Hotel Blogs

I’ve often thought it would be great to have a social news site solely for travel and here it is Travel off the Cuff. On a social news network like Digg or Stumbleupon readers can submit articles that they like and members of the social news site can vote on the articles that they like.  Articles with a lot of votes are listed near the top of the page.  Travel off the Cuff’s founder, Mark writes a blog about his travel experiences for the site.

I like the ethos of the site that you can have a “great trip without having to plan every minute of the day”. Of course there is planning involved in putting together your trip. I believe that you should leave time for spontaneity and wandering around, not have an itinerary that is so crammed that you end not seeing anything properly as you dash around. I hope that the articles on the site will encourage this attitude to travelling.

I’ll be visiting Travel off the Cuff over the next few weeks to vote and comment on stories that appeal to me and submitting stories which I think deserve some publicity.

There’s an increase of visitors from European countries where the Euro is the currency as sterling drops in value against the Euro. While I suspect that London may receive a high proportion of the visitors, I’d urge would be bargain hunters to look at other less obvious destinations. Not only will you see more of the “real” Britain, if you venture, even slightly, off the beaten track, you’ll find that accommodation is generally cheaper than in the tourist hot spots. However if you prefer to stay near the popular attractions and plenty of shops, you could still enjoy some great day trips.

You could enjoy the river walks and seaside at Berwick upon Tweed in North Northumberland and be in Edinburgh or Newcastle in 45 minutes by train on the main East Coast Line.

Berwick upon Tweed

If you stay in the small city of Stirling in central Scotland there is a pretty good shopping centre and a beautiful castle and you can be in Edinburgh or Glasgow is under an hour by train.

Valley Cemetery, Scotland

From Edinburgh it’s easy to reach North Berwick or Dunbar in East Lothian for a day out by the sea,

North Berwick Beach, East Lothian, Scotland

I’ve been the editor of the Wandalust UK travel blog for around one month now. I have to say it seems a lot longer. In an earlier post I reasoned that, “writing for another travel related blog would be a good way to enhance my profile and reputation and increase visitor numbers to my site and blog.” It certainly isn’t for the money at $140 a month for 5 posts a week.

It’s been quite a commitment to write 5 posts a week for Wandalust in addition to running my own travel site and blog. Although I’m only required to write posts of 70 words with one link and one image, I don’t generally word count. If I write for Wandalust to raise my profile I have to write quality posts.

The problem with my aim is that it’s pretty difficult to measure the impact of writing for Wandalust on my profile or to a directly attributable increase in visitors.  I’m coming to the conclusion that “Karen Bryan” is as viable a brand as a travel blogger and writer as “Europe a la Carte” is as a brand for a website and blog about travel in Europe.  This just makes any evaluation even more complex.

So far here are my thoughts:

Postives:

1 The ability to write about any travel related topic and destination not being limited to travel in Europe on modest budget, greatly increasing my knowledge and experience as a travel blogger.

2 Making useful contacts with other bloggers who may take me more seriously if I’m the editor of two travel blogs. Being taken on as an editor of another travel blog is rather different to blogging for your own travel business.

3 Visitor numbers to my blog have increased by more than 30 % over the last month but I can’t quantify exactly how much of this is attributable to Wandalust. Yes I can see direct referrals from Wandalust in my stats but there may be more disguised traffic.

Negatives:

1 The awful Movable Type blogging software is cumbersome to use and unreliable.

2 The flashing, irrelevant banner ads in the sidebar detract from my posts. One day there was a large cigarette in an flashing banner ad for smoking cessation aids a major distraction from the photos in my posts.

3 Time spent researching and composing posts and grappling with Moveable Type that I could spent on my own travel business and blog.

I’d welcome any feedback or observations you may have.

Celebrity Guests! Flashing cameras! Alert Hotel Security, the paparazzi are blocking the main hotel lobby entrance!? In the hospitality industry many of us have crossed paths with the stars that we often read about in glossy magazines. While we don’t like to admit it openly we love to tell others about it! These celebrity encounters [...]

