Category: Websites

Weekendhotel.nl and hoteliers.nl working together

The site Weekendhotel.nl was set up by Willem and Esme Vos: Willem has a background in travel and tourism and Esme in intellectual property law and Internet related matters.

We started Weekendhotel in April 2002 to help you find the best addresses for a weekend away. Like you, we became frustrated with typical booking sites that serve chain hotels desperate to dump their unsold inventory.

We were looking for something more personal and atmospheric, a site that would bring together the most charming hotels and B&B’s with character. Because we did not find such a site, we decided to create our own and weekendhotel.nl was born.

How they work is explained more in detail here.

In order to enhance the usability of the site Willem has built a simple inventory database for available rooms that each hotelier can keep up to date. Thus the user of the site can easily make a choice for a hotel to stay. The only problem is the maintenance of the data. The Hoteliers have to keep the inventory up to date almost daily or at least each time the inventory changes. This in itself is a nightmare for hoteliers of a small size hotel/B&B, especially when he has to allocate inventory over several sites where rooms can be booked on line…. Consequently the inventory of Weekendhotel is not always 100% up to date.

In 2005 a couple of graduates of a Dutch Hotel School have set up Hoteliers.nl (which is the same as Hoteliers.com) in cooperation with the Dutch Horeca Association to which association many Dutch Hotels belong, in order to create a possibility for hotels and B&B’s to be bookable on line. Both via the sites of Hotelier, but also via a link with Hotelier through their own site. The hotels pay a moderate monthly fee for the use of the site rather than the commissions they have to pay to the bigger portals. The site grows and works satisfactorily.

Weekendhotel.nl is more the content site and has details about approximately 1200 small Dutch and Belgian hotels and B&b’s and approximately 6000 unique visitors per day. Hotelier.nl is more the technically driven site that since inception has now approximately 600 participants including hotels belonging to chains or conglomerates.

Recently, the two have officially announced their cooperation whereby the site Weekendhotel.nl is linked with the inventory system of Hotelier.nl. If the hotelier wishes to have his property on both sites, he only has to maintain his inventory on the Hotelier.nl site.

I am glad with this new development to which, in the background, I could contribute a bit.

Mouton Rothschild 2004 label designed by Prince Charles

Mouton Rothschild 2004

When clicking on the official and worthwhile site of Baron Philippe de Rothschild S.A. you are elegantly welcomed by Baroness Philippine herself.

The story:

HRH THE PRINCE OF WALES ILLUSTRATES THE LABEL OF CHATEAU MOUTON ROTHSCHILD 2004
Each year since 1945 the Mouton label has been illustrated with an original artwork by a contemporary artist. Generally on the theme of wine and the vine, it sometimes celebrates an historic event. Indeed 2004 occupies a special place in our memories since it marks the Centenary of the Entente Cordiale, concluded by Britain and France on 8 April 1904.
King Edward VII is known to have played a prominent part in the agreement, which would herald a genuine alliance during the First World War and forever transform two rival powers into sisters by choice.
The commemoration of such an important milestone in Franco-British relations was the occasion for many celebrations in 2004, culminating in official visits by both Heads of State. That is the spirit in which Baroness Philippine de Rothschild approached HRH The Prince of Wales, a talented artist and a direct descendant of Edward VII. The Prince agreed that the label for Mouton Rothschild 2004 could be illustrated with one of his watercolors, inspired by a French landscape, in celebration of the Entente Cordiale. He has added in his own hand: «To celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the Entente Cordiale – Charles, 2004».
Standing out against an azure sky, rooted in the depths of the soil, the pines depicted by the artist are in the image of the vine, fruit of the ever bountiful union of the sun and the earth.

(via Luxist)

Relais et Chateaux

I have been on a short trip to Vienna trough Munich and Salzburg. Before anything else I would like to share this:

The planning of this trip gave me some insight in the pros and contras of planning your own trip versus using a travel agent nowadays. In the days of my frequent business traveling, long before the Internet area, we used a Los Angeles based one woman Travel Agent. Why based in Los Angeles? Because when the travel plans were made, usually after Dutch business hours, each and every Dutch travel agent was closed. She was there, reliable as always, willing to combine unusual travel requests and destinations, and, last but not least, she was one of the first woman I know of who could toggle the GDS schemes in a favorable way for us. One who could suggest a round the world ticket for an Amsterdam Los Angeles round trip as being much cheaper than a simple return ticket. Coming to think of this, I am curious how she is doing these days.

Already ten years ago, in the Internet infancy days, I once booked a satisfactory stay in one of the hotels of their collection through the Internet (then via an aptly answered e-mail exchange) as I did again during this trip to Vienna.

Relais et Chateaux

My conclusion is that they still are way ahead of the crowd. If you want to pick a hotel in a certain area you want to see where it is located. The site of Relais et Chateaux gives it all: Fast loading and to the point location of the hotel of your choice and in addition to to the point information about the hotel. Moreover they have their complete catalog on line in an easy flip through PDF format which you can also download if you want.

Finally in flipping through their portfolio, my conclusion is that they still are one of the primary sources for a real (luxury) weekend hotel.

Internet Guides to Amsterdam

Amsterdam

One of my aims with this Blog is to enable foreigners to gather more information about my small but glorious country. A good start is Steven Pemberton’s The Internet Guide to Amsterdam.
Steven is an Internet guru who started this guide as a write up for visiting students.

Enjoy!

Google's amazing catch of Happy Hotelier

Only 7 days after Happy Hotelier is airborn and thanks to the intro of Willem on Weekendhotel, the search term “Happy Hotelier” gives this weblog a Google search rank rank # 2 after Willem’s intro as # 1

Usually it takes a lot more time until Google spots you.