eCommerce & Revenue Management

In the Who Is Who In Hospitality (wiwih.com) forum, there is a group called Hotel Department Group that is meant for hoteliers in the various departments. There are groups like General Managers Group, and Sales & Marketing Managers Group. There is one group is called eCommerce & Revenue Managers Group.

My first thought (and I have posted most of the below in this forum) was "Why was eCommerce & Revenue Management placed in the same group?"


At Millennium & Copthorne Corporate, both teams fall under Global Distribution & Revenue Management, which in turn comes under Global Sales & Marketing. eCommerce is categorized as a sales channel. I think in Hilton both fall under a larger group of Revenue Management and Distribution as well. Marriott seems to put eCommerce under Sales & Marketing and includes "Reservations, Inventory, and Distribution" under eCommerce too. So there does not seem to be a right or wrong way.

It is not uncommon that Revenue Managers have moved into eCommerce or have taken that additional responsibility/role - not unlike the move of Reservations Management into Revenue Management. But the move from Reservations into Revenue Management seems to be more complementary...

Reservations managers have:

• Familiarity with the tools and interfaces to control rates
• An idea of the business mix and seasonality of a property
• One could argue that this is the natural evolution, or career progression for Reservations Managers.
  

However eCommerce role requires three competencies that are not necessary found in Revenue Managers:

• General understanding of technology platform (hardware/software - which is IT's domain)
• General understanding of web technologies (which is more web development domain)
• Good knowledge of the online marketplace (which is a sales/marketing domain)

What is complementary is the fact that Revenue Management are numerate and analytical. Something that is extremely important in the eCommerce field and a mindset that is not always found in Reservations Managers.

I am curious to find out:

1. How many people have made the move from Revenue Management into eCommerce?
2. How many people are doing two roles at the same time?
3. Since Revenue Managers tend to report directly to the General Manager, how has that helped push out eCommerce initiatives?
4. What difficulties you have encountered moving into this role and how have they been overcome? (that's a big question, but hey you might be helping someone else!)
5. And lastly, does anyone disagree with anything that I have mentioned above? What are other views?

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The above only generated one reply which is why I am posting this in the greater marketplace as wiwih.com is members only and the Hotel Departments Groups are only for hoteliers.

The reply that did come in was by an Area Revenue Manager of a very large hotel group and he pointed out:

"What you pictured is an example of how the role of Revenue Managers can be seen from different perspectives and how often the position of a Revenue Mangers might be confused with a yield/distribution manager... Room revenue is impacted more and more by on-line distribution but should a revenue manager stop at room revenue? As you know total hotel revenue is the optimal/most profitable combination of Room, Conference & Banqueting and Food & Beverage revenue. The role of a revenue manager is much more complex and in my view must covering all hotel's revenue generating area's."

What he says is very valid and also points out that the role of a Revenue Manager is already quite complex. And there is an overlap as explained in this article? But can you realistically place the additional role of eCommerce onto these people's shoulder?

If successful, would you end up with something like this?


Here's one for the Revenue Managers reading this: Will Your Next CEO Be A Revenue Manager?

One Page Booking Engines

You have seen it at iHotelier and others. While a One-Page Reservation Process may seem simple and straight-forward, it does incorporate business logic and workflow. From the users’ point of view, they will only access one webpage during the whole booking process, which means this page has to be quite dynamic. The Reservations Workflow will have to be designed and implemented to guide users through the process. Users should also be provided with seamless integration with other internal systems as well as any relevant third party systems.

One-Page Reservation Process

In a typical multi-page booking process, a user may enter the reservations process from a number of different points: from the hotel’s website (using the Quick Reservations functionality), or from a link provided by the sales team, or from a promotional or advertising campaign. But once the user is in the reservations page, he/she typically follows through a linear booking process that loads one webpage at a time and then presents a summary at the end. This can be a tedious and slow process and making changes mid-flow can also be quite a hassle. Even increasing the reservation server’s speed and bandwidth can not remove the user’s perception that they have to wait while another page is being loaded.

