Parallel Conversations in the Hotel Industry
Albert BarraAugust 13, 2018 · 2 min read
The past two months (and what remains of this one) have been extraordinarily busy.
While it is true that I only attend those events in which I participate as a speaker (and there are quite a few), I have been able to identify concerns in the real world that are very different from those I occasionally see online.
When I refer to the real world, I mean the longstanding human relationships among friends, the vast majority of them hoteliers, whether they are clients or not. Although some of them do have a strong online presence, their pragmatism, expertise and professionalism place them outside what I will discuss below.
It is not that there are two types of professionals, but it is true that two very different conversations coexist in the hotel sector, taking place in parallel and, as such, unlikely ever to meet.
In the traditional hotel sector—what the online world calls traditional or old school, but which I believe simply has too much work to devote itself to social media—I have noticed a certain interest in very tangible matters such as Online Reputation, Distribution Costs, Marketing and Online Positioning for the properties they represent. They find emotional matters such as Social Media simply interesting, but certainly not strategic in any way.
In the online world, which is modern but admittedly also growing, issues such as Brand Presence on Social Media, the power of Video for marketing, and topics as geeky as geo-marketing and augmented reality are debated.
Sometimes—and I do not think it is fair—the second group looks at the first with a certain degree of mockery for its rudimentary procedures, although in some cases they deserve it, and I myself have done so.
I believe both lines of interest are highly relevant and important, although at times I think that, as I too belong to the connected group (albeit with a limited presence lately), we may lose sight of what the vast majority of the sector truly sees as matters of interest. I believe that interacting so frequently within such closed circles causes us to lose our sense of reality. That is why it is healthy to open the windows from time to time and let in some fresh air—something I have done and recommend many others do.
In the online world, which is modern but admittedly also growing, issues such as Brand Presence on Social Media, the power of Video for marketing, and topics as geeky as geo-marketing and augmented reality are debated.
Sometimes—and I do not think it is fair—the second group looks at the first with a certain degree of mockery for its rudimentary procedures, although in some cases they deserve it, and I myself have done so.
I believe both lines of interest are highly relevant and important, although at times I think that, as I too belong to the connected group (albeit with a limited presence lately), we may lose sight of what the vast majority of the sector truly sees as matters of interest. I believe that interacting so frequently within such closed circles causes us to lose our sense of reality. That is why it is healthy to open the windows from time to time and let in some fresh air—something I have done and recommend many others do.