Online reviews net nicer hotels

October 11, 2015 at 12:00a.m.

If you posted a negative social media review about a hotel last year, you may have helped push U.S. hotels owners to invest a record $6.4 billion to upgrade and beautify their properties.

Complaints – and compliments – on Yelp, Twitter, TripAdvisor and other online review sites motivated hotel owners to invest in carpeting, high-speed Internet and remodeled lobbies, among other hotel improvements, according to a report by Bjorn Hanson, a professor at the Tisch Center for Hospitality and Tourism at New York University.

The capital expenditures in 2014 represent a 7 percent increase from the previous year, according to Hanson’s annual study, which is based on industry data and interviews with hotel and construction executives.

For the last three years or so, more hotels have made investments in response to negative online reviews, Hanson said.

Surface study

The most unsanitary area on a commercial plane is the tray table – the same place you put your food and drinks during a flight.

That disturbing finding came from a study by the online trip calculating site Tripmath.com, which conducted swab tests on the surfaces of five airports and four flights. Confounding popular perceptions, the findings show that the stall locks at airport bathrooms are rather sanitary.

Tripmath.com gauged cleanliness by measuring colony-forming units of bacteria, yeast or mold per square inch. Tray tables scored a nauseating 2,155 CFU per square inch, followed by the overhead air vent (285 CFU), the toilet flush button (265 CFU) and the seat belt buckle (230 CFU), according to the study.

At airports, the button on drinking fountains measured 1,240 CFU, while the stall locks in the bathroom measured only 70 CFU, according to the study.

Geography quiz

Q. Borneo is divided among three countries. Name them.

A. Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei. The majority of the island, more than 70 percent, is part of Indonesia. Brunei occupies about 1 percent.

Hotels raising rates

Taking a cue from the airline industry, hotels are squeezing customers with higher nightly rates as well as extra guest fees, such as charges to check in early and to guarantee you get the room you want.

The average rate of a hotel stay in the U.S. is expected to increase to $120 this year, a 5 percent increase over 2014, according to a forecast by PricewaterhouseCoopers. On top of that, U.S. hotels are expected to collect a record $2.47 billion in extra fees and surcharges, a 5 percent increase over the record $2.35 billion collected last year.

The higher take from fees comes as the result of a slight increase in the number of hotel guests, plus the addition of new hotel fees and an increase in existing fees, said Bjorn Hanson, a professor at New York University’s Tisch Center for Hospitality and Tourism.

Power of bedbugs

Bedbugs are the bane of the hotel industry, and the unblinking presence of social media has only increased the destructive power of the tiny pests.

Research from the University of Kentucky found that online reviews mentioning a bedbug infestation in a hotel room can lower the value of the room by $38 a night for business travelers and $28 a night for leisure travelers.

Combined dispatches