Inside Hospitality

More GuestPulse Social Media Monitoring Reviews

Posted on 22. Jul, 2010 by Gary Tripp in Inside Hospitality, Online Reputation Management (ORM)

“Guest Pulse’s service is simple: it helps you monitor your online reputation by emailing you the most recently posted reviews and mentions of your restaurant (at Citysearch, Google Maps, Tripadvisor, etc.).

The sign up procedure is quick, easy and user-friendly.  No CC required.  Just enter your business’s name and verify your contact info and a few details.  Once this is complete, Guest Pulse begins sending you the emails.”

Read complete review at Guestengage by clicking here!

and get your own 30 day free trial of GuestPulse by clicking the image below.

More GuestPulse™ Client Testimonials

Posted on 17. Jul, 2010 by Inside Hospitality in Inside Hospitality, Online Reputation Management (ORM)

“GuestPulse™ allows us to communicate with our customers at a whole new level. Collecting and aggregating “mentions” of our restaurants had always been time-consuming and inconclusive. GuestPulse™ gives us the ability to listen to what our customers are saying about our restaurants, see what our competition is doing and allows us the ability to engage customers easily and efficiently with software that is easy to use and comprehensive. If you’re serious about knowing what your customers are saying about your business on the web, GuestPulse™ is an easy, inexpensive tool that you cannot live without.”

There is a easier, better & more cost effective way to manage your online reputation. That’s with GuestPulse™. Don’t take our word for it, signup for a free 30 day (no credit card required) trial by visiting www.GuestPulse.com

Our Original Video – GuestPulse Explained in 56.7 Seconds

Posted on 09. Jul, 2010 by Inside Hospitality in Online Reputation Management (ORM), Social Media

This is the original video we created last year to explain our GuestPulse Online Reputation Management Solution.

GuestPulse™+ Facebook

Posted on 30. Jun, 2010 by Inside Hospitality in Inside Hospitality, Online Reputation Management (ORM)

New GuestPulse Feature Roll Out – Facebook

We have some pretty exciting news to officially announce today. Beginning July 2nd. the premier Restaurant & Hospitality Social Media Online Reputation Monitoring Solution, GuestPulse will be integrating Facebook into it’s platform. Account users will be able to directly engage with facebook fans and followers from the GuestPulse dashboard.

Anytime someone mentions your restaurant or hotels name in a status update, comment or post you will be immediately alerted.

GuestPulse, the first Restaurant & Hospitality Online Reputation Management solution offers a totally free 30 day (no credit card trial) to any restaurant, hotel or food service operation within the US.

Sign up is quick and easy and takes 25 seconds. To sign up for your free 30 day trial visit GuestPulse by clicking here!

GuestPulse Feature Spotlight- Online Reputation Genius™

Posted on 26. Jun, 2010 by Gary Tripp in Online Reputation Management (ORM)

Your very own Reputation Genius™ with GuestPulse™

In the month of June we have helped Operators & Managers save, recover, engage, and attract guests over 1,750 times.

What’s better than asking someone who knows best when you have a question at 2pm or 2am? Nothing.

Not sure the best way to handle a certain mention or need some help tracking a guest down who posted something about your property so you can speak with them further? We have you covered.

With every GuestPulse account you get access to your very own Reputation Genius™ that is never more than a call, click or tweet away.

Watch the 40 second screen cast below.

Haven’t tried GuestPulse for yourself? What are you waiting for! Sign up today for our 30 day (no credit card) trial and start receiving your guests comments within minutes !

Click here to visit GuestPulse

Salty’s Restaurant Marketing vs. GuestPulse and Social Media

Posted on 10. Jun, 2010 by Inside Hospitality in Online Reputation Management (ORM), Social Media

Came across this blog post and wanted to share.

One of my favorite restaurants is at Salty’s Seafood Grill Restaurant in Redondo Beach. (Des Moines, Washington).  I am also a fan of GuestPulse and Gary Tripp of Inside Hospitality (Who is also recommended by Jeffrey Summers from RestaurantWorx.  I listen to Jeffrey and you can too at Hospitality101Radio.)

If you can stay with me for a moment because this is not a plug.  (Even though I just plugged Salty’s Restaurant, GuestPulse AND RestaurantWorx.)

Since I no longer own a restaurant, I miss some of the good times when I can play around and test the fun stuff.  I can’t resist any longer, I am now testing GuestPulse personally.

This will be a personal challenge as I use my expertise in Inbound Marketing, restaurant marketing, guerrilla marketing, magic marketing and tricks up my sleeve.  I will be using Twitter, Facebook, Stumble, Blogging and commenting on Blogs.  The bag of magic marketing is pretty deep and I will be pulling out all the tricks of the trade.  Rather than wait for the news about Salty’s Restaurant, I will be using social media tools to create a buzz.  Well, at least a mini-buzz.  After all, I am but one person.

