I was amused to read Mrs Motella's recent one-way text conversation with our reluctant and distracted 16-year-old boy - obviously he had more important issues to cope with instead of communicating with his exasperated mother for the last 2-days:
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Motel Parenting
As micro-managing parents we regularly use technology to hector our teenage children.
I was amused to read Mrs Motella's recent one-way text conversation with our reluctant and distracted 16-year-old boy - obviously he had more important issues to cope with instead of communicating with his exasperated mother for the last 2-days:
I was amused to read Mrs Motella's recent one-way text conversation with our reluctant and distracted 16-year-old boy - obviously he had more important issues to cope with instead of communicating with his exasperated mother for the last 2-days:
The Patel-Motel
I spent a bit of time yesterday helping a recent immigrant get settled into her new flat.
She has a remarkable story. She came over to New Zealand 6-months ago from India in the hope of improving her and her family's life. She has left behind her husband and her 3-year-old son while she establishes herself. After completing exams and going through a process of practical on-the-job experience, she has recently managed to qualify to New Zealand standards and is working shift work part time until a full time position becomes available in her profession.
I got the impression that her modest 2-bedroom flat that is now sparsely furnished with a few x-motel items that I donated was a lot better than the environment she had left behind in India. The only item of significance she had purchased was an old 10-speed bike she needs to commute to work.
What amazed me about her was her burning drive and ambition. She has a positive attitude and was extremely happy and grateful that she is living in a beautiful country with such a high standard of living.
Once reunited, this family will add tremendous value to society. I couldn't help fantasizing about a regime where we could selectively export some of our own ungrateful, non-producing members of society in exchange for ambitious immigrants. I wondered how the average deadbeat welfare dependent Kiwi that is overburdened with entitlement would cope after being parachuted into the middle of India?
With this in mind, today I purchased, Life Behind The Lobby a book that tells the story behind the 'Patel-Motel' phenomenon in America.
Incredibly, Indian Americans own about half of all the motels in the United States. Even more remarkable, most of these motel owners come from the same region in India and—although they are not all related—seventy percent of them share the surname of Patel. Most of these motel owners arrived in the United States with few resources and, broadly speaking, they are self-employed, self-sufficient immigrants who have become successful—they live the American dream.
I wonder to what extent this phenomenon has occurred in the New Zealand motel industry?
She has a remarkable story. She came over to New Zealand 6-months ago from India in the hope of improving her and her family's life. She has left behind her husband and her 3-year-old son while she establishes herself. After completing exams and going through a process of practical on-the-job experience, she has recently managed to qualify to New Zealand standards and is working shift work part time until a full time position becomes available in her profession.
I got the impression that her modest 2-bedroom flat that is now sparsely furnished with a few x-motel items that I donated was a lot better than the environment she had left behind in India. The only item of significance she had purchased was an old 10-speed bike she needs to commute to work.
What amazed me about her was her burning drive and ambition. She has a positive attitude and was extremely happy and grateful that she is living in a beautiful country with such a high standard of living.
Once reunited, this family will add tremendous value to society. I couldn't help fantasizing about a regime where we could selectively export some of our own ungrateful, non-producing members of society in exchange for ambitious immigrants. I wondered how the average deadbeat welfare dependent Kiwi that is overburdened with entitlement would cope after being parachuted into the middle of India?
With this in mind, today I purchased, Life Behind The Lobby a book that tells the story behind the 'Patel-Motel' phenomenon in America.
Incredibly, Indian Americans own about half of all the motels in the United States. Even more remarkable, most of these motel owners come from the same region in India and—although they are not all related—seventy percent of them share the surname of Patel. Most of these motel owners arrived in the United States with few resources and, broadly speaking, they are self-employed, self-sufficient immigrants who have become successful—they live the American dream.
I wonder to what extent this phenomenon has occurred in the New Zealand motel industry?
Monday, May 14, 2012
Dunedin's New Hotel?
An unnamed party has commissioned a lawyer to front the plan.
The proposal is to build a five-star, 28-level hotel and apartment accommodation that features a swimming pool, a rooftop restaurant, an all-season entertainment rooftop area, car parks and a penthouse presidential suite. If built, the building will be the tallest in Dunedin and stand out from the crowd with the use of aluminum-framed textured facades and extensive use of glass.
The overall look of the stark design is bound to evoke controversy and it's scale will radically change the accommodation scene in New Zealand's largest provincial outcrop.
I can see that two camps will quickly form.
