Ms. Didi Lutz

I fondly remember the days when my fingers collected newspaper ink from flipping each page, and how I enjoyed reading a magazine starting from the last page to the front. And up until not too long ago, sending an email was a second alternative to making a phone call. As nostalgic as it all sounds, today I choose to read my news online in order to receive more comprehensive and updated information.

The emergence of the Internet as a prime news source has taken every industry by storm. Almost everything can be looked up online. But with the ying comes the yang. While accurate news resources exist to provide us with valuable information, there are certain self-created forums that may harbor trouble: blogs.

I remember my first encounter with blogs. A couple of years ago, one of the items on my public relations checklist was to perform a weekly Internet search for the hotel I worked for, in order to monitor online presence and performance. It didn't take very long to notice a couple of local web logs (or blogs) discussing the hotel via posts in an unfavorable manner, and without presenting any facts. This is about the worst that could happen, because companies have no control over people’s online posted opinions and blogs are not magazines where you get the chance to ask for a correction.

As it later turned out, these bloggers had never even been to the hotel, and were just creating opinions of things they had heard or randomly thought of. This was obviously an example of negative publicity that needed to be contained at once. Since I could not appeal with a traditional letter to the editor, I had to approach the "bloggers" directly, and since the postings were recent I figured I had a good chance to respond effectively.

Therefore, we decided to have the GM invite both bloggers to the hotel for a site visit, so that we could show them the property’s features and simply have a chance to explain our vision. They happily accepted the invitation and after their visit the blogs were nothing but positive, and my relationship with these bloggers today has grown into a great business friendship.

Interested about blogs and how they could affect your hotel? Read my article on blogs in this week's Hotel Business Review entitled "Hotels: How to Communicate Effectively with Blogs".

Sincerely,

Didi Lutz
Travel Publicist
M.S. Corporate Public Relations
didi.lutz@gmail.com