If Frits van Paasschen has any Shanghai travel snafu to share, it has yet to show up on Facebook.
He still has time.
In a new promotion, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. is offering a $25,000 prize for the individual with the “most outrageous” travel story to share.
Starwood, which is relocating its headquarters to Stamford from White Plains, N.Y., in essence established a temporary headquarters in Shanghai for more than a month through July 11, with senior executives including CEO van Paasschen relocating there as the company prepares to open a hotel every two weeks in China for the near future.
“This management experiment started as kind of an off-the-wall idea,” van Paasschen said in a blog published on the Huffington Post website. “Last summer, my wife and I ”¦ were out kayaking on a beautiful lake in northern Connecticut, and we were talking about all the challenges and opportunities that come with our growth in China. I jokingly said, ”˜I”™d almost like to just move our headquarters there.”™ As is so often the case, Laura suggested a wiser and much more practical course, and said, ”˜Well, why not go for a month?”™”
While he is away, Starwood”™s marketing staff may have topped their boss in the off-the-wall category ”“ the company”™s Facebook “wall” now features the new contest that attempts to capture off-beat travel tales, with the best getting a $25,000 prize.
Of some 90 entries posted as of mid-July, the top vote-getter in the early going was “Michael” and his chronicle of getting locked out of his Montreal hotel room wearing nothing but his underwear. As the man tells it, he resorted to grabbing a tablecloth from a banquet hall and sheepishly convincing the hotel front desk to let him back into his room.
That might be enough to win “Michael” the grand prize ”“ unless “Doug” catches him with his own tale of attempting to delay a flight long enough for his business partner to make it to the gate, which he claims he pulled off by forcing the crew to acknowledge what he said was a bona fide Federal Aviation Administration rule requiring a granola bar for every passenger onboard. Then there”™s “Louise,” whose toilet mishap ”“ well, you can read it for yourself.
It makes for an interesting promotion from a hotelier, with the industry usually preferring to emphasize a smooth delivery of services to make travel relatively adventure-free save for those that seek it.
“This is our way of celebrating all of the hard work business travelers do every day and the stories they rack up on the road,” said Brian McGuinness, senior vice president of specialty select brands at Starwood, in a prepared statement. “Learning from their successes, and inevitable mishaps, helps us to further enhance their stay.”
Travel stories, of course, are a major marketing tool in tourism, and multiple websites including TripAdvisor have built a major online business allowing travelers to post reviews of the hotels where they have stayed, with any accompanying war stories. TripAdvisor allows its users in one click to dredge up “terrible” reviews for venues they are considering, and allows managers at those vendors to respond to those flames.
Hundreds of reviews are posted on Stamford hotels alone, including for Starwood”™s new downtown hotel that until last week was flagged as a Holiday Inn. TripAdvisor ranks the hotel No. 6 for business in Stamford and No. 3 overall, behind Hotel Zero Degrees in the latter category and the Courtyard by Marriott Downtown in the former.
“All hotels monitor trip advisor ”“ us included,” said Mia Schipani, vice president of business development and marketing for Hotel Zero Degrees owner RMS Construction. “We take pride in our current position because we work very hard to maintain it.”
Starwood is accepting entries ”“ at 500 words max and limited to one per person ”“ at Four Points by Sheraton”™s Facebook page through Aug. 10 where votes can also be registered, with the grand-prize winner to be announced Sept. 7. The company gets its own marketing perk ”“ entrants must “like” the hotel on Facebook in order to submit their travel story.
