Have you ever been to a Hotel in which the swimming pool was empty and fitness center was closed?
No?
Consider yourself lucky then, but for those of you who have, you are not alone.
With the boom in Hotel renovations going on through the country, the establishments are fearing losing customers.
"Most of the time, renovations scare people and they think the worst," said Dave McCaslin, president of Northwood Hospitality, owner of Manhattan's iconic New York Palace to USA Today.
The New York Palace is blogging about its massive renovation on a blog "A New York legend is reborn."
"This way, we can clearly communicate what's happening and what the impact might be - and what it will not be so they have a clear idea of what they're walking into," he said, while speaking to USA Today.
Other advantages of the blog is the way it can narrate the history of the hotel and spotlight the artisans, stone workers and designers who have worked on it.
"It's kind of like going behind the scenes of how a movie is made," McCaslin stated.
To get the attention of their potential and returning customers, McCaslin uses TripAdvisor, a link on its Wikipedia page and in the summary of its "About" section on its Facebook page. It also created the #NYLegend hashtag for Twitter followers.
"We are doing everything in our power so that somebody can't say, 'I didn't know,'" McCaslin said, adding that about 15 percent of the hotel's rooms have been updated and that the work will increase over the summer.
According to veteran hotel publicist Vivian Deuschl, who until last year represented the Ritz-Carlton luxury hotel chain, it is clear that honestly is the best policy.
"The important thing is for the hotels to be honest with the guest," she told USA Today. "They don't want to lose business, so they often come up with overly optimistic predictions of when things will be ready."
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
