Happy Hotelier

An Unhappy Guest used to tell 3 Others – Now he tells 3 Million Others

Guest review management is becoming more and more important than advertising or direct marketing.

The role of user-generated reviews is exploding. TripAdvisor(TM) attracts nearly 30 million monthly visitors and 88% of these visitors are influenced by content they read. Word-of-mouth adds a layer of credibility and is more effective than other more formal forms of promotion.

Market Metrix research has demonstrated that beyond the additional revenue that repeat customers provide, their word-of-mouth communications translate into significant profits for the hotel. In one example the positive word-of-mouth from a happy customer was worth $1,559 in profit for an upscale hotel.

Who reads hotel reviews?

Luxury guests (25%) and Timeshare guests (23%) were more likely to read a review before purchase, perhaps due to the variability among these properties.

Maarten Baas Youngest Designer of the Year at Design Miami (Dutch Design 50)

Maarten Baas

Excellent!

Maarten Baas is the youngest designer to receive the Design Miami/ Designer of the Year Award. New work commissioned for the award along with a theatrical retrospective will be presented in Miami later this year.

Via Design.nl

See for some work of Maarten Baas our sister blog Chair Blog.

Self Portrait Chair by Ka-Lai (Dutch Design 49)

selfportrait Chair by Ka Lai
Ka Lai is a designer who just graduated from the Dutch design school in Utrecht:

Based on the personal emotions and sentiments that the designer, Ka-Lai Chan, has experienced. The chair is an expression of the growth of her own personality and character over the past years. With partly organic forms and using a classic black and white leather skin, it brings together contemporary and modern elements.

“In the past I have always found myself to be quite introverted. Often, perhaps due to my social background, I could not let my emotions surface – I didn’t dare show my feelings to other people. It felt like there was something growing inside me which was getting bigger and bigger. I always tended to hide away my personality, but my deepest wish was to be able to open up and just be myself. In part, I see my chair is an expression of this process”

Via Ka Lai