Hotel Manager Talk: Issue #5
Topics discussed:

• STR Report Update for previous week
  Found on Smith Travel Research
  
  
• MGM Fires 400+ Middle-Managers
  Found on www.IHT.com
  
  
• 5 Tips to Improve Customer Service
  Article by Carol Verret found on www.HotelNewsResource.com
  
  
• Groups Want Marriott to End Adult Movies
  From The Associated Press
  
  
• Hotels Offer Fuel Subsidies
  Article by Kelli B. Grant found on WallStreetJournal.com
  
  
• 'So You Think You're a Good Listener?'
  Article b Patrick Barwise and Sean Meehan found on Harvard Business Online
  
  
• New Boutique Group 'K'
  Found on HotelsMag.com
  
  
• What Are Your Rights as a Guest?
  Article by Ed Perkins found on SmarterTravel.com
  
  
• Red Roof Unveils New Face of Economy Lodging
  Found on HotelMotel.com
  

    

Hotel Manager Talk: Issue #4
Topics Discussed:

• STR Report Update for previous week
  
  
• Tax rebates to benefit tourism industry
  Found on wwHotelNewsResource.com
  
  
• Hyatt renews partnership with Clear
  Found on PRNewswire.com
  
  
• Hotel chains aim to end upstairs/downstairs culture
  Article by Peter Van Allen found on BizJournals.com
  
  
• What exactly is a boutique, anyway?
  Found on I-Escape.com
  
  
• Vegas hotel rates affected by economic slowdown
  Article by Liz Benston found on LasVegasSun.com
  
  
• The Sound of Hospitality
  Found on HotelNewsResource.com
  
  
• Hotel bed time stories
  Article by Kitty Bean Yancey found on USAToday.com
   

We catch up with Martin Jeffrey, a man who truly has travelling and hospitality in his blood! Martin is a Senior Project Manager with the Swiss Hotel School in Passugg (SSTH), Switzerland and was formerly Director of Sales & Admissions, travelling the ...

If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like running your own web based business, you can read my everyday agonies and ecstasies running my travel website and blog on Twiiter. Share in my daily frustrations with IT, my joy when I get publicity or positive feedback. Have a laugh with me when things go array, like when I misspelled budget travel as “bodget” travel on a live blog. Perhaps I could diversify into writing a sit-com entitled “Bodget Travel”. Read about the moment when divine inspiration strikes and I try a new ploy to develop the business or I suddenly work out how to master the latest IT gizmo like blog widgets.

Divine Inspiration by azrainman

I started my travel business Europe a la Carte in 2002 to promote authentic travel in Europe on a modest budget. I believe that if you venture, even slightly, off the beaten track, you’ll see more of the real Europe. My site features guides to less well known European destinations. I started the Europe a la Carte blog in October 2006 and write about travel news, tips and advice, travel deals, accommodation and restaurant reviews.

Things recently moved up a gear for me when I started the editor of the Wandalust UK travel blog, where I’ve to write five posts a week. It’s getting even harder trying to fit everything in - my travel business and blog, my part time day job as a social research interviewer and having some time for family and friends.

Well certainly life is never dull as an internet entrepreneur and blogger, so if you are already a Twitterer you can follow me or you can sign up to Twitter and start receiving my “Everyday agony & ecstasy of a non techie Scot running a travel website and blog” updates.

PS I’ve been trying to add my Twitter badge to this post but in keeping with being a non techie, I can’t get the code to work in a blog post. The code works fine the margin of the home of Europe a la Carte but apparently not in a blog post.

Here are details of the confirmed panelists for the live blog on the topic of “What readers want from travel blog” due to kick off at 20:00 British Summer Time on Wednesday 23 May 2008.

I’ve listed the panelist in alphabetical order of their first names. I asked the panelists to email my their own introduction.

David Stanley is the author of Moon Handbooks South Pacific, Moon Fiji, and Moon Tahiti, published by Avalon Travel Publishing of Berkeley, California. His South Pacific travel blog is intended to provide updates to his printed guidebooks and to discuss issues of interest to Pacific travelers.

Gil Zeimer is an accomplished travel writer, advertising wordsmith and globetrotter. His true passion is his role as lead editor/writer of www.Vagablond.com, a luxury travel blog focusing on travel, food, wine and shopping. Since the site’s launch in April 2005, Gil has crafted over 1,325 stories and acted as catalyst for Vagablond’s position as the online resource for luxury travel with highly entertaining content.

Hi, my name is Jeanne from Soultravelers3. We are 20 months into an open ended, multi-year trip around the world as a family on a tight budget & we blog/vlog about our adventures and collaborate with other readers, travelers, teachers, schools, and homeschoolers around the world. We retired early and also share how-to information about that, mobile global living, e-education & homeschooling while traveling, budget family travel and RVing in Europe and world wide. This year we are excited about bringing a few classrooms of disadvantaged children in NYC and Chicago along with us virtually!

I’m Sebastien Tobler, I believe that my blog Colliding Continents offers a true travelers perspective that strays from the beaten path. I think that my experiences around the world can help people find a more qualitative approach to traveling. Having lived in a significant amount of countries throughout my life I find that there are ways to better assimilate with the cultures you live in/are visiting instead of maintaining an outsider’s perspective.

