Top New Zealand school holiday spots

As kids drag their heels back to school this week, I see that Wotif.com have sent out a timely media release ranking the number of nights booked over the school holiday break.

Wotif.com have been able to expose their brand by kindly sharing with the media a snapshot of where all the cool families that ventured away from home ended up over the last two weeks.

No real surprises in the rankings, however should we be feeling sorry for the kids that were forced by their parents to spend their holidays in Hamilton?

Press Release: Wotif.com

Media Release
Top New Zealand school holiday spots

AUCKLAND – 7 May 2013 As the school holidays come to an end and suitcases are emptied, online travel website Wotif.co.nz has released the top five holiday spots in the North and South Island during the recent school holidays.

Unsurprisingly, Queenstown and Christchurch came out on top as popular destinations in the South Island during the school holiday break.

Wotif.co.nz Product Director Donna Rodios said that while the top three South Island destinations were consistent with last year’s Wotif.co.nz annual Top Destinations list, there was one notable new entry.

“Hanmer Springs proved to be a hit these school holidays and pushed Nelson city down to number five,” Ms Rodios said.

“A lot of families are attracted to the great outdoor activities Hanmer Springs has to offer, there’s the hot thermal springs which are great for relaxing and also the hiking and bike riding trails prove popular with the kids.”

Auckland and Wellington continued to be the North Island’s most popular holiday destinations, followed by Rotorua, Taupo and Hamilton.

“Auckland, as usual, was an attractive holiday spot with great activities for all ages, such as the Rainbow’s End theme park, Kelly Tarlton’s Aquarium and a variety of museums,” Ms Rodios said.

The top five North Island destinations over the Easter school holidays were consistent with the top five destinations booked on Wotif.co.nz in 2012.

Top 5 for South Island
1. Queenstown
2. Christchurch
3. Dunedin
4. Hanmer Springs
5. Nelson City

Top 5 for North Island
1. Auckland
2. Wellington
3. Rotorua
4. Taupo
5. Hamilton

Source: Click HERE

Will Accommodation Providers Start To Yelp?

I see that Yelp has this month entered the New Zealand market and we predict that they will cause disruption by soon challenging TripAdvisor as this country's main platform for the public to share online customer reviews.

As accommodation providers struggle to get their head around the realities of crowd-sourced on-line reviews, we predict that Yelp will soon up the ante and intensify the angst shared by some in the accommodation industry.

While TripAdvisor's main focus is providing a platform for travel related reviews such as accommodation and restaurants, Yelp has a more social aspect and a broader focus on local businesses that consumers use day to day such as nightlife, shopping, Beauty, health etc

A growing online consumer base domiciled overseas (particularly in the US) habitually use Yelp for finding and rating local businesses and are increasingly using the platform to find and rate accommodation businesses. Yelp's strategic partnerships with Bing and Apple  have greatly assisted credibility and exponential growth.

The nature of Yelp's reviewers appear to be younger, mobile and inclined to contribute succinct reviews on a frequent basis. From our observations, Yelp reviews are less in-depth compared to TripAdvisor, however the site isn't generally used for whining and customer complaints, with a claimed 80 percent of reviews being considered positive by the reviewer awarding at least 3.5 stars out of 5.

While TripAdvisor is currently the "go-to" website for travel consumers to search and rate accommodation business in New Zealand, judging by Yelp's global popularity (see the graph below), we predict that consumers will soon be influenced by Yelp when considering New Zealand accommdation options.

While Yelp provides a slightly different consumer experience than TripAdvisor, it  can also be influential with consumer buying habits and their methodology can cause controversy amongst business owners:



And like TripAdvisor, Yelp does not provide an opt-out option for businesses that are frequented and reviewed. Reviews on Yelp are "unverified", so proof of purchase is not required for someone to post a review. One contentious point of difference with Yelp is that there doesn't appear to be a mechanism for business owners to reply to reviewers' comments?

While the motel industry has a habit of crying foul and adopting a cloth-cap protectionist stance right from the outset, there needs to be an acceptance that consumer review sites will continue to grow in popularity whatever the platform.

The nature of the beast dictates that successful review sites are self-controlled in an open market where consumers wield a lot of power.

Accommodation providers quickly need to educate themselves about the nuances of new media, accept the inevitability of unsolicited online reviews and ensure that their business listings are presented in the best way possible. Offering consistently good product and excellent customer service also helps;-)

Yelp's announcement that they are entering the New Zealand market was included in a post on their blog on the 1 May:

Yelp Says "Kia Ora" to New Zealand

"New Zealanders are a fearless and fun-loving bunch. NZ was the first modern nation to grant women the vote, a Kiwi was the first to climb Mount Everest, and commercial bungee jumping was invented there, too.

