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9 September 2010, Paris : Where’s the world’s best party hotel?
Vacation or overnight, an unusual or exotic location, new places and unknown people ... sounds like the ingredients to let your hair down, and live a little more on the wild side. That’s the logic behind the new World Best Party Hotel league table just published by MSN.
Of course, wild parties are not for everyone, and not every hotel. But there’s a big market out there, and price tends to be their last consideration. So what do hoteliers need to do to put on a great party? And which are the best hotels around the world to learn from?
First pack your dancing shoes, and some aspirin (for the mornings) ... then discover the best bump-and-grind mega clubs, ever-popular rooftop bar, sexy pool lounges, trendy restaurants, and venues for concerts, exclusive film screenings, and even sports events.
Best of all, checking into one of these hotel hotspots means you’re guaranteed VIP access to the city’s most coveted nightlife. Some even have venues reserved for hotel guests only, which means the party is only a few floors below, or above your bedroom.
• Aria Resort, Las Vegas – inevitably bigger, and better than any other. Opened last year, it’s a favourite of Katy Perry and crew, with 8 bars, 17 restaurants, a personal “remote controls”.
• Buddha Bar, Sao Paulo – first opening in Prague last year, London and Paris soon followed, defining itself as a “pop art eatmosphere” with a Warhol-inspired decor.
• Distrito Capital, Mexico City – the hot spot du jour with interiors by Frenchman Joseph Dirand, and only 30 rooms, it’s so exclusive that P Diddy (Puffy? Daddy?) struggles to get a seat.
• Fasano, Rio de Janiero – Philippe Starck’s sleek 1950’s Ipanema inspired creation, with an infinity pool bar on the roof, you can get wet and stargaze with Madonna and Beyonce.
• Fontainebleau, Miami - $1billion refurb of the Miami Beach classic which requires you to be a guest or VIP with themed parties every night, and Lady Gaga as a guest DJ.
• Metropolitan, London – minimal but sumptuous, sushi and rockstars, the party starts at 3pm with the slogan “Party Like a Rock Star – Sleep Like a Baby”. And there’s the Met Bar too.
• Murano Resort, Paris – another boutique affair, with fingerprint ID access to your personal disco room, or the cool Martini Terrace. Stay on for the “Rock n’Luxe” weekends.
• Ritz Carlton @ LA Live – the classic indulgent Ritz gets funky with a cool hangout for business types, and with a just about tasteful pool room and bowling alley too.
• The Standard, New York – the Boom Boom Room has grown up into a “private social club” (members clubs are so last decade), with Astroturf carpets and deckchairs. Different.
• The Wit, Chicago – Usain Bolt would like the lightning motif across the facade, and with its lush velvet fabrics he might bump into Prince and share the “star views” and “fire pits”.
18 August 2010, Barcelona : The peasant's hotel from Majorca
You've bought the shoes, now stay in the hotel. Barcelona’s "Casa Camper" is a hip place to stay. Its a boutique hotel that really does manage to create a very different look and feel – not like a typical chain hotel, or another Starck-inspired temple of minimalism.
In Catalan, camper means peasant.
In fact you’ll find the whole story of the company and its value inside every pair of Camper’s colourful, quirky, and distinctive shoes.
The extraordinary shoe company from the Spanish island of Majorca likes to do things differently. Look at its shoes – in some styles left and right shoes are intentionally mismatched ,whilst in other models there are philosophies and quotations on the soles.
The story inside the shoes tells you that the business was founded in 1877 by a shoemaker called Antonio Fluxa, whilst the Camper brand was introduced by his grandson Lorenzo, 98 years later. In an interview with Fast Company, Lorenzo said “When people call us a fashion brand it offends me. We dont like the fashion world at all. Were trying not to take ourselves too seriously”.
The shoes are quirky and distinctive, rustic and authentic, but certainly not fashionable. They are inspired by the distinctive culture and traditions of Majorca where they are still designed, and many of them manufactured. Most people of the island worked on the land, and so they wanted tough, durable shoes that could withstand the extremes of weather.
