Hundreds of local US tax authorities are attempting to apply room occupancy tax rates on the margin captured by online travel companies under merchant model hotel booking transactions. The question raging in courtrooms, executive suites and now, the halls of congress is “Who deserves the money?”

This week, the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AH&LA) held its annual Legislative Action Summit in Washington, DC. A significant portion of the agenda was dedicated to discussing the impact of hotel merchant occupancy taxes and expressing the industry’s views to US federal legislators. Over the past decade, this issue has spawned litigation, now numbering in the hundreds of cases, by cities and counties to recover alleged lost tax revenues from the online travel agencies.

The rhetoric recently escalated due to an open letter addressed to the US hotel industry requesting support of proposed legislation that would eliminate merchant hotel room occupancy tax assessments. The letter was drafted by a consortium of organizations representing online travel sellers including: the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA), the Business Travel Coalition (BTC), the Hotel Electronic Distribution Network Association (HEDNA), the Interactive Travel Services Association (ITSA), and the U.S. Tour Operators Association (USTOA).

For those desiring more detail on the history, stakes and and ramifications of the potential outcomes, here is a comprehensive blog post on the topic: Bathing in the Hotel Merchant Tax Quagmire

Many challenges face the global travel industry. New business models, competitive marketing strategies, emerging mobile technologies, interactive customer engagement and the constant need to drive profitability create complexities that were never previously imagined by hotels, destinations, airlines or online travel companies.

Each week, RockCheetah and the Views from a Corner Suite blog will present a new poll to gauge the sentiment of the travel industry, and of course, allow respondents to comment on the issues at hand.

Related posts:

1. Bathing in the Hotel Merchant Tax Quagmire
2. Online Travel Companies in Hotel Tax Squeeze Play
3. Travel Industry Site Traffic Rebound – Not a Hotel Slam Dunk

The yearly, techie travel-fest that is TravelCom occurred last week in Dallas and while we were not in attendance, we did have the opportunity to follow along via the 21st century wonder of Twitter.

By most accounts, it appears that this year's conference was (surprisingly) quite good.  We have certainly been critical of the redundant and often rudimentary nature of past events, but in reading the comments, most attendees seemed pleased.  Or perhaps they just really like the Kodak guy.

Either way, we felt a quick look at the highlights via Twitter was in order.  The good, the bad and the funny.

stephenjoyce Thank you @jeffhayzlett for reminding everyone at #travelcom that we don't sell travel, we sell memories & experiences.

dsholes Jeff Hayzlett of Kodak: Prior to new Twitter strategy 42 percent of tweets about Kodak were complaints . Today 7 percent are. #Travelcom

TravelCom "Engagement is the New ROI...For us it's about changing the brand into who we really are @kodak" -Jeffrey Hayzlett #TravelCom

hharteveldt 66% of consumers feel they can influence brands through social media #TravelCom

lanedouglas The OTA session was a 45 minute air-suck. Very disappointing compared to other sessions. #TravelCom

stephenjoyce I liked Dennis from @googletravel who said that 4 major drivers are search, video, mobile, & cloud computing. #travelcom

johninorlando Travel destinations are competing with couches & Netflix right now. (Forrester) #TravelCom

johninorlando Twitter = customer service & consumer insight. Not traffic driver. #TravelCom

johninorlando To summarize: Twitter = Customer Service, Facebook = Sweepstakes #TravelCom

shelisrael AdMob sales guy talking. "I can paralyze you with the different kinds of targeting we can do." I'm sure. #Travelcom

shelisrael Coffer TripAdvisor works because traveler's wat to tell a story. They don't just share horror stories. Reviews skew heavily positive. #Travelcom

There you go, two days worth of conference summed up in about 10 tweets.

Overall, it sounds like (most of the) previous tech / travel conferences we have attended in the last 5 years.  Mobile, social, reviews, trust.  The difference this year?  More emphasis, or perhaps acceptance, on actually doing something about it.

The travel industry has been talking about these topics for awhile, but I get the sense that this is the year where talk will turn into action.  Whether we like the idea of Facebook or not, we need to respond, react and communicate with our consumers.  15 years ago, the travel industry determined the time, place and topic, now consumers are in control of those variables and expect us to respond accordingly.

Perhaps most interesting was the response around Jeff Hayzlett's presentation.  So much acknowledgment and agreement that the industry, especially from the DMO / CVB side, needs to change and change quickly.  Rarely have I heard so many colleagues embrace the idea of 'selling memories.'  Yet I still wonder whether the impact of this emotional 'pep-rally' will transfer into our strategy over the next 6 months.