Those that will support the project will become swept-up in the glamor of the hotel business and envision themselves impressing guests as they sweep through an impressive chandaliered hotel lobby. Like most people, they assume that tourism is an easily understood one-dimensional business that provides great streams of income. They blindly assume the mantra, "build it and they will come" and believe this alone will attract hoards of tourists that were eager to visit before, if only the city had such an impressive facility.
A portion of these supporters will also put their money where their mouth is and eagerly fondle the hotel development's prospectus that will make no promises beyond a locked-in modest return for the first 2-years. The graphs of potential returns printed on glossy paper will presumptuously elevate skyward and will attract cheap finance for the development company from local Ma and Pa "investors.".
The hotel will attract a major international brand that will manage the business of the hotel and this will be seen as vindication that the development will be an outstanding success. The major players - the big names, Sheraton and the like - are in fact awake to the harsh realities of abysmal ROI from hotel ownership. Consequently they no longer own hotels and have become franchise operations that rent their name, offering a pooled marketing service and clipping the actual hapless hotel owners ticket for a piece of their turnover.
The other camp that will form will be the busybody social-minded folk that believe they have a collective right to impose restrictions and rules upon the productive. Dunedin will have its fair share of socialist cardigan-wearing, academic non-producers that will be earnestly forming committees against the development. The glass and aluminum facade of the proposed hotel will be like red-rag-to-a-bull to these hand-wringers that will be earnestly clinging-on to the concept that all development should be centrally planned and in keeping with Dunedin's old-world charm.
After the stadium blowout, it will be interesting to learn if the cash-strapped city council will be supportive and offer any enticements (ie corporate welfare).
The resource consent process, the fawning and the howling from interest groups will be interesting to follow.
Monday, May 7, 2012
The GC
On behalf of NZ taxpayers, NZ On Air generously handed over $420,000 to assist the show's production.
The howling that has ensued has been highly amusing and commentators have formed two distinct camps. The first camp take a "positive" view and believe the television series has its place - they either enjoy switching off their brains and watching eye-candy or celebrate the fact that young Maori are being portrayed as "successful" by not appearing on Crimewatch. The other camp have quickly written off the series as trashy and an embarrassment, but want to see taxpayer funds directed into more high-brow television production.
As usual I have formed my own camp. My observation is that love-it-or-hate-it, The GC is a successful show (assuming that the initial high viewer ratings continue). We get what we deserve and the TV3 viewer stats tell us that a hard-core of Kiwis enjoy to gazing at the contrived lives of narcissistic wannabes.
As the show appears to be successful, was the decision to provide corporate welfare justified? Er..no.
In fact NZ on Air should be disbanded immediately. Why should a parental NZ on Air board dictate and distribute welfare to producers of "a colourful range of local television, radio, music and new media content to extend choices for New Zealand audiences?"
But would have The GC been produced without taxpayer funding? Absolutely!. The well-proven formula that appeals to the lowest common denominator appears to work in the marketplace. However, success is not guaranteed as the the market will dictate that there is a limit to these type of shows.
If we don't fund it, will we just get an endless array trash media...I don't think so.
Instead of the producers of all types of media spending time and resource lobbying to tap into other-people's-money, maybe they should focus on what the rest of us do - stand up on their own feet and let the market decide.
The type of media consumers view is rapidly changing and a conveyor belt of talented folk have now got access to cost effective platforms that allow them to showcase their passion. It is also possible to expose your media project idea to a wide range of people and crowd source funding from willing buyers.
...Like this guy, that is creating a multi-media project on The Motels of Route 66. Luckily, America doesn't appear to have a government broadcast funding agency that is stifling the market.
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
Naked Motel
You may be inspired by a quirky x-Brit that operates The Fawlty Towers Motel in Cocoa Beach, Florida that has come up with a plan to improve the bottom line of his rapidly declining motel business.
From today, the motel plans to fill its numerous vacant rooms with naked patrons in a last gasp effort to defer permanently closing the doors after years of declining trade.
The decision to "promote family oriented nudism" is to set the establishment apart from the increasing competition from larger chain hotels.
Thankfully, the motel owners will remain clothed, however their guests may go nude as long as they remained within the confines of the motel.
Judging by the way this titivating news has gone viral, it would appear that this promotion is off to a good start.
I'll be keeping a very close eye on future developments...
Is your business run for your convenience or your customers?
It's a simple question that is worth considering.
For some accommodation providers, the iconic TV series Fawlty Towers is a series of real-life snapshots of dealing with ungrateful and awkward customers.
Life would be so much easier without customers. You could spend your life pottering around without cleaning up after them and answering repetitive, inane questions...
For some accommodation providers, the iconic TV series Fawlty Towers is a series of real-life snapshots of dealing with ungrateful and awkward customers.
