Hotel Blogs by Guillaume Thevenot

Hotels.com new header

I have noticed that Hotels.com header has a "no cancellation fees" attached to it. Quite new for a merchant model OTA.

Which country is it?

A corporate blog without writers

You hardly hear when web 2.0 initiatives didn't work for a company. Well, I might have found one.

The tour operator Thomson, part of the TUI group, did launch its blog Thomson Holidays Blog a while ago (probably in 2006 if I remember) but I haven't seen any new post since 2007.

The blog still exists but you can't find any old posts apart from some rather strange dull posts about the movie Ratatouille.

I would be interested to understand why this didn't work for the operator.

Do you know the Pink Room?

The Pink Room is a new hotel room concept which has been developped by the Spanish chain Hesperia. These rooms have been created for women who can enjoy:

- Women's Magazine
- 100% cotton sheets and towels
- Clothers hangers for skirts and blouses
- M-sized bathrobe and slippers
- Full-size mirror
- Full bathroom set with lovely surprises

Also 1€ from every stay in the Pink Room will be donated to Breast Cancer research.
There is no extra charge to select this room.

This room type is now available in around 20 hotels in Europe and recently at the Hesperia London Victoria.

Having said that, I haven't yet found this particular room type on their hotel website when asking for availability. What a shame...

...but after 4 clicks in the bookings process, I found where to select the extra bit you need to select for the Pink Room. I believe it would be easier if selecting the pink room from step 1.

Unfortunately, I haven't found any pictures of these pink rooms. Even on Hesperia website, the dedicated page to this concept presents no clear pictures about how the room looks like in different hotels.

Surely, the room doesn't look like this.

 

If you happen to try this room in the future, let us know.

Hilton brand hit by new Google trademark decision

Following up the article found on Travolution, Hilton might be one of several hotel brands affected by this change about the right for any company to bid on trademarks names.

Funny enough, when you type Novotel on Google, Hilton doesn't appear on paid listings...

UPDATED - Too many Trip companies ?

Superbreak changes its logo and visual identity

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The leading UK short break online agent Superbreak (part of the group Holidaybreak plc) has recently changed its logo and brand identity. This niche operator in the travel industry has been trading for the past 20 years and drives around 1.5 million customers travellers every year. This logo gives a bit of freshness in the image of this  important operator.

GHM Hotels new website

GHM Hotels - probably my favourite hotel group ever - has improved its new website and has a better navigation throughout. Having said that, the website is built in Flash, therefore not really SEO friendly. This is probably one of the common mistakes when building a hotel website.

I am not sure which next GHM hotel I should try on my next holidays. Maybe the Setai in Miami...

Trivop becomes VideoAgency

VideoAgency, the company behind Trivop (a leading online videoguide for hotels), has revamped its website and concentrates now on 3  task:

- Video  Production
- Video Search Engine Production (see the video interview with Marc Robertson from Reelseo)
- Digital Asset Management or how to manage  your videos to many video portals like Metacafe, YouTube,      Dailymotion

Video Agency CEO, Thomas Owadenko, has also launched its blog full of info and videos.

Hotel Review: Warwick Barsey Hotel, Brussels, Belgium

Forgot to post that review I made during my stay in February 08 in this excellent boutique hotel on Avenue Louise - the "chic" district in Brussels.

Another visit in Brussels over the weekend needed a decent hotel considering how good value for money is the hotel market in the Belgium capital. Even luxury hotels are affordable.

Warwick Barsey Hotel is quite a unique hotel, formerly known as Hyatt Barsey, and presents some nice decoration features. The same guy behind Hotel Costes in Paris - Jacques Garcia - decorated the hotel.

We arrived on a late Friday evening where we were invited to join a dinner table at the “Boudoir” night organized every Friday in the restaurant of the hotel. From midnight, the restaurant turned to be a nightclub with very chic people coming in.

Our room was absolutely fantastic. We had one of these suites on the top floor with a living room, a bedroom and a huge bathroom with Jacuzzi, fantastic shower and all amenities from Eau de Thé Vert from Bulgari. The hotel has a very welcoming staff from the reception to the bar & restaurant.

This hotel is what you need if you need a weekend breakaway in a centre of Brussels and want to impress. The weekend rate is around €120 per night if you book a bit in advance.

Check out as well the interview I have conducted with the General Manager, Stéphane Vohl.

Warwick Barsey Hotel, Brussels, Belgium
Uploaded by HotelBlogs

John Kent (Founder of YouTravel) and his blog

I was glad to discover that another key executive figure in the online travel space has opened his blog.

John Kent - former founder of MedHotels acquired by Lastminute in 2004 for £22.6M - has decided in 2006 to develop another "bedbank" called YouTravel with the help of VC funds from Barclays Ventures.

John has set up his blog around the time of the WTM last year in November. Interesting to see his background and how well he's been succeccful in his previous businesses. He also has a website about him here.

Last post he wrote was about the appointment of Graham Nichols at the position of Group Managing Director for YouTravel (Graham is ex Worldspan VP EMEA).

Preview of Dubailand on Video

Whislt preparing ourselves for a Desert Safari in Dubai in September 07, we have asked the driver to show us the foundations of Dubailand - one of the most ambitious and expensive entertainment complex project ever seen. One of the crazy idea in development is the construction of an indoor ski slope on 1km (Project Snowdome). This project alone would cost around $1 billion. They also plan to re-construct part of the world like mini countries (Europe, Asia, Americas...) - a similar idea already exist with countries pavillions at Walt Disney World  (The World Showcase).

