Downfall is an epic war movie filmed by director Oliver Hirschbiegel, depicting the final days of the Third Reich from within Adolf Hitler’s bunker in Berlin.

The film is viewed by many critics as one of the best of the 2000s and was a landmark portrayal of history.

As is the way with web, however, since its release in 2004 a segment where Hitler realises the war is lost and confronts his generals with a verbal volley has been parodied endlessly with a succession of alternative versions with new subtitles added so that the lead character is reacting to some setback to a present-day cultural, political or business reference.

Such versions have included reaction to Usain Bolt breaking the world 100-metre record, launch of the iPad, vuvuzelas at the FIFA World Cup and even one when a string of parodies were removed from YouTube.

So it was only a matter of time before someone -- in this case, GuestCentric Technologies -- applied it to the business of travel, this time when the Furher learns about hotels going independent with their technology.

NB: This is a guest post by Pedro Colaco, president and CEO of GuestCentric Systems.

Due to the recent economic downfall guests are searching for alternative accommodation products for their leisure travel.

Vacation rentals are capitalizing on this trend and finding ways to reinvent their offer and look for new online distribution channels.

Firstly, there are now important distribution sites like Homeaway to sell their units.

Secondly, vacation rental owners and managers finally understood that having their own website and a reliable ecommerce system with social marketing tools can help them grow their business.

These two aspects, coupled with consumers’ willingness to accept lower levels of service, are now turning vacation rentals into real alternatives to hotels for leisure travelers. But what aspects of the environment are influencing the shift to vacation rentals?

1. Guest search is intensifying

Industry studies show that the overwhelming majority of travelers (up to 80%) select their accommodation through the Internet and over 50% end up booking online.

In addition, online search is intensifying and consumers are searching tens of sites for experiences outside the “normal” hotel before booking.

New accommodation products are emerging with an experience and budget orientation: vacation rentals, design hostels and couch surfing are now all valid accommodation alternatives for leisure travelers.

2. Specialized distribution networks are being established

Searching for and booking vacation rentals online has been difficult to date. Mostly, vacation rentals have been rented out via intermediaries and word-of-mouth.

But, since HomeAway acquired VRBO in 2006, the vacation rental online distribution business has grown very rapidly as an alternative to traditional mediation agent.

HomeAway.com has been the unifying force that has taken a highly fragmented and localized business and made it easy for consumers to search for vacation rentals on a global scale.

This rapid adoption of distribution sites is similar to the adoption of online travel agents like Expedia as a preferred tool to search for and book hotels in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s and is the foundation of establishing e-commerce and distribution networks for vacation rentals.

3. Professional website design and high quality pictures are affordable

A successful online business starts with a website that transmits quality, professionalism and credibility through professional design and good pictures.

With today’s technology it is extremely easy for vacation rentals to have a professional website that:

• Communicates their property’s unique look and experience to web visitors.
• Is quick and easy to setup, avoiding long and complex web design “projects”.
• Can be kept updated without external involvement.
• Provides a pay-as-you-go model, so that upfront investment is minimized.

When setting up a website, images are paramount, as they are the second factor right behind pricing in terms of influencing the choice of property to stay in.

With the proliferation of digital cameras, it is now extremely easy even for amateur photographers to create good pictures that provide renters with the experience at the property.

4.Ecommerce solutions are readily available

82% of hotel guests prefer to book directly at the website of the property if they can get a good price and a trustworthy experience.

While vacation rentals are not experiencing this level of direct business yet, industry studies show that direct rental business is increasing at good pace, and it is expected that the same behavior as for hotels will apply.

If you tie these results with the rate of growth of online bookings in 2009/10, then now is the perfect time for vacation rentals to capitalize on the online opportunity.

A powerful ecommerce offer enables properties to maintain good levels of occupancy rates and decrease distribution costs.

5. Social engagement is the new word-of-mouth

The use of social media like Facebook and Twitter has changed the way people communicate, forever. Word-of-mouth is now amplified by millions.

This creates the perfect opportunity for vacation rentals to overcome the SNAD (significantly not as described) curse, as positive reviews of a property distributed by a network of friends can generate immediate referral business.

Satisfied customers will always provide and share good reviews and comments about their stay. Hence, no matter the size of the property it is very important to have direct communication with guests in order to promote and sell their units and understand their needs.

