Wow! Visiting the latest addition to our hotel portfolio last week, I could not help it but to notice I was truly impressed by the dedication of its owners to deliver excellent guest service.  They have true hoteliers blood running through their veins. Let me share this inspiring story of genuine Scottish Hospitality with you.

The Ednam House Hotel, located in Kelso, Scotland, contacted us a few weeks ago, requesting our help on their online distribution and pricing strategies. As with all leads, I qualify them by doing some research online. Going on their TripAdvisor profile (see here) I directly noticed we were dealing with hoteliers that truly cared about what their guests had to say. Every review was carefully answered, addressing all the feedback remarks positive and negative in a constructive and positive manner.

After several conversations I was certain this was a hotel I would be proud of to add to our portfolio. And I was extremely pleased to learn that in return they were also putting their trust in Xotels to implement revenue management for their hotel. A site visit was planned so we could gain a better understanding of the uniqueness of the Ednam House. And little did I know before this road trip that the word unique could be completely underrated. I can honestly say that this 2 day adventure is without a doubt amongst the ones I have enjoyed the most since we launched Xotels back in 2006.

Following a late flight from Barcelona on one of my least favorite and very client unfriendly low cost airlines (which name I will not mention in order not promote their name in any way), we arrived in Edinburgh where we would stay the night. We were warmly welcomed at the EasyHotel in Edinburgh, another client of ours, where we were given rooms with breathtaking views of the Castle of Edinburgh. We enjoyed a comfortable night sleep and picked up the rental car, a cool Fiat 500, following a morning strategy meeting. The road trip was about to begin.

We drove out of the city, down the Scottish motorways into the country side. The landscape was beautiful with mountains, rivers, and fields with cows, sheep and little lambs running and playing. The change of scenery really made an impression on us, but little did we know there was so much more to come. After about a one hour driving adventure we arrived in the town of Kelso, located in the Scottish Borders region on the River Tweed. We drove around the village to get our bearings and a general impression. It surely hit us as a beautiful and charming historic town, perfect to spend a long weekend or relaxing break.

Arriving at the hotel a non-stop volley ‘awe’ impressions started. The Ednam House is located in a gorgeous Georgian Mansion sitting in 3 acres of gardens overlooking the famous River Tweed. Driving up the entrance courtyard, you cannot help it by being overwhelmed by the stunning setting. We were immediately welcomed by Ralph and Anne, the fourth generation of the Brooks family, who have owned and ran the hotel since 1928. We were immediately invited to join them for lunch, ad treated on wonderful stories of their family and history of the hotel. I could tell they had true hospitality blood running through their veins. And actually the hotel was just one of the businesses they were running. They truly live for their business and understand what it means to create a story.

Anne gave us the grand tour of the property, literally taking us back in time. Whilst the original building has been updated and extended through the years, it has retained its historical character and oozes charm; the original woodwork, plaster ceilings & marble fireplaces are truly magnificent. The lounges with grand red velvet sofas, armchairs, landscape paintings, porcelain vases, are breathtaking. The entrance lobby with fishing rods subtly tucked away in the corner with a few wind-coats hanging from a peg, shows you this is not simply a concept, it’s an original! You truly feel yourself in another, and actually you are. Moreover the informal friendliness of our hosts is just unwinding and simply sincere. Everything about this place is real …

Throughout the tour Anne explains us all the nicknames of the rooms, like the blue lounge, which is no longer blue as the original blue wall paper was covered with red many years ago. But also the beautiful traditionally decorated bedrooms have been named based on the wallpaper, and include curiosity instigating names like ‘the naughty monkeys’, ‘blue birds’, ‘William Morris’, ‘Chinese room’, Tulips room’. She tells us that repeating guests request specific rooms, as they like the setting and decoration. They even prefer not to be upgraded to a larger room, but simply want to stay in their room, where they have always slept.

Sitting in the lounge in the evening night catching up on emails, I overheard some of the other guests, mostly fishermen whom have been coming to the hotel for many years, talking amongst each other. One thing stroke me, they all knew Ralph and the barman George by name. Ralph sat with them discussing what the day had brought them. There was no barrier between host and guest, no everyone was simply at home!

