All you need to know. Nothing you don’t!
15-8-2011
Last week we spotted a 20 minutes newspaper at the website of Ads of the World (created by the Miami Ad School in Madrid). During our holiday in America we noticed that newspapers are still served at the hotelroom door. At the Topnotch resorts we were served the New York Times Digest, a ten-page synopsis of The New York Times. TimesDigest is designed and edited to provide a balanced selection of the Times’ top stories and editorial comment, along with sports, weather, business news and the celebrated crossword puzzle.
Inspiration from 2008: Work-out rooms
15-8-2011
Spotted in august 2008, but until today still possible at some Westin Hotels, the work-out rooms. Westin offers the special option of booking a guest room equipped with a treadmill, a stationary bike, dumbbells, fitness DVDs, resistance bands, stability balls and bottles of water.
Find guests through a Twitter scan service
10-8-2011
Reach.ly is a new service focused specifically on finding potential new guests. Reach.ly monitors Twitter for mentions of planned trips and allows hotels to reach out to visitors who are heading their way. It’s a free service which begins when hotels register with the site via Twitter and indicate which cities they’re interested in. Reach.ly then begins to filter Twitter traffic for them, and presents it in a manageable number of tweets. Hotels can communicate with the potential guests at the Reach.ly interface. According to Reach.ly 9% did make a booking en about 20% indicated that they appriciated the contact. Interesting?
Luxury resort Amphibious 1000 in Qatar
10-8-2011
Another interesting hotel will appear in Qatar soon – hotel resort “Amphibious”. the hotel is designed by the Italian company Giancarlo Zema Design Group. The hotel complex will include residential buildings, offices and marina with modern bay. In the central tower will house a restaurant that offers exotic dishes in addition to stunning panoramic views. Guests can stay in the 80 semi-submersible suits, which were called “Jellyfish.” The rooms have wonderful open views to the underwater artificial reefs. On the territory of the hotel complex will be used only electric vehicles and small aluminum boats with hydrogen engines.
ING Italy – Happy clients bring in new clients
4-8-2011
ING Direct in Italy discovered that positive testimonials from current ING customers were responsible for bringing many new customers into the bank. In order to highlight how word of mouth referrals were driving the bank’s business, Leo Burnett Milan decided to create a series of live executions featuring real customers framed against bank billboards. Thus giving potential customers on the street the opportunity to talk to ING clients firsthand. Inspiration for the restaurant or hotel business? Just put happy guests somewhere behind a table with a meal, or in a bed?
RFID technology at the Great Wolfe Lodge
4-8-2011
Recently we have indicated that the chain of the Great Wolfe Lodge works with RFID technology for a direct line of their guests to their Facebook pages. The Ushuaia Ibiza Beach Hotel recently launched an integrated whole Facebook concept for their hotel based on the same technique. The movie clearly shows how it works.
Hotel Finder by Google
3-8-2011
Google has launched Hotel Finder, an experimental search tool that enables users to define key lodging preferences to find the perfect hotel for their travel needs. Users fill in their preferred location, dates, price and rating details, and Hotel Finder delivers its top recommendations in a list or on a Google Map. For the moment, it’s only available in the U.S.A. As far as we could see there are some new trics that make the search easier but it shows a lot of comparison to the search tools from for example Expedia and Bookings.
Share your holiday on Facebook
1-8-2011
The Great Wolf Lodge chain in the United States provides RFID wristbands to their guests. These were used as room keys and in-house charge accounts before. But nowadays, these wristbands can be used to transmit photos, taken at the so-called Paw Posts in the park, to a Facebook wall. Share your offline experiences online.
Hotel for your plants
29-7-2011
Before going on a holidaytrip, the question rises ‘what to do with the plants’? The Isla Azul shopping mall in Madrid understood that “serving is the new selling”, and offers visitors a hotel-service, Hotel Para Plantas, for your plants. During your holiday you can leave your plants at the hotel, and the they will take care of your plants.
Dogs are welcome
26-7-2011
Chien Bleu Travel is, according itself, the first travel agent in the UK which is specialized in the real dog-friendly hotels, cottages and other stay accommodations. Dogowners can consult this travel agent for the several accommodations, but can request whole packages as well.
