Hotel Blogs

If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like running your own web based business, you can read my everyday agonies and ecstasies running my travel website and blog on Twiiter. Share in my daily frustrations with IT, my joy when I get publicity or positive feedback. Have a laugh with me when things go array, like when I misspelled budget travel as “bodget” travel on a live blog. Perhaps I could diversify into writing a sit-com entitled “Bodget Travel”. Read about the moment when divine inspiration strikes and I try a new ploy to develop the business or I suddenly work out how to master the latest IT gizmo like blog widgets.

Divine Inspiration by azrainman

I started my travel business Europe a la Carte in 2002 to promote authentic travel in Europe on a modest budget. I believe that if you venture, even slightly, off the beaten track, you’ll see more of the real Europe. My site features guides to less well known European destinations. I started the Europe a la Carte blog in October 2006 and write about travel news, tips and advice, travel deals, accommodation and restaurant reviews.

Things recently moved up a gear for me when I started the editor of the Wandalust UK travel blog, where I’ve to write five posts a week. It’s getting even harder trying to fit everything in - my travel business and blog, my part time day job as a social research interviewer and having some time for family and friends.

Well certainly life is never dull as an internet entrepreneur and blogger, so if you are already a Twitterer you can follow me or you can sign up to Twitter and start receiving my “Everyday agony & ecstasy of a non techie Scot running a travel website and blog” updates.

PS I’ve been trying to add my Twitter badge to this post but in keeping with being a non techie, I can’t get the code to work in a blog post. The code works fine the margin of the home of Europe a la Carte but apparently not in a blog post.

Here are details of the confirmed panelists for the live blog on the topic of “What readers want from travel blog” due to kick off at 20:00 British Summer Time on Wednesday 23 May 2008.

I’ve listed the panelist in alphabetical order of their first names. I asked the panelists to email my their own introduction.

David Stanley is the author of Moon Handbooks South Pacific, Moon Fiji, and Moon Tahiti, published by Avalon Travel Publishing of Berkeley, California. His South Pacific travel blog is intended to provide updates to his printed guidebooks and to discuss issues of interest to Pacific travelers.

Gil Zeimer is an accomplished travel writer, advertising wordsmith and globetrotter. His true passion is his role as lead editor/writer of www.Vagablond.com, a luxury travel blog focusing on travel, food, wine and shopping. Since the site’s launch in April 2005, Gil has crafted over 1,325 stories and acted as catalyst for Vagablond’s position as the online resource for luxury travel with highly entertaining content.

Hi, my name is Jeanne from Soultravelers3. We are 20 months into an open ended, multi-year trip around the world as a family on a tight budget & we blog/vlog about our adventures and collaborate with other readers, travelers, teachers, schools, and homeschoolers around the world. We retired early and also share how-to information about that, mobile global living, e-education & homeschooling while traveling, budget family travel and RVing in Europe and world wide. This year we are excited about bringing a few classrooms of disadvantaged children in NYC and Chicago along with us virtually!

I’m Sebastien Tobler, I believe that my blog Colliding Continents offers a true travelers perspective that strays from the beaten path. I think that my experiences around the world can help people find a more qualitative approach to traveling. Having lived in a significant amount of countries throughout my life I find that there are ways to better assimilate with the cultures you live in/are visiting instead of maintaining an outsider’s perspective.

Tom Meyers is the founder and the Editor-in-Chief of EuroCheapo.com. EuroCheapo’s mission is to make travelers’ time in Europe affordable and memorable. EuroCheapo’s editors have scoured Europe’s most popular cities to find hotels that are both welcoming and wallet-friendly. The hotels EuroCheapo recommends are perfect places to settle in for a few days while exploring cities, interacting with locals and learning about the places you’re visiting. EuroCheapo’s budget travel blog includes daily posts containing advice and insider information for saving money while traveling. The EuroCheapo blog focuses on areas that are most likely to impact travel budgets, including hotels, budget airlines and alternative transportation options, and the occasional restaurant recommendation.

I really enjoyed my visit to the Wilton Lodge Park and Museum in Hawick in the Scottish Borders yesterday. Wilton Lodge, set in 107 acres of grounds was built by the Pringle family in 1859. The Lodge become the home of Hawick Museum in 1910.

The War Memorial at the side of Wilton Lodge

Motor cycle enthusiasts will enjoy the Museum exhibition about Jimmie Guthrie the 1930s Scottish motor cycling champion who was born in Hawick but died in an accident at the German Grand Prix in 1937. The Museum hosts various temporary exhibitions, at present a photo diary of St Cuthberts Way from Melrose to Holy Island and a collection of vivid oil rural landscapes.

The parkland surrounding Wilton Lodge offers lovely walks along the banks of the River Teviot. i thought that the waterfall was beautiful.

The Waterfall, Winton Lodge Park, Hawick

There a cafe in the park, a childrens play area and a walled garden with free parking nearby although disabled drivers can park outside Wilton Lodge.

