Will Pinterest's new "Place Pins" maps feature get hotel brands more serious about using the site?

In a not-so-surprising announcement last week, Pinterest launched a new feature called "Place Pins" that is devoted to travel inspiration and planning.  It's designed to combine the beautiful imagery one would find while browsing travel magazines/blogs with the functionality of a map and location details.  Best of all, users can share their Place Pins and collaborate on trip planning together.  On the down side, the map locations are powered by Foursquare, which anyone living outside the US will know results in major gaps in location info.

Given the popularity of pinning travel destinations on Pinterest, it wasn't a real shocker that the company finally launched a formal product built around travel.  The company disclosed that last year it had identified a significant trend of users creating boards just for destinations.

But what is really surprising to me is how few hotel companies, travel agents, and tour operators have embraced Pinterest as a way to inspire travelers through the use of imagery.  It's only fitting that a visual site like Pinterest would be a super valuable tool for travel companies to build up strong brand associations and awareness . . . especially the upmarket brands that seek to promote an aspirational travel lifestyle.  Pinterest has a massive user base that's just begging to be inspired, as evidenced by over 750 million destination pins to date all over the world.  Although Pinterest falls short of helping inspired customers book their travels (for now), there's still enormous value in hotel or travel brands engaging with would-be travelers on the site and possibly moving them closer to their respective purchase funnel.

In fact of all the global hotel chains, the only one with a strong presence on Pinterest is Four Seasons.  If the number of pins and followers is used as the comparative metric for engagement, then Four Seasons just absolutely blows away its hotel peers on Pinterest.  The company has a strong suite of pinboards but also was the first of its peers to create a Place Pins board.  Surely there are other upscale/luxury brands in the market that could learn a thing or two from Four Seasons' approach to inspiring travelers through imagery.

Below is a quick and dirty list of global hotel chains and their number of pins and followers.  Just for kicks and giggles I added Airbnb's stats.  They have just about the same number of pins as Intercontinental Hotels IHG Rewards Club, but with 33x the number of fanatic followers!!!

Four Seasons - 3251 pins and 24117 followers
Hilton HHonors - 1646 pins and 1357 followers
Hyatt Hotels - 1318 pins and 722 follower
Marriott Resorts - 902 pins and 1184 followers
IHG Rewards Club - 670 pins and 483 followers
Starwood Preferred Guest - 296 pins and 1330 followers
Hilton Worldwide - 224 pins and 1566 followers
Airbnb - 552 pins and 15876 followers
Intercontinental Hotels - no centralized pinners

I'd like to give a shout out to Airbnb's Place Pins board called "Loved by San Franciscans."  SF is easily my favorite city I've ever lived in, and this board is a nice walk down memory lane (complete with map and all)!

Airbnb's redesigned app empowers micro-hoteliers to deliver personality driven hospitality

"We are a hospitality company." - Brian Chesky, CEO Airbnb

On November 12, Airbnb hosted their first ever Airbnb Open event and made some exciting new announcements targeted primarily at their host community.  Although birthday wishes for yours truly weren't among them, the big news was the launch of a revamped mobile app.  Also making headlines was a suite of new programs aimed at improving the host experience and consequently the hospitality that Airbnb relies on its 350,000 hosts to deliver.

In the atrium of Airbnb's beautifully designed new headquarters, Brian Chesky illustrated his company's roots and then introduced the revamped mobile app with an electrifying passion and contagious enthusiasm that I have now come to expect during his talks.  While the improved app now seduces accommodation seekers ever more with inviting imagery and a cleaned up user interface, the real magic is in the mobile app's new host-facing user experience called Host Home.  For once, it's the suppliers who get the cool tools!

The company blog says it best . . .

"Hosting should be easy and enjoyable. That’s the premise behind our new Host Home. Think of Host Home as your hosting mentor—always there when you need it. Host Home provides you the right information at the right moment, from coaching you through listing a space to allowing you to effortlessly manage multiple bookings. Hosting on Airbnb has never been such a snap."

This is a unique approach compared to other travel and hospitality companies whose mobile apps focus almost exclusively on the consumer. But unlike companies such as Marriott, who have standard operating policies for their hotel staff, Airbnb is at the mercy of its hosts to deliver hospitality.  Many are first time hosts and could possibly look to Host Home as a "hosting for dummies" of sorts. 