Not fashionable or serious, maybe, but certainly popular. Camper’s sales reached almost Euro 100m in 2007, making it a market leader in Spain, and it continues to grow rapidly with over 250 stores across the world, from Beijing to Buenes Aires, Victoria to Wellington.
The brand is much more than the shoes, becoming an altenative lifestyle, an attitude that challenges conventions.
And so to the hotel. Of course, designer brand hotels are not new. From Armani to Mulberry, many brands have tried to apply their design talents to restaurants and bedrooms in the hope that they create a bigger showcase for their creativity beyond their products. Camper goes one better, and creates a genuinely different and better hotel experience.
Casa Camper offers 25 simple but stylish bedrooms in the heart of Barcelona, but also with free wifi and DVD players in every room. It has a help-yourself, 24 hour snack galley, a vertical garden, a recycling centre, and free bikes to explore the great city too. Down the street you can eat at FoodBall, Camper’s vegetarian restaurant, specialising in microbiotic foodballs, made of rice and numerous natural and surprising ingredients. Sit on the floor cushions, listen to the karma music, and drink the local organic beer too.
Camper is natural and authentic fun, in a wired and interactive world, where old traditions are not forgotten, and the spirit of Majorca makes you smile.
15 August 2010, Online : Inspired by the digital world of Mr & Mrs Smith
There’s nothing new about a hotel or travel website. There are thousands, all with their mind-boggling search engines, and infinite choices. From Expedia to Tripadvisor, via Lastminute and Kayak, the travel industry has embraced the internet like no other.
That said, when the Icelandic volcanic dust left me stranded in Istanbul earlier this year, some of the inadequacies of sites revealed themselves in my hour of desperation. Car rental sites, for example, seemed to have no idea where their cars were and what they could actually sell. Sixt, for example, confirmed two bookings of non-existent cars. And when it comes to finding a train across European borders, only one site can help, and only if you are booking seven days in advance .... useless!
But one site really stood out amongst the search-driven commoditising sites. Mr and Mrs Smith describes itself as a boutique and luxury hotel specialist, but the site really did the talking. Not only is it a great brand name, and visual identity, but every page of the site wanted me to book now, and again and again.
Mr & Mrs Smith’s site really thinks about designing a great user experience (I’m not sure the digital usability experts who designed Expedia really were looking for the ultimate, relaxing break). Clicking on the home page, is like that moment you step into one of those chilled out foyers, presenting with a hot towel and fruit cocktail, and the stresses of travel drain away.
The site is organised by themes (children friendly hotels, Spa hotels, wedding and honeymoons etc.), using recommendations to order the best destinations and hotels. Customisation is detail, quick and every detail can be easily found. There is news, social media and human-sounding blogs, and special offers that are actually relevant to me. The tone of voice is elegant but relaxed, and they somehow even know where I am now, so can tell me how to get there, if I want to set off now.
This is a site all about designed and sophisticated hotels and resorts, and shares that principle. The brand has been built and brought to life in a digital world. No mean achievement, particularly for a premium brand. And if the website isn’t enough, you can of course buy the excellent range of Mr & Mrs Smith travel books too – which are brochures, guide books, but actually the best coffee table books around.
It’s a rare achievement for marketing media to enhance the brand promise, with credibility and create a rich and rewarding experience in itself.
5 August 2010, Online : How hoteliers can get more from TripAdvisor
TripAdvisor is one of the most powerful hospitality marketing tools available today, yet more time seems to be spent complaining about it than developing ways to use it to a hotels advantage.
For customers, it offers a convergence of Google-type search for the best hotels with rankings based on other people like them, and Facebook friendliness where you can read about the good and bad parts, and make your own mind up – a refreshing change from pages of crass brochure speak. Personally, it’s the first site I look at when planning a trip, before booking flights or anything else.
For hoteliers, there is nothing scary about TripAdvisor. It doesn’t require a degree in technology, or to be a cool trendy digital thing, in order to make the most of it. All it needs in sensible, objective marketing thinking to improve your product, customer satisfaction, revenue, number of reviews and ultimately your ranking relative to your competitive set.
So here are 7 tips to get the most out of TripAdvisor:
1. Take the customer’s perspective – Still a novel idea for some – it conditions their expectations before, and it’s potentially how they remember you too – so read the reviews as if you were a traveller and not a hotelier. Read about your competitors too, a great source of ideas.
