5 Star Luxury Hotels Blog

David Ourisman

When I noticed 5 Star Luxury Hotels Blog I thought: “A star is Born, just what I missed: An easy to access repository of 5 Star Luxury Hotels”.

David J. Ourisman of Travel Horizons started this Blog somewhere in May 2007.

Update: and barely a year after this post David stopped posting…..

Oops and I thought he was from Down Under, but actually he is from the US.

Enjoy!

Update:
Unfortunalely, barely a year after this post David stopped posting…

Last edited by GJE on April 19, 2011 at 11:49 pm

T-List Update: 200 Travel / Hospitality Blogs Listed and Ranked

T-List

Inspired by Guillaume’s Unofficial Travel / Hospitality Blogs Ranking I spent blood sweat and tears to get the T-List more up to date and used Technorati Authority as ranking method. Please do not hesitate to comment for any errors made. Also there may still be some differences with my T-List Page. They will be weeded out in a later phase (I have square television eyes now).

Funny to note that some heavyweights like Lonely Planet and others have not claimed their Blogs on Technorati (last column is “n” or “no”) If there are question marks in the last column I wonder whether the Blog is abandoned. With the “!!!” I indicate something is not entirely clear with the Technorati claim.

Finally I wonder of this work has been done already by the Spanish University researchers behind nr 199 of this list. I would like some of my Spanish language friends to look into this matter. They seem to use a much more modern approach than the old fashioned cutting and pasting I did here.