I think it’s a great venue for a family day out, with no admission charges and there are plenty of benches for a picnic.

by markus941

How important is the cleanliness of the bathroom at your accommodation? For me it’s crucial? I just don’t feel comfortable in an establishment that doesn’t have clean bathrooms. What a contrast I’ve experienced in standards of cleanliness in bathrooms in accommodation over a couple of days.

On Sunday night I stayed at the Metro Inn Falkirk in central Scotland and was unhappy with the cleanliness of the shared bathrooms. On Wednesday night I stayed at the Sunnybrae Bed & Breakfast in Galashiels in Hawick in the Scottish Borders and I can report that the Sunnybrae is the cleanest, most pristine accommodation in which I’ve ever stayed. The bathroom for room 3 at Sunnybrae was sparkling.

It’s perhaps not an entirely fair comparison as I did have a private bathroom at Sunnybrae. However if an establishment has shared bathrooms it must ensure that they are clean. Metro Inns claim on their website to offer cheap, clean accommodation with self cleaning shared toilet and shower facilities. Self cleaning sounds like an ideal solution and I could see water jet nozzles in the shared facilities at the Metro Inn but whether they were broken or just not efficient they weren’t doing the job.

What’s your experience of bathrooms in hotels, guest houses and bed and breakfasts?

Update:

I was emailed this video link by GAP at Le Gourmand which portrays the health hazards posed by improperly cleaned hotel bathroom glasses. I just goes to show that you can’t tell by looking if something is really clean.

When I read about a company called Tots to Travel I thought it sounded a really good idea to have a selection of accommodation chosen for families with young kids and asked the founder Wendy Shand to do a guest interview.

1 What is the aim of your business?

The central aim of Tots to Travel with Totstofrance and Totstoitaly is to provide parents with genuinely family friendly holiday accommodation so that they stand the chance of having a relaxing and peaceful holiday! All our self catering properties have been vetted to ensure that they are safe and fully equipped for families with small children and babies whilst still appealing to our adult sensibilities about what makes delicious holiday accommodation!

2 What prompted you to start your own business?

Personal experience! We went on holiday to France with my two small children and got there to find that it was just seriously hard work and a bit scary - no stairgates, tiled floors, no equipment and so on. The bit that sealed it was when my little boy, then aged 2.5 fell into an unenclosed pool - thankfully we were all sitting around the edge and we were able to pull him out - but it was then that I had the sharp realisation that this was not a game and that things can go horribly wrong on holiday. The Houseowner then sent me a feedback form which I helpfully filled in with all my thoughts and therein was the seed of the idea. It really was the holiday that changed the path of my life!

3 What has been the hardest aspect of having your own business?

There are lots of bits that pose a challenge but I think the hardest bit is that it is just such hard work and never goes away! We have only recently begun to be able to take a holiday without dragging the laptop with us… In many ways it is like having another child. I had not envisaged the emotional rollercoaster, the immense highs and profound lows, but overall I have to say that it has been the most exciting and satisfying thing that I have ever done in my professional career and would not have changed a moment of it.

4 What is the funniest thing that has happened to you running your own business?

In the early days we identified that we wanted to grow our database of contacts so set up our ‘Tots Club’ which would keep interested parents up to date with new developments. As an incentive we offered a free branded bib to every new club joiner which worked well and really helped to grow the database. The problem came when we were hit by a scam called FreebieHunters ie. a website devoted to people who just want to get things for free. All of a sudden we saw a surge in new club joiners and thought thatour luck was in! It did not take long for us to realise that we had been scammed and had to take swift action to remove the free offer before it got out of hand. At the time it was really quite stressful but I can laugh at it now and I suppose that out of every challenge you learn more to take you to the next stage.

5 Is there anything you would do differently with the benefit of hindsight?

Hindsight is a marvellous thing! I think on balance that I am pleased with most of the decisions that we have made. Many of themistakes that we have made are due to the fact that we could not have predicted the sheer growth of the business - 6 fold growth in year 2 and double in year 3. Every six months we have found ourselves in a completely different place from where we had been only six months earlier. I am fairly pragmatic about this, you can’t make decisions based on information that you do not know. With the benefit of hindsight I would have started to register our trademarks much sooner than I did as when we came to do it, one of the names that we wanted had already gone. C’est la vie!

My comments - This brings back memories of going on holiday to Greece with our 13 month old twin sons. The accommodation had stone flagged floors. Our sons couldn’t walk and were still crawling around. Therefore they had to spend most of their time indoors in their cots. Coming from a carpeted home in the UK, we really hadn’t considered the hazards of a stone floor. We’d also assumed that they could crawl around on the beach but the sand was too hot for most of the day. To make matters even worse the brake on their twin buggy had been damaged in transit, so if they were sitting in the buggy someone had to hold the buggy securely.