2. Learn from it, and take action - Reviews are comment cards with adrenalin. Listen to what your guests have to say about the quality of your product, value for money and the delivery of your services. Other customers will expect you to have acted on previous comments.
3. Develop a plan and deliver it – Decide that you want to be listed in the top five hotels for your destination, double your five star review, seek more than 50% positive reviews, get all your staff reading and acting on it, and even incentivise them on it.
4. Have a rolling action plan – Ensure all comments flow into a plan for acting on them, with responsibilities allocated, and weekly checks on progress made. Monitor to see whether similar comments keep cropping up, requiring more radical solutions
5. Be proactive, be creative – If you want more favourable views, then ask each guest if they are willing to write one. We all know that unhappy customers or more likely to talk than happy ones, so they need a little polite prompting, and might even enjoy helping you out.
6. Don’t be defensive – a complaint is always your best opportunity to improve, or even innovate, so don’t spend time arguing with the views of customers, or even their recollection of facts. Nobody’s interested in excuses. And make sure you play by the rules too!
7. Find ways to do more – for example, take advantage of the new business listings that allow you to link to your hotel website, reservations, images and videos, and email address. And look out for TripAdvisor’s special offers, newsletters and forums for hoteliers too.
In my view, TripAdvisor is one of the most important innovations in the travel and hospitality sector over the last five years. It’s scope and impact is probably still in its infancy, so steal a march on your peers and start using it to your advantage.
20 July 2010, Ranthambhore, India: The World's Best Hotels 2010
Travel + Leisure have just published their annual rankings, and the 2010 World's Best Hotel award goes to Oberoi Vanyavilas, a stunning resort in the heart of India.
The T+L 500 is an industry leading ranking, split by region. This year, “the spirit of exploration prevailed,” says Travel + Leisure’s editor in chief, Nancy Novogrod. Out of the Top 100 hotels, 69 are located outside of the U.S. and Canada (there are eight in India, seven in South Africa, and six in Italy and France, respectively).
A few top winners came from the most remote reaches of the globe. One example: the Fairmont Mara Safari Club in Nairobi, Kenya, which rose from No. 96 last year to No. 3 in 2010. We’re betting the high score is due to the presence of the evermore elusive Big 5 animals, which the resort’s expert trackers take guests to search for on twice-daily game drives. It’s clear that travelers are looking for “encounters with the natural world,” says Novogrod.
The Peninsula Bangkok also had a meteoric rise this year, from No. 66 in 2009 to No. 7 in 2010. We’re attributing this shift to our readers’ increased affection for Asia and Bangkok (newly anointed the 2010 World’s Best City), with its world-class hotels, shopping, restaurants, and happily, peace once again.
For more details of the T+L 500 click here
15 July 2010, London, UK : What do industry leaders really think?
We asked Hospitality Hub's founders Peter Detre and Mike Gelardi to come up with the three big questions they'd most like to pose to the movers and shakers of the hospitality industry. Over the next couple of months we'll be hearing the views of many. But for now, maybe you'd like to submit your answers too. So here are the questions
1. Who are the most influential people in the hospitality industry and why? (Is it the famous personalities, hoteliers, chefs and entrepreneurs, or some of the big chain managers, or sombody from outside the industry but having a big impact on it?)
2. How will technology change our world in coming years? (Consider the impact of video conferencing, online reservations, in-house systems, even virtual reality, and how they will enhance, commoditise or seek to replace what we do?)
3. Do big chains or small independents deliver better customer experiences? (Think about what customers really want - is it speed and consistency, location and flexibility, or service and style, individuality and intimacy - and how its delivered and managed?)
Look out for the replies of the industry leaders. But we want to know what you think too ... Email your thoughts and we'll publish the best ones.
12 July 2010, Rome, Italy : The first hotel made out of garbage
From 12 tons of rubbish a pop-up hotel has emerged to save the world. Led by Corona Extra beer brand, the “Save the Beach” effort aims to recover at least one European beach per year from destruction by pollution and other human-caused damage.