Read complete blog post by clicking here!

Restaurant & Hospitality Focused Social Media Bootcamp | Chicago June 21-22

Posted on 28. May, 2010 by Inside Hospitality in Industry News, Online Reputation Management (ORM), Social Media

Enough with all this theory talk. Let’s talk about application.

Join us in Chicago on June 21st. & 22nd.  for the Restaurant & Hospitality Focused Social Media Marketing Bootcamp.

“Early Bird” registration and additional information can be found at http://RestaurantSocialMedia.com

“Jeffrey provides a level of professionalism that is a cut above the rest. Because of Jeffrey our members are now better equipped to be competitive and survive these tough economic times.” ~ Gabe Munoz, Director of Sales, Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Greater Kansas City.

“Our goal is to give operators the tools and knowledge they need to “kick it up a notch” or two or three. You won’t get this information from any other event or source. It’s that impactful.” ~ Gary Tripp, President, Inside Hospitality

Day 1 – General session of all attendess. We will talk about what exactly Social Media Marketing means for you and your business and how it can be utilized to grow loyalty and profitability. ***Limited to 100 attendees.

Early Bird Day 1 Tickets – Limited to the first 10 people to register.

Bring A Friend – Day 1 – This is for those who have purchased a full-price Day 1 ticket & want to bring a friend or colleague with them.  There is no limit on how many people you can bring with you from your company.

Day 1 Dinner – Charity Dinner. We will travel to one of the areas best restaurants for dinner on the evening of Day 1 with only the first 10 people to register and pay. This is a great event and the networking and professional opportunities make it a “can’t miss”. All dinner ticket sales go to the event charity – The Children’s Miracle Network.

Bring A Friend – Day 2 – This is for those who have purchased a full-price Day 2 ticket & want to bring a friend or colleague with them.  There is no limit on how many people you can bring with you from your company.

Early Bird Day 2 Tickets – Limited to the first 10 people to register.

Early Bird Day 1 & Day 2 Tickets – Limited to the first 10 people to register.

Real Reviews. Real People. Real Annoying. Really.

Posted on 27. May, 2010 by Inside Hospitality in Online Reputation Management (ORM), Social Media

Came upon this while visiting (via http://www.foodiggity.com) one of our favorite websites www.YelpYack.com and had to share. We are not fans of any platform that allows anonymous guest experience reviews.

Yelp Yack is a blog featuring original drawings by artist Jessica Wassil. Each illustration is based off a brutally real, random, and anonymous Yelp review. All reviews appear in their original form, so don’t front on the grammar!

Actual Review:

“Ok, can someone please get a bus to pick all these hipsters up and send them to their own private island??  Or at least ban them from working in the service industry?

They don’t listen, act annoyed at your simple requests and can’t afford grooming kits.

After teaching a belly class I started craving bacon.  Nice crisp bacon.. I went with some fellow dancers and we were frankly starving from all that dancing.

We walk in and i could smell the attitude over the food.  It was chilly outside and we had on our belly garb so we wanted to wait inside for our table.. OH NO! The waitress scurried us outside and said she would let us know when SHE was ready for us.

Because I was starving i decided to pre-order some bacon while we waited.  the waitress acted as if i asked her for her raybans.  after the stare down she reluctantly put my order in.   10 hours later i got the flimsiest piece of bacon you could ever see.  My dog would reject this crap.

I told the hipster and she said- “if you arent happy with the bacon, you probably wouldnt like our food here”  SERIOUSLY?!  Don’t eat here.”

New GuestPulse™ Feature Announcements

Posted on 21. May, 2010 by Inside Hospitality in Inside Hospitality, Online Reputation Management (ORM), Social Media

We introduced the first Restaurant & Hospitality Focused Online Reputation Management solution, GuestPulse™ many months ago and have been literally blown away with the feedback and support we have received from restaurant, hotel and spa operators all over the world.

The goal was (and still is) to provide managers, operators and owners with a no “BS” way to tell them exactly what their guests are saying about their property, service and offerings with a intuitive, clean and simple user interface.

Over the last several months we have added additional robust features that make the program the “complete online reputation management solution”

Some of the most recent feature additions include,

Online Reputation Genius, Automatic Sentiment Analysis, Competitor Tracking, to name just a few.

We are excited to continue the innovation and introduce the following dynamic features that will add even more value to the GuestPulse™ platform as assist in building a better business and foster better guest engagement.

Using Social Media to “Attract” New Guests

Introducing GuestAttract™, the first and only social media based lead prospecting solution for the restaurant & hospitality industries. A guest prospecting solution that scans the entire ‘www’ and millions of websites and billions of web pages and social media sites for potential guests who are looking for dining, hotel or travel recommendations and who closely match your target marketing profile.