Life would be so much easier without customers. You could spend your life pottering around without cleaning up after them and answering repetitive, inane questions...
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Ousting Duds
"Hekia Parata, the new Minister of Education, has an agenda. She appears to want to tackle the problem of poor teachers.Source: Click HERE
It is time, she announced to principals, for them to sort the wheat from the chaff.
Teachers are important. Last month, Treasury Secretary Gabriel Makhlouf referenced an OECD report that confirmed class size matters less than teacher quality and improved education has an impact on GDP.
He also made the point that in New Zealand, social-economic background has more of an impact on education results than in most other OECD countries, which is a polite way of saying our education regime favours white and Asian students at the expense of the brown and poor.
Parata is talking about performance pay for teachers and publishing league tables for schools based on National Standards. This is, as Sir Humphrey would say, courageous.
Teacher unions are opposed to both policies. To bolster their argument the NZEI recently brought Australian academic Professor Margaret Wu to our shores. Wu was quoted in the Otago Daily Times as saying that "we need to look at education more broadly than just students' academic results".
It is hard to imagine a more incredulously stupid comment. We pay teachers to teach - not to eat their lunch. We can and should assess success by comparing what the class knows at the end of the process from what they knew at the start. A competent principal will know which teachers are effective and which are not.
A system that does not reward success encourages failure. Poor performers stay, talent leaves, children remain uneducated. Our education industry has become a sheltered workshop for useless teachers and a frustrating workplace for good educators.
The problem with the NZEI and the PPTA is that they are unions masquerading as education think-tanks. Unions exist to advance the cause of their members. This is honest work in a free society and teacher unions have been remarkably successful at shielding their members from any form of performance scrutiny. They are so good I suspect they have convinced even themselves that it is not possible to tell a good teacher from a bad one and that students learn by osmosis rather than by anything a teacher actually does or does not do.
Thirty per cent of students leave school without passing Year 12, or NCEA 2. This is a shocking result and it is worse for Pacific Island and Maori students. We are condemning a third of our students to low-paid, unskilled futures to shield lazy teachers.
Rumour has it Parata harbours grander ambitions. If she can tackle and defeat the teacher unions she should invest in a set of pearls and a black leather handbag."
BDO's Apoligetic Plastic Bag
One of the advantages of being biased and opinionated is that you can easily ring fence entire groups of people that you can adopt a default healthy skepticism with anything that they they do and say.
Whilst you can never take anything for granted, any communication from school teachers, councilors, politicians, Green Party supporters and other non-producers should always be given extra scrutiny.
Another sub-set that we need to be wary about are those that identify themselves as...accountants.
Whilst basic accountancy should underpin most business decision making, it has to be appreciated that socially inept accountants offering opinion have a tendency to suck creativity and fun from any space that they are permitted to inhabit. The worst thing imaginable is to have more than one accountant on a board that governs a private company. Any more and the company will soon loose its edge and customers will inevitably evacuate in droves after becoming disconnected...and bored.
The trouble with accountants is that they take everything so literally. Everything to them is in black and white and they have a natural desire to overcomplicate, over analyse and never trust natural business instincts.
As an example, have a look at the plastic bag (pictured below) that has been supplied by accountants, BDO that turned up at our motel this week.
This plastic bag has been obviously produced after a group of BDO accountants locked themselves away in a darkened room for 48-hours and tried to come-up with the perfect client giveaway. After discounting the more obvious branded calculators, pens and card holders they decided a client gift should prove to be practical and useful....so they unanimously agreed on a branded plastic bag so their clients could bundle together important financial paperwork and effortlessly carry it around.
The trouble is that plastic bags may be seen to be politically incorrect and BDO that promotes mumbo-jumbo new-age triple bottom line accounting amongst its services, decided that they would need to exhaustively explain themselves. In red lettering printed on both sides of the bag.
The end result is an hilarious abomination of silly hand-wringing, eco-apoligist, corporate responsibility bullsh*t.
Whilst you can never take anything for granted, any communication from school teachers, councilors, politicians, Green Party supporters and other non-producers should always be given extra scrutiny.
Another sub-set that we need to be wary about are those that identify themselves as...accountants.
Whilst basic accountancy should underpin most business decision making, it has to be appreciated that socially inept accountants offering opinion have a tendency to suck creativity and fun from any space that they are permitted to inhabit. The worst thing imaginable is to have more than one accountant on a board that governs a private company. Any more and the company will soon loose its edge and customers will inevitably evacuate in droves after becoming disconnected...and bored.
The trouble with accountants is that they take everything so literally. Everything to them is in black and white and they have a natural desire to overcomplicate, over analyse and never trust natural business instincts.