A one-page reservation process eliminates the need for loading a new webpage every step and also allows users to see each step in the process and make changes quickly and easily at any time. Typically the user interface is a web-browser friendly client-side application that integrates with a CRS or GDS to get availability, room types, rates, rate descriptions, etc. as well as to communicate back to these systems with other essential reservations information. This application can be developed with JavaScript, however Macromedia Flash is a better environment for this kind of development as it is: 1) more secure, 2) a more robust development tool, and 3) able to provide a more user friendly, interactive experience.

The First Generation of One-Page Reservations

The first generation of this type of one-page reservations processes is provided by companies like iHotelier and SynXis. An example of the iHotelier interface is Hotel Nikko Düsseldorf (is it still there?); see Figure 1 below. An example of the SynXis interface is the Aztec Hotel & Spa Bristol (); see Figure 2. Users can select dates from a calendar, select from available rooms and rates, view photography and description of the room, and enter their details including credit card information – all on one page.

While many of the benefits of one-page reservations are there, these interfaces are platform specific and are more applicable for individual hotels rather than a hotel group. They require the hotel to use specific PMS or to allocate inventory into a separate database that is accessed by the one-page reservations process.

Figure 1 - Nikko Düsseldorf’s iHotelier One-Page Reservation

Figure 2 - Aztec Hotel’s SynXis One-Page Reservation

Users Guide

One thing lacking from the first generation one-page reservations interfaces above is a step-by-step guide through the process for visitors. To display the whole interface immediately can be daunting to a user that has never been to the site before or has not used one-page interfaces before. BookingEdge has a demo of a one-page interface that leads a user through the process; see Figure 3 below for a screen capture of the demo.

However this “guide” function should be able to be turned off by advance users and regular visitors.

Figure 3 - BookingEdge.com One-Page Reservation with Users Guide

Web 2.0 - YouTube: The Ugly

So continuing from "The Good, The Bad...". Here's

The Ugly

"Buffet lunch at millennium hotel"

This is 7 seconds of almost nonsense. A quick flash of the nice couple followed by blur to the beautiful... plate. Why bother? The text description is better than the video: "had brunch with a couple of our friends at the milenium ariport hotel in deira, Dubai UAE."

"Millennium UN Plaza New York room vid."

Alright, maybe I am being mean by labeling this as "ugly", but watching the video is like seeing things from the perspective of a near-sighted mute.

"ShangHai Drum Band on stage"

Someone caught a Jamaican band on show at the Millennium Hongqiao Shanghai. It's an excruciating 5 minutes, both the camera work and the sound quality.

"Jeff Sandler Orchestra"

A wedding singer performance at the Millennium Knickerbocker Chicago Hotel. The question is why? Why post this online at all????

The WTF!%?!? - As if the above was not bad enough, there are other more random things....

"mommy"

This is random post from a grown up guy who starts the long description with "i miss my mommy". The whole video has some kind of pink filter on the lens to make everything really pink. He saying something about working with some girl at the Millennium Hotel Stuttgart. Then getting her phone number which shows on a piece of paper. I guess this guy has some real issues with women....

Millennium Hotel
by urbananan?????

A Bunch of teenagers singing nonsense, but filmed by a cameraman with attention deficit disorder (ADD). The only title was "millennium hotel" and the description just said "sing". The poster "urbananan" is a 46 year old from Canada.

"Bachelor party"

A bunch of guys getting drunk in a hotel room. The only tag was "millennium". It was submitted by poster "sociallystunted" who lives in Cincinnati, Ohio. So I guess this "event" was at the Millennium Cincinnati.

============

So what does the above post and the one before it show? Well it is obvious that the quality of content is generally not that good. The content is random and is not content that can be used to make any kind of decisions from a consumer's perspective.

In any case, this has been fun checking out YouTube in this way. I will have to do this with TripAdvisor one of these days...

Web 2.0 - YouTube: The Good, the Bad...

So we are all talking about Web 2.0 and listening to people spout social networking. What are we really talking about here? To demonstrate what we are talking about, I went to YouTube.com and did a search for "millennium hotels" to see what I would get. In deference to Clint Eastwood, I will classify them as The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.