Tom Meyers is the founder and the Editor-in-Chief of EuroCheapo.com. EuroCheapo’s mission is to make travelers’ time in Europe affordable and memorable. EuroCheapo’s editors have scoured Europe’s most popular cities to find hotels that are both welcoming and wallet-friendly. The hotels EuroCheapo recommends are perfect places to settle in for a few days while exploring cities, interacting with locals and learning about the places you’re visiting. EuroCheapo’s budget travel blog includes daily posts containing advice and insider information for saving money while traveling. The EuroCheapo blog focuses on areas that are most likely to impact travel budgets, including hotels, budget airlines and alternative transportation options, and the occasional restaurant recommendation.

I really enjoyed my visit to the Wilton Lodge Park and Museum in Hawick in the Scottish Borders yesterday. Wilton Lodge, set in 107 acres of grounds was built by the Pringle family in 1859. The Lodge become the home of Hawick Museum in 1910.

The War Memorial at the side of Wilton Lodge

Motor cycle enthusiasts will enjoy the Museum exhibition about Jimmie Guthrie the 1930s Scottish motor cycling champion who was born in Hawick but died in an accident at the German Grand Prix in 1937. The Museum hosts various temporary exhibitions, at present a photo diary of St Cuthberts Way from Melrose to Holy Island and a collection of vivid oil rural landscapes.

The parkland surrounding Wilton Lodge offers lovely walks along the banks of the River Teviot. i thought that the waterfall was beautiful.

The Waterfall, Winton Lodge Park, Hawick

There a cafe in the park, a childrens play area and a walled garden with free parking nearby although disabled drivers can park outside Wilton Lodge.

I think it’s a great venue for a family day out, with no admission charges and there are plenty of benches for a picnic.

by markus941

How important is the cleanliness of the bathroom at your accommodation? For me it’s crucial? I just don’t feel comfortable in an establishment that doesn’t have clean bathrooms. What a contrast I’ve experienced in standards of cleanliness in bathrooms in accommodation over a couple of days.

On Sunday night I stayed at the Metro Inn Falkirk in central Scotland and was unhappy with the cleanliness of the shared bathrooms. On Wednesday night I stayed at the Sunnybrae Bed & Breakfast in Galashiels in Hawick in the Scottish Borders and I can report that the Sunnybrae is the cleanest, most pristine accommodation in which I’ve ever stayed. The bathroom for room 3 at Sunnybrae was sparkling.

It’s perhaps not an entirely fair comparison as I did have a private bathroom at Sunnybrae. However if an establishment has shared bathrooms it must ensure that they are clean. Metro Inns claim on their website to offer cheap, clean accommodation with self cleaning shared toilet and shower facilities. Self cleaning sounds like an ideal solution and I could see water jet nozzles in the shared facilities at the Metro Inn but whether they were broken or just not efficient they weren’t doing the job.

What’s your experience of bathrooms in hotels, guest houses and bed and breakfasts?

Update:

I was emailed this video link by GAP at Le Gourmand which portrays the health hazards posed by improperly cleaned hotel bathroom glasses. I just goes to show that you can’t tell by looking if something is really clean.

When I read about a company called Tots to Travel I thought it sounded a really good idea to have a selection of accommodation chosen for families with young kids and asked the founder Wendy Shand to do a guest interview.

1 What is the aim of your business?

The central aim of Tots to Travel with Totstofrance and Totstoitaly is to provide parents with genuinely family friendly holiday accommodation so that they stand the chance of having a relaxing and peaceful holiday! All our self catering properties have been vetted to ensure that they are safe and fully equipped for families with small children and babies whilst still appealing to our adult sensibilities about what makes delicious holiday accommodation!

2 What prompted you to start your own business?

Personal experience! We went on holiday to France with my two small children and got there to find that it was just seriously hard work and a bit scary - no stairgates, tiled floors, no equipment and so on. The bit that sealed it was when my little boy, then aged 2.5 fell into an unenclosed pool - thankfully we were all sitting around the edge and we were able to pull him out - but it was then that I had the sharp realisation that this was not a game and that things can go horribly wrong on holiday. The Houseowner then sent me a feedback form which I helpfully filled in with all my thoughts and therein was the seed of the idea. It really was the holiday that changed the path of my life!

