Hospitality and BlOgGinG

When I was first introduced to blogging, I was not sure how it would fit into what I do as a Concierge and the Hospitality Industry. But blogging has come a long way and has become a great resource for many industries. The first blog I use to read religiously was FlyerTalk.com I would listen in on the top “road warriors” comments, feedback and advice about all hotel groups. It was like having a direct window into guest’s top concerns, thoughts, and advice about our Hotel. I compared it to people watching 101, in a crowded top notch restaurant with all the who’s who of the business travel world. With this new perspective, I was armed with insight which helped me become a better Concierge. Now Blogging has arrived and the hotel industry has rolled out the welcome mat:Tracking Tourism – Thoughts from the first ever travel industry bloggers summit,     found in eHotelier

Face to interface with Virtual Anna

 

Videoconferencing my way to work is my normal practice and my biggest luxury. I’ve traded my car in for a videoconferencing system which literally allows me to travel, anywhere in the world, with a public IP address. I refer to it as my modern day,

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang!

Getting in my car and driving on the long, congested highway now feels somewhat foreign and surreal. I’ve been living the Virtual dream for 7 ½ years. I am at the point of no return and cannot go back to my old routine…

I have been working in Virtual longer than I have worked at my Concierge desk in real life (physically). I realize that my day to day experience may be a very unique one and I would like to give you a glimpse of my perspective.

What is it like to be a fly on the wall? Just a glimpse…….

I meet people everyday approaching me as if I may be a video. When I greet and respond to them, I get reactions of amazement, awe, shock, laughter, sometimes even fright, but now, many, many more reactions of, but of course!

Like watching a seed germinate and sprout into a flower, the reactions have changed and evolved, right before my very eyes.  I can see that now is the time for this Technology. For others soon to live the Virtual dream…..

Telecommuting

  

The Quiet Revolution: Telecommuting” This article was on MSNBC.com website in their Future of Business series which focuses on trends and products that can be the next big thing. They ended the article on a good note. It made mention of the Virtual Concierge!  Perhaps this is a sign of the next big thing?! 

Percolating ideas

 

Dear Dr. A’s Hotel & Resort Management course at Hawaii Pacific University,

Thank you in advance for your participation in thoughtful discussion and dialogue about the many faces of the Hospitality Industry. I am inviting you, my guests, to step into my virtual living room/ think tank. As my virtual guests, I will be serving my imaginary tea/coffee to get the creative juices flowing. Please sit back, get comfortable and feel free to chime in and engage. We may not come up with the answer to the Inconvenient Truth, but in the process, we may help come up with innovative strategies and services for the next generation Hospitality Industry.

My challenge question:

“You are an innovator and can carve out a niche in virtual applications for the Hospitality Industry, what virtual application would it be? How would it work? How would it be better than the traditional process? How would you make it inviting and approachable for those who shy away from technology?”

The touch of Human-ness in technology

 

My motto for the Virtual Concierge has always been “The human-ness in technology” because I discovered that although the Virtual Concierge is only possible through the innovative use of technology, the human and the ability to still make very real, emotional, tangible connections with the guest, is very much a part of what makes the Virtual Concierge captivating, compelling and successful. A recent article in today’s e-Hotelier has touched on this very subject of the use of technology in Hospitality. The article titled,” Do ‘High Tech’ and Hospitality belong in the same sentence?” questions the ability to combine the two without loosing the very essence of  “Hospitality”. If you scroll down to my entry titled, “How am I driving?” and read the comments that guests have made about their Virtual Concierge experience, I would beg to differ………

Is virtual real?

  

   Rong Cheng Robot

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/photo/2006-08/07/content_659088.htm

I read in this week’s eHotelier.com, an article by one of my favorite travel columnist Yeoh Siew Hoon. The article is titled,Five questions to ask for a virtual business.

http://ehotelier.com/browse/news_item.php?id=P11679
When I first read this I was thinking of virtual business like telecommunting, remote work, much like what I do. It is actually all about the virtual world and having avitars and MMORPGS – Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games.

I am curious, when one thinks of virtual do you automatically think of  machine or human, make believe or real? A new friend and mentor, James Key Lim at www.jameskeylim.com  also brought up this very important point about the word virtual. He said when he hears virtual  he thinks at first of something intangible.  

How can I correct that? I am always introduced at the hotel as Virtual Anna, the Virtual Concierge. No wonder half the people that approach me are surprised that I am real!

At work I appear on the plasma screen daily to all guests at the hotel lobby. I challenge myself to make a very real, memorable, lasting impression. When I am able to engage and make that very human connection with a guest, where all the technology melts away around us, I feel I have done my job well. If I can make hospitality and warmth transend through the screen I have reinvented the word virtual.

Virtual Job Interviews, Extra Worries 

In May, Microsoft, Sodexho, T-Mobile, Verizon, Hewlett-Packard and eBay participated in an enormous job fair. What, you hadn’t heard about it? That’s probably because it was on Second Life.  Posted by Deb Perelman on August 27, 2007 6:02 PM at E-Week Blog