Using Geo/Location tracking technology we provide you with a real time ‘stream’ of potential guests that fit within your operations demographic profile. We then provide you a direct “engage and attract” option to make contact with these potential guests immediately right from the GuestPulse™ dashboard.

-GuestAttract™ is will available to all GuestPulse™ accounts on June 1st.

“Online & On-site” Triggered Mystery Shopping.

Need to verify, corroborate or just need more information based on a specific mention? With the click of the mouse our “Online & On-site Mystery Shopping Solution™” will allow owners and unit managers to request a immediate on-site mystery shopping evaluation on the property. On-site evaluation can be scheduled in as little as 60 minites and covers every market within the USA.

On-site mystery shopping services are provided in conjunction with Inside Hospitality.

-Online & On-site Mystery Shopping™ is available on all GuestPulse™ beginning today, Friday May 21.

To signup for your free (no credit card required) 30 day trial please visit www.GuestPulse.com

Some hotels checking out online reviewers

Posted on 17. May, 2010 by Inside Hospitality in Industry News, Online Reputation Management (ORM)

By Christopher Elliott

Hotels want to know who you are, especially if you’re reviewing them anonymously.

An increasing number of image-conscious properties have begun connecting the dots between unbylined write-ups that appear on such popular travel sites as TripAdvisor or Yelp, and your personal information, such as your loyalty program preferences.

If you write a positive review, you might expect a reward from the hotel — a gift basket or a discount on your next stay. Pan a property, and you could get a concerned e-mail from the general manager asking you to reconsider your review. Or even a black mark against you in the chain’s guest database.

John Baird, a lodging consultant in Jacksonville, Fla., says that hotels now use locations, dates and usernames that appear online to triangulate a guest’s identity. Once they find a likely match, the review is added to a hotel’s guest preference records, next to information such as frequent-guest number, newspaper choice and preferred room type.

“If the post is positive, I can give them a gift basket when they return,” he said. Negative? That can generate an e-mail inviting the guest back for a free stay or offering frequent-stayer points as an apology.

“I think matching reviews with guest names is a great idea,” he added.

But travelers aren’t sure. After hearing about one international hotel that retaliated against travelers who slammed the property, Helen O’Boyle, a Seattle-based computing consultant, is troubled by hotels that name-match. Once identified, she said, the travelers were tagged as “problem guests” in the hotel chain’s reward program.

O’Boyle is careful not to reveal any information that might help a hotel identify her online. “Let’s just say that I’m glad my ratings site nicknames don’t look like my real name,” she told me. “And now, if I’m writing a bad review, I fudge the dates a bit and don’t mention any particular calamities that might be identifiable with what the hotel knows I experienced — just in case.”

Online review sites such as TripAdvisor don’t forbid the posting of personally identifiable information. Unregistered visitors can access details about any user, including an age range, gender, location, “travel style,” whether they travel for business or pleasure and even who they travel with. Registered users can send another reviewer a private message through the site. Although TripAdvisor has an extensive privacy policy, the site readily admits, “No Web site can guarantee security.”

April Robb, a spokeswoman for TripAdvisor, said the site considers any effort by a hotel to pressure a guest to remove a negative review to be “fraudulent.” Whenever a hotel owner attempts to contact a guest who has posted an unflattering review, a warning appears: “TripAdvisor may penalize owners who attempt to remove reviews through inappropriate threats or coercion,” said Robb.

But privacy policies aren’t the biggest obstacles for hotels trying to connect the dots. Rather, it’s a hotel’s inability to match a name with absolute certainty that makes this exercise more art than science, according to Barry Hurd, the chief executive of Seattle-based 123 Social Media, a reputation management company that works with more than 500 hotels.

“It’s hard, because the review services try to anonymize the reviews and the data. They want people to just tell the truth and to assure them there won’t be any repercussions,” he said. “Hotels, on the other hand, want them to put a name on the review — so that they know who you are.”

Both Hurd and Baird, the Jacksonville analyst, say that an overwhelming number of hotels want the information for the right reasons: either to reward a nice review or to reach out to a negative guest to patch things up. And that may be true, for now.

But Hurd says that technology is evolving so fast that in the future, every hotel representative could have a toolbar on his or her computer that reveals everything about a guest at the click of a mouse — every review, guest preference and even the likelihood that you’ll be positively or negatively inclined toward your stay.

There’s no telling what hotels could do with that information.

O’Boyle’s advice works for me, but I’d offer a few additional recommendations. Don’t use your real name when you review a hotel, and make sure that your Internet handle doesn’t give away anything about your identity. Don’t give your geographic location, and wherever possible, don’t answer profile questions such as “I travel with” or “My travel style.”

And never, ever, include any information that could identify you in the review itself. That’s one dot you probably don’t want a hotel to connect with another.

Christopher Elliott is the ombudsman for National Geographic Traveler magazine. His column runs weekly at seattletimes.com/travel and occasionally in print. Contact him at celliott@ngs.org.