Digital Travel PRIMER by Digital Viscosity

Travelers, as with most online consumers, judge books by their covers. Here are six ways to get guests to pick your proverbial book off the shelf.

It looks like we are heading into the best year we have had for a long time. All projections from the major accounting firms reflected some great information for us in the hotel business.

The Federal Communications Commission should not allow Marriott and others to prevent guests from using their own wireless Internet devices.

Airbnb launched its latest ad campaign on New Year's Eve with a YouTube message from founder and CEO Brian Chesky that asks users to spread hospitality amo

It’s difficult to conjure a scenario—short of the dreaded black swan—in which 2015 won’t be a bang-up year for the hotel industry. Here are a few reasons for optimism.

A Q. and A. on the effect of President Obama’s order to restore diplomatic relations with Cuba.

Uber and Lyft arrange paid rides in people’s cars, while Airbnb arranges vacation rentals in people’s homes. “These companies are disruptive in their lobbying strategies,” as well as their business models, said Edward Walker, associate professor and vice chairman of the UCLA sociology department. Armed with buckets of venture capital, they hire lobbyists and make political donations like other firms. Over the past year, 21 municipalities passed regulations creating frameworks for Uber and other ride-hailing services to operate, said David Plouffe, Uber senior vice president for policy and strategy. “There are so many huge social issues that people could be involved in that I’m aghast that this is where individual energies are being directed,” said Veena Dubal, a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford who studies the ride-hailing companies. The companies, which fall under the rubric of what has been called the sharing economy, portray themselves as social movements, transforming the lives of drivers and hosts with flexible income opportunities, and liberating riders and guests from old-school alternatives. Each public hearing on the law featured scores of Airbnb hosts who testified in remarkably similar language that they were “home sharers” who made ends meet by renting to visitors. [...] in California, it and Uber lobbied aggressively over the summer against two bills seeking to toughen requirements on ride services for insurance, background checks and drug and alcohol testing. The tools let Lyft send e-mail blasts to supporters and embed messages on the service’s first page, asking people to contact their elected officials by e-mail or phone. The California campaign saw a high response rate, with 28 percent of people who received e-mails taking some action, such as sending an e-mail, he said. Dozens of drivers, many waving Lyft’s signature pink mustaches or wearing Uber’s black T-shirts, rallied at the state Capitol against the proposed regulations, carrying signs claiming that they would squelch innovation. [...] the bill on background checks and drug testing failed to pass, while the insurance bill was softened until Uber and Lyft agreed to its terms. Another factor at work is that many of the companies’ users are young, wired and skeptical of government intervention, said Bruce Cain, a Stanford professor of political science and director of the Bill Lane Center for the American West. “There is in this generation a strong undercurrent of Internet libertarianism that thinks if we can just free the market forces from regulation and old structures, we can have a more creative, cheaper world,” he wrote in an e-mail. Plouffe compared Uber users’ fervor to the grassroots enthusiasm he witnessed as campaign manager for Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential bid. [...] their zeal motivated him to join Uber, he said. Public Affairs Consultants in American Democracy, examines “Astroturfing” — corporate campaigns that simulate the appearance of grassroots advocacy — agrees that the sharing-economy campaigns are genuine, not Astroturfed.

Inbox, Google's effort to make Gmail mobile-friendly, puts it in competition with the functionality of many airline, hotel and car rental branded apps.

These seven digital marketing travel trends will shape your marketing strategy in 2015.

The technology focus seems to be solving problems. There are apps for everything but by relying on these travel apps, what experiences are we missing out on?

2014 was a good year for the U.S. hotel industry. 2015 will keep the ball rolling with the focus on: more.

So Long, Sam: Nazarian No Longer Running The SLS Las Vegas || HotelChatter

With recent integration of Starwood Hotel properties with Instagram, guest pictures will be displayed under "Guest Gallery" section in all property sites.