Hotel Blogs by Guillaume Thevenot

Any Trip companies tomorrow?

I am wondering how many trip companies I am going to see tomorrow at EyeforTravel?

TripSay and TripAdvisor will be there for sure. Will let you know tomorrow.

I have been to Yauatcha again

Last night, I had another nice dinner at the famous Asian London eatery Yauatcha (opened in 2004 by Alan Yau, the owner of Busaba and Hakkasan). The restaurant earned a 1  Michelin * in 2005.

The food is still superb with exquisite dim sums from pork buns, spare ribs, mango rolls, crispy duck rolls, Singapore Noodles, Mini Pak Choi and so on.
This time, I was innovative enough to try a new dim sum - the chicken feet - quite strange texture in your mouth. Didn't like those feet to be honest.

Service is still very quick, efficient and friendly. The damage per head came at £30 per head.

I would recommend to go on Sunday evening as it is less crowded. Lower ground floor is still my favourite.

I will attend the EyeTravel Distribution Summit, and you?

I will be attending the EyeforTravel Distribution Summit in London next week for the 3rd year running.

As always, I expect to hear key figures of the travel industry and understand recent development with new entrants in the market place.

I am particularly excited by the Travel "Dragon's Den" session who will be chaired by David Scowsill (ex CEO of Opodo) with the following judges Dick Porter from STA Travel, Hugo Burge from Howzat Media, Jason Katz from KP Capital, Gerry Samuels from Travel Capital and John Kent from YouTravel.com.

Also on Wednesday 21st, EyeforTravel will hold a full day Hotel Technology Forum with panelists from companies like Fastbooking, Bookassit or Great Hotels Organization.

If you plan to be there next week, let me know. If you wish to get interviewed, send me a comment with your name and company.

Q1 Results for 2 big OTAs

If you are interested to hear the latest financials results and development with 2 major OTAs, you can listen the calls here for Orbitz (2nd chart) and here for Priceline (1st chart).

And another trip company...

Where this will all end ?

TripKick is one the new trip company which has launched its website.

Thanks to Alex who brought up the story.

Bloggers reunited - the BOOT

It couldn't a better day yesterday evening to attend an informal meeting with travel bloggers in London.

Thanks to Tim for organizing this. I had the chance to talk with Kevin from Travolution, Jason from Sisilili and of course Tim from The Boot.

Special thanks to Kevin for taking this picture. We didn't go to this special bar in the end, Tim has to catch an early flight to Sidney the next day (boring!!!) and I don't think my wife would have approved the venue...

Let's organize another one in the summer with more people.

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 ?