This will reflect on an increase in people that follow the property and create a snowball effect on the property’s brand. New technologies simplify this social interaction and provide the necessary information to create strategic viral marketing campaigns to increase market share.

Conclusion

Guest search is intensifying and alternative accommodation products like vacation rentals are becoming mainstream options for leisure travelers due to their willingness to accept lower levels of service.

Vacation rentals are capitalizing on this trend and behaving like mini-hotels by looking for new online distribution channels, establishing their own websites, e-commerce systems and leveraging social media to overcome the SNAD (significantly not as described) curse, and create referral business.

By adopting this strategy, vacation rentals are becoming mini-hotels that can compete for business and improve occupancy rates and profitability and weather difficult economic times.

NB: This is a guest post by Pedro Colaco, president and CEO of GuestCentric Systems. More information and case studies.

US-based Delta Airlines secured nothing if only bragging rights last week when it unveiled the world’s first airline booking engine within Facebook.

Obvious questions came over its effectiveness as a marketing tool, value to the consumer, impact on its existing booking channels and integration (or not) with existing social media features on Facebook.

The answers to all of these take nothing away from the fact that Delta is taking Facebook seriously and its move is likely to trigger a wave of similar applications being launched by other airlines.

But what of the other leading airlines around the world?

Here are the top ten global airlines, based on IATA figures for the number of scheduled international passengers carried in 2009:

Of course each has different passenger types, routes, online strategy – but what will be guaranteed will be that many of their customers will be members of the ubiquitous social network that is Facebook.

So what are they doing?

1. Ryanair

Ireland-based low-cost carrier Ryanair has famously shunned taking part in any form of social media, so it is difficult to establish if the two official-looking Ryanair pages on Facebook are genuine or not.

The first has laid dormant since December 2009 and contains just a handful of wall posts and a one-line piece of information about the company: “The best airline in the world! ” It still has 8,300 fans though.

The other site is very active, however, contains lots of messages and photos from its array of nearly 50,000 fans. Little interaction by the page administrator though.

2. Lufthansa

The German giant Lufthansa has an impressive 72,000 fans and has made plenty of effort with its official page, including competitions, photographs and a slideshow to show off some of the airline’s new features. Lots of good interaction between officials and customers, too.

3. EasyJet

Plenty of talk from EasyJet in recent months about its Facebook ambitions, including a booking engine. It is almost there, having integrated a search module in July 2010 and a social trip planning tool. With almost 33,000 fans, EasyJet is one of the more interactive of the major airlines on Facebook, conducting daily polls and quizzes and encouraging users to get involved with the page.

4. Air France

Air France uses its page for a combination of interaction and showing off its brand values as an airline. Plenty of conversation with its 22,500 fans (mostly, understandably, in French) but also some informative videos embedded into a dedicated channel on the page, including a day-in-the-life of a cabin crew member and footage of the maiden flight of the airline’s Airbus A380.

5. British Airways

Confusion all round when it comes to BA’s effort, with an official-looking page with 12,000 or so fans but very little interaction and the official page simply saying fans need to contact customer service with any questions.  The unofficial page has a pleasant selection of aircraft photographs though.

6. Emirates

With almost 75,000 fans, Dubai-based Emirates is in the Air France mould when it comes to entertaining customers. It has a good mix of interaction and informative posts alongside high quality videos extolling the virtues of its fleet and, of course, Dubai.

7. KLM

Sterling effort from KLM, making good use of the real estate available with plenty of content and things to keep its 65,000 fans interested. Rather unique tools include a widget to create luggage tags with a user’s own photographs and a handy map tool to redirect users to its smaller country pages.

8. American Airlines

Almost 70,000 fans on the American Airlines page with a high volume of users commenting on services (negative and positive) but much visible interaction from the airline. It also uses the page to plug its wifi services and iPhone app. Plenty of video content, too.

9. Cathay Pacific

The only airline in the top ten which uses its Facebook page to push how fantastic it would supposedly be to work for the carrier. Cathay Pacific Airways has Meet The Team and Join The Team sections as well as channels for photos, videos and questions – some of which are answered by staff.