But that’s not all – the nation also boasts an eclectic shopping scene, delicious world-renowned wineries, and buzzing local bars screening the beloved All Blacks’ rugby games.

And now, Kiwis can hop on to their computers and smart phones to share their best kept secrets across the country. Whether you're on the hunt for a hip café or a friendly dentist, NZ Yelpers can now share their favourites and discover new ones with each other’s help.
We’re excited to make NZ the 21st nation to join Yelp and give its more than 4.5 million inhabitants a voice.

Log on to Yelp.co.nz or download Yelp’s mobile app to start spreading your wisdom. Businesses can get in on the action, too, at biz.yelp.co.nzby claiming their page for free and building out their profile."

Businesses Fight Back

Ten business groups representing thousands of New Zealand's producers, band together to counter the wreckers and haters.
 

   Open Letter to Labour and the Greens.pdf

Transactional Giving Accommodation Website Relaunches

We see that our friends at KiwiKarma have re skinned their website and are using new partners, Bookit for their online reservation functionality. The new, improved website looks clean, is easy to use and was soft-launched yesterday.

From a consumers' point of view, the concept is reasonably simple. KiwiKarma is a website where customers are able to easily select and book online accommodation. The main point of difference between other bookable websites is that KiwiKarma offers a feel-good factor by donating 3 percent of the total cost of the accommodation to a charity nominated by the customer.

With most accommodation operators adopting price parity across all online sales channels, KiwiKarma's customers shouldn't feel that they've paid over the odds, however some may instinctively ring the accommodation operator direct to try and squeeze a better deal ;-)

From an accommodation providers' viewpoint, KiwiKarma simply redirects customers to live online availability on Trademe's popular Bookit booking engine.

KiwiKarma acts as a referral portal service and any bookings generated from its website interface will be under the same terms and conditions that accommodation providers have made with Bookit. The commission (up to 12 percent) will be deducted from the booking proceeds remitted to the accommodation provider as usual by Bookit.

As the accommodation provider will be dealing with Bookit from the initial reservation advice to the final payment, it is unclear if they will even know if KiwiKarma's website referred the reservation?

Bookit will pay KiwiKarma a share of commission earned from each reservation generated and from this, KiwiKarma will donate 3 percent of the total booking cost to charities selected by the customer.

It's hard to predict the scale of a niche market that would be attracted to the concept of transactional giving when making an online accommodation booking. From a darkened room, alone and staring into a glowing desktop screen, will customers planning travel arrangements necessarily have charity in mind when pondering accommodation options?

Will giving away 3 percent to charity be perceived by customers as being worthwhile? Will the feel-good factor alone influence customer buying behavior and attract them to KiwiKarma? On behalf of their customers, KiwiKarma will attract the adulation and the tax deductability as they will be acting as the charity donor to selected charities.

The website looks good, the Bookit integration functions extremely well and customers will be pleased that there are no annoying booking fees, however reaching out to a niche grouping of potential customers that will sustain KiwiKarma will be challenging.

After giving away 3 percent to charity, the net commission share that KiwiKarma will gain from bookings will hardly give them a marketing budget of Wotif.com proportions. Lack of funding could also restrict further development of the website to include features such as a mobility and accessibility via a dedicated app.

Smart use of networking and social media will need to be at the forefront of any future promotion.

Any new online reseller will find it difficult scrape market share off the scrum of established and trusted brand OTAs. The most obvious marketing base that could potentially give KiwiKarma some momentum will be the charities themselves that include: Arthritis NZ, The Asthma Foundation, Breast Cancer Research etc. These organisations have huge databases of employees, volunteers, donors and other interested parties that will be qualified targets for promotion and have a vested interest to provide free marketing for KiwiKarma's innovative concept.

It will be interesting to follow their progress.

Destination Marketing Made Easy - Give Tourists Cash!

John Wanamaker, the US department store pioneer, is often quoted as saying:

“Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half”. 

When Wanamaker made this statement, he didn't take into account the cash blown by Regional Tourism Organisations (RTOs) and other tourism adjuncts that use "other people's money" on regional marketing campaigns where it would be a miracle if up to 50 percent actually hit the target.

While groupings of tourism business owners with common marketing goals can produce positive outcomes, as soon as public money is added to the mix, you start empire-building a non-producing structure that requires a CEO, marketing manager, a team of administration staff and buildings to house them all in.

While RTOs bleed money at the front-office by operating loss-producing i-Sites, the back-office earnestly busy themselves in an endless series of meetings and focus groups dreaming up a catchy tagline for the next generic marketing campaign. In some provincial areas it's not uncommon for more money to flow through the RTO than the private tourism businesses they allegedly support.