I know exactly what Wendy means about the highs and lows of running your own business which is why I have entitled my Twitter updates “Everyday agony and ecstasy of a non techie Scot running a travel business and blog”.

The Sheraton Hotels & Resorts has reported that it plans to expand their brand with 29 additonal hotels  this year.  Locations include Denver, Washington D.C., Ireland, Egypt, China, California.  The company is also planning for 85 new hotels to open globally in 2010.  This would mark the largest expansion in the Sheraton's 71-year history.

In addition to their new developments, the Sheraton is looking to spend more than $1 billion to renovate approximately 50,000 North American guest rooms and more than 100 lobbies by the end of 2009.

Though the sales in 2007 were record breaking, experts believe that hotel sales are likely to surge ahead through the remainder of 2008, even if the number of rooms sold doesn't keep pace with last year.

The Hotel Brokers International reports, "Despite disruptions in the capital markets and talk of recession, we anticipate 2008 will be another very active year for hotel real estate.  Supply growth remains constrained and the economy is expected to pick up in the second half or early next year, which will have a positive impact on hotel operations."

I’m always trying to point out the potential pitfalls of car hire because it is complicated to come up with best all round car hire deal. You should never purchase car hire on price alone, you really just examine all aspects of the car rental agreement.

If I hire a car abroad once a year I use a car hire company which offers a truly inclusive price where either you will pay no excess in the event of damage of theft such as economycarhire or the excess will be refunded by the car rental firm if you pay an additional charge such as AutoEurope. However even with this cover damage to the roof, undercarriage, locks, tyres and windows is not covered.

I’m renting a car in Italy for one week at the end of May and I’ve booked through economycarhire which has zero excess policy excluding roof, undercarriage, tyres and windows. I think the risk of damage to these parts is fairly low and the cost of that damage won’t be too high.

However if I hire a car, away from home, more than a couple of times a year then I buy annual excess insurance is a good option. With this you are covered for any type of damage and you can go for a cheaper car hire quote which doesn’t include the no excess. The rental location must be more than 150 kilometres from your usual residence. European annual excess cover costs £49 for Europe for drivers aged up to 74 years of age, the cost is £65 for drivers aged 75 - 85. You’ll be covered for car hire periods of up to 31 days, as many times a year as you require. The policy covers all drivers named on the car hire agreement.

So to answer the question “Is annual car hire excess insurance a good buy?” my opinion is an emphatic yes, if you hire a car more than once a year and perhaps even for a single car hire if you find a really low price quote where there is a large excess and you want to cover yourself for any potential damage to the hire car.

Good - Low price of £25 for a room which sleeps up to three adults. Ability to get low rate even with late booking. Convenient location, just off M9 with plenty free parking.

Bad - Dirty shared bathroom facilities and no tea and coffee making facilities in room. Room very basic with very thin mattress and small double bed. A 6 digit pin code rather than key to access room.

Rating out of 10 - 5

I started my search for accommodation in the Falkirk area on my favourite hotel price comparison site, HotelsCombined where the Metro Inn in Falkirk came up at £30 a night for room only on the Laterooms site. However following my own advice on how to find the lowest rate I checked out that Metro Inns site and the found the room for £24.50.

I stayed at the Metro Inn in Falkirk for one night in April 2008. The hotel used to be branded Formule 1 part of the Accor hotel group but five of the Formule 1 hotels, Falkirk, Newcastle, Teeside, Doncaster and Peterborough were sold to Metro Inns a couple of years ago.

Metro Inns have shared bathroom facilities. There are separate plastic moulded wc and shower units which are designed to be self cleaning but I’m don’t think that the cleaning was taking place. I had two problems with the shared bathrooms, the first that the bathrooms were not clean. The other than you don’t receive a key but a six digit pin code to access your room. If you need to go to the bathroom during the night you need to remember to take the slip of paper with your pin code or you’ll end up locked out of your room and it’s much easier to lock and unlock a door with key than punch in six digits when you are half asleep. I dropped my slip of paper on the wet floor in the shower room and could hardly read the pin.

Shared bathrooms alone is not enough to discourage me from booking accommodation, it depends on other factors too, the price of the accommodation, the ratio of bathrooms to guest bedrooms and the cleanliness of the facilities.

The room had a TV but no tea and coffee making facilities. There were several vending machines selling food and drink in the hotel lobby. There was a small double bed with a very thin mattress which had a single bunk directly above. There was a sink in the room.

The website says there is free wifi access at Metro Inns but I didn’t check this out.

I wouldn’t be keen to stay at Metro Inns again, mainly because of the dirty shared bathrooms and the very basic rooms. It is good value, especially if 3 people stay it’s as cheap as a youth hostel dorm and you have a private room. I rate Travelodge much more highly as you can get a much better standard of room, more spacious and a large comfy bed with a private bathroom, which sleeps up to 2 adults and 2 kids but you have to book at least 18 days in advance to get the non refundable Saver rate of £19.