Can a hotel room solve your jet lag?

It seems like they’re certainly trying! Westin hotels in the US have partnered with electronics manufacturer Philips and a group of sleep doctors to create a “concept room” aimed at aiding sleep deprivation and cutting jetlag recovery time in half. This hotel-room laboratory is currently being tested at the Westin Chicago River North, and is the first such partnership between Philips and a hotel company. Read the full story here

 

Dining Trends with a difference

It’s always interesting to keep an eye on trends in the USA because very often, successful ideas aren’t long making there way across the Atlantic.

This is an interesting article from USA Today about new hotel dining trends:

http://www.usatoday.com/travel/hotels/2008-01-07-lobby-food_N.htm

 

Another Irish hotel victim to robbery

We’ve spoken about it here before, and unfortunately another Irish hotel has been robbed by an armed gang during a nightime raid. While this hotel appeared to have the ability to notify Gardai immediately who were on the scene while the robbery was still in progress, the increasing usage of firearms by raiders is a worrying trend and allows business owners little chance to defend themselves. Our advice? Beef up security as well as you can, but don’t be a hero when firearms are being used. Money is replaceable (and often insured). Lives are not.

 

The day Asian Hospitality changed forever

Over the last few years, there have been a number of events that have changed the course of the hospitality world forever. Unfortunately, these have been negative events, such as September 11, 2001 and the Asian Tsunami of 2004.

So it is always good to hear of an event that has changed the course of hospitality forever! That event was the opening of a hotel in Macau, China that has single-handledly changed the course of Asian tourism and hospitality forever.

So how can one hotel have such an effect, you ask?

Well, maybe some statistics will explain it:

On August 28, 2007, the doors of the Venetian Hotel, Macau opened to a loud fanfare.

• Two weeks later, the hotel had welcomed it’s one millionth visitor. Yes, thats right, one million (different) people had come through the doors, counted by face-recognition cameras.
• The resort boasts three million pieces of gold leaf.
• 3000 suites, equal to 25% of Macau’s hotel inventory.
• One million square feet of exhibition space.
• A 15,000 seater theatre.
• The hotel accounts for 52% of Macau’s energy consumption.
• The world’s biggest casino space.
• 12,000 staff with 45,000 more vacancies to be filled shortly.

This is a hotel that is attracting so many customers that due to a shortage of ferries on the island, the hotel has commissioned the building of new ferries and the purchase of additional coaches to transport the visitors to the hotel.

The parent company plans to invest $12 billion in the area ofver the next five years in an attempt at replicating the las vegas strip on the other side of the world. Mind boggling.

 

Time to revisit your nightime security procedures

Last week, two hotels in Kilkenny were subjected to nightime robberies where staff members in one case were tied up (full story here).

In light of such blatant attacks where the raiders paid little care to being seen or involving staff, it is no harm to re-evaluate your current security procedures.

Questions you should be asking yourself include:

1. Do staff know the emergency procedure should a robbery be attempted?
2. Are emergency numbers known by staff (especially foreign staff)?
3. Are all areas secured/locked at night?
4. Are CCTV cameras recording all activity in all areas of the building?
5. Are there dark unlit areas that could do with an extra light at night?
6. Do you now or should you consider the services of an external security company?
7. Have you rehearsed an emergency drill with staff so that they become familiar with procedures?

A little time spent on this today might help prevent a robbery or injury to you or your staff in the future.

 

When is a jail a luxury hotel?

When $150m is spent on refurbishing it. That’s when. Once the home to some famous felons, a Boston prison has undergone a major renovation.

Read all about it here…

 

Size does matter….

We keep hearing otherwise, but when it comes to portion control and cost management, size really does matter. What reminded me of this was a recent visit to a local carvery for lunch. I was initially surprised at the prices with no mian course over €9.00 despite it’s city centre location. However closer inspection revealed how this particular business was able to charge these prices yet still make a profit: Portion Sizes.

The main course plates were slightly smaller than normal though not immediately noticeable. The natural inclination for staff is to fill a plate with as much food as possible and indeed many customers will insist on a full plate.

By having a smaller, plate, it can still be piled high with food, yet does not cost as much as the larger plate to serve.

Result? The customer is happy that they have received good value with a low price and a full plate. Waste is also reduced because the customer has not been “over-portioned”.

Try this also with soup, chowder, ice cream and all carvery meals to achieve a consistent portion size.

 

When is “Room Only” not “Room Only”?

….When it’s Bed & Breakfast….

 

Sign outside a Galway Hotel….

 

…so is it Room Only or Bed & Breakfast?

 

Why make it hard for me?

I reserved my hotel room in a well known hotel in Dublin recently. The process was a familar process repeated every day in hundreds of hotels…I logged on tot he hotel’s website and began the registration process. Now, as a guest who has stayed here many times before, I was given no opportunity to log in and retrieve my personal details to save me wasting a few valuable minutes completing all the fields, instead I had to plod through each field, line by line to complete my reservation. Credit card details were entered and authorised and I duly received my confirmation email.

On arrival at the hotel, I was laden down with a suit bag, laptop case and carrier bag which I managed to juggle and hold on to at the desk while I was presented with a BLANK registration card to fill in all my contact details, home address etc….(bear in mind I had done this a few nights previously online..). As I handed back the completed card with difficulty, I was then asked fpr my credit card to authorise my stay. Now, I can understand a hotel requiring the security and advance payment to protect themselves from undesirables, but my credit card details had already been taken by the hotel together with my registration details. After questioning the need for producing my credit card again, I was told a pre-authorisation was required in addition to my previous online authorisation…

Once this rigmarole had been completed, I retired to my room still laden down with bags and baggage.

All this might have been overlooked had it not been for the need on checkout to AGAIN produce credit card details from my wallet to pay the final bill, again laden down with bags, this was a visible effort and the staff made no attempt to assist with bags or manually type in the credit card details on file..after all, they had been given them twice already…

If this is the best the hotel can do to make me feel that I am getting good service, then I think I’ll take my chances somewhere else…

 

Shelbourne Hotel Dublin almost ready to open..

Some recent Brochure Photos of the soon to be opened Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin give some idea of the painstaking restoration and development that has taken place over the last 18 months.