We all seem to agree something needs to change.  We are all essentially selling the same basic travel 'memory.'  So why are we fighting to stay alive without support from our industry peers?

We are fighting a war for survival with 2,000 independent soldiers...instead of one army.

Royal Caribbean Int'l HQ in Miami, Fla.

According to an SEC filing, Fain exercised his options on 297,000 shares at $9.90 apiece, and sold them for in between $ 30.795 to $30.85, for a net take of about $6.18 million.

Three other RCL Board members – Thomas Pritzker, William K. Reilly, and Laura Laviada, also exercised options for 20,000 shares and sold them.

It’s no crime to exercise the share options you have in your own company and then sell them - that’s what they’re for. Besides, Fain still has plenty of shares left – 1.38 million, to be precise.

But the timing does have some significance. RCL shares (NYSE:RCL) have been climbing steadily month-on-month since a Feb 2009 low of $6, and currently stands at $31.11.

After a sustained bull run in the middle of the worst recession since the Great Depression, when your CEO and members of the Board start offloading shares at the same time, the first question that springs to mind – Is RCL’s bull run over? If so, is it the cruise industry or just RCL?

RCL’s main competitor Carnival Corp. has also enjoyed the same bull run. Carnival shares (NYSE:CCL) have gone up from $19.50 in Feb 2009 to $37.66 as of now. Carnival saw record bookings in Jan and Feb, leading to a recently announced price hike.

The cruise industry in general too looks pretty optimistic. In 2010, CLIA members will carry 14 million passengers (up from 13.5 million in 2009) and introduce 12 new ships for a total investment of $6.5 billion. Between 2010 and 2012, 26 new ships representing $15 billion are in the pipeline.

After the huge publicity blitz and successful launch of Oasis of the Seas as the world’s largest cruise ship, RCL couldn’t be happier. And perhaps that’s the point. With sister-ship Allure of the Seas lined up for launch in December, it doesn’t seem possible that RCL could top the kind of media attention and customer interest generated by Oasis. 

Doesn’t mean that RCL is going to tank, but the $30 target set for RCL shares by analysts has already been breached, and its own chairman and CEO saw this as the best time to cash in. This would also explain some unusual patterns in option activity for RCL, and why some bears are piling on board RCL, betting that RCL will coast into April expiration below the $28 level.

This is purely a hypothetical scenario. It’s also an experiment in dual-blogging (think bloggers meet dual-pianists in Vegas). Rodney Payne from Think! and I are going to be hypothesising about the effects of Facebook shutting down for a week. Instead of commenting on each other’s blogs, we’re going to be posting each other’s responses as a blog.

[WB] Day 1. The Facebook URL stops responding. First thing that happens is an insane amount of activity on Twitter reporting the news. After that all hell breaks loose in the tech blogosphere; Mashable, Inside Facebook, All Facebook, Techcrunch, Techmeme et all just go crazy over the news. Traditional media follows a few hours behind.

[RP] Day 2. Facebook led last night’s evening news and is splashed across the front page of newspapers worldwide. Twitter traffic has more-than-doubled overnight with almost every tweet referencing #Facebook. Tweets have largely replaced status updates. New account registrations have grown significantly. The ‘Twitter Whale’ is displayed frequently to show that Twitter is slow and overwhelmed with traffic. Cell-phone carriers and email providers see a noticeable increase in messages. Blogs are filled with stories guessing at what’s going on.

[WB] Day 3. Everybody who threw a party and used Facebook Events to organize the party is ticketed off because nobody showed up. The first “Life without Facebook” t-shirts are starting to appear. ‘Experts’ on the news networks make suggestions about how to deal with Facebook detox. Facebook is scheduling a new conference for the next day.

[RP] Day 4. People realize that life A.F. (after Facebook) isn’t too scary. Facebook isn’t a matter of life-and-death like internet banking or email. It’s just a convenient social tool. Productivity at offices has surprisingly decreased slightly because many people can’t focus on one task without some distraction. Employees who had learned to collaborate using Facebook messages and Facebook chat are now forced to return to slower methods of communication.

[WB] Day 5. Facebook promises the network will be back up soon. Some businesses complain drops in sales because of a reliance on Fanpages and Facebook ads. Legal action is discussed. Flickr reports an increase in new accounts and uploaded photos. Some kids fear their Farmville animals will die.

