No Free Rides

Tara Bradford raises an interesting question.

Should travel bloggers (or travel writers of any kind) accept free accommodations?

Regular readers won't be surprised to learn that I say no. Under no circumstances.

This is a frequent issue for innkeepers as we are often asked by "travel writers" to supply lodging for them. Sometimes the request comes with a specific promise to include the inn in any article written. Sometimes there's no promise.

Either way, no.

Why not? In my opinion, any publication or writer who even asks for the free accommodation has already revealed their lack of credentials along with their lack of ethics.

No. There is absolutely no way that could be an objective travel article. None.

Of course, regular readers know I feel the exact same way about the ethics of innkeepers who trade free rooms at each others' inns - and then follow up on those free stays with a "guest review" at an online travel site.

What do I think of the ethics of innkeepers who do that?

I think they have none.

Yes, I know, I know. This means I'll be called a turncoat (again) and there will be much foot-stomping, name-calling, and carrying on at the shock of it all (one more time). Go right ahead.

It won't change my opinion that innkeepers who trade free rooms and then review those stays as though they were just ordinary guests have no ethics whatsoever. None.

This is true anytime an innkeeper writes a "guest review" about their own inn (oh yes, I've seen that often I'm afraid) or their friend's inn.

When no money changes hands, that ethical lapse is only more magnified. But the lapse in ethics is there already. It's there every single time an innkeeper helps a friend by burying a bad review (from a real paying guest) under a pile of fake reviews.

That's called cheating.

Travel writers getting a free room? How is that not cheating, too?

And Your Very Flesh Shall Be A Great Poem

Spectacular

Waterfalls at Yosemite are truly spectacular this year thanks to epic levels of snow in the Sierras.

In fact, like the lady says, this year's waterfalls are just breathtaking.

But the thing about Yosemite and its waterfalls is that photos are great and all that. But you can't really appreciate the grandeur of it all unless you go and take a look for yourself.

Come on out. The water's just fine.

Like Bees to a Flower

Plant now, count bees later.

Over 100,000 people from around the country have participated in The Great Sunflower Project over the last 3 years. And this year you could be one of them.

It's a simple idea for community involvement and participative community education about the importance of pollinators in our food supply.

Plant sunflowers now. Spend 15 minutes twice a month counting the bees those flowers attract and submitting results online.

Then on July 16th, the Great Sunflower Project transforms into The Great Bee Count with everyone submitting their totals on the same day.

Haven't signed up yet? Don't worry. There's still time.

If your inn has a garden, you'll get the double benefit of enjoying the fruits of those bees' labors.

And if you're an extra smart innkeeper, you'll involve your guests in the whole process, producing dividends throughout the year.

The Season Has Offically Arrived

Parks are open.

Come on out.

The Big Weekend

Memorial Day is literally just around the corner.

Hope you're able to sneak a moment or two of quiet time in now.

While you still can.

A National Disgrace

As is so often the case, I find myself agreeing with Arthur Frommer 100%. The hoops we make foreign visitors jump through just to spend money in our country are really quite unbelievable.

In fact, as Arthur says, it's a scandal. A scandal we simply cannot afford.

Compliance is a Many Splendored Thing

David Sudeck has a post up over at Jim Butler's place about some of the upcoming changes to ADA requirements, in particular those changes regarding online reservations. Do go on over and take a look.

It's not really difficult. If your inn offers online reservations, your barrier-free rooms should be described in detail (tub? walk-in shower?) and available online. Simple. Why would any inn not do this anyway?

A guest books a particular barrier-free room for its features, you hold it for them. I would sure hope so. But for inns that do run into an overbooking, the barrier-free room is the room that can't be walked. Nor can that guest be moved to a non-compliant room.

If you're selling rooms through a 3rd-party booking site, make sure your barrier-free rooms are in the mix. This is probably new for some inns and may require some changes for many.

All in all, the changes are very,very simple as long as the innkeeper remembers that guests come in many variations. Those guests who may require a reasonable accommodation because of a disability should be treated with the same dignity and the same gracious hospitality as all guests.

Any good innkeeper should really be doing this anyway. Guests are guests. We love them all. It's our job to make their stay an easy one and that begins with making the reservation process itself as simple and reliable as possible.

This next wave of changes takes effect next March. Plenty of time to get all those ducks in a row and get all staff fully trained.

If your inn isn't compliant in every possible way now, wouldn't this be a good time to start making some corrections?

Knowledge is Key Understanding is Power

Kevin May has a post up over at Tnooz about the growing trend to calculate the real meaning of all those reviews.

A trend I have noticed myself and am pleased to see.

After all, if the numbers tell a story, that tale will remain a mystery until deciphered.

Can small inns do the same thing on their own manually? Sure.

And if they want to really understand just what their guests are trying to tell them, they will.

Recipe for Peace

Five easy steps:

Stretch.

Wind down from a busy busy week.

Catch a deep breath before next week's onslaught of activity.

