If you have logged into your Facebook account in the last few days, you will notice that you are prompted to update your privacy settings. Don’t ignore the announcement; there are actions that you should take to keep your info private.

We feel like this change may be a little shady, are we being paranoid? Here are our top tips to make what you want to share public, and what you don’t want to share private:

• Skip the Facebook recommendations or “simple settings” page. By doing this, you’ll maintain your current settings instead of allowing the interface to “simplify” your profile.

• Be careful when choosing what information you’d like in the public sphere. Remember, this information will not only be available to other Facebook users, but also to anyone who can do a simple Google search.

• At minimum, keep your birth date private. There is enough information on a fully-public Profile Page to make identity theft simple for anyone willing to take the time to look at your name, address, and birth date.

• Double check your settings to make sure that they are set correctly. To do this go to settings, then privacy settings, check both your profile information and contact information.

We do like that we can now fine-tune who sees what on our pages on a post-by-post basis. This is one change that may help you with brand ownership in the search engine placement results – always a good thing!

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Social Media Best Practices for Hotel Marketing:
Be Involved Without Breaking the Bank

Learn more about the power of social media and how to utilize it responsibly and effectively in your marketing strategies by attending this free educational webinar co-sponsored by Blizzard Internet and Sceptre Hospitality.

Topics that will be covered in this free webinar include:

• What happens if you ignore social media?
• Which social networking site is right for you?
• Tips on using Facebook and Twitter to enhance your brand
• How to find lifelong guests and company advocates
• Realistic results to expect from Facebook and Twitter
• Top mistakes companies make and how to avoid them
• How to effectively manage your accounts in just minutes a day

Webinar Details:
When: Thursday, December 10th
Time: 11:00 – 12:00 Mountain Time
Presented By: Sceptre Hospitality and Blizzard Internet Marketing

Sign Up for the Webinar Here

Unless you have been living in a cave without access to the outside world, you have heard of Facebook, the most powerful social media outlet in the world. There are more people on Facebook each day than the population of some countries; millions of people are sharing thoughts, links, opinions, photos, and making connections at this very moment.

As a vacation rental manager, how can you leverage this powerful tool to connect to your potential guests and clients searching for your product? (more…)

Word Clouds, also known as  ”tag clouds” and “keyword clouds” are a unique and powerful visual depiction of words. 

You can create artsy tag clouds at Wordle.  Here is word cloud created when Wordle looked at our homepage (on Feb 25th)

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Tripadvisor announced the Top 10 dirtiest hotels in America, based on TripAdvisor traveler ratings for cleanliness.  This is the fourth-year running.

This awe inspiring list of dirty hotels  is worth browsing through!  Here are the top three.

1) Hotel Carter, New York City, New York

I think it would have been cleaner to sleep on the street

2) Continental Bayside Hotel, Miami Beach, Florida

One bed had blood on the sheets, other body fluids smeared on the windows, exposed wires, extremely poor service.

3) New York Inn, New York City, New York

Roaches everywhere! One so big he could have helped me bring my suitcase upstairs

Here is a Wordle Word Cloud made from some of the reviews

Several of these hotels have been at the top of this list a few years running.  Is there a conspiracy afoot?

A few days ago I witnessed a customer who received nearly $5,000 in multiple bookings during a 30 day period from Facebook!

I was stunned. I have personally felt that using Facebook and Myspace for business purposes was misguided.  I just don’t think the return was there for what was really a big endeavor. It is probably easier to manage a PPC account than build a Facebook or Myspace presence of any “value”.  At least Twitter is a lot easier and potentially more fun.
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During the last two years, there has been an explosion of reviews onto the vacation rental industry scene.   Clearly the consuming public is gravitating towards reviews.  More VR managers are adding them to their website because the economic climate calls for low-cost solutions.

Do you  know of a website (maybe yours) that is using reviews in this niche?  We are looking for examples of how it can be done!

• All Star Vacation Homes has their own ALL STAR guest reviews which are really quite compelling.  Check out the contest to promote reviews, the signup form to add reviews… pretty much the whole system.

I am also a big fan of using a review management service that promise increased distribution to places like Tripadvisor or Google local using services like Flipkey.

• I like to see reviews on the homepage (example) and property pages (example and example).  Next we should start seeing reviews attached at all levels of the process, like search results…  review based rankings may become as important as a photo… price… in the buying process!

Readers, please Comment below and share examples of similar sites that use reviews: