Its been awhile since Wego launched a feature called “Guest Satisfaction”. If you have seen it and am wondering what is this all about, well basically we analyze hotel reviews from across the web and boil them down into a simple score (Guest Satisfaction).

How do we compute Guest Satisfaction Scores?

We examine hotel reviews and opinions from different sites around the web. Semantic analysis of these reviews are done and by using sentiment analysis techniques, they’re grouped into Positive, Negative, and Neutral reviews.

Each hotel is then assigned a raw satisfaction score. This score takes into account the number of Positive/Negative/Neutral reviews. The raw scores are then normalized by computing their standard scores (also known as z-scores) within each destination. For example, all the hotels in Tokyo are compared to one another and their resulting scores normalized. The normalized satisfaction scores are then reduced to a scale of 5. This is the final satisfaction score that you see on Wego.

Why do we assign satisfaction scores within each destination instead of comparing hotels worldwide?

The reason is simple: assigning satisfaction scores by comparing hotels within each destination allows for a larger spread of scores. We want to make it easy for you to see which hotel is better reviewed within a destination.

If we’d compared hotels worldwide instead: most hotels in Wonderful Hotel City would end up with scores around 4 to 5. Most hotels in Rundown Hotel City would end up with scores around 0 to 2. This makes it really hard to compare hotels since the scores are so close. Imagine comparing hotels when they are mostly scored around 2.1-2.3!

Take a look at our Guest Satisfaction at work

Dubai is one of the seven emirates and the most populous city of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Well-known as the playground for the rich, Dubai has a wide range of luxury 5 star hotels for one to indugle and relax in.

If you are visiting Dubai in the coming weeks and visiting the city for the 1st time, here’s a list of 5 star Dubai hotels that might be of use.

1. Le Royal Meridien Beach Resort & Spa is located at Sheikh Zayed Road, set amidst beautifully landscaped gardens and the golden sands of the famed Jumeira strip. The resort hotel inspires guests to explore the natural splendor of Dubai, while enjoying a relaxing spa experience.

2. The Metropolitan Hotel has a Wego popularity rank of #2 among all 5 Star hotels in Dubai. With its own beach resort, broad array of sports facilities and close proximity to the commercial centers and world trade center, The Metropolitan is an ideal choice for both business or leisure travellers.

3. The Hotel Dubai Creek Hilton has a Wego.com user satisfaction score of 4.4 on a maximum score of 5. The Dubai Creek hotel is set in the Deira Business District and located just 10 minutes from Dubai Airport and the Airport Free Zone. Get to dine at the award-winning restaurant Verre by Gordon Ramsay.

4. The Fairmont Hotel situated on Sheikh Zaed Road in the heart of the City financial district, provides a unique blend of comtemporary design which makes the building an iconic landmark. The hotel boasts 10 contemporary dining and entertainment venues which will satisfy the taste buds of all who visit.

5. Moevenpick Hotels & Resorts, with 232 well appointed rooms and suites is  conveniently located in the heart of the city. The hotel is close to major shopping and entertainment centres of Wafi City and Lamcy Plaza, and is about 15 minutes away from Jumeirah Beach.

For more 5 Star hotels in Dubai (90/676), check out Wego’s Dubai 5 Star Hotels. Feel free to conduct a live hotel search for real time pricing and availiability.

WEGO.COM ADDS “HOTEL SPOTLIGHT” PROGRAM TO PROVIDE PREMIUM BRANDING OPPORTUNITIES FOR INDIVIDUAL HOTELS
“Hotel Spotlights” allow marketing managers to graphically showcase hotel properties to active travel shoppers

Singapore – 13 October, 2008 – Asia-Pacific’s leading travel search engine, Wego.com today launched “Hotel Spotlights”, a new marketing program created for hotel marketing managers to prominently feature their property and specific promotions at the top of Wego’s hotel search results for a given city or location.

Hotel Spotlights appear prominently at the top of Wego hotel search results pages for a given city. A Hotel Spotlight consists of a large carefully cropped photo of a hotel, 2 lines of descriptive or promotional text and an image overlay stating the hotel’s name and best room rate.  Hotel Spotlights will also be syndicated across the network of Wego powered travel search on major portals across Asia-Pacific including those run by Yahoo!, MSN, Lonely Planet and NEWS.com.au.

“Hotel marketing and brand managers have been asking us how they can better showcase their properties to Wego’s hundreds of thousands online hotel shoppers in a way that powerfully conveys the unique visual identity of each property”, said Wego founder and Chief Commercial Officer, Craig Hewett, “We’ve designed the Wego Hotel Spotlight in direct response to these requests from our hotel partners.”

A maximum of three properties will be featured for each city. Priority for the limited Hotel Spotlight slots will be given to the larger more popular hotels in each city. Hotel Spotlights are being sold on a monthly basis.

“We expect there will be something of a land grab beginning today by hotel marketing managers to secure this prime real estate on Wego for their properties, particularly in the major tourist and business destinations”, continued Hewett. “We think the Hotel Spotlight program will be particularly attractive to those properties that have already made the investment in professional photography and for new properties that need to generate awareness and sales during the soft-launch or pre-opening period.”

The first Hotel Spotlights can already be seen running on Wego.com Singapore hotels search results pages and feature the Singapore Pan Pacific, Holiday Inn Atrium, and the recently opened Crowne Plaza Changi Airport.

