The Ritz-Carlton Sarasota knows the way to their guests' hearts and minds. They pamper their pets.
"Initially there is a log of playful behavior," says Darlene Davison, the Ritz-Carlton Sarasota's spa director, "but soon their eyelids droop and their muscles relax under the massage therapist's soothing touch." Darlene is talking about massaging dogs -- canine.
How much do you think it costs to pamper your pooch, the Ritz-Carlton way?
The 94-year old majestic Fairmont Copley Plaza hotel in Boston recently completed an $38 million nip & tuck restoration. The spectacular lobby with gilded ceilings and Waterford crystal chandeliers has been restored to its original splendor. Oh, if those beautifully polished mahogany walls could only talk, we could fuel years and years of story lines for Boston Legal.
The most popular change at the Fairmont, however, is a dog. Lady Catie Copley. She's a 68-pound black Labrador Retriever and amid all this Boston landmark's old world charm and grandeur, Catie is the hit attraction.
Another city followed suit and filed suit against on-line
travel agencies like Expedia, Travelocity, Orbitz, Priceline, and
Hotels.com.
Atlanta and other cities claim these Web site travel agencies bilk the city out of tens
of millions of dollars yearly in hotel occupancy taxes.
There are now several suits working there way through the
courts.
Atlanta filed suit on March 28, 2006 in Fulton County Superior court.
Hotel occupancy tax is a major source of revenue for all
cities. At stake is the difference in tax collected on the wholesale
amount the online agency pays instead of the retail amount the traveler pays. A new business idea called "merchant
model pricing” creates the tax revenue decrease.
Our hat is off to Marriott International for adding taxes
and fees into the price quoted for hotel rooms so the price quoted is the total
price. Their new policy will adversely affect online travel
agencies such as Travelocity, Expedia, Priceline, Hotels.com and Orbitz who
only add the taxes and fees just before you click to buy making comparisons
difficult.
This practice also avoids "folio shock" which is the hotel industry's
equivalent of "sticker shock." There's a reason hotel personnel
slip your folio (statement of charges) under your room's door during the middle
of the night. They don't want to be standing within arm's reach when you
first review your charges. They know it is safer to present all the nickel-and-dime
charges while you're locked away in your room. This gives you time to lick your financial wounds and return to a more
sane and rational state before arriving at the front desk.
New York Times "World Affairs" columnist, Tom Friedman, clarified globalization in his best-selling book entitled, The World is Flat
Globalization impacts the travel industry and Tom's recommendation should have been applied to a recent conflict among Cuba, Maria Isabel Sheraton hotel (Mexico City), Mexico, and the U. S. Treasury Department.
Mike Vance, former Dean of Disney University, talks about "five-sensing" as a way to improve your product's emotional connection. Considering how your product might taste, how it might feel if you touch it, what it might sound like, how it might look, and how it might smell, add emotional links to customers for most products.
Westin Hotels gets "five-sensing" and is presently running "peel-n-sniff' White Tea scented strips in April issues of Gourmet, Wired, New Yorker, Vanity Fair, and Real Simple. Westin has applied the Zen-approach to their advertising for several months. This approach frequently shows fluffy beds and talks about resting, relaxing, and rejuvenating.
Unfortunately, the White Tea scent smells more like a leading laundry softener than Zen incense, but then, what should a hotel room smell like? Stale cigarette smoke? Toxic disinfectants? Mildew?
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