Last year it was Capocotta beach in Rome, and votes are currently being accepted online for this year's choice. To draw more attention to the challenge, the Save the Beach effort this summer built a hotel from garbage collected off Europe's beaches.
Created by German artist HA Schult and installed next to Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome, the Save the Beach Hotel opened on 3rd June. 12 tons of garbage collected from Europe's beaches—more than a million pieces—were used to build the two-story structure, which could accommodate up to 10 people. It’s very first guest was former supermodel Helena Christensen.
Find out more about Save the Beach here
10 July 2010, Shrewsbury : Romolo conquers an English country town
Whilst it’s always good to take a global and impartial view of the hospitality world, sometimes its good to share personal experiences too. So I thought I’d tell you about an exceptional new restaurant in the midst of one of England’s country towns – Shrewsbury. But this is not a tale of traditional British steak pie washed down with cider, nor your typical "italian" fayre, this is a culinary excursion to the heart of Rome.
Romolo’s was recently launched by head chef Claudio Murru because he was tired of being compromised by the limited visions of others, and wanted to let his passion for great food and hospitality be seen. It was a courageous move in the depths of recession, but the restaurant on the banks of the River Severn, with its rich red velvet curtains, Roman pillars, funky cocktail bar, and even boats for hire from the front door, is proving popular locally and further afield.
This is how the Shropshire Magazine described their first experience: “There is a wide choice of mouthwatering fish, meat and vegetarian dishes, along with pastas and risottos. Our brushchette al pomodoro appetiser was delightfully fresh garlic bread with generous helpings of tomato, red onion, black olives and a hint of basil, and provided an excellent accompaniment to pre-dinner drinks.”
“My lobster bisque was delicious: shavings of salty meat in a creamy soup with flamed brandy adding a kick. Vanessa’s salmon carpaccio was of a similarly high quality. The fish was cured with dill and there was a generous helping of a vodka and beetroot mix with parmesan shavings. My sea bream main course was fresh and beautifully cooked, with plenty of tender white meat beneath the crispy-fried top. New potatoes and roasted vegetables were a simple yet effective accompaniment while small cubes of chorizo added, as they inevitably do, a strong, spicy contrast vying for attention.”
His story goes on ...more ”delicious” ... and it was for me too. The perfect place to go with my wife to celebrate our wedding anniversary ... This almost sounds like an ad, but it isn’t. The real point is that the best food, the new ideas, the most inspiration, often comes “from the margins not the mainstreams”. Like the world's best restaurant El Bulli overlooking the bay of the little town of Roses in Spain, maybe Romolo’s can inspire your new thinking too.
To find out more see their website www.romolo.co.uk
7 July 2010, San Francisco, USA : How can hotels do more with social media?
There are now countless places out there for consumers to voice their opinions about brands large and small, and hotels are by no means exempt. In fact, online reviews are now the most critical measure of guest satisfaction and the top factor influencing where travellers decide to stay, according to Revinate. They have recently unveiled a hotel-specific service that aims to bring structure, performance tracking and actionable guidance to that never-ending stream of social media.
Revinate collects every review, news story, blog post, photo, video and social media mention of its client hotels and presents them in a single intuitive dashboard that's accessible online. The system can also do the same for competitors' reviews and social media activity, giving clients new competitive insight into their relative strengths and weaknesses. Its “Social Media Scorecard” then converts those online reviews into a detailed guest satisfaction report, tracking key performance metrics and competitive benchmarks. The tool's powerful analytics, meanwhile, provide real-time, easy-to-use reports that highlight what's important, with charts, exportable data, competitive intelligence and flexible options.
Perhaps most important it also makes it easy for hotels to join the conversation by responding to reviews and communicating with consumers via social media. TweetConcierge, for example, is Revinate's hotel-specific Twitter client with features designed exclusively for hotels, including the ability to track Twitter campaigns and measure click and sales activity generated across multiple promotional tweets. Revinate clients include Peninsula Hotels, Trump Hotel Collection, Rosewood Hotels & Resorts, Kimpton Hotels, InterContinental, Andaz, White Lodging and Peabody Hotel Group. The service's pricing is based a hotel's size and average daily rate, approximating the value of one incremental booking per month, Revinate says.
