Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Do You Really Want To Know My Thoughts!

Travel review websites for guests, I just don’t understand them. Well okay, some maybe, but it’s the sites that operate independent of hotels that I have a real concern about and particularly the ones that rank hotels. Yes, of course we want to know what our guests think, good, bad or ugly. It’s the websites that don’t and won’t communicate with hotels and thus give a right of reply that I really take issue with. Or worse yet, the websites that rank hotels with algorithms that seem to be nothing short of a lucky dip as they refuse to explain the rating calculations. I just think that if these sites are going to exist, and of course they are, then please, let’s work and communicate together.

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

To Click Or Not To Click

I was discussing last night the worth of online banner advertising and the probability of the eyeballs reaction, ie the 3 steps to advertisers heaven… view, click and convert! It’s hard to have belief when I know that my habits don’t climb those stairs. When I’m online, okay, I’m maybe a casual viewer, perhaps an odd clicker, but I’m never a converter. You see, when I’m online I’ve gone to that site for a specific reason and it’s not to look at the third party advertising. I’m just a more responsive print eyeballer, I cut, tear and save for later. Maybe I’m a little spoiled due to working in front of a computer for 12 hours or so a day and surfing in my downtime really takes an effort, but I wonder what the majority of eyeballs out there actually infact do?