If you think about the Airbnb customer experience from search to post-stay, the company's biggest challenge is the guest's arrival and the hospitality they experience during their stay.  These are the ultimate moments of truth, and unfortunately these critical moments that can make or break a customer experience are out of the direct control of Airbnb.  So to the extent that the company can creatively educate and empower hosts on hospitality standards, the better the chances for improved guest experiences.

So it comes with little surprise that the new Airbnb app seeks to influence host behavior and ultimately create a more consistent hospitality experience -- from basic comfort needs all the way to anticipatory service that creates a truly memorable trip.  Host Home provides hosts with best practices on delivering hospitality at the critical moments of a guest's travel experience.  The mentorship comes straight from the legendary Chip Conley, the company's new Head of Hospitality, and is aligned with improving the guest experience at each of the nine moments of truth he and his hospitality team have identified.  

But don't be fooled into thinking that the nine hospitality standards will make for cookie cutter experiences.  There is probably no better guru than Chip Conley to coach Airbnb hosts (or anyone for that matter) on providing authentic hospitality by embracing their unique personalities.  

In addition to announcing the revamped mobile app, Airbnb also announced the follow new features and releases:

Airbnb Stories: A new content marketing platform, Airbnb Stories is a collection of just that . . . inspiring stories that have emerged as a result of hosts opening up their homes to guests and letting their paths cross. 

SuperHost Alliance: Airbnb said it will relaunch its SuperHost program in 2014. The company describes the SuperHost Alliance as "a league of extraordinary Airbnb hosts" whose listings reflect their special status with a badge.

Host Rewards: Also beginning in 2014, Airbnb will run a rewards program for hosts, giving them travel credits, perks, and other privileges.

Host Groups: Debuting in beta in June and formally launching Tuesday, Host Groups now have more than 10,000 participants in more than 300 groups.  Groups allow hosts to leverage their collective knowledge to help each other improve their hosting capabilities.

Hospitality Lab: Chip Conley gave a peek at the inner workings of Airbnb's Hospitality Lab in Dublin, outlining standards hosts should follow in booking (to build trust), preparation (to make a good first impression), and arrival (interactions with guests).

At last, Priceline edges out Expedia in gross bookings and becomes the new king of online travel

Although Expedia's global websites don't yet admit defeat, Priceline has in fact surpassed Expedia in gross bookings to become "the world's largest online travel company" -- a claim Expedia has long marketed to customers and suppliers on its global websites.

In the past several days, Priceline has simply dominated the news headlines.  First came their Q3 earnings release, highlighting yet another consistently strong quarter underscored by increased market share.  Second was the public announcement that the venerable Priceline CEO, Jeffery Boyd, would step down as CEO but remain as Chairman of the Priceline board.  

(Here are seven of the biggest impacts Jeffery Boyd made on the online travel industry.)

Some news writers reacted with shock to the news surrounding Jeffery Boyd, yet the industry insider PhoCusWright suggested the leadership change had been in the works for some time.  But what actually shocked me most was the headline on Priceline overtaking Expedia in gross bookings for the first time in history.  Wow!

And when reflecting on the evolution of Priceline over the past decade, PhoCusWright was equally as surprised.  In a well written article by Douglas Quinby of PCW that portrays Priceline's come from behind surprise win . . .

The year was 2002. Once an Internet princeling, the online brand synonymous with "name your own price" had fallen out of favor. Moves into mortgages, groceries and gas proved misguided. Its share price had plummeted. In online travel, the company was effectively the fourth horse in what was quickly becoming a three-horse race among the leading online travel agencies. It was considered likely to get acquired or – worse – fizzle out.

When Jeff Boyd assumed the role of CEO in November of that year, the odds were against a resurgent Priceline. Iconic commercials starring the famed former captain of Star Trek notwithstanding, few would have expected over the next decade that the company would, on pretty much every metric that matters, become the global leader in online travel. Looking back, that was certainly one surprise.

I had a hunch that one day Priceline would surpass Expedia in gross bookings, yet upon reading this headline my jaw still managed to drop to the floor.  It was as though a consecutive Olympic gold medalist had been knocked off the top platform by an arch nemesis.  Congratulations, Priceline.