Find out more about Revinate here
4 July 2010, New York City, USA : Trend watching in the restaurant world
Just as chefs are forever seeking out new ways to tempt us, the food industry shows a insatiable appetite for novel eating concepts. Here's a selection of new innovations from trend trackers Springwise, designed to appeal to those hungry for a more unusual dining experience:
Le Troisieme Lieu: Stealing a tradition from music and comedy clubs, the Paris bar has declared Mondays as “open kitchen nights” when any aspiring chef can register to be the venue's cook for the evening. All meals cost 12 Euro.
Public Pie: The Dutch mobile kitchen features ovens that are integrated into the outdoor benching that is provided for patrons, meaning customers get exactly what is promised by the company motto “Fresh apple pie with a hot butt”.
Patty’s Pizza: Santa Monica’s star pizza maker has done away with its brick-and-mortar eatery altogether, and moved its retail operation entirely online. On top of that, customers can choose to have their gourmet pizzas delivered baked or part-baked, ready for them to finish off.
And finally, for something all together more crazy ...
Lobstah Pushah: How to make a sandwich more exciting to consumers? The Brooklyn restaurant’s answer is to make the act of buying one emulate a drug deal. Customers interested in The Merchandise (a lobster bun) must first become a member of a Facebook group. Orders for product are conducted by SMS, and handovers take place surreptitiously on street corners. You can watch it all on the brand's own Web TV station too.
Check out a day in the life of Tha Lobstah Pushah (aka The Brooklyn Chowder Surfer)
1 July 2010, London, UK : Restaurateurs beat Hoteliers in UK 100
The UK's "Most Powerful People in Hospitality" from Caterersearch ranks the people whose achievements are having the biggest impact upon the hospitality industry in 2010. It tells you where they’ve been, where they are now and where they are going.
This year's list includes a diverse collection of personalities, from the bosses of the biggest corporate giants to others who are pushing the boundaries of style, comfort or cuisine in their chosen field. It covers all sectors of the industry – hoteliers, restaurateurs, contract caterers, pub operators and chefs. Nominees in each of these five categories were judged by panel of industry experts who specialise in those sectors
Here's the top 10 people for 2010:
- Jamie Oliver, Fifteen, Jamie's Italian
- Andrew Cosslett, InterContinental Hotel Group
- Heston Blumenthal, the Fat Duck, the Hind’s Head, Mandarin Oriental
- Grant Hearn, Travelodge
- Gordon Ramsay, Gordon Ramsay Holdings
- Patrick Dempsey, Whitbread
- Richard Caring, Signature Restaurants and Caprice Holdings
- Richard Cousins, Compass Group
- Nick Jones, Soho House
- Jeremy King & Chris Corbin Rex Restaurant Associates
Oliver clinched the top spot because of his influence and reach across the industry. He is a chef, restaurateur, campaigner, television star and author as well as being the face of Sainsbury's. His reputation of being a "cheeky chap" has been superseded by his astonishing success in managing to change Government policy on school meals and the diets of families both here and in the USA. Recent years have also seen a highly successful launch into the casual-dining market, with Jamie's Italian.
He told Caterer magazine "Innovation and influence are always at the heart of what we do but there's got to be a social element too, whether it's through the work of the Jamie Oliver Foundation or through opening more Ministries of Food to help more and more people to embrace great food and cooking. Thank you for this. It means a lot to me."
In at two on the list is the highest-ranked hotelier, Cosslett of IHG, the world's largest hotel operator by bedroom numbers, who has overseen a number of initiatives that have helped keep IHG at the top of the industry. He said: "I haven't got TV shows, best-selling books or a magazine behind me, but I have got an incredible team who are the real reason I can accept this accolade on behalf of IHG. Together we've remained focused on what gives us our competitive edge - our people and our brands and it has made a big difference, particularly during these difficult economic times."
For details and profiles of the top 100 click here
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This blog is written by marketing and innovation guru, Peter Fisk, who is also a non-executive director of the Hospitality Hub. For more about him visit www.peterfisk.com
You can share your own news and views, insights and ideas with industry colleagues by adding to the blog. Simply email peterfisk@peterfisk.com