Find a moment of quiet here and there to sort it all out.

Stretch again.

Whatever recipe you follow, I hope you find the perfect karmic balance yourself on this glorious Sunday.

Peace out.

More Is Better

Good numbers for Memorial Day weekend and beyond.

Unguarded Secrets

Want a glimpse of the future of travel as Apple would like it to be?

Australian Business Traveler takes a look at the whole thing, dissecting their intentions as well as the possible options of iTravel.

Check it out.

The future, after all, seems to arrive more and more quickly all the time.

Did Someone Say Beach Day?

Some days you just gotta do what you gotta do.

Brilliant

Historic Hotels of America (a program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation) has a new website up, and I have to say that I love it.

While it could benefit from a few more bed and breakfast inns, I have to admit that the selection of properties is a good one if still a bit heavy on the larger historic properties.

I especially like the ability to search by historic timelines rather than just by location. History buffs will come to love this site for this feature alone.

Know an inn you'd like to see added to the site? No problem. You can nominate them for consideration yourself.

Like I said, brilliant.

It's All About the Art

Visitors to San Francisco this weekend will find art, art, and more art everywhere. There's the ArtMrktSF happening South of Market, Chip Conley's got the ArtPadSF going on at the Phoenix, and SF FineArtFair will be going on all weekend at Fort Mason.

All kinds of great things going on. Preview nights, parties, parties, parties. New art, powerful works of modern art, performances, installations, film. Something for everyone.

Including the West Coast premiere of Full Circle, a film all about Bill Kennedy whose photography captured many of the artists who rocked our world and changed forever how we look at art.

If you're anywhere near the SF Bay Area yourself, don't miss it.

Mystery Solved

The new owner of the Chelsea has been unveiled.

Knew that wasn't going to take long.

Joseph Chetrit has done a fabulous job with the makeover at The Empire. Can't wait to see the Chelsea's rebirth. My fingers are crossed that the needs of the current residents are included in the plans.

The good news for those tenants - and the rest of us? It won't be going condo but will remain a hotel. Very good news indeed.

Hey Why Don't You People Open Up In There?

1.3 million new jobs? Wouldn't that be nice?

That's the projected result of relaxed US visa requirements, according to a new campaign to make it easier for tourists to get here from abroad.

I have to say that as much as I have some serious concerns about some of the partners in this group, I totally agree with their basic premise and the basic framework of their solution. I am not crazy about all aspects of their plan but more flexibility in opening the borders is something I can get behind.

The ridiculous visa requirements for entering the US are a hindrance to tourism. There is absolutely no way anyone can reasonably argue otherwise.

Are those visa requirements necessary? No, I don't believe so.

Do they keep us safer? No, I don't think so.

Will aligning our visa requirements with reality help increase the number of tourists coming to the states? No doubt about it.

Will those changes produce 1.3 million new jobs over the next few years? Call me a skeptic.

That said, more tourists will produce more jobs. A lot more tourists will produce a lot more jobs. See how simple math can be?

Strange bedfellows and fuzzy math aside, we have a crisis in America at our borders. And it's not that they're too lax; it's that they're too difficult to pry open. We work too hard to shoot ourselves in the foot by keeping tourists out.

Time to do something about that. We can't really afford not to.

Happy Birthday Wavy

75 years and counting.

Who'd athunkit?

For folks nostalgic for the hippie days of yore, sounds like it's going to be quite the party.

And if you're on the East coast, no worries. The party moves east in 2 weeks.

Many happy returns.

Fear Not

It's not the luck that really matters. It's what you do with it.

Hope you have an especially auspicious Friday the 13th.

I know mine is turning out to be just grand.

There's Something Missing Here

I watched and waited as folks talked in January and February about how the French tourism market was outpacing forecast. No mention of the elephant in the room.

Of course, by now, we all know that March was a different creature altogether than January. Hmmmmm.

And now, the European Travel Commission has a new report out, telling us that things were looking good in Europe in the first quarter.

The report is an extensive financial document that talks in detail about the effect of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami on Europe and the world.

What I am not seeing is a discussion about just what happened in Europe that caused a winter spike in tourism.

For Americans, it may not be obvious just what would cause such a spike. But for Europeans? Come on.

Here's the thing. Once winter envelopes Europe in a cloud of cold and darkness, folks head to the beaches of Tunisia. They tour the pyramids of Egypt. They wander through the vibrant markets of Morocco.

Of course, no one's doing that this year.

So those dollars are naturally staying in Europe. Or, more accurately, those euro.

Don't get me wrong. I am happy to see each inn, each innkeeper, get a little boost. It would help, though, if they were mindful of the fact that somewhere in Tunisia or Egypt or Morocco there is an inn sitting empty of their usual winter guests. Gratitude must be tempered with appreciation for the loss someone else is feeling. And that loss is enormous this year.

Because really, what's the point of a document that dances all around every issue effecting European tourism except the one really huge elephant in the room?

