Here’s a handy report from Hotel Online about the U.S. cities that have experienced the biggest hotel rate increases and decreases for October, as compared to October 2009. Omaha, Neb., dropped the most at 8 percent, followed by Richmond, Va. (-8%), Sacramento (-4%), Calgary, Alberta (-3%), and Las Vegas (-2%).

The biggest gains were seen in San Francisco (+23%), New Orleans (+22%), Miami (+21%), Niagara Falls, N.Y. (+17%), and Honolulu (+16%).

I needed a laugh today, and just in case you do too, check out this flowchart from Fast Company: Understanding the Web, for fans of Charles Dickins.

Today’s must read post: Toward less painful panels, by Jeffrey Cufaude. I agree with every word of it. Now let’s do something about it.

I’ve heard hotels (and other suppliers of all stripes) grumbling about online review sites like TripAdvisor since they first came on the scene — who wants all those cranky customers who wouldn’t be happy no matter what you do spewing nastiness about you into cyberspace? I’ve always held that, though you’ll likely have a few cranks and miscreants and trolls, most reviewers will be honest, and those who read several reviews will get a fairly accurate picture of what to expect. I personally have had great luck using Yelp for restaurant suggestions in strange cities, for example.

But it sounds like things might heat up again, at least if this organization gets its way (from the New York Times article):

“’The world of the Internet and particularly social media has pretty much outstripped ethical guidelines, and some legal ones as well,’ said Chris Emmins, a founder of KwikChex, a British reputation management company that is seeking to organize a lawsuit against TripAdvisor on behalf of its clients.

“Mr. Emmins said more than 800 businesses had inquired about participating in the case, but he expected only a few dozen would meet the criteria the company hoped to test, including the legality of reviews that accuse hotel staff of theft, assault or discrimination.

“’I don’t think they belong on a review site,’ he said. ‘They’re allegations of criminality.’”

He may have a point there. What do you think about the usefulness of online review sites? And how would you feel about putting your meeting evaluations online and in public, for all the world to view?

Update: Just found this interview with TripAdvisor co-founder and CEO Stephen Kaufer on his perspective on the whole thing. Not surprisingly, he thinks the system works pretty well as is.

I hadn’t heard of FailCon until I read this Wired piece about it, which begins, “Failcon, a Silicon Valley conference focused on stories of failure, was so successful last year that’s it’s back again in 2010. Which means it either failed to fail or succeeded at failure, depending on how you look at it.”

Which made me laugh, then really applaud the event organizers for coming up with this idea. We learn at least as much from our failures as we do from our successes. Brilliant.

Update: How serendipitous — shortly after posting this I read Jeffrey Cufaude’s Yoda post about how we need to get over our fear of failure and be open to experimenting until we get where we want to go. Yes, yes, yes.

All you can do is hope that one of them isn’t you — that is, isn’t you getting bumped from your hotel at midnight after a grueling day on the road. But if you do find yourself getting bumped, it might help to understand why. Hotel insider and author Daniel Edward Craig gives us some insights via the Opus Hotel blog that just may help.

I wish I’d read this post before I got bumped all the way from San Diego to La Jolla a few years ago…

Being the sheep that I am, I just went through the full-body scanner last week without even a baaa. After reading about the experience of a private jet charter service pilot who declined to be scanned and/or patted down, I’m kind of wishing I objected after all.

(Via BoingBoing)

Just read about the $10 Meeting Mngr Pro app for the iPad on Gizmodo and thought, wow, can you imagine working in an office where everyone has an iPad?

But if you’re fortunate enough to be in just such an environment, this sounds like it should up the productivity around your staff meetings pretty significantly. Who would have thought that Seth Godin’s dream meeting app would actually happen?

If I didn’t keep experiencing the same things, I’d feel bad for Jeffrey Cufaude, whose blood is boiling over the preponderance of basic meeting management gaffes he’s been suffering through lately.

It’s a good list — do check it out and please, please make sure you’re not guilty of anything blood-boil-worthy with your events!

I still think Kulula Air has the best plane paint job, but Wired has found a few more that are none too shabby, either — check out the Qantas paint job! Nothing short of gorgeous.