Tweet Revenge: The Tale of Gary Vaynerchuk and the Mondrian
Travel Blog • Alexander Basek • 02.27.09 | 12:26 PM ET
Is there no quadrant of the web untouched by internet impresario Gary Vaynerchuk? In a video posted to his site on Wednesday, Vaynerchuk (host of Wine Library TV and a new media keynote guru, for those of you who haven’t heard of him) told a cautionary tale about the Mondrian in South Beach. In short: Gary Vee went to the hotel’s bar expecting to party—because the Mondrian has a party rep—and the house turned on the lights around 1:30 a.m., booting Gary (and friends) upstairs to their rooms. Normally, the tale would end there, but Gary’s pal tweeted the event, and someone immediately responded that they were not going to stay at the Mondrian after hearing the tale of woe. The power of Web 2.0! Right?
It’s impossible to know the full context of the situation, but allow me to get all Spider-Man on you guys for a second anyway. With great power, comes great responsibility. I don’t know if the Mondrian is worried about losing the Vaynerchuk contingent from future events or not, but if you’re going to broadcast a gripe about a business, it should be a serious one. Obviously, the Mondrian should have handled the situation better, but I wonder if getting booted a half-hour before last call is the kind of thing that should be broadcast in what is essentially a professional sphere.
Gary Vee has 40,000 followers on Twitter! That’s a lot of clout, and he should act accordingly. If you allow me to drop a message of peace and harmony on y’all: our gripes on Twitter and Facebook about airlines and hotels are more powerful than you think, so take a step back and think before you tweet. I’ll do the same. Unless Delta loses my luggage next month, in which case there will be hell to pay.