Ralph and Anne take their passion for hospitality and catering further than simply exploiting the hotel. They take their dedication of providing service to their guests to an unparalleled level. Actually besides using local fresh ingredients in the kitchen by Ralph, who has been head chef since the days his farther used to run Ednam House, I was intrigued to learn that they also smoke their own salmon, have bee hives and produce honey for your breakfast, raise free range pork, bake fresh bread, and have their own Whisky brand.

They also exploit a modern Deli, ‘Pharlanne’, located at the entrance of the hotel, where you can buy these fresh ingredients and products to take home with you. They put together hampers as presents to bring back as a souvenir or gift for the holidays. And the wine served in the restaurant and sold in the Deli is produced by Anne’s family back in France.

Now this is a story about genuine Scottish hospitality to share, I thought …

Isn’t that what a hotel should be all about? A story worth sharing … An experience you would want to talk about on your FaceBook, Twitter, Google+ and personal Blog … Such a unique experience cannot be replaced by any social media marketing strategy!

What an authentic adventure! I feel extremely fortunate that we can count the Ednam House Hotel amongst the hotel clients of Xotels.

I hope this story has inspired you.

Cheers,

Patrick @ Xotels

Want to know more about our services? Click here: Hotel Management Company

It’s that time of year, when everyone’s beginning to plan how they will spend their summer vacations. For some, their idea of a perfect holiday is sunning themselves on a golden, sandy beach. For others, it means caravanning across Europe, shopping in Rome, or even sailing to the Arctic Circle!

However you choose to spend your vacation, there’s one item which you absolutely cannot do without – insurance. No matter where you are or what you’re doing, insurance will help to keep you, your loved ones and your possessions safe.

Finding a Great Insurance Provider

There are so many insurance providers on the market today, so finding a great one can sometimes feel like an insurmountable task. But there is a key to finding the right travel insurance, and that is to find a provider who is committed to meeting your specific needs. If your current provider isn’t up to the challenge, it might be worth checking out www.towergateinsurance.co.uk – the specialist insurance broker for people who value personal service.

Get to Grips with Your Insurance Needs

If you don’t know what type of insurance you will need, you may find yourself being sold unnecessary protection policies. Before you choose a provider, you should always make sure you have a good understanding of your insurance needs.

For example, if you are travelling in a caravan, you will need insurance which is specifically designed to cover both a domicile and a vehicle. But if you have your own holiday home, you may wish to investigate the benefits of holiday home insurance. This type of insurance is very similar to standard home insurance, but is specifically designed to cover properties which may be standing empty or rented out for periods of time. Similarly, there are different types of insurance for people who intend to take short trips or long vacations, and still more for those who intend to take more than one holiday in a year.

Get the Best Deal for You

Finding the right insurance provider can be tricky, but hopefully these simple tips will help. Most importantly, you should always shop around for your insurance provider, to ensure you get the best deal possible. But remember, at the end of the day a good deal can only really be assessed on how willing a provider is to meet your needs. After all, you can’t put a price on good service.

Online Revealed brings together the best and the brightest in the travel industry together from across Canada and into the US to share best practices, case studies and experiences in digital and social media marketing, with speakers hand picked to provide the best in online marketing education.

I will endeavour in posts to follow to provide some key insights, content from the 15 digital and social media marketing workshops that were presented, and trends and tips shared with delegates of the 8th annual event.

The first of our recaps outlines the Canadian Travel Trends that were presented by Expedia’s Vice President of Market Management for North America, Hari Nair.  The detailed report of Hari’s presentation can be found on the Online Revealed Blog, with some of the key insights outlined below.

Also, I would be remiss not to point to the reviews of the event by Hotelier Magazine, Restaurants and Hotels and Travelweek, who were among the delegates at the conference.

Expedia’s Hari Nair Presents Expedia’s latest research on Canadian travel trends.