One recent example of wasting valuable resource is the annual tradition of RTO representatives trooping off to TRENZ where they gorge themselves on sausage rolls, attend a series of circular masterbatery meetings with other non-producers and provide filler appointments for jaded overseas buyers.

No one has had the courage to tell RTOs that TRENZ should be a meeting place for private tourism businesses that actually have products and services to sell to overseas buyers. RTOs have somehow convinced themselves that they can earn a commission from a sunset.

When it comes to tourism promotion, maybe Barbados have got it right? They've appeared to have cut out the middle-man by simply dishing-out "free" money directly to tourists... 

"HOW IS this for an incentive?

The Barbados will reward visitors by giving them hundreds of dollars as part of a plan to boost tourism.

The cash incentives are part of an extraordinary new $11 million initiative announced by the country's tourism minister Richard Sealy.

The "Barbados Island Inclusive Package" includes advertising and cash incentives for tourists.

Visitors will receive "free spending money" based on their length of stay. Guests who stay five nights will get $US150 ($145) per person, and on stays of seven nights or more the reward will increase to $193 per person (with a maximum of two people per room).

UK and European tourists visiting for up to seven days will get a $580 voucher.
Vouchers are distributed to guests when they check-in to their hotels, and most of the properties on the island will be participating.

Mr Sealy said he expected the program to lure an extra 15,000 tourists.
The offer is available for travel between May 1 to December 21 this year, but trips must be booked by June 22".

Source: Click HERE

The All New Motella Blog 2013 Intro...

Press play and turn up the volume:

Sir Bob's Tourism Observations

I always look forward to Sir Bob Jones's regular rants in the New Zealand Herald and today's latest random scatter-gun attack on NZ tourism is an amusing and provocative read.

Sir Bob commences his opinion piece by mocking John Key's decision to take on the "low-ranked tourism portfolio" suggesting that this is not a worthy choice for a serious career-minded politician.

While acknowledging that tourism contributes nearly $2 billion to the economy every month, Sir Bob has a grumble about what the net benefits may actually be?

"...tourist-related businesses produce notoriously meagre returns and tourism jobs are mainly semi-skilled and thus low paid".

"Add intangible costs costs such as sewage, road wear and tear, petrol and other related imports, police and search-and-rescue expenses finding missing trampers, which seems a monthly occurrence, hospital costs and so on, and financially, tourism is not quite what it's cracked up to be."

The next subject of scorn is the often overstated benefits of cruise ship visits and Sir Bob makes an observation in Wellington that after cruise passengers are are bussed to the museum and go up the cable car..."large numbers troop back to the ship at lunchtime rather than pay for lunch in the numerous restaurants and coffee-houses".

The final target for Sir Bob's acid has the potential to be rather controversial and this maybe the reason why I'm unable to immediately find today's column online? The touchy subject of crime against tourists is raised and characteristically, Sir Bob wades-in boots-n-all....

"Sooner or later a foreign journalist will research our tourist crimes history and write a sensationalist account, pointing out that on a pro-rata basis , New Zealand is statistically the most dangerous popular tourist destination in the world - which beyond question it is".

So what can be done?

"Why not legislate  that crimes against tourists automatically yield double the maximum sentences. That should produce a sharp improvement in what is nothing less than a scandalous national embarrassment".

Helped by a few recent high-profile criminal cases involving tourists, Sir Bob's shocking pontification of New Zealand's alleged high crime-risk may seem to be feasible at first glance, however we suspect he is somewhat wide of the mark.

I suspect that Sir Bob's column today will spark further debate and others will be lining-up to counter the sensationalist allegation that New Zealand is "the most dangerous popular tourist destination in the world".

Wherever New Zealand stands in world rankings, the serious consequences of negative publicity involving crimes against tourists is something that should be considered. Sir Bob's pragmatic solution to lessen the risk should at least upset the left-wing, criminal-hugging, academic-theorists - we like that!

Should Moteliers Start Flogging Off Guest-Room Chattels?

I've attended a lot of tourism meetings over the years and when it comes to discussions about marketing, "packaging" different products and "collaboration" between operators are common themes that are presented as new ideas with the potential to open the floodgates of eager destination visitors.

Being aware and working in with other business operators has its advantages and packaging a mix of different products and services can have modest success in niche markets.

In motel-world, the thick-end of consumer demand is for individual product via different channels at different times. Combining rooms with outside product or services can over-complicate a simple offer. While this may not make sense, consumers are irrational and seem to have a natural instinct to hunt and gather distinct individual products that are presented well and appear to offer value.

From this weekend's Twitter feeds, we see that SoLoMo Consulting have presented a collaboration idea for moteliers to assist them sell more room nights:

So what's the idea?

