Web 2.0 and trip to Utah for Internship

Today is Thursday July15th, and where is Evan? In Springfield Missouri. Leg one of the the three day trip to Utah is underway where I will start my internship on Monday. How does Web 2.0 apply to this? Well one of the things has to do with the prosummer concept. We are staying at the La Quinta Inn in Springfield. Why this hotel of all of the options? Consumer Ratings combined with the price of the room. This feedback is now possible because consumers are actively rating places like hotels restaurant, and posting these rating systems on dedicated websites set up for this information.

Places like hotels have been gathering users reviews for decades the difference now is that the consumer has access to this information and can use it to actively make buying (or in my case staying) decisions. The response from the Hotel (and other consumer focused industries) has been to upgrade their ammenities, and to offer to make things work right away.

For example when I first checked into my room the T.V. wouldn't work. I called downstairs and someone was to my room in three minutes and made a correction to the code on the remote.

LaQuinta is actively campaigning through their literature and their response time so that when you walk out of the hotel that you will give them a 10. It even says in their folders that are on the bed, "If there is any reason you can't rate us a ten out of ten let us know so we can fix it."

This is the power of Web 2.0 The good hotels will continue to attract customers while those who fail to live up to standards will lose a valuable customer base, leading to loss of profits, and will find themselves with more and more empty rooms (especially in this economy).