Some key highlights included:

1. Year-over-year hotel revenue by geographical source shows bookings on Expedia (for travel in Canada) are 32% from Canada, 25% from the USA, and 11% International.
2. Rates are dropping closer to booking, but Canadians are shifting down from preferring luxury priced travel, to a value brand price points – where the International traveler has showed an increase of 182% in 4-star luxury bookings across Expedia travel sites.
3. Consumers have increased same day booking by over 30% (noting the increase of mobile access as well as a caveat to this trend).
4. Expedia’s data indicates that Canadians book travel packages, but Canadian hoteliers need to continue to package travel throughout the year (even in peak seasons) as consumers are willing to spend more, as long as there is perceived value overall.

The full article is available on the Online Revealed Blog with additional statistics and trends covered in the opening keynote presentation.

Hotelier Magazine also covered the event, and provided this recap of the conference.

“Experts at the conference agreed that when it came to travel marketing online, content was king. Travel Marketers need to optimize content on their online properties by utilizing a mix of tools, such as photos, reviews, blogs and social media that’s right for them. In addition, mobile was picked as the fastest growing trend with Expedia’s Nair pointing out that “You don’t want to just look into mobile, you want to invest into mobile.”              - Hotelier Magazine

Restaurants and Hotels.ca also provided some key takeaways with a 2-part conference recap:

“Marketers are spending 88% of digital marketing budget on PPC (pay per click), which yeilds 6% CTR (click thru rates), while 12%  (on average) or budgets are invested in SEO (search engine optimization), which yields 94% CTR”     -  Restaurants and Hotels Magazine

My next posts will cover some of the other speakers and takeaways from the 15 workshops, highlights from the annual Google eTourism Awards, closing keynote Mitch Joel, and key insights from the 2012 Destination Benchmarking program, which compared Canadian destinations in online performance to each other, and to International peers in NewZealand and the US.

Xotels continues to grow adding innovative hotel concepts to our portfolio. So we are once again looking to fill vacancies with new talent to join our team of hotel revenue management and distribution experts. Are you looking for a new challenge in hotel yield? Want to live and work in Barcelona?

We are not just looking for anyone. No we are looking for the best of the best!

Because at Xotels we improve results for independent hotels by outsourcing revenue management.

So if you are result driven, goal oriented, self-starting, a team player with solid experience in hotel yield and revenue management, you should definitely apply.

We offer a very challenging hotel management career opportunity for highly motivated and skilled people.

Identify yourself with Glen or Roy? Are you a winner?

And yeah, liking coffee doesn't hurt ...

Want to find out more about our job openings? Click here : Revenue Management Jobs

Feeding the Big Data, Deep Web Monster with the Semantic Web. When done right, it’s a beautiful thing.

It was a pleasure to be invited back to again give a keynote presentation to the Association of Travel Marketing Executives 2013 Travel Marketing Conference. I joked that this was a bit surprising as I thought I might have been banned from the conference after presenting The Collision of SEO and Social – Who Draws the Creepy Line? which apparently was not too creepy and did not cross the line.

Toward the end of the presentation, there are several slides that set up my prediction for the “Killer Travel App.” I have evangelized these over the years and continue to believe that there are seven steps in the travel process, five types of travel transactions, the end-to-end travel experience and the multi-persona traveler. Mark my words – these continue to be critically important aspects of the industry and will represent the battleground for customer engagement in the years ahead.

The presentation addresses several issues that must be considered by travel marketers and investigates several points that need to contemplated when engaging customers.

The first of the two videos (following slide 13) embedded in the presentation is a silent example of the Google Flight Search from Hell – from four origin markets – MIA, MKE, MSP and DFW to five destinations NYC (EWR, LGA, JFK) CUN and LAS.

The second video (following slide 38) is the full 9 minute presentation by Jack Andraka, the 15 year old who developed a better (400 times more sensitive & 50% more accurate), faster (5 minutes instead of 14 hours) and cheaper ($0.03 for a paper test strip capable of recording 10 tests) that makes the former $800 test obsolete. It is well worth a viewing – incredibly inspirational.

Feedback from the session was very positive – the ATME crowd is always very engaged – even though I stood between them and lunch. For those unable to attend, I am always seeking new perspectives. Add a comment or reach out to me privately through the contact form.

| The post How Big Data, Deep Web & Semantic Technologies Change Travel Marketing by Robert Cole appeared first on RockCheetah

OK, so you have decided to realize your dream and open your own hotel. You have thought out an amazing concept delivering unparalleled guest service. The next step would be to write a hotel business plan. It’s like a road map to the opening. However this is where most entrepreneurs get stuck.