[RP] Day 6. You would have thought that with 450 million people addicted to social networking and gaming that a rival-site would rise to meteoric success. However, MySpace hasn’t seen too much of a bump in traffic, commentators think its because of the lack of privacy built into people’s social graph. People who log in to their old accounts find a social wasteland with no posts from legitimate friends and just a scattering of links leading to creepy websites. People are beginning to think that Facebook may never come back online. Google Buzz and Orkut are getting an increased trickle of new users but its just not the same, all of our photos and friends were on Facebook.

[WB] Day 7. Media has nothing left to talk about and tech bloggers are too busy with the latest Apple iSomething. People stop caring about it. Life goes on without Facebook although they wonder what their friends are up to. Facebook announces service will be restored tomorrow and blames a proprietary Microsoft product for causing the crash of it’s service.

[RP] Day 8. The reckoning is upon us. Zuckerberg flicks the switch and issues a press release to that affect which is picked up by every single news organization in the world. Facebook blows past its previous 30% of web traffic to attract over 50% of internet users. Facebook’s servers overload and go down for another hour or two. When they come back online, people connect again, pay-per-click ads resume, and Farmville animals are revived just in time… Life goes on.

And this isn't a matter of simply including traditional agency inventory sourced via a Global Distribution System (GDS) such as Sabre or Travelport. This stroke of genius is actually the latest convergence of booking.com inventory with Priceline.com non-opaque (i.e. Travelweb) inventory.

Booking.com's rapidly expanding inventory base within North America now enables Priceline to offer multiple sources of inventory with multiple payment options for the same hotel. At the same time, as more hotels roll out, Priceline has removed one of the largest perceived negatives to booking with an OTA - upfront payment.

The gap between supplier.com and online travel agencies continues to close. First booking fees fall, then change and cancel penalties disappear and now this latest game-changer.

Over the past couple of months, I’ve spent a lot of time in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, and that resulted in an overdose of branding messages from regional airlines like Singapore Airlines, Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia and Tiger Airways.

I was intrigued in particular by Malaysia Airlines’ “Malaysian Hospitality” campaign – which is a play on the MH code of the airline. Soon enough, I got to experience the “world’s best in-flight service” myself, on Business Class from Kuala Lumpur to Los Angeles (see photos at the bottom of this article). And here’s what I feel is the essence of Malaysian Hospitality – it’s the “human-ness” of flying. Let me explain what I mean.

Malaysian Hospitality – a story of genuine care

It may sound strange, but a lot of airlines that have good service often lack “humanity” in their service. Sometimes, it even becomes robotic – I’m sure you’ve seen robotic smiles plastered on flight attendants. Malaysia Airlines’ service, in contrast, was genuine and very human – one that makes you feel good as a person. Let me share a story.

I opted to have my meal soon after take-off, while the gentleman next to me chose to have it later. I first received some traditional satay (a Malaysian specialty), and then more aromatic dishes. This obviously tempted the person seated next to me and he kept stealing glances at my food. Without him asking for anything, the leading stewardess asked him if he’d like some starters or dessert – he opted for the latter and happily munched on the tiramisu.

Not only was the service genuine, it was pro-active. I’m not saying no other airlines provide such service, just that it’s a rare feat. Moreover, we were all greeted by names, and complete eye-contact was made before we were spoken to – all the basics of providing a personal service.

The omnipresent Malaysian essence – on-board, and in the lounge

Not only was the food very Malaysian – like the satay and the teh tarik (pulled-tea), the products and service were too. The crew pointed not with their fingers, but with their thumb above their fist- a very Malaysian gesture. In the Business Class lounge, there were a variety of local foods available, and local massages too. So even if you’re in-transit, and not getting out of the airport, you can experience glimpses of Malaysian life.

Moreover, I was impressed with the lounge because not only did it have a dedicated Business Center and phone booths for private calls, but also a golf putting area and a children’s playground. I’m not sure how many children frequent the playground, but the other services were certainly desirable.

Room for improvement?

For one, the Boeing 777-200ER aircraft that Malaysia Airlines uses for this flight isn’t the newest. In fact, Singapore Airlines has retired all but two of this type from their fleet. Not only is this a competitive disadvantage, the wear and tear and the older business class product shows. In fact, the new flat-bed by AirAsia X may even prove to be a challenger, given the airline’s competitive fares.

I guess things will improve once the airline gets the new A380s over the next few years. The CEO recently mentioned that it will have a refurbished product, including a Premium Economy class.

Having said that, I think the excellent service and the genuine show of care more than makes up for the not-so-latest product. Overall, it was a pleasure experiencing Malaysian Hospitality, and I’d encourage you to give it a try.