The Good

"Britain's Best Breaks: Glasgow: Millennium Hotel Glasgow"
Wow! A professionally produced video on YouTube!

A very pleasant surprise. Obviously video was done by an OTA and uploaded by www.britainsbestbreaks.tv - This is the kind of video that we want.


"Love Train" at Millennium Biltmore Los Angeles

Not sure if the singing is considered "good", but it does show what how nice the banqueting hall is at the hotel. wow!


View from Millennium UN Plaza New York

This is barely "good". It starts out ok with a city view from the bedroom. Nice! The we go shaky cam and start going back and forth. Then he sweeps inside the room (um..ok). Then he switches to night city shots (urgh!) and then some music starts. He put some work into editing this thing, but looks like he needs more lessons.


"New York East River view from Millennium Hotel"

This is probably the best of amateur videos that I have found on Millennium. The guy takes an outside view and pans steadily and slowly so that you could see things. He even puts in mix music: "Music: Bebel Gilberto "Ceu Distante" remixed by DJ Spinna". But alas later in the end, he tries to be artistic: comes into the room and pans the interior.. shaky cam. Nothing's perfect.


The Bad

"Millennium Biltmore Los Angeles"
This guy starts his description with: "There's dead bodies in the walls.."

He starts out ok with proper titles for the movie and all. Then you suddenly realizes that he is illegally go through the innards of the hotel where he should definitely not be. He thinks this is cool...

"Travelling through Dubai"

I don't even know why this came up when I searched for Millennium. But it's a ok edited video, but it just about 4 college party "doods" talking smack and being lude. They are looking forward to drinking and sluts in Dubai(!@#$@#) .. ah the joys of being young and stupid.

Fire alarm goes off at the Millennium St. Louis

So these morons filmed their sophomoric evacuation after a fire alarm goes off. The alarm was blamed on a room sprinkler that "randomly popped". More likely they held a lighter to it just to see what would happen.... sigh....

"The Fear...The Confusion...The Dreaded Staircase"

These guys were apparently friends of the guys who sent in the fire alarm episode from the Millennium St. Louis. Why do you want to post up this video? But hey they did leave a very long description and got lots of comments from their friends. Social networking at its best. So how are hoteliers supposed to get into this arena?


TO BE CONTINUED WITH THE UGLY AND THE WTF#$%

"The role of search engines in a Travel 2.0 world"

So hotelmarketing.com leads off today's newsletter with the above title and follows the subtitle with:

"Will online travel consumers abandon Google as a travel planning and research tool and shift their attention to Web 2.0 sites such as TripAdvisor.com and social networks like YouTube.com?"

HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA.!!!!!

I had a good laugh at that. Google invests so much money into what it does and into research, there is no hope of some rinky-dink tripadvisor or even expedia is going to come even close. They are spending billions on datacenters and there own POWER PLANTS. Even Amazon and ebay pale in comparison.

And these Travel 2.0 and Web 2.0 guys NEED google. Without google, they would get no traffic!!!

Starwood launches starwoodpro.com for travel professionals

OK.. Here is what Starwood says of its own program:

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Who we are: StarwoodPro

Why we’re here: To make matching specific client requirements with the perfect hotel effortless.

How we’ve done it: By putting you first.

Created by professionals, for professionals, StarwoodPro puts the information and tools you rely on most – the ability to research locations, dynamic search that helps pinpoint the right properties, and a booking shortcut tool – all in easy reach.

We’ve also included textural information – such as vivid descriptions of each of our brands and local area information so that you can unite clients with hotels that will not just meet, but exceed expectations.

We appreciate you recommending Starwood to your clients and look forward to providing them with positive travel experiences.

