If You Think Our Bloomin' Onion is Bad, Try This

I ordered a burger at the Outback Steakhouse in Orlando. A meal voucher had spat out of the Delta self check-in when my flight was delayed, and I took it to this temple of gastronomy to see what I could get. In tiny print down at the bottom, my server showed me that I'd only be getting $7 worth of refreshment. "No medium rare" said the cheerful server, "only well-done burgers here. It's an airport thing." I guess the TSA prohibits consumption of burgers that aren't overcooked.

He asked me if I'd like a shot with that beer, no thanks I said. Then I had to persuade him that I was perfectly fine with a mere 12 oz beer and I could live without the giant 22 ouncer that's "just three dollars more."

I glanced down at the menu that included a photo of the notoriously fattening 'blooming onion.' It is spikey and breaks apart so you can dip the crispy fried onion pieces into more fat, a white sauce. "Oh, that's nothing, hey that one below it, the Aussie cheese fries, are 2800 calories. " Wow I'm glad I missed both. Just to keep me thirsty, my chicken sandie came with fries that were pre-salted, it was hard to enjoy them.

I'd hate to think that people might assume that food in Australia is anything like this. I spent a week in Melbourne last year and never ran across anything as fattening as Outback. I do remember that everything on the menu was pricey, and that if you ordered a glass of wine they'd always ask you if you'd like to taste it first. But no bloomin' onion, and especially no 'oil cans' of Fosters. People love salads and in the stadiums the beers are low alcohol, so you can buy as many as four at a time.

Nobody likes Fosters that I met, they treat it a little like we'd look at an old Miller Lite or a Schlitz. No thanks.

Advice for Hotel Owners About Social Media

I got a lot of good advice for hotel owners today, in a meeting of travel bloggers and tweeters. The question was posed, 'who are some great examples of companies who 'get' social media in 2009?

Elliot Ng, a founder of the large content site UpTake.com, brought up a few non-travel examples, like the 2008 Obama campaign. It wasn't that it was new, it was that the scale was unprecedented. So many people involved, and a recent Facebook poll got more than 3 million people saying they voted for and still support President Obama.

Which travel companies, we were asked, really get it? JetBlue and Southwest got props for their clever Twitter presence, covering each and every complaint quickly and efficiently. But Continental looks like a lumbering stupid gorilla. They've been on Twitter for months yet have only posted 288 times...and what they do post on the Twitter include photos of the CEO posing in front of a plane, instead of relevant and topical information.

Another blogger complained about PR firms sending him press releases without ever bothering to visit his website, so there is no fit...nobody wants to get releases that are irrelevant, do they?

Wendy Perrin, Conde Nast's consumer news editor, suggested that hotels need to concentrate more on the destinations where they are located, and not just on the hotel's amenities and perks. People are going to a place, not just to a hotel, so they would be better off bragging about the great South Florida weather or the proximity to Wrigley Field rather than how soft and plump their pillows are.

Another consensus: hotels and resorts should always answer negative reviews, and respond quickly to anyone who has a beef. Another tip: Hotels should suggest to guests who are happy with their stay to post a positive review. Hey, no harm in asking!

Finally, Ng suggests a really strong social media strategy. Try to develop 1000 devout followers who will be your 'fan boys.' He cited Apple as one company that withstands any online assault because their fans are rabid...they respond quickly and forcefully. Develop your own army by building fanatic fanboys who will do the same for you.

Among the Copycats, Some Real Innovators

Up on stage at Phocuswright yesterday, dozens of travel start-ups vied for our attention, and like the Greek chorus offstage, we bloggers tapped away making comments and asking questions on Twitter. I found myself focusing on the main question of 'what's actually new here?' when so many of the present ideas seemed to be pretty much the same thing.

A few start-ups were basically the same concept that had been tried years before. One in particular was very much like the winner of the innovator's prize a few years ago, an application that could be used to plan road trips. That winner went out of business a year after he won.

But there were notable exceptions, that really caught my attention. One was an iphone application called EveryTrail, and Joost Schreve wasted no time in getting it going for us to see. Instead of using power point like everyone else, he just began using the actual tool on his phone. It creates a map of a place where someone has been, and you can pop in photos of things you did, so you can share the walk, or the drive with your friends. So far they've compiled a database of more than 200,000 trips from 140 countries. Many in the audience downloaded the app to their phones, always a good sign.

Another stand-out was called localyte, which offered local opinions of places travelers could visit. They have amassed a cadre of 40,000 local experts who can speak about where they live, and more than 1000 new reports are uploaded every day. Doug Renert told us that he has about 700 experts in Barcelona, so that anyone who goes to the site can get insider type information from one of these people.

After a Slew of Geektalk, Luggage Was a Relief

After a long line of technical booking solutions and web analytics providers at the Phocuswright conference,I was glad to hear about a less technical travel topic...luggage.