Construction works are to be fnished between 2010 and 2012.

They plan to open around 50 hotels in Dubailand. Check out their website.

Dubailand - Sept 07
Uploaded by HotelBlogs

Funny - How to fail a check-in in a hotel...

10 Coolest Hotel Suites in the world

The website OnTheBeach has published their list of the "10 of The Coolest Hotel Suite in the World". My favourite is the Villas in Mahé, Maldives. And you ?

Hotel Review: Grosvenor House, Dubai, UAE

Forgot to post that review I made during my stay in September 07 in this excellent hotel in Dubai.

Our first trip in Dubai led us to stay in this Starwood property Grosvenor House thanks to great advice we had from Trailfinders. We stayed there 4 nights from Sunday the 9th until 13th September.

The check-in was very quick and one of the receptionist came with us to show us our room. In fact it wasn't a room. We were upgraded to have an apartment on the 8th floor instead. We were so lucky.

The hotel is split between hotel rooms and apartments. Elevators lead to rooms, others to apartments only. Both products have a separate reception and concierge as well.

The apartment we had was very functional with a fully equipped kitchen with complementary tea and coffee. A living - dining room with the latest technology available on a plasma screen (video on demand, music on demand, international channels, Internet, ...). We have a huge bathroom with a separate shower with toilets. Another toilet room was near the living room as well. Our bedroom was also equipped with this plasma screen with same technology. Both bedroom and living room were giving you a view of the street side with all the building in construction and the one finished. Windows must have been soundproofed as we were never disturbed by the noise. We were very delighted by the comfort of the king size bed. Matrice, duvet and pillows were so comfy that we need to ask the hotel where they found those to equip our house in London.

Every day we had complimentary fruits and petits fours + water bottles. In the bathroom, all amenities were provided by Molton Brown. I have heard that in the hotel, amenities are from Bulgari with their superb fragrance Thé Blanc.

The hotel has plenty of restaurants to choose from. We tried the best buffet I ever come across at Sloanes where you eat oysters, sushis, lobster on the grill, ribeye steak and so many dishes. The dessert buffet is also very impressive with a chocolate fondue. Breakfast is also served at Sloanes and is very good and full of choices. On the last night, we tried the Indian restaurant Indego which is probably one the best Indian restaurant I have ever eaten. Don't expect the usual Korma or Madras but more original and innovative dishes from a clever and talented chef.

There is so much to say about this hotel. One more thing, the hotel is not on the beachfront. But you can take a bus provided by the hotel who will take you to the sister hotel Le Méridien Beach & Resort and then take the facility of the hotel (it's just a 3 mins drive). At the hotel, they will provide you a towel and you have full access to both swimming pools and the beach.

Finally, the hotel has also outside the Budha Bar recreated which quite impressive and very busy at night.

If you are looking for a modern hotel with comfortable rooms in Dubai, Grosvenor House is for you whether you are Leisure or Business.

Grosvenor House - Dubai
envoyé par HotelBlogs

- For bloggers - BlogIt

I have just read that Blog It is a new free application available on Facebook who let you update your blog via the social networking site environment.

Blog It supports TypePad, Twitter, Blogger, Livejournal, Movable Type, Wordpress.com, Wordpress.org, and more.

Have you heard of ReviewAnalyst?

ReviewAnalyst is a new tool that lets hotels take a proactive approach to consumer-generated hotel reviews, videos & images. The system aggregates user generated content via portals like TripAdvisor, Expedia or Yahoo Travel. With ReviewAnalyst, you can track, analyze and react to what people are saying about your hotel on the major travel and social media sites. The website advertises a start price at $99 per month.

This interesting service was developed by Standing Dog, a full service internet marketing agency in Dallas, Texas specializing in online travel and hospitality. Standing Dog is founded by the veteran hotelier Mike Wylie who stopped his blog in 2007.

Today starts the HEDNA conference

I won't be attending the HEDNA conference in Lisbon this week. Got too much work to catch up since I am back in London. Would be interested to hear your feedback if you are in Lisbon in the next 3 days.

I would be particularly interested by 3 topics that HEDNA may cover during the event:

- Unique Hotel ID
- Hotels and the Green Issue
- Hotels and the Duty of Care (to avoid in the future the terrible accident which happened in Corfu in 2006)

Rich Media becomes more available to Pegasus

With the partnership agreement signed up recently between the CRS Pegasus and the rich media company VRX, consumers will be able to reach more multimedia to help them make a better choice when it comes to pick a hotel. But what rich media means? It covers 360 virtual tours, stilll images and interactives maps. To me there is nothing new under the sun. These forms of media already exist in various websites:

- Booking.com for example with the interactive map from Google Maps

- Online Travel Agents and hoteliers' website already display 360 virtual tours and even a company has been created to look after this media (http://www.hotelvirtualtours.co.uk/). I still have doubts about the usage of this media. Usually, you need to download a plugin or software which consumers in general rather try to avoid.

- every decent OTA or hoteliers' website has images for all their hotels offers

I believe what's missing is the video bit.

In a world where I hear the brand "YouTube" at least 3 or 4 times a week, hoteliers should really look at videos and distribute them to YouTube, DailyMotion, Metacafe and so on. Or alternatively why not work  with Trivop who has been created for that purpose. (you can contact Trivop here).

I am twitting today

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