Should Motels Have Mobile Websites?

Smart Phones are changing everything about how the Internet does business. Now, having a mobile version of your website to appeal to the ever-growing percentage of people who regularly browse the web on their smart phones makes more sense than ever. But, not every business really needs one. So, what about Motels? For the most part, Motels depend on their guests picking them out of the lineup of similar businesses located on whatever main road they all happen to sit on. Or, we look for people who like to plan things beforehand, and are happy to browse through a whole website or two to find the perfect Motel for them. However, back to those Smart Phones, those lines are blurring together now with travelers not bothering to look anything up until they arrive at their destination, and when they look Motels they're doing it on a Smart Phone. Besides, there's a few other reason to do it, as well. There's the fact that...

It's Good SEO

One more URL out there that links to your content with the same Meta Data as your website is always good for your ranking. Or, if the Mobile site is a SubDomain of your main site, it's just one more page with index-able content for the search engine crawlers to gather up.

Here's a peek at our Mobile Site. It really pays to keep it clean and simple with these. 

It Helps People Find You While On Their Phone (in the car for example)

There's been more than a few instances were guests driving in got some bad directions, or just plain forgot to bring a map. In this case, being able to get a Mobil Site up on a smart phone and, not having to navigate a full-sized site on a tiny screen makes a huge difference in how happy your guests are when they find their way in.

 

Here's the Mobile Site that our friends at the Nuvo Hotel Suites uses. Again, clean and simple is the way to go.

There's No Good Reason NOT to Have One

As a Boutique Motel, our primary market is individuals who are on the move. If you're driving through a strange city and you're looking for a place to stay, it's more than likely that it'll be a Motel you end up staying at. It just makes sense to a appeal to a mobile market with a Mobile Website.

Also, since there isn't really any development cost involved in the process, it becomes pretty simple to weigh the Pros and the non-existent Cons. Using a paid for hosting site like MoFuse, you can get going with your own Mobile Site in under an hour, for about $9 a month.

The Centro Motel is Calgary’s first Boutique Motel. Located in the Montgomery neighbourhood, just south of Calgary’s Motel Village and now on a completely unintuitive, yet direct, path from the airport. The Centro offers stylish, trendy rooms at competitive prices. Also, our parking lot is just massive. For more information on booking, rooms and rates, check out the home page, or Contact Us.

How NOT To Respond To Negative TripAdvisor Reviews

In these times of hyper-connectivity and information overload, TripAdvisor is becoming a more and more important tool for travelers and hoteliers alike. Like or hate it, TripAdvisor is the #1 source of (relatively) unbiased reviews on the internet. This means that the modern hotelier has to develop some basic public relations skills in order to manage this new form of exposure.

While a well-run hotel will always have more good reviews than negative ones, inevitably someone will have something bad to say about you. In these situations there are many ways in which a hotelier may choose to respond. Here are some hilarious/horrifying examples from the undisputed champion of poor damage control, the Golden Beach Hotel.

Excerpt from a Review:

“the only good thing about our stay it was the night the clocks went forward an [hour] less spent in a room from hell”

Management Response:

“If it was os bad you should have checked out , all other guests where more then happy . If this guest truly felt so bad no one was forceing them to stay!!!”

See what I mean? This guy is kind of awesome in a terrible sort of way. A hotel manager should accept criticism and endeavour to improve the hotel so that that specific problem never happens again. Employing the same kind of debating techniques that I employed in my defence of my habit of including rocks in my snowballs (circa Grade 4) is generally not the best way to go.

Excerpt from a Review:

“The rooms are being updated, but mine was dodgey. The management is rude and the general mood is tense. Buyer beware. Pick another.”

Management Response:

“Once again we have had no guests from the USA , its a real shame find something better to do with your time as you have so much of it !!!!”

Only picking three of these great dialogues was actually pretty tough (to see them all, go here). But generally, the manager's responses only vary between calling their guests liars, and claiming that they were thrown out from the hotel for unacceptable behaviour. However, for a grand finale...

Excerpt from a Review:

“Well were do I start? The room was discusting do u have a cleaner? The room was old,tatty and the dust was so thick we wrote our names in it!!!!!!!! The bed was old the sheets were dirrty and smelt.The bathroom had nice mould in the corner of the shower just what you want to see when you have a wash”

Management Response:

“Yes we do have cleaners but if this customer is fishing for a job dear sir please send in a cv and ill get back to you !!! And yes we also have a regular laundry delivery service. we aim to satisfy our customers but unfortunately some people expectations are beyond reason, what can you do . Smile ....”

Why anyone would ever stay here after seeing this is beyond me. At any rate, to avoid being a hypocrit, you can see all of Centro's Tripadvisor reviews here. Take a look at how we manage criticism, and feel free to let us know how we could do better.

The Centro Motel is Calgary’s first, and most easily reviewed, Boutique Motel. Located in the Montgomery neighbourhood, just south of Calgary’s Motel Village, the Centro offers stylish, trendy rooms at competitive prices . For more information on booking, rooms and rates, check out the home page, or Contact Us.