Now that Priceline has done the previously unthinkable, Jeffery Boyd will pass on the reins of CEO to his successor, Darren Huston.  And as Mr. Boyd dusts off his shoulders, he'll be watching Expedia admit defeat (at least temporarily) and remove its tagline, "The World's Largest Online Travel Company" from its global websites.

Virgin America has the coolest in-flight safety video that you just gotta watch

Back in 2007, I was one of the first passengers on Virgin America's inaugural LAX/SFO flight.  This new airline was hip and cool, and did for the airline industry what W Hotels did for the bland hotel industry.  I mean seriously . . . the airplane cabin had purple and blue lighting!  More than five years later, there's still not one airline that creates such a uniquely cool customer experience (especially in economy class).

Now Virgin America has further underscored its title as the coolest airline in the world with its newest in-flight safety video.  It's quite possibly the most entertaining video of it's kind, but one has to wonder if the actual safety messages get muted from all the belching high notes.  I suppose if it at least gets travelers' attention, it's already more effective than the boring in-flight safety videos that most people tune out.

Recently TheDesignAir website ranked Virgin America second in the world's best economy class airline cabin.  The airline's soothing blue and purple cabin mood lights weren't as impressive as Air New Zealand's "SkyCouch" seating configuration, which shot the Kiwi carrier to first place.

One thing's for sure though, Virgin America's new in-flight safety video is as much about safety as it is about generating some viral marketing buzz for the coolest airline brand in the world.

While Airbnb inks petition signatures, HomeAway inks landmark business deals

I find it interesting that the two biggest names in online vacation rentals, Airbnb and HomeAway, exhibit such stark contrast when it comes to their respective press headlines.  Although Airbnb focuses more on peer to peer shared accommodations, both companies are in no short supply of whole unit rentals which people like you and I can book on their sites.  Yet Airbnb seems to be under intense legal scrutiny while HomeAway flies more or less under the radar.

Airbnb has taken big hits in New York recently, having been subpoenaed by New York's Attorney General to provide personal data for up to 225,000 of its New York hosts.  Airbnb has publicly expressed that the request is unreasonably broad and that the company will fight it with everything they've got.

And so the fight continues in New York, and Airbnb has armed itself with artillery.  On the lighter side, a Save Airbnb in New York petition has drummed up over 70,000 signatures and far exceeded the original goal of 20,000 signatures.  Did you know this petition was started by one of the company's users?  It's impressive to see such die hard fanatics the Airbnb brand/experience has cultivated.  In full disclosure I'm also one of them!

For the heavier artillery, Airbnb has released an economic study that shows it generated $632 million in economic activity in New York City in just one year, and that 82% of all listings were in neighborhoods outside the traditional tourist zones in Midtown.  Surprisingly 87% of Airbnb hosts rent out the home they live in and earn on average $7,530 per year.  Critics argue that Airbnb's contributions are just a drop in the ocean when put into the context of overall New York City tourism receipts, but for such a young travel company to impact outlier neighborhoods the way it has in New York and other major international cities is down right unprecedented.

So while Airbnb was caught up in a defensive web of legal issues, petitions, and lobbying, what was HomeAway up to in the last week?  There was no sign of HomeAway draining valuable resources on legal battles.  Instead they were gettin down to business with launching a new commission-based business model and inking a landmark distribution deal with Expedia which should significantly boost the demand profile for their vacation rental product starting in 2014.

But interestingly this vacation rental product isn't so different from the type of product that Airbnb is coming under fire for in New York.  The legislation that should apply equally to both companies is the ban on short term stays of less than 30 days when the owner or leaseholder is not present.   But a quick search on HomeAway properties in Manhattan shows over 1,000 whole unit listings available.  Many of these only require a three night minimum stay if any.

This is certainly just speculation, but it's possible that HomeAway and other vacation rental sites may be cooperating with government requests for submitting user data.  If that's the case, and again this is just speculation, then I believe all the more reason to admire Airbnb for putting up a public fight in New York to protect user privacy and not taking the easy way out like some of these other tech companies.

What TripAdvisor can teach independent hotels about shifting share from OTAs

A big score for independent hotels (and of course TripAdvisor)

There's certainly no shortage of activity coming from TripAdvisor.  The company recently shifted some focus to metasearch, redesigned its site, acquired content-rich Oyster.com, and launched the independent hotels' newest best friend . . . TripConnect.

