hotels.com dabble in? Thing is, it’s not an isolated incident and the fact that it continues to happen points to some kind of larger issue. If you don’t have control of your employees, you’re condoning their actions.

I also wonder how the hotel brands themselves would feel to know that someone they pay commissions to and essentially partner with is ripping them off?…

As it stands, our only recourse is to continue to correct the issues created by Hotels.com as we find them and alert the brands to the fact that their partners are stealing their guests out from under them.

Oh, and launch a social media campaign with the sole purpose of utterly destroying their reputation. I’m thinking of a website like Hotels.com Changes Google Places Listings To Steal Guests dot Com… something along those lines.

It’s gonna be a busy year.

- Jeremy AKA themantis13

Who’s Hi-Jacking my Google Places?…. again…

Ok, seriously

I know I’m a little behind on ranting on this, but we finally ran into an issue with Google’s “feature” launched back in October:

http://googlesmb.blogspot.com/2011/10/faster-updates-to-local-business.html

The Google Places listing has become a pretty significant listing on the internet for like (and I’m just spit-balling here) 99.9999% of businesses out there. Given that this listing shows up at the top of just about any search for the name of a business, I can understand why Google would want the best info in them. But why does Google get to decide what “the best” is. If the business owner has VERIFIED the account, why can’t they control what info is on the page?

Managing the online reputation for over 200 hotels is difficult enough with all the lousy spam sites out there trying to syphon off bookings (and jack up the rates on guests)… but having to fight Google at the same time is just too much to deal with.

Recently we had a hotel contact us about their phone number being incorrect. Apparently, a guest called the number on the Google Places listing and thought they were speaking with a brand representative – turns out it was some random 3rd party. So the guest overpaid and didn’t get any of the points they were expecting through their brand loyalty program. We followed Google’s convoluted process to have the information fixed. A postcard was sent to the hotel weeks later (a business with a hundred different employees who could have easily misplaced or tossed out the card) and the GM eventually called us with the magic code so we could correct the info.

My first thought was how could the 3rd party change this info, if the listing had been verified and we had to get a postcard mailed to the property to correct it? But less than two months after RE-verifying the listing, the number has been changed again. Not only was the account verified, but we JUST CHANGED THE NUMBER BACK!!!

The change log in the Places listing shows the edits and “who” (magical Google robot-man, with no real profile) made the change, but not who requested the change, or why the particular items were edited. We also received no alert in our “owner-verified” email about the change.

Initially, I lashed out at the 3rd party site, assuming they had somehow made the change, and while they may have benefited from the change, they may or may not have initiated it. Basically Google’s Bots decided they had better info than what was listed.

Given the enormity of the web itself and specifically the directories out there, incorrect info is rampant. Trying to find every listing for a business and ensure that all citations include the same info is a tough task. But the bigger issue here is why would Google decide that some piece of misinformation listed on crappylocaldirectory.net is better than the info already entered in the listing? The URL on the Places page had directed people to the brand website. If you are going to pull info, wouldn’t you look here first?

If you want to know about Ford’s newest car, is Ford.com a better bet for valid info than mywebsiteaboutcarsthatimadeupthismorning.co.hk?

If the info wasn’t scraped from some 3rd-world, half-baked directory site, then it was taken from a “Report a problem” submission by the soon-to-be-served-papers-by-my-lawyer 3rd Party site. So anyone can make a comment and Google says “yup, we believe you over the owner”… makes complete sense to me. Ugh

Not sure that I have much of a specific purpose here, other than to vent about the issue. I just don’t see how to stay ahead of things like this, when the info that’s being used is being taken from any random site on the web or the word of a 3rd party out to steal from you. It’s Google’s page, I get that. But why have “verified listings” if you override what the owner says?

As I see it, a Google Bot that decides it knows better than the owner is the first step towards Skynet’s awakening. And I really don’t have time to deal with that particular apocalypse right now…

- Jeremy AKA themantis13

PS. If I find out for sure that the 3rd party was involved in changing the info and that it wasn’t a random update by a Google Bot, I will make it my life’s work to punish them… but this still doesn’t release Google as a guilty party. I can’t say it enough… THE LISTING WAS VERIFIED BY THE OWNER – no one gets to make a change without an OK from THAT party. At least that’s how it should be.