An example of Hotel Spotlight can be found at: http://www.wego.com/images/advertise/ad1-hotelspotlight.gif 

Interested hotels can find more information online at: http://www.wego.com/advertise

About Wego.com

Wego.com (formerly Bezurk.com) allows travelers to search for flights, hotels, packages, travel deals and travel research across 100+ travel websites in the time that it normally takes to search just one. Wego searches travel websites in real-time so that the latest pricing and availability are shown. Travelers are then linked through to partner websites to book. Wego.com was founded in 2005 by former executives from Intercontinental Hotels Group (NYSE: IHG), Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO), Priceline (NASDAQ: PCLN) and ZUJI. News Digital Media, the Australian digital arm of News Limited and part of News Corp (NYSE: NWS), is an investor. In 2007, Business 2.0 magazine named Bezurk as one of “31 of the world’s hottest international web startups”. For more information, please visit http://www.wego.com/about.
 

HONG KONG – September 2008 – Preferred Hotel Group partners with one of Asia Pacific’s leading travel meta-search engines, Wego.com, to further extend its reach to travelers booking hotels online. Through this partnership, Wego.com will drive online bookers directly to Preferred Hotel Group’s brand websites including www.PreferredHotels.com, www.PreferredBoutique.com, www.SummitHotels.com, and www.SterlingHotels.com.

Wego searches across 100+ travel websites in the time that it normally takes to search just one. This partnership will enable Preferred Hotel Group to promote its global portfolio of over 650 independent hotels and resorts to online visitors using Wego.com. Consumers will see the latest pricing and room availabilities for Preferred Hotel Group member properties.

“We recognize the importance of partnerships with vertical search engines as a cost-effective channel to increase our online distribution, as well as promoting brand awareness directly to potential guests. There is no doubt that Wego will assist in significantly increasing our online market share through rate transparency,” commented Mark Wong, Vice President, Marketing and Development – Asia Pacific.

Wego Founder & Chief Commercial Officer Craig Hewett said, “We are delighted to be working with Preferred Hotel Group as their portfolio offers our users a selection of the finest independent hotel and resort properties worldwide. This year is set to be a year of great growth for Wego, in terms of new product features and increasing user traffic, all of which are sure to benefit partners like Preferred Hotel Group.”

About Preferred Hotel Group
Celebrating 40 years of excellence, Preferred Hotel Group is a global leader in the hospitality industry, delivering high-performance sales, marketing, and technology solutions to more than 650 independent hotels and resorts in over 75 countries. Its family of brands represents a collection of the finest hotels in the world and include: Preferred Hotels® & Resorts (www.PreferredHotels.com), Preferred Boutique™ (www.PreferredBoutique.com), Summit Hotels & Resorts™ (www.SummitHotels.com), Sterling Hotels™ (www.SterlingHotels.com) and Historic Hotels of America™ (www.HistoricHotels.org). For more information, please visit www.PreferredHotelGroup.com.

In September 2007, the company entered the luxury real estate market with the launch of Preferred Residences™ – a membership and exchange program for luxury shared ownership resorts that provides an exceptional level of service and amenities. Properties are held to exacting standards derived from the same Preferred Global Standards of Excellence™ on which the company has built its 40-year heritage in the hospitality industry. For more information, please visit www.PreferredResidences.com.

ASPAC MEDIA CONTACT:
Christine Cheong
Manager, Communications – Asia Pacific
Preferred Hotel Group
Tel: +852 3111 1898 | Fax: +852 3115 7770
CCheong@PreferredHotelGroup.com

About Wego.com
Wego.com (formerly Bezurk.com) allows travelers to search for flights, hotels, travel deals and travel research across 100+ travel websites in the time that it normally takes to search just one. Wego searches travel websites in real-time so that the latest pricing and availability are shown. Travelers are then linked through to partner websites to book. Wego.com was founded in 2005 by former executives from Intercontinental Hotels Group, Yahoo!, Priceline and ZUJI. News Digital Media, the Australian digital arm of News Limited and part of News Corp (NYSE: NWS), is an investor. In 2007, Business 2.0 magazine named Bezurk as one of “31 of the world’s hottest international web startups.” For more information, please visit www.wego.com/about.

For those of you who missed it, Wego.com was featured this morning in the “Surf Time” segment of Channel NewsAsia’s “Primetime Morning” show. The segment was aired twice and simulcast both on CNA and Channel 5. Catch the video here:

My only complaint was they didn’t show any ‘live’ searches nor anything about Hotels.

Our smart developers built a very useful CNY travel tool which gives travellers a quick overview of the prices of flights and hotels to popular destinations – that are still available during this festive period. While many Singaporeans and Malaysians have already planned and booked their travel packages way in advance for this festive holiday, busy executives and travel procrastinators will welcome this new travel tool as it could be their way out this CNY break.

These search results are based on ticket prices and hotel room rates published on dozens of online airline, hotel and travel agency websites, and are updated periodically. If you’d like your ticket out of here, it may be a good idea to move fast as prices and availability do change every minute. Check out our CNY tool here

What do you get when you mix Beryl, Bezurk and a developer who recently jumped on to the Ubuntu bandwagon?

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