10. Singapore Airlines

Standard offering from Singapore Airlines to entertain its 65,000 fans, with the page offering photos, videos and a wall for discussions, albeit predominantly one-way. Decent video showing off its in-flight entertainment system.

Interesting analysis produced by the Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International and marketing firm Vizergy into hotel digital marketing.

HSMAI and Vizergy polled nearly 400 executives representing a range of accommodation suppliers including hotels, resorts, bed and breakfast and property management groups to produce the report.

Key areas of the study included web marketing, use of websites and analytics.

• Does your site focus solely on the property or does it include information about the local area (events, attractions etc)?

• Most critical website components?

• How old is your website?

• Frequency of monitoring guest reviews on social media?

• Percentage of marketing spend on online marketing?

• Greatest ROI from marketing spend?

• Types of marketing initiatives?

• Hours per week evaluating a property’s web presence?

NB: The full report from the Vizergy website.

The BP oil spill brought an unyielding spotlight of media coverage to the sunshine state and its Gulf Coast neighbors. Now what?

Days turned into weeks, weeks turned into months with nonstop, wall-to-wall coverage of the disaster, it’s effect on the local economy, human interest stories and enough beach-backed live shots to piece together your very own episode of Miami Vice.

Even with a $25 million BP grants to Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana, fighting this story — let alone the spill — with traditional advertising seems to be gaining little traction in consumer minds.

Yes, the leak reportedly has been stopped, but the spill continues to bubble up within consumers’ perception of Florida.

So, what should Florida and some of its local communities do with additional grant money?

To start, don’t spend it on advertising.  At least not yet.

Why?  Because consumer sentiment has been pushed so far toward the disaster side of the story, it would be difficult — if not impossible — to pull people’s perceptions back toward reality in the short-term.

By the way, the reality is that most of the beaches in northwest Florida are clean and open, with more sand than tar.

Consider a sentiment analysis study about Florida tourism and the oil spill on Twitter, which I selected because of available reporting tools from Wordle and the popularity of the social network.

The graph below is simply a visual representation of the data.  If I had conducted a full study about Florida or a local community, a much deeper analysis would have been required to reduce the margin of error.

As you can see, the consumer sentiment — at least on Twitter — is very focused on the negative implications of the spill, rather than the recovery, deals or jet ski rentals.

This finding corresponds with a new Travelocity poll of 2000 Americans which found that 25% of respondents cited the Florida Keys as one of the top three destinations most impacted by the spill, “although the beaches are clean and open.”

Knowing this disparity as evidenced by the Twitter analysis and the Travelocity poll, my recommendation for a local Florida community or tourism board would be to focus efforts on public relations and social media outreach (find as many partners, champions and brand advocates as possible to tweet for tourism) for the next several weeks.

Ah, but  the stats above show such a large divide on Twitter and by implication other social networks, so why would you dedicate more resources to that medium?

Frankly, because you have to start somewhere — and that somewhere is at the grassroots level of this campaign.

This strategy should not be about placing a full-page ad, running some TV spots and hoping the message comes through.

No, should be a post-to-post, one-on-one communication combat mission to sway the opinion of your potential visitor.

This strategy will require micro communication, before mass communication.

Once complete (easier said than done), re-evaluate the overall sentiment, and if the gap between oil-spill fears and Florida tourism has narrowed, then begin shifting resources to a more traditional advertising campaign.

Sure, that full-page ad in the New York Times may have looked great, and I am sure the circulation numbers were high, but if the readers of the paper did not absorb the messaging into their overall perception of Florida, it will be quickly overshadowed by the next tweet.

Online travel marketers need to start talking to the Conversationalists — a subset of 53.8 million leisure travelers who are very vocal and influential on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

That advice comes from a new report, How Travel eBusiness Can Engage Conversationalists, the New Social Media Group, by Henry Harteveldt of Forrester Research.

“Members of the group that travel eBusiness professionals need to pay attention to for their social commerce potential are the 53.8 million U.S. online leisure travelers who are Conversationalists — travelers who participate in the social media conversation at least weekly on sites like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn,” the report says. “Members of this youthful, mobile-focused audience have the potential to drive sales thanks to their vocal nature, influence, and high engagement with online travel activities.”

