News for the Hospitality Executive |
PARSIPPANY, NJ , March 10, 2010 - A few months ago we wrote about the many reasons why hoteliers should not be using free link shorting services such as TinyURL and Bit.Ly. While there are numerous free services available, most put your hotel at risk and may cost you dearly in lost business opportunities. The Internet is still a little like the "wild wild west" and our reasons for not using free link shortening services remains true - doing so puts your hotel at risk in many ways. Free
Link Shortening Services Create Security Risks for
Hotels - The
biggest issue for hotels presents itself as a serious security threat.
As
reported by leading virus security company Trend Micro, TinyURL has
become a popular
tool for spammers and phishing scams. Spammers have used TinyURL to
create
short non-discript links, which redirect users to malicious websites
where
unsuspecting users become victims of phishing attacks. Read Trend
Micro- TinyURL
Becomes
Popular for Phishing. If
the
aforementioned security concerns don't convince you that free link
shortening
services are risky, maybe our next point will. What happens to all
those free
links your created if the free service is "down" or out of business?
Who do you call...can you call anyone, or do you have to rely on
emailing
support? In the meantime, those free short links you created are in
your
printed ads, emails and in online Twitter, YouTube and Facebook posts!
This has
all happened before, and it's not pretty. Read: TinyURL
Outage
Illustrates the Service's Risk. Read: Bit.ly +
TinyURL =
Fail
The
Right Way For Hotels to Create Short Links - Link2Brand.com
enables hotels to effectively and safely create short marketing links
and to
build online brand equity. More specifically, Link2Brand:
"Hundreds of hotels worldwide are doing it right and leveraging the power of Link2brand.com in their marketing and communications," said Mr. DJ Vallauri, Founder & President of Lodging Interactive. "Furthermore, Link2Brand.com is a great tool for hotels to use to promote loyalty amongst local businesses and organizations." Hotel
Sales & Marketing Directors, can also use Link2Brand.com to create
vanity
URL links specifically for local corporate accounts to book
reservations without
having to remember booking codes or SRP codes. Interested
hoteliers can try Link2Brand for free by
visiting Link2Brand.com. About
Lodging Interactive Lodging
Interactive, headquartered in Parsippany, NJ, is a leading provider of
Internet
Marketing Services to the hospitality, spa and restaurant industries.
The
company provides a portfolio of effective hotel internet marketing
services to
hundreds of hotels, resorts, timeshares, spas and restaurants. Clients
include
branded hotels from nearly every major brand as well as prestigious,
landmark
independent hotels. Through its CoMMingle Social Media Marketing Agency operating division, the Company offers hospitality focused and fully managed outsourced hotel social media marketing. Lodging
Interactive is a member of the American Hotel & Lodging Association
(AHLA) and is a proud supporter of the Hotel Sales & Marketing
Association
International (HSMAI). For more information contact Richard Walsh, Vice
President of Business Development at [email protected]
or at
877-291-4411. The company’s website is located at
www.LodgingInteractive.com. |
Contact:
Richard Walsh |
Also See: | Lodging Interactive Enables ROI tracking of Facebook & Twitter Hotel Bookings / February 2010 |
Measuring Your Hotel's Online Reputation By Service Attributes / February 2010 | |
Hotel Social Media Perspective / February 2010 | |
Hotels Book More Government Business With Innovative Link2Brand Service / January 2010 | |
Guest Satisfaction - December 2009 Chatter Guard Benchmark Report Is Released / January 2010 | |
Google Real Time Search Integration & Hotel Social Media Marketing / January 2010 | |
Why
Your Hotel Should NEVER USE TinyURL to Redirect Links / December
2009 |
|
Guest Satisfaction - October 2009 Chatter Guard Benchmark Report Is Released / November 2009 | |
Lodging Interactive Offers Turn-Key Mobile Websites For Hotels / November 2009 | |
How to Handle Google Maps Mixups / October 2009 | |
Guest Satisfaction - September 2009 Chatter Guard Benchmark Report Is Released / October 2009 | |
Introducing: CoMMingle Social Media Marketing Agency for Hospitality / September 2009 |