As an example, have a look at the plastic bag (pictured below) that has been supplied by accountants, BDO that turned up at our motel this week.
This plastic bag has been obviously produced after a group of BDO accountants locked themselves away in a darkened room for 48-hours and tried to come-up with the perfect client giveaway. After discounting the more obvious branded calculators, pens and card holders they decided a client gift should prove to be practical and useful....so they unanimously agreed on a branded plastic bag so their clients could bundle together important financial paperwork and effortlessly carry it around.
The trouble is that plastic bags may be seen to be politically incorrect and BDO that promotes mumbo-jumbo new-age triple bottom line accounting amongst its services, decided that they would need to exhaustively explain themselves. In red lettering printed on both sides of the bag.
The end result is an hilarious abomination of silly hand-wringing, eco-apoligist, corporate responsibility bullsh*t.
Click to enlarge:
Saturday, April 21, 2012
Surge In Baby Boomers Going Mobile
The latest findings from a British Hotel Guest Survey has some interesting revelations that will be relative to consumers in the New Zealand market.
There has been a dramatic surge of leisure travellers with 61% in 2012 that are now wielding smartphones, up from 36% and 47% in 2010 and 2011 respectively.
And surprisingly it is the Baby Boomers (Aged 48 - 66) that are leading the pack, with the growth of ownership in that segment now being double that of Generation Y (aged 19 - 30).
Searching for hotel contact details and locations via GPS are ranked as first and second most common uses, with ‘booking’ trailing behind in fifth place.
For accommodation providers, the tools that customers are using to research and book travel are changing at a rapid pace and it is imperative that properties ensure that they have a prominent mobile web presence.
Baby Boomers are the most prolific users of commercial accommodation and it is important to acknowledge their rapid rise in smartphone ownership when considering marketing initiatives.
With the rise of connected guests travelling with smartphones, properties offering a free internet option to guests is now a gimmie, however it is worth noting that guests are now becoming discerning about the quality of their internet experience. For property owners, this may mean changing internet plans to increase data caps and bandwidth. Continued investment in guest internet networks is also required to ensure guests' ease of use, security and reliability of internet services.
And of course, some knowledge of technology by accommodation providers is required in order to have empathy and provide free-tech advice when bewildered Baby Boomers are unable to connect to the motel's WiFi.
Banning Unverified Online Reviews
I looks like Travelbug has reacted to feedback from its suppliers that were receiving uncomplimentary "unverified" reviews on their Travelbug property listings from anyone that was willing to leave a name and an email address.
Gather a group of accommodation providers together and start talking about "unverified" online reviews and it doesn't take long for the rage to escalate. For consumers, it's not an issue as they seem to easily decipher unverified accommodation reviews before booking an appropriate accommodation choice.
Travelbug announced that they will now only allow "verified" reviews sourced from responses to email prompts sent to customers after their accommodation stay and presumably from customers that use the same email address that they provided when they booked.
It is questionable if the unverified reviews gave an overall slanted view on accommodation experiences on Travelbug, however it is sad that their easily accessible feedback system may have been abused.
Will the removal of the ability for members of the public to post an unverified review disconnect some users and take away an element of compelling content from consumers browsing Travelbug? Maybe - so that's why it was a brave decision for Travelbug to make.
In an email to suppliers on Friday, Travelbug states:
Since we launched Travelbug in 2007, one of the most common queries we have had about reviews from operators has been, "why do you let people comment who didn't even book on Travelbug?!"
Well, good news! This week we have changed the review system and the only reviews that will now appear on Travelbug are from those that we can verify as having booked through our system. All reviews that meet the criteria will receive the 'verified review' badge. We want to have a site where travellers keep each other informed, but that information needs to be from as reliable source as possible. This change should make all reviews more reliable.
You can read a little more of the background to the change on our blog here.
Some operators will see a drop in the number of reviews on their Travelbug page due to the removal of old unverified reviews. Some will notice that their rating has improved due to the removal of old unverified thumbs down reviews and some may see the opposite. This change is better for the site as a whole and you can now be sure that you will never see a review placed on your page by someone who didn't book through us or from someone who is seeking out review sites to vent their spleen.
So, there are three ways in which a review will be badged as "verified" on Travelbug:
1. A traveller makes a booking on Travelbug and comments on Travelbug
2. A traveller makes a booking direct with you if you are a using BookIt in your website, and comments when prompted by BookIt via email
3. A traveller makes a booking on a BookIt reseller (eg your local RTO site) and comments when prompted by BookIt via email
If you have any questions, please let me know, and have a great weekend.
Cheers - Daniel & the Travelbug Team
www.travelbug.co.nz
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