Well, the main gist is that moteliers are encouraged to partner with bed retailers and offer guest rooms for overnight consumer testing of new beds. The motelier gets the use of a new bed and a night's accommodation while the bed retailer has the opportunity to sell a bed.

Sounds crazy? Well, maybe not...Some moteliers are already embracing this general concept.

I know of one motelier that actively sells beds as a successful business sideline. If a guest initiates a conversation about the qualities of the bed in their guest room or happens to mention a favourable night's sleep, this particular motelier will often cross-sell a new bed! By the time the guest arrives home, the motelier has done the deal and arranged a new bed to be delivered and waiting direct from the manufacturer.

From my motel, I've also sold beds to guests from time-to-time that have become attached to the bed that they've slept upon the night before and I wager that many other moteliers have done the same.

Beds are not the only item that moteliers have cross-sold to guests. Probably the most common collaboration is between moteliers and local artists that display artwork for sale in guest rooms.

The most extreme example of cross-selling items from motel guest rooms that I've come across is a Hamilton motelier that had a problem with guests pilfering. An interesting knee-jerk reaction was to offer in-room chattels for sale. A "menu" was placed in each guest room that included all in-room chattels with a purchase price. I'm not too sure if guests ever willingly made a purchase, however if any item went missing after a guest departed, their credit card was instantly debited with the appropriate price on the chattel-menu!

"Retail and Hospitality: Sell More Beds and Bed Nights by Collaborating
Posted on April 28, 2013 by Luigi Cappel

Three industries for the price of one. If you see me speak, you will know that ‘collaboration’ is a common word in my vocabulary. You may have a lot more opportunities with businesses in your neighborhood than you realize. If you are in the hospitality industry renting out rooms, or a retailer selling beds, or a bed manufacturer, this blog is for you.

I and other members of my family are in the market for a new bed. I believe my bed is over ten years old and I have had a number of back injuries over the years, so getting the right bed is very important.

The problem is, when you go to a retailer like Harvey Norman (only mentioning them because I have tried beds there, although I haven’t purchased yet) the sales people will obligingly let you try various beds, starting at the mid price range, then let you try dearer ones and cheaper ones and by the time you have been on half a dozen beds you are totally confused with independent coils and chiropractic society recommendations, whilst tempted by 5 years of interest free finance. That was deliberately a long sentence by the way, as can be the result of buying the wrong bed. Once you’ve made the decision, you are the proud owner of a second hand bed, worth about half of what you paid for it, assuming there is nothing physically wrong with the bed.

Read More: Click HERE

Signs you've chosen the wrong motel...continued

Choosing the right motel can make or break a happy holiday or business trip.

From time-to-time, as a public service we highlight those subtle tell-tale signs that indicate that you may have chosen the wrong motel.

If you see a sign similar to the one below as you enter a motel reception, we respectfully suggest that you slowly back-out without attracting attention to yourself and look for alternative digs...

Our favourite items from the terms and conditions thoughtfully tacked to the back wall of this random motel reception area is the succinct number 5: No guarantee of anything and the helpful capitised number 9: CAUTION PARENTS: BLOCK THE ADULT MOVIES IN ROOM.

Source: Murder Motels

Low-Life Motel Guests?

Dameon Aaron Pullan and Troy Edward Maddock

We see that the alleged selfish criminal actions of two low-lifes that include ripping off a Kaikoura motel will play out in the District Court next week...No doubt the justice system needs time to locate and moisten a couple of bus tickets.

"Two Dunedin men have been charged with trying to defraud a Kaikoura Motel of more than $1000.

One of the two men has also been charged with possession of a knife and stealing a beanie from the Kaikoura I-Site.

Troy Edward Maddock, 21, and Dameon Aaron Pullan, 20, appeared in the Blenheim District Court yesterday charged with using a false credit card to obtain credit of $1133 from the Kaikoura Gateway Motel between April 18 and April 22.

Maddock was also charged with possession of a knife in public, while in Scarborough Tce, and stealing the beanie, while Pullan was also charged with breaching an intensive supervision sentence.

Both men agreed to being remanded in custody and were remanded to appear in the Christchurch District Court on Tuesday."

Source: Click HERE

UPDATE # 1

A dear reader sent us the following picture that claims to be a self-indulgent "selfy" of Troy Edward Maddock. This was allegedly taken last week while staying at the same motel that he has been co-charged with trying to defraud.

UPDATE # 2

Oh dear....It would appear that motel-defrauding feral Troy Edward Maddock hasn't changed his self-indulgent, selfish ways.

We see that Maddock (now 22) has recently appeared in the Blenheim District Court and has admitted breaking into Redwood Tavern on Saturday morning, as well as a second charge of theft, relating to another incident.

Source: Click HERE