Why? Many do not have the time, don’t know what to write or how to do the financials. But until you finish your business plan, you will not be able to get the financing either. So you end up with ideas sitting in your head not realizing your dream.

Really it is not that difficult to make a good hotel business plan. It is merely a structured summary of your idea. Most people try to include everything about their hotel concept in the plan. This leads to an indigestible super novel like bookwork, aka a mess.

They key is, knowing what to include, and what not to include in your hotel business plan. Create a clear road map for success. Excite investors rather than bore them to death like most business plans full of redundant information do. And you need to lead readers down the exact path you want.

One of the main challenges is that after reading the first page most business I often don’t fully understand what the hotel is all about. For investors and lenders it is crucial they can quickly comprehend your plan, without reading the whole document.

We have put together a guideline with 10 critical points you must include in your hotel business plan;

1. Executive SummaryThis exists of two parts:

• Mission Statement: Intro: a 1 line company description only the essence of your hotel (not 2 lines or a paragraph). It explains why you are in business or or which huge need you are solving, that currently is not being met. For example in the case of Qbic Hotels ‘Moving modular hotels into under-utilized real-estate to reduce build-out cost and time.’ 
• Objectives: What do you hope to accomplish? I.e."Reach an annual occupancy of 90%."

• Marketing: How exactly will you attract customers / guests? How will you position yourself? What will your message be to the different segments of your business mix? How will your direct marketing work? What will is the plan for your hotel website, SEO, SEM and SMM? Will you do offline promotion?
• Distribution: Which 3rd party channels will you use and how will you manage availability? What technology will you need?
• Revenue Management: What pricing and yield techniques will you use? What will your payment and cancellation policies be?
   

7. Operations Plan
How will you run the hotel? How much staff and supervisors will you need? What are their job descriptions / responsibilities? What background and experience should they have? When should they start? What are your service standards? Will you develop manuals? Which supplier will you use? How will you manage inventory?

8. Management Team
Include the bios of your team. Focus on what uniquely qualifies you to make your hotel such a success.

9. Financial Plan
Provide the start-up costs of the hotel (capital investment), the ingoing business costs, operational expenses and revenue projections for the next five years. Include KPI like expected occupancy, ADR (average daily rate) and REVPAR (revenue per available room).

If you are raising money, outline how much funding will be needed and when. Explain how you will generate a return on investment for investors, or when lenders will be paid back.

10. Key Milestones
These are the most important achievement which once they have been completed, will make your hotel more likely to succeed. Think off:

1. Location selection
2. Permits & Licenses
3. Build-out / Construction of the Hotel
4. Staffing and Training
5. Opening
6. GOP Break-even
7. NOI Break-even
8. 10% Ebitda

Each time one of the key milestones is achieved, the risk of lenders or investor decreases. And once your last key milestone is reached, chance of success is more or less guaranteed.

11. Appendix
Provide any other relevant information here. Don’t clutter the main sections of your hotel business plan with too many details. Rather support them with attachments in this part.

Many people have great business ideas. But that really doesn't matter. The difference between dreamers and entrepreneurs is the action mindset. Are you ready to ship your idea to the market? 

The first step is to put your ideas on paper. I hope this guideline will help you write a persuasive hotel business plan. Because no investor or lender will be interested if you cannot present a clear plan.

Follow your dreams and go for it!

If you have any questions or ideas, please post them below!

Cheers,

Patrick @ Xotels

For information on our services, click here: hotel consulting

Whether you want to open your own boutique hotel, a small bed and breakfast, or an innovative budget hotel concept, there is one thing they all must have in common to succeed. They must be remarkable. What does this mean?

Remarkable simply means, worth making a remark about. And in the day and age of online guest reviews and social media it’s what the success of a hotel completely revolves around.

A stay at your property needs to be such an original and touching experience that your guests will share videos, pictures, comments and reviews on their FaceBook, Google+, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, TripAdvisor, Yelp, etc accounts.