Luggagetag.com allows the customer to design a luggage tag using nice looking photos, graphics, unique fonts and even family photos. Like the programs that allow you to design business cards on line, this systems lets you put text on the luggage tags with customized designs.

The CEO, Richard Warther, calls it a 'cloud sourced' automated site that allows people to move type around and create their tags on top of images. No humans need to be involved, all of the typing is done by the traveler on the website.

He's pitching this to companies with online booking capabilities. Instead of using the airlines paper tags, they sell them for six for $13.95 and split the revenues. So for each luggage tag, the website publisher or tour operator makes $6 and the company makes $6. Plus they can brand the tags so they have a company logo as well as the customer's name.

But their business isn't just about luggage tags. Some time this year, RFID tags can be embedded into luggage tags, and by using a special USB key drive, a consumer can put into the computer when they are booking, which puts the destination info and even your cellphone number on the tag. For now, the airlines don't want to spend the money on putting the tags into the labels they put on bags so this part isn't moving ahead yet. His model is the EasyPass or Fastlane pass, used in vehicles.

So this company is offering two things: a simple way to create a durable nice looking luggage tag, and some day, to make that tag capable of finding your lost baggage. They've got a ways to go to get airlines on board, but it's intriguing and I think the most interesting idea I heard so far today.

ChampionsGate Welcomes Me to Sterile Orlando

I'm excited to again be at Phocuswright, where I'll meet up with dozens of friends I've made in the on-line travel business and catch up with bloggers and other people who make this business so exciting. I walked up to the security desk at Bradley and got a surprise as he examined my license...by God it expired on my birthday. But I was able to board my plane, which flew down here to Orlando half empty, and now I'm in my hotel room groove. I always have the same rituals in hotel rooms around the world...set up my 'office,' hang up my shirts, turn on the TV and settle into my home for the next three nights.

Orlando is still as sterile as a hospital....we dropped off passengers at a gigantic hotel complex called Gaylord that was festooned with white lights...which looked weird since to me, you don't put those things up until after Thanksgiving. But the hotels are huge and so spread apart that once I'm here, well, I can tell I won't be leaving this Omni 'Champions Gate' until I fly home on Thursday.

I'm happy to report, just in time for this show, that GoNOMAD has launched a really nice new airfare, hotel and car rental search engine, and that you'll now be able to search the biggest on-line travel agencies for all of these things on one easy to navigate page. Going somewhere in the next few months? Give our new engine a try, I'd love to hear what you think.

Art Tatum Never Sweated, and So, Wasn't Loved

Art Tatum is a childhood memory, his piano playing was always a part of my dad's very important music collection. Music experts consider Tatum to be the most admired jazz pianist who ever lived. In yesterday's WSJ, Terry Teachout discussed just what it is that makes someone memorable, famous and loved...and it's not their talent.

Teachout writes that Tatum's problem was that he refused to reveal himself. Besides knowing that he liked baseball and enjoyed Pabst Blue Ribbon beer, the few interviews that the jazz great ever gave just didn't say much about him. Like an accountant tapping his numbers into a calculator, Tatum just made it look easy. He didn't have a painful story to tell, he wasn't a man who faced terrible circumstances and bounced back, no, he simply played the piano better than anyone who ever played jazz.

It's a fascinating idea, that to become famous, you've got to let people in. Simple virtuosity "is an insult, a tactless reminder of human inequality that can only be forgiven when the artists makes clear through visible effort how high a price he has paid for his great gifts. Tatum was too proud to make that concession, he did all his sweating offstage."

So the centennial of this the greatest jazz pianist who ever played will not be noted, not celebrated, and will simply not make the news. For a taste of what Art Tatum could do, play this this video.

I Blew an .07, By the Grace of God, and Went Free

My late night ambitions have been proven weak lately. I've contemplated going out on weekend nights, but have found reasons to stay in. Last night we dined in Northampton with another couple who at 9:45 were eager to get over to the Iron Horse for a 10 pm show.

No way we would follow in their shoes....just thinking about staying up past midnight in a club exhausts me, and I can just see myself nodding over, my head bobbing while the music that I paid to hear plays in the background.

It takes a little getting used to, this accepting that my life now exists between the hours of six am and about 10 pm. After that, hey, I just don't really wanna be out there.

I read in the paper about a woman I know who is an upstanding citizen, teacher, and not what I'd consider a big drinker. She got popped for DUI and now faces that terrible littany of hassle: from having to get a ride the long way to work each morning, to facing huge cost increases for insurance, to the scorn inevitably that will be heaped on her for making a poor choice, beginning with that dreaded 'marked lane violation.'

I once had a similar brush with the law...weaving back to the Youth Hostel in Martha's Vineyard in 2000, pulled over and faced those terrible blue lights. After an ordeal involving handcuffs and a wait in the station, I blew a .07, and walked out a free man. But that bullet dodge was long ago, and so, tonight it's unlikely that I will be going out in my car after drinking. It's just too much of a possibility and too much of a bummer if it did actually happen.