Hundreds of local US tax authorities are attempting to apply room occupancy tax rates on the margin captured by online travel companies under merchant model hotel booking transactions. The question raging in courtrooms, executive suites and now, the halls of congress is “Who deserves the money?” View Poll This week, the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AH&LA) held its...
I was honored when asked to moderate the The Individualization of Travel panel at the ITB Berlin Convention. Dr. Roland Conrady, Dean of Tourism and Travel at the University of Applied Sciences Worms served as Scientific Director of the ITB Berlin Convention and was instrumental in selecting the topic and assembling the panel. photo credit: atlasphere Challenge for the travel industry: Identify...
My recap of the PhoCusWright@ITB 2010 conference has been published as a guest post on Josiah Mackenzie’s Hotel Marketing Strategies Blog. Titled “30+ Takeaways from PhoCusWright@ITB 2010“, the reality was that Josiah actually requested the Top-10 take-aways from the conference and I expanded a bit on the premise. The session covered considerable territory, including all key areas...
What does a skull fracture have to do with social media, social marketing and the travel industry? For me… Everything. photo credit: Lif… Like authentic human relationships, social media customer relationships can be very fragile Eight weeks ago, my wife slipped on an ice patch and fell, Keystone Kops style, fracturing her skull. Our priorities were instantly reordered. Blogging...
2009 Unsuspecting Travel Hero (Four Seasons Santa Barbara) and Unsuspecting Travel Zero (AirTran) Awards http://j.mp/7GfUnr # http://twitpic.com/wga9u – View from our @HyattWaikiki Deluxe Ocean Front Room – Off the ship; 3 more days on Oahu. # Hangin' in Hilo watching whales breach off the bow & Air Force 1 get loaded off the stern of the ship # Share or bookmark this post: Related...
It is time for superlative awards to be bestowed upon the best and worst of the past year. Groups that have won accolades throughout the year are recognized for their contributions, many the result of planned actions that were specifically designed and executed to garner awards. photo credit: Okinawa Soba The best in travel faced off against... the other guys... when the dust settled, the winner...
Good day – body surfing on Maui's Ka'anapali Beach; watching Sea Turtles in Kahului #xmas # @flyingwithfish Let's just say, the hotel is not sold out, I'm not staying in a suite & there are over 1,000 rooms in hotel in reply to flyingwithfish # @flyingwithfish Classic was they told me that someone was checking into my room. Sorry, been a Rooms Div Mgr – know about blocking...
There is no economic recession when it comes to courts litigating hotel merchant tax cases between various local tax jurisdictions and the online travel agencies. With an estimated seventy cases at various stages of the process, legal teams representing both sides appear to have guaranteed job security into the foreseeable future. photo credit: publicenergy As municipalities, courts, states, online...
Wireless carrier Early Termination Fees don't add up – and how the Google phone may democratize access http://j.mp/8n0IVj # Brightkite announces first mobile Augmented Reality ads (via @rww ) http://j.mp/5sjJOL | Maybe why Yelp rebuffed Google? # RT @TheTravelmaven: Finger Lakes #1 lakeside living in the World http://bit.ly/6XZ1LR | Far above Cayuga's Waters #Cornell # @tripology Was...
The original plan was to write a blog post on the best travel video / television advertising of the past decade. While there were a few clever travel ads (the Virgin Atlantic “Upper Class Suite” independent spot and the Air New Zealand “Nothing to Hide” campaign immediately come to mind) they were not in the same league with the best offerings from other industries. So instead,...