• Is Premium Economy here to stay? A brand review of All Nippon Airlines
• I’d happily pay extra to an airline to treat me like a VIP. Would you?
• Malaysia Airlines’ blog may do wonders for the brand
• Is Qatar Airways really the five star experience in the sky? A brand analysis
• How business lessons from AirAsia can rescue the battered Air India brand

Hyatt Meetings Video ad 'Ultra Lounge' on Funny or Die

The first video, titled ‘Ultra-Lounge’ begins with a meeting about to begin and the meetings planner who put it together bragging to his boss about the hip lounge next door which they can hit after the meeting.

As the presentation begins, the slide falls over and then the music begins to throb and no one can hear anything else.

To make things worse, a young couple crashes in from the lounge next door and starts making out on the conference table.

The video ends with the boss shouting to the planner that he’s fired, and then the Hyatt tag line “Bad meetings happen. Just not here.”

Hyatt Meetings Video ad 'Benihana' on Funny or Die

The second video titled ‘Benihana’ is just as enjoyable. Starts with a boss mad at the planner because everyone is busy enjoying the chef’s antics, and a 15 minute snack break got turned into a 2 hour fun fest.

There’s only 7 minutes of scheduled meeting time left. The fun loving planner reluctantly clears the table and just as the boss starts talking about fourth quarter profits, a mime tiptoes into the room and the meeting again comes to a halt. Cue the tag line.

The deal with Funny or Die was put together for Hyatt by its media agency PHD, and Hyatt ended up paying less than $300,000 for the entire project – including production and advertising.

Original thinking by Hyatt’s ad guys, and given how bitingly funny the videos are, safe to say that Hyatt is going to get a huge ROI on its $300,000 investment on this campaign.

The Hyatt Meetings videos debut on Funny or Die (http://www.funnyordie.com) on Thursday. Meanwhile, you can see the videos here and here.

There is little doubt that Facebook is well on its way to becoming the dominant homepage for many online users in the United States.  Not to mention the social network’s slow but steady rise in popularity around the world.

For marketers, it is a basic concept.  We want our message to be in front of as many consumers as possible for the lowest possible price.  Put 350 million people in one place, online or otherwise, and marketers will fall over themselves to hock the value of their product or service.

In the case of Facebook, we know the audience is there, but are they listening to the message?

For example, take our recent tweet from @travel2dot0:

“Facebook users will vote for anything if you ask: http://ow.ly/12Cy8 Which state will reach 1mil fans first. Did DMOs miss something?”

The tweet is referring to an article about one of the many flavors of the week on Facebook – numerous pages devoted to which US state can gather 1 million fans first.

Alas, these state pages have been created specifically for this contest and do not represent the official DMO Facebook pages.

That said, in less than a month, Texas has amassed more than 714,000 fans in this very unscientific survey.

But what types of users are represented in the 700,000 number?  As a DMO, we want to be friends with all of these users, right? Are these users as valuable as all others?

We have some thoughts on that.  We call them status hoarders.

Of course, there are numerous users within Facebook who are brand advocates for their favorite destination (Breckenridge), coffee shop (Starbucks) or sports car (Ferrari).  We need to be careful not to paint everyone with the same broad brush.

Status Hoarders:  Users who attach themselves to numerous groups, typically relating to a pop culture or fashionable topic, in order to maintain a hip or favorable perception among other users.

Ah, now we are getting somewhere.  As we mentioned in the tweet, users on Facebook (or Twitter for that matter) will vote for anything… Avatar, the Oscars and, apparently, states around the US.

This is a perfect example of how Facebook exaggerates the already existing social tendencies of our culture online.

The majority of us care deeply about the perception of others, how cool we appear and what products, people and things we are associated with – not to mention our inherent competitive nature.

Which brings us back to the state popularity contest on Facebook.  The article asks several questions about the post-vote existence of these pages:

So what happens to these pages after the first state reaches 1 million fans is a good question. Will Facebook roll them into the states’ official pages? Will states try to obtain them and turn them into tourist or government-focused pages?

Um, no thanks. And here is why.

The users who have become fans (ah, such a nice term) of these pages are simply passing through and have no real loyalty or interest in a deeper conversation.

They are, for the most part, status hoarders, voting for their state in one of several non-productive breaks during the work day.  I am pretty sure they also voted for their favorite Jersey Shore cast member, some sort of Star Wars vs Trek debate and probably a celebrity-related fashion question.

No, you can keep those users; DMOs really don’t need fans like that.

(Author's Note: The article was originally posted under the title 'Why your Facebook fans are phonies' on Tnooz.)