Nine ways to expand client options
Learn more about each of our brands – what each one is famous for, why they are different, and why guests come back. More>

How Starwood Rewards Travel Professionals
We look forward to being part of your brand experience, which is why we pay commissions on most rate categories. It’s also why commissions are as easy as possible. More>

On the Horizon

Working to help you open more hotel doors to your clients, StarwoodPro is looking to do more – provide more tools, more information about our properties, and finding more ways to help you help your clients. Some of the things we’ll be adding in the future:

Enhanced Travel Professional Education – We're focused on helping you find more ways to use Starwood’s brands to build your business. We also want to get to know you, as well as help you get to know us and each of our brands.

Travel Professional Rates – Stay with us! We’re working on enhancing our current discounted rates for Travel Professionals to give you more opportunities to stay at our hotels and resorts worldwide at preferred rates.

Rewards Program – We've got something cooking that may just motivate you to book any one of our 825 + hotels and resorts.

Special Events – Celebrations and business go hand in hand, and we will have a lot to celebrate as we launch new brands and open new hotels.

======
The above are found here. Here are some info on commissions.

This looks like a great program to me. Hopefully getting the "mom and pop" travel agents to book direct with Starwood rather than going through the large OTAs......

iPhone Activated and Unlocked!!!!!

OK so this post is not really about hotel or ecommerce, but I am just so siked or is it "psyched".

I am in New York arrived here on Sunday 9th September. I read just before I came that there was a software unlock for the iphone that was coming out on the 10th that would allow you to use the iphone on other carriers besides AT&T. This was done by iphonesimfree.com

The articles are here:
http://www.engadget.com/tag/iphonesimfree
http://edition.cnn.com/2007/TECH/09/01/apple.iphone/


....Though neither are necessary very dependable news sources (DOH!).

Well I figured it this was true, I would buy an iPhone and try my worst. So on Monday I bought the iPhone from the flagship Apple Store in the Big Apple:



So for the last 3 nights I have been trying to get it to work!

1st night (Monday): I activated my phone with iActivator (UPDATE: iActivator has been updated with a better software iNdependence. Use this instead.) This is the first step and allows you to modify the software on the iPhone to let the phone turn on. Because when you first get it, the iphone wont let you do anything!!! The iActivator will let you have most functionality except phone and youtube. (ipod, photo, synch, camera, etc are fine.) So far so good.

2nd & 3rd nights (Tues & Wed): The second step is to unlock the SIM software so that you can use a non AT & T SIM card. I used http://www.iphoneworldwideunlock.com/ and paid USD50. There is a free version as well at http://www.freeiphoneunlock.com/unlock/, but I did not want to risk it and it looks more troublesome. Step 2 takes a while as you are trying to figure out the tech stuff. And I had to do mine twice before it worked. Also, the iphoneworldwideunlock takes a few days to activate as they had to load your IMEI into a server.

BUT last night, it happened... I succeeded. Now I own an iPhone running on Singapore's MobileOne network (roaming currently of course)!!!!!

The iPhone is reeaalllly suhhh-wheeet. Have fun hacking.. I dare ya. (PS. Now you know why I haven't posted anything in the last few days. I have been ..um.. very busy.)

UPDATE: After being unlocked for a couple of days, I turned my iPhone off last night. When I powered it on this morning, I could not get any signal. so I searched around trying to understand what's going on. so what happened was that the "Activation" (Step 1 above) was somehow corrupted, but the phone still turned on and had basic functionality. The problem was NOT the "Unlock" (Step 2). so I plugged the phone back in and turned on iNdependence. I then did the same Activation steps (no need to Jailbreak again) and everything was back to normal.

LESSON: do not throw iNdepence away after the first install. Keep it on your Mac as you may need it later for things like this.

ALSO: I upgraded to iTunes 7.4.1 today so the above is compatible with this version.

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Widgets For Blogs (and other sites?)

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Here's a link to a bunch of web 2.0 widgets that can be added to a blog or any site.

I took a look through and added some to this blog:

SnapShot takes all outbound links like this one and gets a preview of the site and loads it here. So you can see the site before you click on it. It's pretty easy to implement.

Digg - I also added the digg link to each article so you will have seen it above this article. So dig it if you like it.

