Feedback ideas for the web 2.0 Era!

Earlier today, I booked some accommodation at a 5 star resort at Surfers Paradise on Queensland's Gold Coast. Looking at their 'official' site, the place looks AMAZING! Everything you would want in a hotel... But then I checked out the place on Trip Advisor.

Trip Advisor TOLD me that this place seemed nice, but was in actual fact, a dive... How was I supposed to know by looking at the hotel's website? I wasn't, and neither are you. This leads me to a topic today that may prove useful to you all.

Tell me... Who would you trust more? The Hotel telling you how great they are? Or actual guests telling you about their experiences? Writing from the hotelier's point of view, we all like to tell you what we think about our properties, and how great we are. I can however, tell you that I look at it differently...

A new term has been coined by our industry called 'guestsourcing'. Guestsourcing, to put it simply, is the practice of sourcing content from customers.

Guestsourcing is my favourite form of feedback and promotion, and I encourage eveyone to get involved! Whether it be a review on Trip Advisor, a comment on a blog, a mention on Twitter or interaction on Facebook... What better way of letting everyone know your experience than by telling them? You can even forget words and express visually... Flickr photos, YouTube videos, there are an abundance of ways to show your hotel experiences.

So let's get guestsourcing people! We have links all over our blog and website to get your feedback, comments, videos, photos and ideas!

My question to you... Who do you trust? Guest Sourced Feedback or Hotel Generated blurbs?

Relay For Life - Gladstone 2009

It's almost time for Relay For Life again in Gladstone and we are proud to announce that Quest Gladstone is taking part this year.

Relay For Life is a community event run by community members on behalf of the Cancer Council. This year the Relay For Life will take place on August 22 and 23 at the Chanel College oval from 3pm on the 22nd. Come down and look for the Quest Gladstone tent for giveaways and fantastic fundraising treats!

While organising our team for the event, I have had time to reflect on other community events in Gladstone and how successful they have been. The Gladstone community has been integral in this and we are fortunate that in these uncertain times our community keeps giving and giving!

Just last week was National Tree Day, and as we tweeted earlier this week, 2000 trees were planted in just over two hours. The trees that were planted were enough to sustain the paper needs of Rio Tinto Alcan and Toyota (the day's sponsors) for the past two years. An amazing result!

I read in the Gladstone Observer recently that the employees of the Boyne Smelter gave a helping hand to 23 community groups last year. The fund, which is employee-driven sent over $33,000 to the region's schools, care organisations, fire departmments, scouts and guides.

The Boyne Tannum Hookup committee were also in the headlines recently when they donated a whopping $13,200 to the McGrath Foundaition to establish a breast cancer nurse for the region.

But along with the upside and the willingness to give from our communiy, there is a downside. Two weeks ago, we heard that a charity bin in Tannum Sands had a perfectly good television taken from it and smashed in Garnet Park. It's not the first time it has happened and we hear that other items are regularly taken from charity bins. That is NOT ON! If you ever see any of this unfortunate activity going on, please let your local police department know about it.

So coming to the end of this post, we'd like to thank everyone for their input into our community. Looking around the Gladstone region, you can see the care and effort put into the region!

I leave you with a thought:
How do you help your community and those in need?
Leave your comments on our blog.