There are so many new hotels opened each year, and most are jsut mediocre. Greylike ideas that will fade away with the masses. Your concept needs to be so special that you catch your guests of guard and inspire them. Give them some magic and turn your guests into online brand ambassadors. In essence you could call this guest sourcing marketing and promotion :-).

But behold, it needs to be special to your guests, many of which are experienced travelers which will not be easily impressed. So look beyond your own enthusiasm, be critical of your ideas and set the BAR high.

The most important part of the hospitality industry (yes the name gives it away already) is the hospitality factor, aka service. Service is paramount above style and anything else. You can have the most beautiful hotel with the most amazing features, but without good guest service you will fail guaranteed.

Many hoteliers make the mistake focusing too much on interior design etc and not enough on providing good service to their guests. People expect personalized, friendly and sociable service. Otherwise they would go to the big brand 1000 room hotel.

Next step in your concept, is problem solving. You need to solve a problem that exists in the current market place. Either provide a service other hotels are not providing. Or become more cost efficient than other existing concepts. To get the investment and financing together, it will help if you can demonstrate that your hotel is more than just a dream, but a viable business concept that plays into the shortcomings of the current status quo. So innovate!

We have put together a list of our most original clients when it comes to innovative hotel concepts that are truly remarkable:

Townhouse Hotel Maastricht
Authentic hospitality is the key to success at this friendly hotel. From a warm personal welcome with a cup of home-made soup at check-in, to being offered local cakes to take home at check-out, this hotel looses no opportunity to make their guests feel at home and appreciated.

(for the sharp eye, note the handcuffs hanging from the wall)

With their local launched with an original opening campaign named ‘Style, Sex & Soup’, they differentiate themselves from the rest of the pack. Moreover they offer 4 star service at a 3 star price. The 4th star is on the house …

www.townhousehotels.nl
 

Secret de Paris

As no other have they coined the concept of selling the destination. They share a local experience.
Non-public knowledge that is truly part of the real secrets of city of lights is incorporated in the concept. 7 incomparable room categories, that take you inside 6 different monuments of Paris (Mussée d'Orsay, Moulin Rouge, Tour Eiffel, Opéra Garnier, Trocadero, Atelier d’Arstists).

You can even change rooms several times during your stay. The room you will stay in for the first night will be revealed only upon your arrival. And each night after they propose a different room concept.

www.hotel-design-secret-de-paris.com
 

Qbic Hotels
Not trying to think outside of the box, but moving into existing boxes. They are in essence recycling empty office blocks. The Qbic team really understands the art of problem solving. Moving into underutilized real estate with a modular plug and play concept reduced sharply the construction time and cost.

This low cost design hotel concept is based on the philosophy that the best service is self service. Qbic offers an affordable, quality and stylish place to sleep with a local feel to the budget conscious traveler.

After their pilot property in Amsterdam, they are now preparing to open in London in the fall of 2013.

www.qbichotels.com
 

The Student Hotel
The Student Hotel provides fully furnished and fully serviced rooms and suites for students, urban travelers, academics, friends and family.
International and local students enjoy all-inclusive and hassle-free accommodation with lots of extra benefits. With library, lounges and study rooms, gym, café and restaurant, your own bike, WiFi and cable TV. What more could you possibly want?

Even better, you decide how long you want to stay - one night or two weeks, up to two semesters, - it’s all up to you.  The Student Hotel is a comfortable, safe and fun place for you to sleep, eat, drink and make friends for life.  The Student is all about community, convenience and comfort.

www.thestudenthotel.com

So ask yourself this question is your idea innovative, original and remarkable. I mean really worth making a remark about, because it is inspiriring and the passion of the hotel concept is just floating in the air creating an electrifying ambience that rubs of on the guest?

Share your ideas below!