3Jam is a widget that you can put on your site to allow anyone to send you an SMS Text Message to your mobile. You are only charged for the SMS from your mobile provider. 3Jam does not charge anything. Its a pretty neat product. I am thinking that this can be used on our website for restaurant reservations.

LinkedInaBox allows you to display your Linkedin Profile to your website. It is Flash based and allows people to view your linkedIn profile without leaving the page.

Cool stuff.

Embassy Suites Goes Crowdsourcing

Embassy Suites decides to go after the Web 2.0 users by engaging the public to create a "Do Not Disturb" sign for their hotels. This crowdsourcing has been touted as a cheap way of getting work done... Even cheaper than India, Russia or China. Maybe Hilton is running out of cash this quarter.



Of course I had to give it a try:
Submit your own entry here:
http://embassysuitesdndcontest.com/

Contest ends 30 October. Maybe you'll win something.

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Revolution UK Interviews Me On PPC

Had an phone interview with one of their reporters when I was in the UK in July. Here is part of the online piece:

==============
Millennium Hotels experiments with PPC to boost ROI

Revolution UK 03-Sep-07

Joe Nguyen used his background in search and web site development to ramp up search activity at Millennium & Copthorne Hotels, when he joined the global chain of 110 hotels last November as director of e-commerce. Netbooster was selected to work with Millennium Hotels to manage PPC campaigns for Europe, New Zealand and Singapore.

From the outset, Nguyen decided to focus on four key performance indicators (KPIs) - impressions, click-through rates, percentage of conversions and return on investment (ROI)...
=============

The full online article can be found here (free registration required). I think another version of it may be in the printed edition this month. If ya got it, please email me. :-)

UPDATE: Here's the printed case study...


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Skype for hotel websites (?)

There is an interesting discussion (login required) on WIWIH regarding putting in Skype into your hotel websites. It was sparked off by a posting on Guillaume Thevenot's blog posting on Skype the Chelsea. Here's my 2 cents worth.


With the explosive growth of Skype since it launched in 2003 (500 million downloads!!) and was bought by eBay for USD 3 billion, the inclusion into a hotel website seems like a "no-brainer". Then again "no-brainer" could mean >>>>>>

So there are a couple of major things holding it back:

1) The quality of a Skype call is inconsistent. Hey, I have used it for years now and have a SkypeOut and set up a SkypeIn account with an LA telephone number for my grandfather in Vietnam (so that his kids in the US can call a US number and reach Ben Tre, Vietnam). I put in a WiFi Skype phone so that he does not even need a computer. But using it is a pain; it's like using a CB radio: "10-4 Grandpa. How are you, grandpa? Joe, out"... And the quality is usually bad. I guess if you are in the US calling the US, or UK calling UK, it might be better. But as a business/customer service line?... That can be annoying. But then again, it's more or less FREE! (unless you use SkypeIn or SkypeOut). And it is better than having no toll-free line, right?

2) Process - To install and set up Skype in your reservations office or call center, you need to train up people and also requires new processes. And we all know change is bad. Look at what happened to MJ:


3) The biggest problem may be the hotels' IT and Finance. In my former life selling online solutions to hotels, I have come across many hotel groups. Here are some points that are relevant to the adoption of Skype and similar technologies:

* Most hotels' IT infrastructure is pretty outdated. Old computers, old servers, old hubs and old switches. Some of these computers used by staff do not even have sound cards. (Saved that $25 dollars a few years ago didn't we?)
* But mainly old mindset. The hotel IT managers will not let Instant messaging, Adobe Flash, and other plug-ins and programs be installed. They also notoriously filter content. There are of course good reasons for doing these things, but I feel that there is a certain element of overzealous control issues at play. Ever heard of CITRIX? 'nuff said...
* Hotels' IT are also very tight on the bandwidth. This may be less true of US hotels now, but many hotels are still very stingy on net access by their employees. Probably related to the point above.
* Skype aside, there are other technologies out there worth exploring... eStara (inbound call routing) and LivePersons (chats on website) are a couple of things I would love to have. But then.... IN COMES THE BEANCOUNTERS.

