The So Hotel
Hotel SO in Christchurch, New Zealand is another and massive (284 rooms of which 190 are pod size) Pod Hotel that opened on 6 November 2007. Room rates for a double start at an affordable NZ $ 89.
Its Team
The team is made up of people from industries as diverse as property development, hotel management, marketing and advertising. They believe this diversity in backgrounds is essential in providing the fresh perspective needed to develop an experience unencumbered by the traditional ways of designing and managing a hotel.
Its Philosophy
Some hotels offer a budget experience at a cheap price. Others offer a luxurious experience at a high price. SO believes that great design, great technology and great service should be available to everyone at a great price. Other than the “strict” pod hotels like Yotel Qbic and Easy Hotel it also offers bar, restaurant and business facilities.
Its History
Looking into its history and background is interesting. The Hotel has been developed by Dave Henderson who became famous in the middle 90ies for his struggle with the NZ tax authorities. It started when he claimed a tax refund that resulted in a tax review with a huge back taxes claim. It even put him into bankruptcy from which he was able to come back when he successfully overturned the tax claim. The whole story is documented in the feature film We’re Here to Help. The NZ release of the film coincided with the Hotel opening. (Note to myself: Have to advise Filmgirl whether it is feasible to have this film released at the Rotterdam film Festival).
The funniest thing is that the hotel is located in….the former Tax Office. After Henderson bought the property he refused to extend the lease of the Tax Office and after having them vacate the building he started converting the building in a hotel.
On November 14, 2007 VibeAgent was officially launched. Read the official Press Release here at their Blog VibeAgent Launches to The World.
With much pleasure I have acted as a Beta tester for VibeAgent, see also my post VibeAgent: The Ultimate Web 2.0 Hotel Site? of June 13, 2007, because many of my comments and rants were taken very seriously and where possible used to enhance the quality of the site. The people behind VibeAgent have done a tremendous job at bringing it where it is now.
I choose this lovely photo of Julian P.,”VibeAgent’s youngest Hotel Inspector”, to celebrate this official launch, because this youngster will undoubtedly see many more exciting changes the Internet will bring to the travelers than I, or many of you, dear readers, will live to see.
His mom Anne reviewed Villa D’Este and graciously gave me permission to use this photo of Julian for a post. Since VibeAgent is out of Beta, I can direct my readers to her VibeAgent review of Villa D’Este without necessitating them to sign up or log in into VibeAgent’s site, although the experience of signing up is highly recommended!
When launched Qbic got featured on CNN. I didn’t see it myself. I red the transcript once, but thanks to fellow Blogger Época Alta I found the Youtube link:
The first ever Qbic Hotel is four months in operation now and its occupancy rates are reportedly over 90%.
Need power to charge your camera, Ipod, Iphone or laptop on the road? Take your solar cells covered trolley or bag with you!
The over 75 years young German Company Picard Lederwaren has introduced a solar cell covered trolley and two solar cell covered bags: The Picard Solar Bag and the Picard Solar Messenger Bag.
I wasn’t aware it is almost completely new, at least for The Netherlands, as it appears it was available earlier in the USA, in Taiwan and in France: The Heineken 5 Liter DraughtKeg.
We hosted a party last Monday and someone took a cooled Heineken 5 L DraughtKeg with him and installed it. I noted the recent transport didn’t create any frothy problem when using it.
Installation was so easy and natural that it seemed the 5 L DraughtKeg was there already for ages…(off course similar systems are already on the market for ages). Not so: The guy who brought the keg is an early adapter.
Today, after having used 7/8 of the 5 liter keg on Monday, I took it out of the fridge and had another couple of nice draught beers.
What is it?
It is a mini disposable double walled beer keg. The assumption it being double walled appeared to be wrong after I had seen a video where they sawed the keg through.
It is pressurized and comes complete with an easy to install tap. Just tap the keg and draw up to 20 glasses of crisp draught beer.
And with Heineken’s patented Intelligent Pressure System, you can be sure every glass, from first to last will be perfect.
Getting Started:
It comes with a very simple plastic tap mechanism in a blister pack on top of it and picture instructions showing how to use it.
Chill the keg for at least 10 hours in your fridge.
Remove the tap components from the blister pack on top of the keg.
Remove the green plastic closing cap from the top of the keg.
Snap the ring on top of the keg.
Place the mini tap in the center of the ring.
Details:
After first use the beer stays fresh for 30 days when stored in the fridge.
You can take off the tap and re apply it.
You can store it on its site in the fridge.
No froth forming as with the traditional large keg in a tap installation.
Some foaming during the initial pour is normal. It should settle down after that. For best results, the beer should be cooled for at least 10 hours at 2-5 degrees Centigrade (40-45 degrees Fahrenheit). Do not store at temperatures above 35 degrees Centigrade (95 degrees Fahrenheit). Do not shake the keg before usage. Make sure your glasses are rinsed and cool.
Some considerations
There have been miniature beer kegs around for years, but thus far the tap mechanisms were horrible in use and you would hardly ever get the (at least in The Netherlands required) two fingers froth on your beer.
Apparently Taiwan served as a test market and the first 1,000 kegs imported were sold within two weeks (source Nation Multimedia).
Heineken introduced the Beertender in 2004 together with Krupps. Later Philips followed with a similar system in cooperation with Inbev. It sold tremendously, but the disadvantage was that chilling the beer in the beertender took a long time and storing a half used keg was only possible inside the beertender. So I take it that the introduction of this new 5L DraughtKeg will eat the market of this Beertender.
Dutch seafront bars are already complaining that the they sell less beer because of the 5L DraughtKeg (you have 3 to 4 hours of really nice cool beer after taking it from your fridge). The real reason is off course they charge horrible for a glass of draught beer.
Most important consideration: It is much handier than slaving with crates with bottles.
Most important question: Is it sustainable? Heineken claims it is recyclable….
Sources
More on Heineken Com
More multimedia about the DraughtKeg: Party Heineken
More on the USA introduction at Free Republic
DraughtKeg on YouTube:
On YouTube I found this instructive video about how to install the DraughtKeg. I do not exactly know which language it is, can somebody help me out?:
How to use it
This video hilariously addresses the old problems the DraughKeg solves:
What frothy problems it solves
Two Dutchmen hilariously addresses the sustainability problem: What to do with a shed of used DraughtKegs?
What to do with the empty DraughtKeg
It seems the last one is produced by Heineken itself.
The funny thing is that in order to see video on the Heineken site (Yuck a site entirely in Flash) you have to give some proof of your age whereas no such thing is asked by YouTube…..
