Category: Hoteliers

The Spread Eagle Hotel in Jedburgh, Scotland (Scottish Border)

The Spread Eagle Hotel in Jedburgh, Scotland (Scottish Border)
The Spread Eagle Hotel in Jedburgh, Scotland (Scottish Border)

Hm they should post more and better photography Cheesemonster posted a nice one on Flickr.

I’m always insatiable curious to know how fellow hoteliers “Do it” or “Get it” and am always pleassantly surprised to find one who clearly shows some similarities to my own ways of “Doing it” of “Getting it”.

Off course I found The Spread Eagle Hotel via Twitter where I’m hanging out a lot lately. Some claim too much, but I have the strong feeling that with Twitter we will be seeing the Internet change on a scale comparable to how searching the internet changed with Google and how operating a PC changed with MS.

Back to the The Spread Eagle Hotel:
I was searching Twitter purely by accident for Happy Hotelier, not my ordinary search which is for HappyHotelier which enables me to review my various communications and found this tweet:

One Empty Sink, One pint of Farne, One Happy Hotelier 😀 which catched my eye.

A couple of days later I asked John (@mrjcampbell) for the full url of his wee hotel which he gave to me: The Spread Eagle is a small family-run and family-friendly hotel in the middle of the High Street in Jedburgh.

John’s Bio on Twitter says: Used to work in television but now own a wee hotel in Jedburgh Scottish Borders. John and Lorna live on the premises and will be delighted to welcome you to Scotland’s oldest continually-licensed hotel.

Then I find John’s blog: From the Spread Eagle which relates the day to day problems an average hotelier faces. The format of that Blog is exactly what I have in mind to combine with my hotel site.

Here are some sailant observations:

  • They started a new life as a hoteliers. Like we did.
  • Started with renovating a hysteric historic place to make it usable as a hotel.
  • John Twitters very correctly. Doesn’t merely shout about the next best business deal. I believe I Twitter correctly.
  • John shows even more of the day to day work than I usually do, but his blog has exactly the format I have in mind to create for our hotel.

I certainly will visit them again and go through their content and hope John and Lorna can learn a bit from me (time to translate my Enter09 presentation) as I can learn from them.

Not Bad! I'm on a New Hotel Blogs Ranking List

merillg

Yesterday my Twitter friend @merillg of Voyagegeek pointed me to a new Hotel Blogs Ranking List that ranks Hotel Blogs according to a dark formula, that takes into account several metrics. I like it. Especially because I’ve now another bragging badge:

The funny thing is that when I was drafting this post my position just changed from 1 to 2.

Its a bit pity that not all Hotel Blogs on the list are as active as would appear from their ranking. Hotel Hotsheet for instance has become inactive and replaced by Hotel Check In recently.

My regular readers know I have something with lists and have been busy over the years to maintain a sort of Travel Blog Ranking list solely based on their more or less wobbly Technorati ranking – see my T-List Page

I’ve contacted the Invesp Consult people to see if they are interested to combine my list with their algorithm. I’ll keep you posted.

Twitter Intermezzo: What should Hotel Owners know about Social Media and Internet Marketing?

question

What should Hotel Owners know about Social Media and Internet Marketing?
While winding down from #itb09, this question came up via Twitter.

read-bill-marriott-blog

My first reaction was: At least they should start reading Bill Marriot’s Blog. A good example!

thank-you

Cool, Thanks for that.

answer-2

My second reaction was: Plus they should read:

  1. #sxswtravel,
  2. #itb09, and
  3. #smstravel

David Meerman Scott about Inbound Marketing

Found at the blog of a Estonian Travel blogger Aivar Ruukel who is also behind an Estonian travel organization Soomaa that organizes trips to the Soomaa National park.

Great stuff about turning around your traditional ways of marketing.

Hoteliers Beware: A new Blog on the Block might disrupt your website!

Paper-thin bed cover, now in baby spew green

It was Wendy Perrin’s post Hotels I’d Pay not to Stay in that pointed me to this fairly new Blog on the Block: Unfortunate Hotels Hotel websites begging to be mocked.

It started in November 2008, but seems getting momentum with more posts now. In a witty way the websites are taken apart.

What to think of following quotes?

The website might fool you at first – beautiful color scheme, high-end photos, flash galore. The dining room is fit for a wedding reception, and the lobby has obviously had a makeover in the last decade.
But not even the fade-in on the artfully cropped photos can save these sad, sad rooms.

Or this one:

The home page of the website for the Silver Reef Hotel states,

Just completed, a totally new hotel with 20 tastefully decorated rooms located in the downtown area of Udon Thani. Convenient for all your business and leisure needs.

We’ll see about that:

unfortunate-hotels-2

I’d like to discuss the merger with you. Shall we get a drink at the bar?

If this happened to me as a hotelier I would fire my photographer or web designer.

I have a feeling this could become a similar big hit as another Hoteliers’ Horror: (originally) Chris Clarke’s Bed Jumping….still alive and kicking.

BTW: Where the Hell is Chris?
Answer: Chris Clarke went to Dubai and works there in one of those luxury hotels. However the price for that luxury is you have to be very careful on social media. So I believe Chris choose to be invisible on social media.

Unfortunately Unfortunate Hotels stopped updating …. The site is still there but only two posts remain.
Last Edited by gje on February 4, 2017