Cheers,

Patrick @ Xotels

For information on our services, click here: hotel consulting

Early photo of Kevin May – the eye gives him away. His critics often cite his sniping at Tnooz commenters, bird-brained perspectives and foul temperament…
Image Credit: Pixar

Old School Kevin

Saint Cóemgen (obviously an antecedent to the contemporary term “Curmudgeon”), is popularly anglicized to Saint Kevin of Glendalough. Saint Kevin is the patron saint of crows, and known as a man who did not like the company of men… Seems a good fit so far…

As much as Mr. May is considered a legend in the travel industry, his namesake Saint is similarly legendary. Not figuratively; literally legendary. Jesuit religious scholar Father Francis Baert describes the Acta Sanctorum document that documents Saint Kevin’s miracles, “that although many of the legends given to this work are of doubtful veracity; it was decided to let them stand in favour of the antiquity of the document which is placed as having being written during or before the 12th century.”

His famous miracles include a blackbird landing on his outstretched arm and laying an egg in his hand, with Kevin holding that position until the egg hatched – Foreshadowing his modern namesake’s spiteful determination. The Saint also commanded a willow tree to produce 20 yellow apples; an obvious analogy for commanding writers to satisfy his impossible bidding, like producing stories based on nothing of material interest.

Mister Cool Science
The name Kevin is directly derived from the Kelvin – A common scientific measure that uses as its base, the null point of absolute zero, a temperature at which all thermal motion ceases.

That makes nothing cooler than Kelvin, and by extension, Kevin.

It also explains the magical attraction of such a rarity as a Kevin casts a powerful spell over those he meets. It’s often compared to a tongue touching frozen steel.

Up – The Documentary of Kevin’s Discovery

Pixar’s decision to option the riveting documentary of the thought to be lost “The Discovery Kevin May” and its eventual transformation into an animated feature film is the stuff of Hollywood legend. While all names were changed (except Kevin’s) to avoid litigious royalty claims, the characterizations are thinly veiled.

Many aspects of the film are not only historically accurate, but feature verbatim dialogue and blocking. Dennis Schaal (portrayed as Russell) did indeed discover Kevin by luring him out of hiding with chocolate. And while the initial cuddling was awkward for those present to stomach in real life, the geniuses at Pixar managed to translate it to animation without creeping out audiences.

The role of Timothy O’Neil-Dunne was also exquisitely captured in the character of “Dug” a performance indistinguishable from the original archive footage. Similarly, the Carl Fredrickson character, based on me, was quite put-off by Kevin’s antagonistic squawking (a sentiment that continues to this day.)

However, significant artistic liberties were also taken in the film. Gene Quinn (portrayed as Charles Muntz) who led the expedition Spoiler Alert! never plummeted to his death, how else could he have co-founded Tnooz after the capture and taming of Kevin? Also, the controversial decision to Spoiler Alert! kill-off the “Ellie” character in the film’s preface does little to detract from the importance of Valyn Perini’s role in Kevin’s location and discovery. Interestingly, the film’s producers chose an ending that left Kevin in the wild – an outcome that I pleaded the others to consider at the time.

The following segment accurately recreates Kevin’s discovery in the Dickensian town of Rochester, Medway, although Pixar changed the film’s setting to the wilds of South America:

Despite the liberties taken with the narrative, one final editorial decision, as an homage to the original source material, kept Kevin female in respect to his original condition prior to his oft-forgotten transgender reassignment surgery several years later. Many credit his plucking, trading his spectacular iridescent plumage and topknot for the Moby-esque shaved pate, as the source of his foul demeanor.

A Good Kevin is Hard to Find

Kevins are unusually rare – and not often found in the wild. Case-in-point, Biography.com, drawing from the collective annals of history, identifies just a mere dozen as Famous People Named Kevin. It’s a rather sad list.

The list is rife with actors, including Kevins Bacon, Costner, Hart, James, Kline, Pollak and Spacey. One may also choose to include Kevin Federline in that list, but that may involve too broad an interpretation of the term “actor.”

Only one tech-related entrepreneur makes the list, Kevin O’Connor, founder of DoubleClick and a lone politician – former Australian Labor Party Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.

Finally, it also includes two professional basketball players (Kevin Garnett and Kevin Durant) who, much like Kevin May, are paid well to dribble and take shots.

There it is – the aggregate history of famous Kevins. Although the list dies include three Oscar winners, Perhaps a bit more pathetic than sad.

As a point of reference, Biography.com lists 95 Famous People Named Robert.

