Hotel Girl

Britian is the most expensive place to stay in Europe, it was reported this week. The Good Hotel Guide has scrapped its "budget" category which identified hotels charging £35 or less per person for bed and breakfast because there are so few remaining.

Co-editor Adam Raphael writes in the Guardian:

I love staying in hotels. But when the bill arrives at the end, my reaction is all too often: "Crikey - can this be right?" The fact is that despite my insider status as editor of an independent hotel guide, I never ceased to be amazed how expensive British hotels are compared to their continental European equivalents.

This is bad news for the UK tourism industry, but possibly good news for travel agents who benefit from customers going abroad for better value as well as better weather.

Travel magazine Wanderlust held its Paul Morrison Guide Awards last week at London's Royal Geographic Society.

The top prize went to Selwyn Davidowitz, an extremely passionate and dedicated guide in South Africa. He keeps pictures and a diary of every customer's trip on his website

To me this is a wonderful occupation in that I enjoy showing people the places for which I have such a passion. My favorite part of touring Cape Town or the Garden Route is when I relate all the little hidden secrets of area to my visitors. My main aim is to show people this marvelous place called Cape Town as well a the fabulous Garden Route in such a way that they will soon realize that I am deeply in love with the terrain in which I grew up.

Some say tour guides like Selwyn are a dying breed, as holidaymakers are able to access all they information they need online. But the accounts on his website show a friendly and well-informed guide can make a good holiday a great one.

Have you ever had a memorable tour guide?

As Travel Weekly reports tomorrow, travel and lifestyle networking site WAYN.com (Where Are You Now?) is partnering with Apollo Travel. The site is also teaming up with lastminute.com and hostelworld.com.

While everyone is understandably talking about the potential of Facebook and MySpace for the travel industry, WAYN is a more relevant option. Here, users can access advice from other travellers on a particular destination and even meet up with them. This gives travel companies a captive audience of that difficult 18-35 demographic.

Take a look at co-founder Peter Ward's comments on eyefortravel.com.

We have found that through WAYN, millions of our members are sharing their travelling experiences, tips and recommendations on the things to do and the places to visit, and in some cases, are even meeting up with people on the ground to make the most of their travelling experiences. We see a continued shift in the way that consumer habits are formed.
We see things progressing, with our members looking to their friends for advise also, as well as new acquaintances, who have inspiring tales to tell.