TripConnect is a new service that empowers indie hotels like never before when it comes to online marketing and driving direct sales and bypassing OTAs.  These smaller properties can now integrate their web booking engine to TripAdvisor's metasearch, and thus display live rates and availabilities for shoppers who perform a dated search.  By combining the hotel's presence on TripAdvisor metasearch with the right room pricing and bidding strategies, the savvy indie hotel operator can take the first series of steps in winning back channel share from OTAs.  And as OTA click through and conversion rates decline for a particular hotel, they just might scale back their own bidding and thus reduce marketing costs for the indie operator in the long term.

But what about Google?  For those indie hotel operators that have AdWords campaigns running already, should they be plugging into TripConnect and shifting marketing spend to TripAdvisor?  In general it's a wise approach to diversify and spend on both Google and TripAdvisor.  After all, TripAdvisor is one hell of a strong brand, but there are areas in the world where their name is virtually unknown.  So answering this question in detail really depends on the hotel product, destination, and its primary source markets.

But one thing is for sure.  Because TripAdvisor's metasearch allows for dated searches and the new TripConnect service plugs directly into indie hotels' booking engines, there is no wasted ad spend on dates that are unavailable because it wouldn't be possible for the shopper to click through in the first place.

Furthermore, TripAdvisor creates a smoother shopping experience (from research to price shopping) which should ultimately lead to a more highly qualified customer.  In the e-commerce world of performance marketing, that usually translates into much better conversions.

TripConnect offers a number of other added benefits, but at the end of the day it all boils down to one thing.  Independent hotels now have the most powerful tool to help them claw back bookings from high cost OTA distribution channels.  The fact that it's more effective than Google AdWords or Hotel Finder is just icing on the cake.

Google.  It's your move now.

Example of TripConnect in action.  Although in this case HotelClub's lower price is undermining the hotel's efforts.

Airbnb versus New York City. The saga continues over a subpoena for data on NYC hosts.

NYC still has 1000+ listings for entire apartments

There's been no shortage of drama between Airbnb and New York City regarding the legality of short term rentals.

It all started with a man named Nigel Warren, a New York resident who was fined $2,400 for renting out a room in his apartment on Airbnb.  Late last month, a New York judge reversed the fines in a victory for Nigel and Airbnb who had appealed the earlier decision.  It turns out that it's actually not illegal to rent out a room as long as someone is physically present in the apartment at the same time the guest is staying over.  Airbnb dodged a bullet on a technicality, although many more are likely to be shot over the plethora of vacant apartments that are rented out by landlords or property managers.

And then there's the hotel industry blowing the whistle on Airbnb hosts because they don't pay the city occupancy taxes that hotels are required to pay.  Airbnb's CEO, Brian Chesky, has for the first time acknowledged that most hosts should have to pay some sort of occupancy tax.  Could this be a peace offering move to prevent any possibility of widespread removal of all host listings?  It's important to note that what happens in New York City will likely create a new paradigm for other cities, with reports that San Francisco has also reached an agreement with Airbnb that would require hosts to pay occupancy taxes.

And with that, it didn't take long for New York Attorney General, Eric Schneiderman, to demand user data for 225,000 New Yorkers who have previously listed a room on Airbnb.  The data is being subpoenaed as part of an investigation into people who had possibly violated the law by renting out their room without being physically present.  If Airbnb does provide New York's AG with this info, we can reasonably assume that hundreds of Airbnb hosts would be served up fines or have to pay taxes retroactively.  A quick search on Airbnb's listings in New York City show that there are more than 1,000 listings even after filtering for "entire place" units only.  In theory, the vast majority of these "entire place" units are rented out illegally.

It should almost go without saying that Airbnb will not comply in an effort to protect the privacy of its community and user data.  As written on the company blog, "this demand is unreasonably broad and we will fight it with everything we've got."

The blog goes on to say, "As these conversations continue, we will always be committed to protecting our hosts' privacy and we will always stand by the hosts who are the heart and soul of this community."

Now that is an awesome company sticking up for the privacy rights of its users!  I just hope that Airbnb holds true to their battle cry, even if legal pressures begin to mount against the company to hand over its user data.