Corporate issues aside, Skype makes a lot of sense and seem more doable for individual hotels or small groups that have savvy IT and finance people, or at least ones that can drag their IT and finance teams kicking and screaming into the 21st century...


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USA Today: "Travelers arrive at Facebook"

So USA today has a big scoop that people are using Facebook.com to talk about their travels and share where they have been. It talks about the Facebook applications like "Where I've Been", TripAdvisor's "Cities I've Visited", and TravelPod's "Traveler IQ Challenge". It talks about "Where I've Been's" 2.6 million download and rumored $3 million deals. It lists Web 2.0 companies like Sidestep and Couchswap. It quotes John DiScala of Johnnyjet.com. Hey, it even quotes PhoCusWright saying that Facebook.com "is certainly making an impact on travel".

Ok hoteliers, let's go out there and join facebook and get your hotels on "Where I've Been" and "Cities I've Visited". You have to. Everyone is doing it! You are missing the boat!! The OTAs are getting on!!! Your competitors are getting on!!!!

Whoa... hold on here. Take a deep breath... now breath out while chanting "OOommm...". Repeat 5 times and let the sound vibrate throughout your lungs...

OK... So what does this really mean? So I know what Facebook is. I re-registered recently (since I lost/forgot my first registration a year or so ago. This rarely happens to other people. Nah. Just silly ol' me). I started looking around for the three mentioned applications. Well unless you know your way around, you aren't going to find the Applications easily. So those hoteliers registering for Facebook for the first time because of this article, don't give up. You will find it.

Anyhow, these applications - just like a social networking app should - allows you to share where you have been and connect it to your profile and share it with your friends. Travel IQ is a contest which is more about geography than travel, but hey, it's better than working. So you can load up a world map with places you have been and share it with your "network" which might be 2 people or 100 people. They may do up their own "map'o'world according to me" and share it back with you. Maybe you chat with each other and wind up thinking about going to that place or even that hotel that your "friend" recommended - because you want the EXACT experience that he/she had.

So you start looking at hotels. There's TripAdvisor selling Expedia stuff. You check the rates quickly there but it doesn't seem as cheap as your friend had told you. Then you google the hotel and start your search there - just like you do every time you plan your travel. But at least you have good an idea of what you are getting into and where you are going.

However, the fact of the matter is:
1) There are hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of these "networks". Everyone has their own groups and friends.
2) You can not jump into people's maps and promote yourself if you are not a member of that network
3) The above works because these entities develop applications that the members use and promote VIRALLY. Not unlike Widgets.
4) Hey these apps get traffic. "Where I've Been" gets over 90,000 daily users and "Cities I've Visited" gets over 40,000 daily users. But remember, they only see what is in their network; they don't see what everyone puts up.

For a consumer, it's great. If you are an intermediary, it's another R&D project that you need to get into in order to keep that traffic going to your site; because once the person is in your site, you can offer them tons of stuff and lots of choices.

But what's in it for a hotelier? What can you really do? At this point, not much; you can experiment as Ken Burglin of Profitable Hospitality suggests here. If you are Accor or InterCon or Marriott or Starwood, you can spend some money and develop a Facebook application that will let people ... um.. do something interesting or whatever. Maybe use it as an outlet for distressed inventory (instead of going to say lastminute.com or priceline.com). People will swarm looking for deals and the hotel group keeps a bit of margins going direct.

Hmm.. that's a cool thought: Use Web 2.0 to get rid of distressed inventory DIRECT to consumers (You heard it on this blog first!!!). They are the right target: these people are price-sensitive leisure travelers who are always looking for deals. Many access from home since big corps also filter out facebook, youtube, and flickr. (You know.. productivity.)

Anyhoo... for individual hotels and smaller chains, just check Facebook.com out. See what it's all about. Don't worry, there is no rush. Let the big guys make the mistakes; remember that Starwood just pulled out of Second Life (also on Time.com and LA Times ) after putting in a chunk of money. They are going to donate ALOFT's Second Life to some charity or other rather than sending it to a proper after life.