3 What has been the hardest aspect of having your own business?

There are lots of bits that pose a challenge but I think the hardest bit is that it is just such hard work and never goes away! We have only recently begun to be able to take a holiday without dragging the laptop with us… In many ways it is like having another child. I had not envisaged the emotional rollercoaster, the immense highs and profound lows, but overall I have to say that it has been the most exciting and satisfying thing that I have ever done in my professional career and would not have changed a moment of it.

4 What is the funniest thing that has happened to you running your own business?

In the early days we identified that we wanted to grow our database of contacts so set up our ‘Tots Club’ which would keep interested parents up to date with new developments. As an incentive we offered a free branded bib to every new club joiner which worked well and really helped to grow the database. The problem came when we were hit by a scam called FreebieHunters ie. a website devoted to people who just want to get things for free. All of a sudden we saw a surge in new club joiners and thought thatour luck was in! It did not take long for us to realise that we had been scammed and had to take swift action to remove the free offer before it got out of hand. At the time it was really quite stressful but I can laugh at it now and I suppose that out of every challenge you learn more to take you to the next stage.

5 Is there anything you would do differently with the benefit of hindsight?

Hindsight is a marvellous thing! I think on balance that I am pleased with most of the decisions that we have made. Many of themistakes that we have made are due to the fact that we could not have predicted the sheer growth of the business - 6 fold growth in year 2 and double in year 3. Every six months we have found ourselves in a completely different place from where we had been only six months earlier. I am fairly pragmatic about this, you can’t make decisions based on information that you do not know. With the benefit of hindsight I would have started to register our trademarks much sooner than I did as when we came to do it, one of the names that we wanted had already gone. C’est la vie!

My comments - This brings back memories of going on holiday to Greece with our 13 month old twin sons. The accommodation had stone flagged floors. Our sons couldn’t walk and were still crawling around. Therefore they had to spend most of their time indoors in their cots. Coming from a carpeted home in the UK, we really hadn’t considered the hazards of a stone floor. We’d also assumed that they could crawl around on the beach but the sand was too hot for most of the day. To make matters even worse the brake on their twin buggy had been damaged in transit, so if they were sitting in the buggy someone had to hold the buggy securely.

I know exactly what Wendy means about the highs and lows of running your own business which is why I have entitled my Twitter updates “Everyday agony and ecstasy of a non techie Scot running a travel business and blog”.

The Sheraton Hotels & Resorts has reported that it plans to expand their brand with 29 additonal hotels  this year.  Locations include Denver, Washington D.C., Ireland, Egypt, China, California.  The company is also planning for 85 new hotels to open globally in 2010.  This would mark the largest expansion in the Sheraton's 71-year history.

In addition to their new developments, the Sheraton is looking to spend more than $1 billion to renovate approximately 50,000 North American guest rooms and more than 100 lobbies by the end of 2009.

Though the sales in 2007 were record breaking, experts believe that hotel sales are likely to surge ahead through the remainder of 2008, even if the number of rooms sold doesn't keep pace with last year.

The Hotel Brokers International reports, "Despite disruptions in the capital markets and talk of recession, we anticipate 2008 will be another very active year for hotel real estate.  Supply growth remains constrained and the economy is expected to pick up in the second half or early next year, which will have a positive impact on hotel operations."

I’m always trying to point out the potential pitfalls of car hire because it is complicated to come up with best all round car hire deal. You should never purchase car hire on price alone, you really just examine all aspects of the car rental agreement.

If I hire a car abroad once a year I use a car hire company which offers a truly inclusive price where either you will pay no excess in the event of damage of theft such as economycarhire or the excess will be refunded by the car rental firm if you pay an additional charge such as AutoEurope. However even with this cover damage to the roof, undercarriage, locks, tyres and windows is not covered.

I’m renting a car in Italy for one week at the end of May and I’ve booked through economycarhire which has zero excess policy excluding roof, undercarriage, tyres and windows. I think the risk of damage to these parts is fairly low and the cost of that damage won’t be too high.

However if I hire a car, away from home, more than a couple of times a year then I buy annual excess insurance is a good option. With this you are covered for any type of damage and you can go for a cheaper car hire quote which doesn’t include the no excess. The rental location must be more than 150 kilometres from your usual residence. European annual excess cover costs £49 for Europe for drivers aged up to 74 years of age, the cost is £65 for drivers aged 75 - 85. You’ll be covered for car hire periods of up to 31 days, as many times a year as you require. The policy covers all drivers named on the car hire agreement.

So to answer the question “Is annual car hire excess insurance a good buy?” my opinion is an emphatic yes, if you hire a car more than once a year and perhaps even for a single car hire if you find a really low price quote where there is a large excess and you want to cover yourself for any potential damage to the hire car.