The report recommends five ways to engage the talkative ones:

1. Publish your company’s promotions on its fan pages and tweet them, as well.

2. Place a booking engine and/or add apps to your company’s social networking pages. This will become easier for companies to do because vendors such SynXis, Open Hospitality and Axses are offering such booking engines.

3. Introduce ratings and reviews into your websites. Conversationalists love this sort of stuff and are actively post ratings and reviews.

4. Allow customers to share your site’s content with other customers and social networking sites. “Make the ability to share user-generated content on a customer’s profile page a benefit of creating a profile on your Web site,” the report says, “and let the customer control how that content gets shared with your other customers.”

5. Make sure you have a mobile strategy. And consider offering perks based on performance to Conversationalists using location-based services. “An  airline, for example, could offer a complimentary beer or wine to a Conversationalist who ‘checks in’ at one of its airport clubs and has another friend meet her at the lounge,” the report says.

In other words, make sure your travel firm converses with the Conversationalists — to increase your influence.

Do you want to market those girl getaways through Foursquare, Gowalla or Loopt?

Hold off for now, says a new Forrester Research report, Location-based Social Networks: A Hint of Mobile Engagement Emerges.

“Forrester recommends that bold, male-targeted marketers start testing but that most marketers should wait until they can get a bigger bang for their buck, when adoption rates increase and established players emerge from the fray,” the report says.

The Forrester study notes that a mere 4% of U.S. online adults have ever checked-in with a location-based service and only about 1% file updates more than once a week, according to Advertising Age.

So, if you feel like all of your friends and colleagues are checking-in all over the country on some nights, rest assured that your circle of intimates is a narrow one.

Forrester reports that the vast majority of location-based apps users are male and the research company recommends that gaming, consumer electronics and sportswear advertisers will find these mobile apps the most fertile for testing, Advertising Age says.

Many industry people argue that travel is a perfect fit for location-based apps.

For example, InterContinental Hotels Group is connecting with guests through Gowalla when they check-in at the property.

Many other travel companies, too, are experimenting with location-based apps and depending on the results, they may dissent from the study’s findings.

The issue may come down to this: Location-based apps may become a sweet spot for travel marketers — but when?

Amusing new web and TV ad from the Yahoo-backed Total Travel website in Australia, warning travellers about ensuring they have planned their trip properly.

“And our bags?”. “Already stolen…”, is classic.

The ad -- using the “Where to go before you go” tagline -- runs during the next two months on the Seven and 7Two networks and online.

NB: Hat-tip Mumbrella.

Quirky idea from the European wing of TripAdvisor this week after revealing it is willing to give away a sizeable chunk of free advertising space as part of a competition.

The user review giant claims the challenge to design a creative ad campaign to run of its European sites will give the winning entry exposure in CPM advertising to the tune of Euro 250,000.

There is no information as yet to where the winning creative unit(s) will be positioned but apparently the winning entry will work with TripAdvisor to devise a media schedule to run on the site during August and September 2010.

Entries will be judged by the TripAdvisor sales and marketing team.

No competition in history is without some fair degree of motivation by the creator, so it will be intriguing to see how well received the idea is by the travel advertising community following the closing date in August.

Orbitz Worldwide wants to make its online marketing systems “the most sophisticated in the industry.”

That’s the stated goal of Chris Orton, most previously senior director Internet marketing at eBay, who’s just been named the new chief marketing officer at Orbitz Worldwide.

“Chris is an absolute leader in developing algorithmic approaches to online marketing and CRM,” states Barney Harford, the president and CEO of Orbitz Worldwide. “We believe his deep experience of applying massive data sets to marketing opportunities will make Orbitz a more effective and efficient marketing organization.”

Orbitz says it has been focused on enhancing its marketing and operating efficiency.

Orbitz spokesman Brian Hoyt says “it is stereotypical to hire a ‘brand/offline advertising’ person in the CMO role, but Chris is an expert at looking at marketing in a whole new way. The data can make our existing spend on marketing opportunities even more effective and efficient than they have been.”

Orton, whose appointment is effective immediately, replaces Jeff Davidoff, who left the company in mid-2009.

Deborah Italiano, a former vice president of marketing at Travelocity, leads Orbitz’s offline advertising efforts as vice president of brand marketing, and reports to Orton.