Hotel Blogs - When Hotel Marketing gets Social

Hotel Inspector in New Forest

Once again, I didn't miss Hotel Inspector on Five (English TV channel for those who live outside UK) on Thursday night. Ruth Watson paid a visit to a countryside 16 rooms hotel The Woodlands Lodge in New Forest.

The hotel is very much an old fashioned style hotel in terms of decoration and needed some fresh new ideas to make it fit with the 21st century. Room 1 was entirely renovated with brand new décor and I have to say I was impressed by such a change. Exactly the type of rooms I would like wake up in the morning. But the management team seems a bit resistant to changes with the exception of the lady owner. The hotel has a restaurant which needs to regain their rosette they lost this year. Didn't see much change in the kitchen during the programme. In the middle of the programme, the chef decided to resign for personal reason and was replaced by the sous chef.

Would be interesting to see a follow up visit in a year time. Their neighbour new competitor Hotel TerraVina (developped by one of the founders of Hotel du Vin) is now open to the public.

Technorati Tags: hotel inspector, ruth watson, hotel du vin, woodlands lodge, terravina

Hotel Inspector last night

Another interesting episode of Hotel Inspector on Five (English TV channel for those who live outside UK) last night. This time Ruth Watson visited a 8 bed rooms Haven Hotel (now known as No. 78) in Great Yarmouth (not far from Norwich). Owners are a young couple who have little experience in the hotel industry. They aimed to make their property a 5 star property.  Quite a big challenge . In the beginning, you could see that the hotel was far from being a luxurious hotel. But with the renovation of the rooms and public areas and the honest and dedicated service provided by the couple, the hotel achieved a 4 star rating after an inspection from VisitBritain. During the programme, you could also spot at the reception that owners are using a lot the online hotel booking engine Booking.com. See how the property is listed on Booking here.

Now the property has been renamed No. 78 to make it more modern and change the perception of future guests. Funny enough, the last episode  I saw was also about a hotel with a "number" name.

Something I still don't get is this obsession for star rating which doesn't make any sense nowadays. What is is the definition of a 5* property. To me, 5* means luxurious hotels can only be claimed for renowned properties like the Ritz in London, the George V in Paris or the St Géran in Mauritius who have been here in the market for a while and have a lot of customers who have praised their art of service and excellence.

Again, what do we mean by 3, 4 5 stars today? I refer to the post from Darren lately to continue this debate.

Technorati Tags: hotel inspector, ruth watson, number 78, hotel great yarmouth, booking.com, star rating

Hotel Inspector last night

I have enjoyed again last night another episode of the Hotel Inspector on Five (English TV channel for those who live outside UK).

This time, Ruth Watson was visiting a 3 bedroom hotel in Greenwich, Number 16 which was perceived by her as a property which turned from"shabby chic to shitty chic" In the end, the owner has done very well in terms bt changing a few things. His property will feature in a renowned bed & breakfast guide after the visit of one their reviewers.

Ruth Watson is back

The Hotel Inspector Ruth Watson is back for a 3rd season on the UK TV channel Channel Five every Thursday at 9pm. As I mentioned before, Ruth is visiting small hotels in the UK which need her help to make their business healthier. The latest visit was the Safari Hotel in Bournemouth. Their website doesn't have (yet?) the booking engine to make their rooms bookable online...

Technorati Tags: ruth watson, the hotel inspector, safari hotel

Hotel Inspector - Season 2 has ended

To my great regrets, the weekly programme Hotel Inspector presented by Ruth Watson has finished last week. That was the end of the 2nd season. I hope the producer will work on the 3rd more entertaining season next year.

Hopefully, we will have more programmes like these talking about Hotels/Airlines/Restaurant and the rest of the hospitality world.

TwoFour, the production company behind Hotel Inspector has revealed on its website that from 1st September they will broadcast on Sky3 a new serie "Cruise with Stelios in the Caribean".

Have you experienced yourself EasyCruise ?

Technorati Tags: hotel inspector, ruth watson, stelios, easycruise

Hotel Inspector #5 - reviewed

Last Thursday, I have watched on Five (UK TV channel) the episode 5 of the Hotel Inspector presented by Ruth Watson, a well known hotelier and food writer who co-owns the hotel The Crown and Castle in Orford, UK. This programme is produced by TwoFour who makes factual entertainment programming for the major UK channels.

This week, we had the chance to see a guest house in York called Blossoms Hotel managed by Richard.

The guest house is family orientated and could sleep up to 6 people in certain rooms (with bunk beds). The decor of the rooms was a bit old and not attractive but definitely could attract the week-enders who just need a cheap room to sleep in with their children. The breakfast looked good and customers didn't complaint. The only negative point was more how Richard was managing the guests as well as his staff. But with Ruth's help, he decided to re-assign specific tasks to the staff and more importantly learn how to greet his guests and make sure they are taken care off. Design wise, the room which could sleep 6 is getting a make over with more space and a new fresh decor.

I found there wasn't much to do for this hotel in order to attract more guests. It is either you change everything or make small changes.

The next episode will be about a hotel in Bath.

Technorati Tags: hotels, hotel, york, hotel inspector, ruth watson, tv

Hotel Inspector - TV show reviewed

As promised last week. I have watched last Thursday an episode of the Hotel Inspector on Channel 5 and I have enjoyed it a lot (apart from the 3 advertising breaks). It was about the guest house called Sparkles in Blackpool. A property targetted solely for children with themed rooms based on children tales and cartoons like 101 Dalmatians, Narnia, Barbie and so on. The decoration is quite extravagant and the hotel inspector is here to help the owner to  increase her business and occupancy rate by changing certain things over. At the end of the programme, the inspector is worried that the owner doesn't want to change the  room rates. Before the makeover, count 250£ per night per room. For Blackpool, that's very expensive. I have checked on the hotel website and I have found that rates have been adjusted to the market. The suite will cost you now between £70 and £100 for 2 persons. The show itself is well constructed with very good advice from the inspector. Would be good though to have the inspector coming back to the place like 6 months after her visit.

Technorati Tags: hotels, hotel, hotel inspector, channel five, TV, Blackpool

A new TV serie about Hotels...

Hotel Inspector is a new TV serie which started on Thursday the 15th July about Hotels on Channel 5 (now know as Five only on UK TV). The first episode was about transforming a guesthouse into the 21st century property. I haven't watched the first episode but will definitely watch the 2nd this Thursday and will let you know my feedback. I hope it will be as amusing as Hell's Kitchen with Gordon Ramsey.

Technorati Tags: hotels, hotel, hotel inspector, five, tv

...and Lastminute latest smelly TV ad in Italia...

To compare with Priceline, Lastminute has produced something much more...hum well...smelly and not so cliché...Having said that I am not too sure this ad do much justice to the pink brand. What do you think?

Priceline and Hotels on video...

Priceline has launched its latest US TV commercial about Hotels.