Spin-coating

You can get a pretty good idea of what western International Hotels thinks is involved in public relations by the following index to the section on that subject from the WIH Marketing /Communications Guide: The meaning of the WIH Corporate Public relations Objective (" To create a favourable attitude toward the company among all its publics:).

The Corporate Public Relations Department.

The vehicle for public relations (news —making ideas, events, features, personalities, speeches, etc.).

The Professional Handling of Public Relations (pros and cons having a staff person, a PR consultant or a PR agency) Qualifications to consider Contracting for Outside Services

Management's Responsibility in Public Relations Public Techniques (relation to advertising, definition of news, the publicist’s challenge, the basic requirements).

Choosing your media Identifying your contracts

Establishing personal relationships

Corporate identity in the media

Creating news and news opportunities

News release (format production and distribution) Photographs and Broadcast Interviews Planning for an emergency Maintaining good PR during a strike

Civic and Community Relations Informing Opinion Leaders Employee Relations

Requests for Donations Speeches

New properties (Announcements, progress reports, in company; pre-opening, pre-opening, etc.)

The WIH Marketing/ Communications Guide also include a checklist of public relations opportunities at a hotel:

• Activities and innovations of corporate or hotel executives and other employees.

• Events occurring within the property.

• Celebrities who visit the property (and agree to publicity).

• Appointments of key personnel

• Humorous events (at the desk, with luggage attendants, big tips, usually guests).

• Employee activities, (When the plaza in new York hired its first female luggage attendant formerly bellman — it was big news)

• Public service doings. Doing anything special with students?

• Special displays and features. (The St Francis in San Francisco has an employee whose main job is washing coins to make them sparkle - a long- time tradition. This story received enormous coverage around the country. And it was one way of supporting the hotel's position as an interesting and unusual place where there is sensitivity to tradition and the niceties of a bygone age.)

• _Special events (a new band or vocal group, a group from a distant part of the globe, etc.) Actually, this is one of the most productive areas for publicity. Some examples from our own experiences; The Detroit plaza gave a reception for the city's cab drivers, many of whom had been to the hotel but had never gone inside. They were feted and given bumper stickers which read " I love Detroit or I Love Renaissance Center, Little cards to put under their visors which listed all the good thing: about downtown Detroit, a handbook with detailed information about the city, and various buttons and information about the city, and various buttons and badge. This was one way of supporting the overall objective of selling bota downtown Detroit and tie hotel. When the Olympic hotel in Seattle realising that it’s local

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weekend business needed a boost. They brought the "Big Bands"

back for an old-fashioned Friday afternoon tea dance. Might not work in every city, but in Seattle they came in droves and it received tremendous publicity. The Bay Shore in Vancouver, B.C, to kick off the local yachting season, posed the general manager with the Yacht club commodore waist- deep in the hotel swimming pool launching a miniature boat. It was a very funny picture that got coverage across the entire continent.

• Interviews with guests — celebrities who are willin g, convention representatives from unusual gatherings personnel of the facility, visiting corporate executives, general managers from other properties.

• Receipt of community awards.

The opening of another property in the corporation, for example when the Hotel Scandinavia in Oslo was opened, a breakfast for travel writers and reporters was held at the Plaza in New York with reindeer steak and cloudberries. They came and wrote about both the Hotel Scandinavia and the Plaza, anniversary celebrations for the company or property, speeches. Many times, talks to civic groups by hotel employees make news, especially if they have s strong local favour. Innsbruck. The great

condominium golfing resort just north of Tampa, Florida entertains many group meetings — actually hundreds a year. Each of these meeting is news. To get accurate information about each group Inisbrook solicits the leaders of each organisation well in advance of their meetings. Above is the form Innisbrook uses to get the facts straight and to get the permission of the meeting organisation to send out publicity about the gathering

4.0 CONCLUSION

When a good publicity item breaks about your establishment, it can be used as another sales instrument. Reprints of good stories are great direct mail pieces. In a way, they're better than a carefully written personal letter. What such a reprint does i.e. tell the recipient what someone else says about your operation — someone in the public news field therefore, and expert. This is the strongest kind of recommendation. The New River Store House Restaurant in Ft Lauderdale, Florida mail and distributes to all its guests reprints of several different news stories very impressive.

5.0 SUMMARY

Publicity in the field of hospitality is generally a much neglected sales tool. Remember, while publicity does not of itself generate specific

flows of business, it can and does set the stage for all subsequent selling efforts by creating an image in advance. When the direct sales pitch comes along, the prospective customer is already pre-sold to some degree from what he has heard about the operation through publicity. Large and small properties alike must be conscious of, and take advantage of, what favourable publicity can do for them.