Farecast – Hotel Search Tool

Farecast is an airline fare comparison site that has released a beta version of its new hotel rate search tool. It presents data on the basis of rate histories for each hotel and is, therefore, able to identify high/low rate scales for hotels in each search universe. The search results indicate whether rates quoted for your selected date range are high/low or average based upon the hotels rate history.

European Business Hotels

Don’t miss the CNBC European Business’ edition on Hotels. In particular, there are two articles worthy of attention by planners working in European markets as well at hoteliers competing for market share there. First is a high level listing of what is reported to be Europe’s 25 top performing business hotels. We have added the Web links to these hotels in the sidebar to the right. Peruse the sites to get a sense of what market leaders are doing with their Web presences to appeal to and support meeting planning (e.g., venue details and photography of meeting spaces within the respective properties). Also, see the discussion on hot trends in European hotels.

US Meetings Expenditures Comparison

Data from M&C Magazine 2006 Meeting Market Report (2005 data) reflects comparative meeting spending profiles between associations and corporations.

Blogging – How to begin? Why?

The first step is the hardest.  Our goal is to identify the reader’s needs in a couple of ways.  We have completed a survey of meetings industry practitioners on the ways in which they use the Web to do  their job.  We will be publishing the results of that survey.   And we will begin feretting resources that respondents said are sometimes hard to find.  We will also present research from time to time that has been completed by us or others for the use of this community.

Think of it as an introduction to a dialogue.  This is our way of priming the well.  The rest is up to the reader.  The objective is to establish a collaborative space in which participants can share needs and experience in a way that becomes a laboratory for creative solutions that are responsive to the meetings community.

Some may feel an initial aversion to adding their voice to this dialogue but the goal is to share experiences that are valuable to others with similar needs. As dialogue builds, the blog becomes an organic knowledge base that is fully searchable. Contributing should be made to be as easy as possible and accessible in every way.  And it is.  Every entry is enabled to record your comments and/or questions.  Communicate freely!