I must admit though that the applications on Facebook are pretty cool and relatively easy to develop. If I was an online marketing person in any FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) line, I would definitely give it a go with my marketing/branding dollars.

But alas, I am in... roi-DRIVEN, kpi-OBSESSED, bottomline-ASSESSED ... hotel eCommerce.

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New Website: Design & US Home Page

On 15th August 2007, Millennium & Copthorne (M & C) re-launched its web presence for its group websites and for each of the hotels. Www.millenniumhotels.com largely focuses on the hotels in the United States, while www.millenniumhotels.co.uk, www.millenniumhotels.com.sg, and www.millenniumhotels.co.nz will be dedicated to the United Kingdom, Singapore and New Zealand, respectively. This Website Redevelopment & Re-engineering Project has taken 6 months since the request for proposal (RFP) was released to potential vendors in February of this year.

The design challenge given for BLUE Singapore (the interactive agency) was to come up with a something that will be fresh and can also be used across the three M & C brands. The final concept was to provide a basic structure for navigation and brand colours while incorporating large background images for the sites.

For the countries, images that evoked an "emotive iconic” feel were selected with regional marketing teams; the aim was to find images that makes a visitor connect with that destination emotionally rather than the typical skyline image. Each country would have 3 images that would rotate based on your visit. The decision was made to have a wider screen resolution than the original; at 1024 X 768, this would be optimal for over 92% of M & C website visitors in 2007. See the various version of the country pages below:


WWW.MILLENNIUMHOTELS.COM Home Pages Image for the United States

Yellow Taxi on Broadway. Gee, where is that? Do you need an immigrant taxi driver sticking his head out and waving atcha?

Gotta think about this one. Where is Hol*ly*wood |ˈhälēˌwoŏd|?
Click on the link. I dare ya.

Alright, no more spoon feedin'. That Big Black Building is a hint, but so is the street sign. If you see it on the site, it actually says "MICHIGAN AV". I don't wanna hear it, I didn't choose this image.

See Home Page Images for the United Kingdom

See Home Page Images for Singapore

See Home Page Images for New Zealand

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New Website: UK Home Page

WWW.MILLENNIUMHOTELS.CO.UK Home Page Images for the United Kingdom

Stoic Beefeaters in front of a castle. Must be Czechoslovakia (NOT!)... umm.. ok, is it Scotland? (DOH! Do ya see any skirts? Getting warmer though. Just click on the link....)

A castle on a lake. It COULD be Deustchland, but we are going for the King Arthur and the Lady of the Lake thing. ...bokay?

Big Hint "TATE BRITAIN" sign. Bigger hint is that clock tower in the back. And just to throw you off a little bit, we give you clear blue skies. HAHAHAHAH!

New Website: Singapore Home Page

WWW.MILLENNIUMHOTELS.COM.SG Home Page Images for Singapore

BQ At Night - Food for tourists and Skyscrapers. I guess it is an "icon", since it's been around longer than anything else that might be an icon. Then again, we could have a picture of the Merlion. (NOT!)

A subtle picture of Orchard Road. What gave it away? The Forum Galleria? The National Day Banners? Anyhoo... what is more iconic Singapore than that? (PS. I took this picture!)
(PPS. Forget that "Road Trip" thing. A road trip in Singapore last 30 minutes, unless you get stuck in some weird weekend traffic jam downtown.)

Clarke Quay & Riverfront Apartments - the future icons of Singapore (we hope!)
(I took this picture too!!! ...But the Photoshopping was done by real professionals)

New Website: New Zealand Home Page

WWW.MILLENNIUMHOTELS.CO.NZ Home Page Images for New Zealand

New Zealand = Adventure (duh!?!?)
(Yeah, I know it's a link to AJ Hackett's site and not about whitewater rafting. I'll talk to AJ next time I see him as ask about some bungy pix from KAWARAU BRIDGE.)

New Zealand = Rubgy (at least one very popular rugby team.. ahem.. The All Saints or something like that.)

100% PureNZ.
You haven't seen the ads? Please go back under your rock.