• Film – Altman, De Niro, Duvall, Mitchum, Preston, Redford, Rodriguez, Wise, Zemeckis
• Arts/Literature – Browning, Burns, Frost, Joffrey, Ludlum, Mapplethorpe, Motherwell, Rauschenberg, Louis Stevenson
• Athletics – Griffin III
• Music – Johnson, Merrill, Palmer, Plant
• Military/Politics – Kennedy, E. Lee

The Formative Years
Early home videos, from the period before his acerbic plumage fully developed, provide a touching look into the the family relationships that helped mold such a unique persona. In this clip, Kevin exhibits his trademark impatience for obvious questions, as well as a degree of self-awareness normally reserved for those considerably older. The trademark cleverness is demonstrated by his twist on a game of hide & seek with his Dad.

Those Complicated Teen Years
The bestselling book, “We Need to Talk About Kevin” covers a period, described by Kevin’s publicist as “mildly exaggerated.” Frustrated that the film treatment focuses on a mother’s struggle to love her child, the publicist prefers to place his client squarely in the spotlight, “you’ll never see a more heartwarming portrayal of a boy who ends up murdering seven of his fellow high school students, a cafeteria worker, and the much-adored teacher who tried to befriend him, all two days before his sixteenth birthday…”

Pop Culture Kevin
Mention “Kevin the Pigeon” to any British schoolgirl, and they will gush enthusiastically about the reclusive 6th member of One Direction. The group’s creative muse was introduced to the band after member Louis Tomlinson became obsessed with kevinlukemay’s Audio Drivel compositions on SoundCloud . Unfortunately, due to decades of pleadings and court actions, neither Kevin May, nor his likeness, is permitted to be exposed to underage girls throughout the European Union. As a result, despite serving as the creative muse for the popular boy band, May must be represented in videos and on stage as Louis’ stuffed pigeon. Kevin figures prominently in the One Direction – Video Diary 4 video:

Meeting Kevin
In closing, when contemplating the powerful effect Kevin May has on the travel industry, it would be remiss to exclude the overwhelming visceral reaction from people encountering Kevin, in person, for the first time:

| The post Celebrating All Things Kevin by Robert Cole appeared first on RockCheetah

For many people starting their own boutique hotel or bed and breakfast is like a dream. Most are drawn by the charm of hospitality and see it as a chance to start a new beginning. But opening a hotel, just like any new business, is more difficult than it might seem at first sight.

Particularly if you have never worked in the international hotel industry you will be faced with many things you might not have considered or imagined. The hotel business is highly competitive and achieving good financial results is not as easy as it seems.

In my experience in dealing with entrepreneurs and investors I have found that there is no shortage of creative ideas for innovative hotel concepts. The challenge however lies more in the strategic and organizational areas of the business.

Where to get started if you want to open your own hotel? What kind of hotel should it be? How does location influence my business? How to attract guests? How to control operational costs and run a profitable business? These are all important questions that should be dealt with prior to getting into the business.

It will be extremely important you prepare yourself well, do a lot of research and develop a detailed business plan to ensure success. Unfortunately I still see too many startup hotels fail due to little planning. In my previous articles I already pointed out some common mistakes made in the pre-opening phase of hotels.

In my next few blog articles we will be covering various important aspects and steps of how to open your own hotel. I will focus on:

• Innovative Hotel Concepts
• Hotel Business Plan
• Market Research
• Securing Investment
• Site Selection
• Permits and Licenses
• Pre-Opening Phase
• Staff Recruitment
• The Opening
• and Managing the place

I hope these tips will help fellow entrepreneurs start successful new hotel businesses!

Also look forward to your input, ideas and feedback …

Cheers,

Patrick @ Xotels

For information on our services, click here: hotel consulting

Turns out Google Reader is going away. As a user, I’m very sad. As a provider of content for 

So, if you’re getting me via RSS, could I invite you to subscribe to our email newsletter? It really is where we share the best ideas we have.

JOIN US FOR FREE AND GET VALUABLE INSIGHTS THAT GO BEYOND THE ARTICLES POSTED HERE.

Cheers,

Patrick @ Xotels