Get With The Program

There are all kinds of reasons folks might like self check-in, whether it's arriving after hours at a small inn or simply wanting to retain some privacy if other guests are near the frontdesk.

Of course, I love the acoustic door opening by iPhone option, myself.

But if you're not comfy with the whole acoustic door opening thing, here's another option from the folks at Assa Abloy that's being tested in Europe: frequent guests get their own cardkey that's activated remotely.

Very very smart.

What's not smart? Taping guest keys to the front door or leaving the guest room unlocked. Jeeze Louise.

And those maps taped to the door along with the guest name, giving whoever comes by directions to the late-arriving guest cottage? Please don't make me tell you what I think about that kind of innkeeping sloppiness.

Get with the program, folks. There was never any excuse for compromising guest safety. And these days even the flimsiest of excuses are being blown away by technology.

Getting Ready for Summer

Looks to be a good one.

It's All About the Purchase Cycle

Great guest post (by Johannes Reck) up over at Tnooz, that looks at just why that huge market in tours and activities is a bit more complicated to latch onto than folks would like.

The money quote:

"One key element that most travel webites have not fully understood is that the purchase cycle for destination services is different than for flights and hotels."

For innkeepers, tours remain an excellent source of additional revenue as well as a means to ensure the guest gets full benefit of their stay. As online operators discover the significance of this differing purchase cycle, look for savvy means to capture it.

For now, though, most guests will continue to wait until they're already onsite - or close to it - before deciding just which of those tours will be best for them.

Who do they want to help with that onsite decision? The innkeeper, of course. The main driver in that purchase cycle difference, after all, is trust.

Big Day Today

Enjoy it well. Before you know it, they all fly away.

Nice Weekend for a Bikeride

Or, you know, watching one which is, ahem, more my style.

You Want Cool? I'll Show You Cool

Chip Conley shows the world that his coolness quotient has not faded a bit* with the unveiling of ArtPadSF. His new venture joins forces with the community of artists that makes San Francisco such a cool spot itself.

Community collaboration is always cool but most especially when it's a collaboration of the arts.

Also nice to see the return of focus on his flagship property, the Phoenix. She's been fading these past few years and this is just the kick she needs to glow again.

And besides all that? It sounds like it is going to be an awful lot of fun. I am so there.


*um, no, that is not Chip in the photo. You'll notice the, how shall we call it? Oh yeah, hair.

Open Sesame

One frequent dilemma at small inns is how to handle late check-ins.

Some inns leave room keys taped to the door. No, as a frequent traveler myself I do not advocate such a breach in guest security. No matter how far out in the countryside your inn is and no matter how safe that makes you feel, leaving a guest room key accessible to anyone who comes by is not a good plan. Sorry, it's just not.

I have frequently advised inns to set up lock boxes for late arriving guests. Since each guest should be receiving a unique confirmation number anyway, assigning a number to the lock box that matches the confirmation number is an easy - and affordable - solution that protects everyone's security.

But along comes an even better idea from the folks at OpenWays: electronic door locks that can be opened either with a standard electronic card or acoustically by a cell phone.

Acoustically? Yes, that's what they say.

In the works now? An iPhone app that allows a guest to simply touch the key icon to open the door.

Now that's guest security. And the flexibility of the acoustic opening or the cardkey opening offers the kind of options small inns need to serve the unique needs of each of their guests.

It also means that as long as the guest still has cell phone in hand, room lockouts will be a thing of the past. How cool is that?

I am definitely keeping my eye on these folks. This is an app that has boundless potential.

And to all the innkeepers out there still taping keys to the front door, please don't wait for a nightmare to happen before you wake up to the real world. You have door locks for a reason. Use them.

That Bird Was Never Gonna Fly

Everyone's all aflutter with news of Twitter's buyout of TweetDeck, outmaneuvering UberMedia with that magic formula: the big bucks.

But the thing is, the real surprise would have been if Twitter let the UberMedia deal go through. There was just no way that was going to happen.

TweetDeck is a great tool for effectively organizing the often overwhelming body of tweets out there into a manageable form.

For innkeepers who rely on social media to stay in touch with guests through a variety of tools, it's a handy one.

Now that round one has apparently been fought and won, it will be interesting to see how Twitter rolls the whole ball of wax together.

Popcorn ready. Let the drama fly.

Heritage

There are so many fabulous options at the upcoming Mendocino Heritage Days Festival that it's almost impossible to choose between them all.

My personal favorite? The guided tours of the old cemeteries, especially the moonlight walks.

I've always held a personal fascination with cemeteries myself. I find them to be intensely healing places filled with hidden details about the history of a family and, by extension, the history of a region. Experienced innkeepers know that many guests feel the same way and will often ask for help in seeking them out.

So I'm always glad to see them get the prominence they deserve, especially during a festival dedicated to learning all about the heritage of a truly fascinating region.

Not into cemeteries yourself? No problem. With so many living options that are equally intriguing, surely there's something just perfect for you.

Bringing in the May

May Day! Have a good one.