3 Things To Do On A Snowy Day in Calgary

Oh, Winter. You started off so good this year! It was cold, it was snowy... it was everything Winter was supposed to be and more! What happened to that? There's no more snow... it's barely even -10 out there... Winter, I just want you to know that your friends are here for you. We're worried about you, and we just want you to go back to doing what makes you happy.

Sigh.

Well, I'm sure at some point we'll get more snow this winter. At least we'd better. And when that snow arrives it's good to have some ways to enjoy it. Because, as this season is proving, those good, snowy Winter days may not last very long at all.

Zoo Lights

Every year, the Calgary Zoo puts on Zoo Lights, a magical display of twinkly Christmas pageantry. Although you can go pretty much any time, the Zoo Lights are best appreciated on a dark, snowy night. Somehow, it's never the same 'Winter Wonderland' feeling in the daytime. Also, Hot Chocolate is pretty much required.

Tobogganing on Nose Hill

Going sledding is pretty much a given for a snowy day. But, going sledding on Nose Hill is only for the brave and foolhardy. It's the highest, steepest point of land from here to the Rockies, and you're going to need that extra snow to serve as a shock absorber for your butt. For extra points on the GNAR scale (Gaffney's Numerical Assesment of Radness), you can build yourself a jump there, too. Assuming it snows again, sometime.

Come ON Winter! Fernie's getting dumped on! Why do you love them and not us?

Cross-Country Skiing at Nose Hill

There's a lot to be said for going DOWN snowy hills as fast as you can, but (as the National Women's Biathlon Team proves) there's also a lot to be said for going as fast as you can going UP snowy hills.

You're just going to have to trust me on this one.

Conveniently enough for us here at Centro Motel, there's some great Cross-Country skiing to be had just up the street at Canada Olympic Park. I've already written about most of the stuff you can do there, and you can view that article by following THIS LINK.

The Centro Motel is Calgary’s first, and most Winter-tacular, Boutique Motel. Located in the Montgomery neighbourhood, just south of Calgary’s Motel Village, The Centro offers stylish, trendy rooms at competitive prices, as well as a great place to hold an Intervention with Winter. Because we love you, and we're all worried about you, Winter. For more information on booking, rooms and rates, check out the home page, or Contact Us.



Medical Facilities Near the Centro Motel

Morgue's are creepy as hell. That's pretty much a universal truth we can all agree on. So, when I was informed by a guest that our motel is near one, I was hoping they were wrong and that the morgue was far enough away to be out of the stumbling range of the average Zombie. Luckily, I was assured that the Medical Examiner's Office (just a fancy way of saying 'Morgue') was a quick drive away, but was far too long of a walk to be a practical approach for any recently arisen living dead.

FYI, Zombies kinda freak me out.

Not that I don't care about you, but...

However, the whole incident made me realise that I don't know our neighborhood as well as I thought.

It turns out the Centro Motel is right in the middle of a group of hospitals, clinics and medical centers. Up the hill from us there's the Alberta Children's Hospital, Foothills Hospital, and the Gimbel Eye Centre. And down the street we have the Bowglen Medical Clinic, the Vive Integrative Health Clinic, and the Calgary Well Woman Clinic. While this is evidently quite convenient for many travelers visiting Calgary in order to visit a significant other currently enjoying some quality medical care, it does have one major drawback...

If there's ever a Zombie Apocalypse, we're all gonna die.

The Centro Motel is Calgary’s first Zombie-proof Boutique Motel. Sort of. Located in the Montgomery neighbourhood, just south of Calgary’s Motel Village, The Centro offers stylish, trendy rooms at competitive prices, as well as a direct avenue of escape from the city should the hordes of the living dead rise against us. For more information on booking, rooms and rates, check out the home page, or Contact Us.

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National Children Cancer Awareness Month at The Centro Motel

Being as close as we are to the Foothills Hospital and the Alberta Children’s Hospital, we tend to see a fair amount of guests who are staying with us while visiting someone being cared for in one of those facilities.It¹s not always the most cheerful reason to visit Calgary, to be sure, but we do our best to be as supportive as possible, and assist guests in any way that we can to make their stay in Calgary as stress free as possible. With that in mind, this coming September is Cancer Awareness Month. One day medical science may empower us to spit in the face of cancer, and maybe even flip it off a little, but in the meantime there are a lot of organisations that deserve our support. Whether you show your support in spirit, or with a rockin’ wristband, or with a direct donation to your favoured organisation, the important thing is to raise awareness.

If you’re looking for a fun way to donate, you should check out this video of Megan McNeil and her song “The Will To Survive”. Megan is a 19 year old Vancouverite who has been battling Cancer for the last four years. She recorded this song with the help of Garth Richardson (he’s the producer for Hedley, Nickelback, Rage Against The Machine, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Rise Against and about 50 other great bands). The song is available for purchase on iTunes and all the proceeds go to fund Cancer Research.

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