Accor Meeting Hotel Finder

20-12-2013

With the new search engine ‘Accor Meeting Hotel Finder’ of Accor Hotels, MICE- and meeting planners can search easily for a suitable location for their conference or event. They can search for a location based on the geographical location, type of event, accommodation and hotel segment. When the meeting planner has selected a location they can directly request for an offer or book the location. The search engine has more than 1,000 locations and 10,000 rooms in 90 different countries of which 65% in Europe and 23% in Asia Pacific.

Balsan DUO carpet designed INCH hotel suite

19-12-2013

Network club INCH (international network connecting hotelschool graduates) has decorated a hotel suite at the Hotelschool The Hague campus Amsterdam in collaboration with Balsan DUO carpet. The design studio of Balsan DUO has designed the room together with architect Frank ter Horst. The hotel suite is themed unruliness, spontaneity and to act unconventional. Balsan has placed a striking carpet with 4 designs on the floor and they also decorated the wall and the window frame with the same carpet. There is a bed of 2m by 2m in the middle of the room, a maxibar and enough space to move freely.

Collaboration Hotel Mitland and Nimeto

13-12-2013

Hotel Mitland and Nimeto, a creative commercial intermediate vocational college, have a long collaboration history in Utrecht. Every year the Nimeto students decorate the hotel, restaurant and the bowling alley in Christmas atmospheres. Mister Wim Plijnaar is closely involved in the decoration, he is one of the four brothers that run the hotel. The example was suggested after a Tweet we sent about collaboration possibilities for hotels and garden centers for Christmas decoration.

Pinterest connects businesses to an interactive map

29-11-2013

Pinterest has launched the new tool ‘Place Pins’ which makes the social media platform more interesting for small businesses. With Place Pins, users can add addresses and maps when they Pin an image. These are displayed on an interactive map. Make a Pinterest board with your favorite hotels and restaurants, for instance Paris and you can share this interactive map of Paris with other users. By clicking on ‘more information’ you will be directed to the Foursquare page or the hotel / restaurant website.

Luminous carpet

21-11-2013

Philips started a partnership with carpet specialist Desso. The companies will develop innovative light-emitting carpets based on LED lighting. It will be possible to integrate LED lighting in surfaces, which also gives the carpet a safety function such as painting out emergency exits and escape routes. The luminous carpet brings atmosphere and inspiration in areas and it will appeal to the senses of people. It is a new innovative way to inform people in areas like offices, hotels and conference centers. Philips and Desso are working on pilot projects, but in 2014 they will introduce the product name.

Inspiration from NOMA

12-11-2013

By Julia Soldic.

Last Thursday, November the 7th, we were at a lecture of René Redzepi (Noma. Copenhagen) about his new book ‘A Work in Progress’. Organized by Babooka, a bookstore in Leiden and LeidsLekkers to herald the Restaurant Week in Leiden. During this lecture René rapidly exchanged reading passages from his diary with images and videos of his restaurant and chefs. Julia Soldic, a Norwegian who recently graduated from the Hotelschool The Hague, has had an internship of a few weeks at Noma in 2012. She was at the lecture with us and writes in her column below of her experience and leaves between the lines a number of ‘learnings’, such as encouraging creativity and the importance of team building and contact with your guests.

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NH Hoteles StartupBus Europe

30-10-2013

NH Hoteles is sponsor of the StartupBus Europe. The hotel chain finds its core values ‘talent management, motivation and teamwork’ well presented in this competition. During the tour several buses from Barcelona, Berlin, Rome, London, Paris and Amsterdam aim for the Pioneers festival in Vienna. During the road trip the participants create and launch a startup. In total there are 150 challengers divided over six buses. During the road trip to Vienna, the Dutch StartupBus stops in Antwerp, Cologne, Düsseldorf, Berlin, Prague and München.

The participants challenge each other for a spot on the entrepreneurial Pioneers Festival. The finalist wins a weekend break by NH Hoteles in one of its 400 hotels in 27 countries as well. NH Hoteles gets inspiration from innovation and is constantly on the lookout for new opportunities to develop services and talents. The collaboration with StartupBus is a way to meet with young creatives and future entrepreneurs.

Four Seasons Taste Truck

14-10-2013

Giving people a chance to taste the dishes from Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, the hotel chain has introduced the FS Taste Truck. Since 16 September, the food truck drives to eight destinations in three states, from Palo alto, California to Santa Fe, New Mexico. During the tour the nearest Four Seasons Hotel will take over the FS Taste Truck and serves dishes inspired by the city visiting. The food truck will be parked for one week in each location at the Four Seasons Hotel there, hosting a series of events. The FS Taste Truck can be followed via #FSTasteTruck on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

Hotel Mitland uses the HotelBooQi

8-10-2013

Recently our managing director, Hans van Spronsen, wrote a column ‘Generation 0.0’ from witch we quote the following paragraph, ” Maybe the fact that the majority of hotel guests in the middle and upper segment is older than 40 years and is not active on the social media. That’s why I’m always amazed when I see that these hotels have a Facebook page and are very active on Twitter. Who are you trying to reach? Not the target audience, I think. We do not read tweets or likes.” In his column which is published in a Dutch magazine he explains that this generation checks all the reviews at bookings.com or Tripadvisor and that hotelmanagers better check these reviews at a daily base and react to the reviews in a personal way.

Hotel Mitland in Utrecht is responding with the introduction of the hotelBooQi . This communication tool , a folding flyer credit card size , serves as a holder for the room key, contains practical information about staying in the hotel and a map with landmarks. The hotel thinks that despite the attendance of mobile applications, that at this moment in time it is still more effective to inform their guests this way. This in addition to the information on their website and taking into account the 0.0 generation. Besides that the unfolding of the HotelBooQi is still faster than downloading and opening an application.

Warning for tourists in New York

4-10-2013

A warning with a wink for all tourists who will be visiting NY in the coming period. This hilarious movie should be mandatory for tourists to prevent sidewalk-clogging, by tourist taking pictures while wearing tracksuits. According to New Yorkers tourists need to learn how to behave. And Johnny T, tells about all the jerky things tourist do in NY and tells the basic tenets of not-obnoxious touristing. At the expense of large restaurant chains (although again with a touch of humor) the creators ‘Glove and Boots’ refer to smaller restaurants to eat. He also recommends that out-of-towners stay in their hotels between the hours of 4 and 6pm, when residents are trying to get home. Just another way to put your city in the picture ;-).