Starwood Hotels Launches "The Lobby" Blog

Peter Sanders at The Wall Street Journal writes about the new The Lobby blog from Starwood Hotels.

The blog says it covers "the latest and greatest in worldwide travel" trends, and it links to some resources, but The Lobby is mostly full of thinly veiled ads for Starwood Hotels. And comments are not enabled. Blogs are conversations. Conversations are two way, The Lobby, at least so far, is a dud.

"Corporate blogs have had mixed success with readers thus far," Sanders writes. "Experts say the key to success depends largely on the approach companies take."

Still, as Sanders notes, none of Starwood's competitors have yet ventured into social media. I don't believe that something is better than nothing. If you are going to do it, do it right, or don't bother until you're really ready.

Yes just because you have paid for the space on server doesn't mean you should fill up your blog space with so many adds. Blog means a coherent discussion, less intended to target customers and more inclind to intiate insight to the discussion.
There is nothing like this in the lobby blog.