Hotel Blogs: The Users Check In
Dig the blogging thing? (Well, you must, since you're reading this.)
Or are you simply into hotels?
Fans of both will find nirvana in several Web sites specifically dedicated to blogs about individual hotels or chains. I have checked out a couple of the blogs devoted to chains: www.starwoodlobby.com and www.blogsmarriott.com.
I also looked at some independent hotels that publish their own blogs. They include:
* The colorful blog presented by New York's Chelsea Hotel, available at www.chelseahotelblog.com.
* The blog of the Hawthorne, a folksy Massachusetts property. Check it out at www.hawthornehotelblogspot.com.
With the exception of Starwoodlobby.com, all of the blogs were created and are managed by the hotels themselves. Starwoodlobby.com is the handiwork of two fans of Starwood's wide-ranging portfolio of properties (which include Sheraton, Le Meridien, Westin, St. Regis, W and Luxury Collection). The site allows guests of the Starwood chain to post their own reviews. As usual in this citizen-reviewer craze popularized by Tripadvisor.com, the reviews seem to fall either into the Heavy Fawning or Sharply Critical categories. But they give good insider info on hotels, albeit only about Starwood hotels.
In Blogsmarriott.com, Marriott head honcho Bill Marriott muses about trends in the hotel business or Marriott hotels. Guests at Marriott can respond with critiques about Marriotts (or Sheratons or any hotel, for that matter.)
The blogs run by individual hotels also allow guests to add their views.
But, really, this blogging about blog sites can get incestuous. All we need now is for another blogger to link this item to another blog, and so on. In an attempt to keep this whole blog thing under control, a question: Has anybody used the sites I mentioned and have thoughts to share? Or do you know of any other blogs devoted to chain hotels? And how do you know whom to trust?
By Gary Lee |
July 10, 2007; 10:18 AM ET
| Category:
Gary Lee
,
Hotels
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View or post comments
Posted by: Debbie | July 10, 2007 2:16 PM
Slight typo on the Marriott blog, Gary. It should be http://www.blogs.marriott.com (that dot between "blogs" and "marriott" is vital!)
Posted by: Dick | July 10, 2007 6:02 PM
Slight typo on the Marriott blog URL, Gary. It should be http://www.blogs.marriott.com (that dot between "blogs" and "marriott" is vital!)
Posted by: Dick | July 10, 2007 6:02 PM
I like StarwoodLobby.com better than TripAdvisor. The design is much cleaner with less ads everywhere. Since I'm a Platinum member with Starwood, I usually stay at their hotels anyway, so StarwoodLobby is more focused here. I find the reviews are well written, although it seems like they're still building up their repertoire/depth.
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Hi Gary, Living with Legends:Hotel Chelsea blog is an unofficial blog and is written by two long-term residents of the Chelsea Hotel, Ed Hamilton and Debbie Martin. Thanks for the link.