By Helen Nesterenko: If you’re under the impression that customer service is about fixing isolated issues, your brand is focusing on the wrong problem entirely. Listening to feedback is really about learning how your organization can better solve humans. Companies that thrive are the ones who put the customer experience first.

By Seth Sherwood: “We need to redefine hostels,” said Carl Michel, the executive chairman of Generator Hostels based in Britain, whose mission statement declares its intention to “dispel the hostel myth with boutique hotels that are stylish and contemporary, central, safe and affordable.”

Virgin Galactic, the world’s first commercial spaceline owned by Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group and Abu Dhabi’s aabar Investments PJS, has completed the first rocket-powered flight of its space vehicle, SpaceShipTwo (SS2). The test, conducted by teams from Scaled Composites (Scaled) and Virgin Galactic, officially marks Virgin Galactic’s entrance into the final phase of vehicle testing prior to commercial service from Spaceport America in New Mexico

By Carey Polis: As is the case with all "best of" lists, no guide is perfect. But very few sources attempt to rank all the restaurants in the world. The "50 Best" awards are decided by a group of over 900 restaurant world experts. There are 26 different regions that make up the list, and each region has a panel of 36 members including a chairperson. Each panelist has seven votes and at least three of those votes must be for restaurants outside of his or her region.

By Terence Ronson: On what can be described as the eve of AHTEC@HOFEX 2013, it's the perfect time to update our ever-popular DO's and DON'TS of Hotel Technology.

By Chris McGinnes: Nearly every traveller I know (including me) checks out hotels on TripAdvisor before making a booking. I'm sure you do, too. Right? The infographic below provides an interesting look at how travelers use the review sites and what makes them trustworthy. It also provides some tips on spotting "fake" reviews.

By Matt Bitzer: We've recently heard many stories of hotels that feel stuck with their current emarketing provider. Sometimes hoteliers are immobilized by ironclad contracts that give all website rights to the emarketing vendor. Other times a hotel is locked in a perpetual relationship with an emarketing provider due to proprietary technologies and accounts. Of course, these types of lock-ins are never a problem when the customer is happy, but when things go south that's when the swords come out and the legal dogs are let loose.

By Nancy Trejos: When you travel these days, you're doing so in a more environmentally friendly fashion than you did a decade ago – and you probably can't even tell.

By Jennifer Kester: When our incognito Forbes Travel Guide inspectors covered London for our first Star Awards in Europe, they learned the ins and outs of the city's best hotels and spas, testing service, facilities, treatments and more. Along the way, they also discovered some hidden amenities that hotels only offer to guests in the know, including an underground casino and an airport service that lets you bypass the security line.

By James Ellis: The battle lines are being drawn by companies vying to be the new TripAdvisor, including two new British start-ups that are trying to knock the user-generated review site off the top spot.