Hotel Girl

Hi there, and welcome to my first blog. Ever since I was lucky enough to win flights around the world in an online competition, I’ve always been hooked on travel and fascinated by the industry.

Hailing from sunny Glasgow, I moved to London last year and recently joined Travel Weekly as an online reporter. As a newbie to the travel business, I’ll be sharing with you my impressions of this exciting industry, the places I visit and people I meet.

Also on this little corner of the web, you can find travel industry news, comment, information and fun pictures and links. It’s also a forum for you to share your own opinions and experiences of working in the travel industry.

Here are some examples of other travel bloggers I like
Travolution
Travel Rants
Guardian Travel

Forbes.com today named ten travel trends you can't ignore and one is particulary good news for travel agents. It seems, despite the growth of travel websites like Expedia, customers still want good old-fashioned personal service.

"The Internet is obviously a major tool that travelers are using to book their vacations, but surprisingly, affluent travelers want human interaction and are returning to using travel agents," says Bjorn Hanson, a principal in the Hospitality and Leisure Practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers. "As a result, the growth of booking travel on the Internet is slowing."

Upscale travelers often rely on luxury travel consultants who charge fees to plan every aspect of a trip, from securing hotel rooms to scoring concert tickets and dinner reservations. The agents at Altour International charge anywhere between $250 to $1,000 to plan a vacation. Last year, the company had $490 million in revenues, up from $250 million in 2003.

It looks like the travel industry is catching on to the nation's obsession with online networking site Facebook.

The site has more than 3,000 third party software applications - of which around 100 are travel related. The most popular is Where I've Been, which gives users the chance to mark the countries they've visited on a map.

London is the world's most expensive place to dine out, according to reports today. The average meal in the capital costs £39.09, up 2.9% from last year and outranking Paris, Tokyo and Hong Kong.

As a non native of the capital, I know visitors often imagine it is impossible to visit the Big Smoke without remortgaging their house. But, in reality, London has a fantastically diverse selection of good-value budget restuarants - better than than most places in the UK.

It's good to hear that British people are using birthdays, anniversaries and pretty much any excuse to jet off on holiday

A survey by Expedia.co.uk shows, when it comes to romantic breaks, old favourites like Paris, Venice and Rome still top the list. With all the unusual destinations around nowadays, it's up to agents to provide some inspiration for their customers.

Blue Water Holidays, a Skipton-based online cruise and boating holidays specialist, just made an unusual booking.

I've spotted this funny vid on You Tube by MyTravel.

The issue of whether smoking should be banned on cruise ships is a hot topic. A US Today poll has found that three quarters of respondents want it banned, at least in cabins. Another half say it should be forbidden to light up anywhere on a ship.

Are these results what you would expect? What effect would a complete ban have on bookings in the UK?

Check out Cruise Critic for a rundown of the smoking policies on the major cruise lines.

Sabre announced recently that it would deliver travel information to holidaymakers via their mobile phone. People will be able to find out everything from whether or not their flight is on time to the best place for a coffee and croque monsieur in Paris.

"These latest technology enhancements make it even easier for agents to keep travellers up to date and in touch with the latest travel information, helping to build customer loyalty," says the company.

Since a study showed that, for most British people, their mobile is more important than their house keys, this is a simple and clever way to keep in touch with your customers long after they've left your shop.

This elephant driver in Thailand shows you can keep in touch with friends wherever you are in the world..

Travel Rants blogger Darren Cronian is lamenting the lack of transfer time details on travel websites. As he points out, Olympic Holidays is one of the few sites to include those little pieces of information that can make or break your holiday.

An estimated time of transfer will do, but none of the travel sites I visited had this information on its website. I loved the look of one apartment in Crete, great reviews, but I found out on a Trip Advisor review that it took three hours to get to the accommodation which I wasn’t prepared to do, he writes

This is a vital detail, since a long and uncomfortable journey to your hotel can really put a dampner on your holiday. Do travel agents always check this when they're booking a package, especially for elderly or disabled people? Have you ever had a disastrous transfer to your accommodation?

The reason for choosing a hotel chain like Holiday Inn or Best Western doesn't exist any more because of traveller review websites, argues Leonardo Stassi on Hotel Blogs

Before the arrival of the internet, people were attracted to the safety net of a standardised hotel. They knew what they were getting. But nowadays, customers can hop onto Tripadvisor.com or Holidays Uncovered and find out all the gory details of their potential accommodation at the click of a mouse.

But do we always have the time to sift through scores of reviews, which might not even be reliable? With more people taking frequent, short trips (often on cut price airlines) we're still likely to opt for the quick and easy option of a chain hotel.

Time-poor business travellers are also fans of the chain hotel, as a Trip Advisor survey showed today.

Are chain hotels still popular among your customers?

A Learn Direct survey showed that nearly half of travel agents in the UK are dissatisfied at work - more so than hairdressers, accountants and electricians.

See the full story on the Travel Weekly website and more in this week's Travel Weekly (28 Sept) print edition.

Independent agents I spoke to strongly disagreed with the result, saying they are happy at work and enjoy the variety and customer interaction. Staff at multiples, however, had a different story to tell. What do you think?

A new cruise website promises to be the cruise sector's answer to Trip Advisor.

InsideCruise.co.uk allows users to leave their opinions on cruises and post pictures and videos.

The site sparked controversy when, still in its infancy, it pointed to the top ten cruise deals on the web. It was reported that agents were angry that they hadn't been consulted before their deals appeared online, and they weren't made aware that the site is owned by award-winning agency Ideal Cruising.

But agents I spoke to this week welcomed the site, acknowledging the importance of travellers having access to unbiased reviews.

See what you think on www.insidecruise.co.uk and read the full story in this week's Travel Weekly.

Now even cruise ships have blogs. Check out the very funny, if slightly bizarre, Norwegian Gem's It Girl page.

Here's a taster:

I had a great workout last weekend. I had my sea trials and my first chance to get out on the open ocean. A girl does have to keep in shape you know. I'm trying to stay at a sleek 98,000 tons. I took off from Papenburg, Germany and headed down the River Ems for the first of many successful trials. We finished in Eemshaven, Netherlands. My sea trials will continue until September 23rd.

I've recently come across Second Life, a virtual world where residents can interact using 'avatars' and travel to countless different worlds.

Now the Netherlands Board of Tourism and Conventions has become the first to open a virtual tourist board in this faux universe.

Dubbed New Holland , it allows users to share information and 'meet' new people.

This is a clever marketing tool which more tourism boards and travel companies should take advantage of - just as long as virtual travel doesn't replace the real thing.