Nov
 Blog Name Subject Lng Cntry 1/>1
Auth
Favs
OK?
1
 Gadling Travel En US More
1615
0
y
2
 Gridskipper Destination En US More
1554
41
y
3
 Japan Probe Destination En Jap More
1399
26
y
4
 Jaunted Destination En US More
611
7
y
5
 Hotels and City Blogs Hotel Reviews En Can More
439
1
y
6
 Vinography: A Wine Blog Wine En US One
421
38
y
7
 World Hum Travel En US More
420
17
y
8
 Diario del Viajero Travel SP SP More
416
5
y
9
 My Marrakesh Destination En Mor One
407
25
y
10
 HotelChatter Travel En Us More
359
7
y
11
 Brave New Traveler Travel En Can More
334
14
y
12
 Viaje na Viagem Destination Port Brasil One
239
5
no
13
 Newyorkology Destination En US More
230
12
y
14
 Blog de Viajes Travel 2.0 Sp Sp One
225
8
y
15
 Buenos Aires Daily Photo En Arg One
224
8
y
16
 locuraviajes Travel Sp Sp More
215
0
no
17
 Les Explorers Travel 2.0 FR/En Fr More
207
8
y
18
 Vagablogging Travel En US One
170
9
y
19
 The Delicious Llfe Food En US One
162
13
y
20
 Intelligent Travel by Nat Geo Travel En US More
161
3
y
21
 Living with Legends: On Site En US One
159
2
y
22
 Wandalust Travel En UK One
159
3
y
23
 Bajo Coste[link dead] Air Travel En US More
158
2
y
24
 TravelBlog.it Destination It It More
152
6
y
25
 The Lost Girls Backpackers En US More
145
20
y
26
 Marriot on the Move Hotel Reviews En US More
144
0
!!!
27
 Brief Blog Marketing Sp NL One
140
2
y
28
 The Hague Daily Photo Blog Photo En NL One
140
2
y
29
 Hotelmarketing Com Marketing En US More
138
1
y
30
 A Luxury Travel Blog Luxury Travel En UK One
135
10
y
31
 Albert Barra Marketing Sp Sp One
128
10
y
32
 Family Travel Family Travel En US One
123
5
y
33
 Hotel Bed Jumping Bed Jumping En Can More
121
0
y
34
 Travel Rants Travel En UK One
120
8
y
35
 Blog on Travel Travel 2.0 En UK More
117
15
y
36
 Fasten Your Seatbelts Marketing Ger Au One
115
2
y
37
 Foreign Perspectives Destination En Fr One
113
219
y
38
 Travolution Blog Marketing En UK More
109
14
y
39
 DondeViajar.es Travel Sp SP More
107
2
y
40
 Restaurant Girl Rest. Reviews En US One
106
6
y
41
 Hotel Blogs by Guillaume Hotel Reviews En UK One
98
11
y
42
 Foodaholic Food En Aus One
97
4
y
43
 The Cranky Flier Air Travel En US One
97
2
y
44
 Buenos Aires Argentina Destination En Arg One
91
7
y
45
 Hotel hotsheet Travel En US More
91
5
y
46
 Hotels of the Rich and Famous Hotels En US One
88
5
y
47
 Geeky Traveller Gadgets En US One
85
6
y
48
 El Blog de un Hotel Marketing Sp Sp One
83
3
y
49
 Megustaelturismo Air Travel Sp Sp One
82
4
y
50
 Viator Travel Blog Travel En ?? One
82
4
y
51
 Primera Clase Air Travel SP SP One
81
1
y
52
 Social Media On the Fly Travel ? Il One
81
2
y
53
 E Hotelier Com News En US More
80
4
y
54
 Travel Post Insider Hotel Reviews En US One
80
5
y
55
 Despegar Travel 2.0 Sp Arg More
78
2
y
56
 Tim LeffelâWeb 2.0 Destination En US One
77
5
y
57
 Vagablond Travel En US More
77
4
y
58
 El Blog D’un Hotel [link dead] Luxury Travel En US More
77
4
y
59
 Tourism Internet Marketing Blog Marketing En Can One
76
5
y
60
 Europe String Destination En NL More
74
7
y
61
 Blog de Juan Sobe Marketing Sp Sp One
71
3
y
62
 Aquela Passagem Destination Port Brasil More
70
2
y
63
 CampingCoop.org [Link Dead] Travel Stories En US One
70
141
y
64
 The Sydney Morning Herald Backpackers En Aus More
68
1
no
65
 Guia de Viajes Destination SP Arg One
67
1
y
66
 Andrew Pascoe’s Marketing En Aus One
66
2
y
67
 Buenos Aires, City of Destination En Arg One
66
4
y
68
 BootBlog Travel En US More
65
2
y
69
 de viaje a Brasil Travel Port Brasil One
62
2
y
70
 Chileno – Life in Destination En Chile One
61
1
y
71
 Line of sight Photo En Arg One
61
4
y
72
 The Lobby from SPG Hotel Reviews EN US One
61
5
y
73
 Happy Hotelier Hotelier En NL One
60
37
y
74
 TripCart :: The Travel Blog Destination En US One
60
3
!!!
75
 Web 2.0 Travel Tools Travel 2.0 En ?? More
60
8
y
76
 Europe A La Carte Blog Destination En UK One
59
34
y
77
 New York Traveler Destination En US One
59
3
y
78
 Rolling Rains Report Travel En US One
59
8
y
79
 Marketing TuriBlog Marketing SP Sp One
57
2
y
80
 Kulinarisch Reisen Marketing Ger Au More
56
6
y
81
 Pasa en Buenos Aires [Link Dead] Destination Sp Arg One
56
1
y
82
 Escapadas Europa. Destination SP Sp More
55
3
no
83
 Absolut BCN – Blog de Barcelona Destination Sp Sp One
53
2
y
84
 De Viajero.com Destination Port – One
52
0
y
85
 La Coctelera: ZuHause Photo Sp Sp One
52
1
y
86
 Notes from the Road Photo En US One
51
4
y
87
 inFlightHQ Air Travel En US More
50
3
y
88
 m-Travel.com Air Travel En US One
50
0
no
89
 Toni MascarÃple Destination Sp Sp One
50
0
y
90
 Globorati Luxury Travel En US More
49
0
y
91
 Viajar Asia. Destination SP Sp One
48
3
y
92
 Bitur [Link Dead] Travel Sp Arg More
47
1
no
93
 Travel Weekly Blog Marketing En UK More
47
4
y
94
 Air France Mexico Air Travel En Mex One
46
0
y
95
 Online Travel Review Air Travel En US –
46
0
y
96
 The Informed Traveler Hotel Reviews EN US One
46
11
y
97
 Opus Hotel Hotelier En Can More
45
1
no
98
 Killing Batteries Hotel Reviews En Eur One
44
3
y
99
 Radaron Travel 2.0 En Can One
44
1
y
100
 Rick Seaney Air Travel En US One
43
0
y
101
 Brazil Travel Blog Destination SP Brasil One
42
1
y
102
 Exposed Planet Photo En NL One
42
1
y
103
 Zeitgeist Marketing En US One
42
0
y
104
 Bird to the North Destination En US One
41
1
y
105
 Explorando Peru Destination Sp Peru One
41
0
y
106
 Hotel Blog Marketing Sp Sp One
40
2
y
107
 Tourismus – Zukunft Travel 2.0 Ger Ger One
40
2
y
108
 Touristikblog.de Travel 2.0 Ger Ger One
40
3
y
109
 TravelerWIRE Hotel Reviews En US More
40
4
y
110
 Buenos Aires through my eyes Destination En Arg One
39
7
y
111
 The Travel & Hospitality Diaries Hospitality En US More
39
5
y
112
 Road Gladiator Air Travel En US One
38
3
y
113
 Dot tourism Travel En Can One
37
2
y
114
 France This Way Destination En Fr One
37
80
y
115
 Living in France Destination En FR One
37
80
y
116
 Relactions blog Travel En US One
37
2
y
117
 Vacant Ready Hotel Reviews En Can One
37
4
y
118
 The Travel Cooler Photo En US More
36
1
y
119
 The Travel PR Blog Travel 2.0 En Uk One
36
2
y
120
 Travel Horizons Destination En Aus One
36
5
y
121
 Kiwi Viajero Photo Sp Sp One
35
0
y
122
 Me-go: Around-the-World World Travel En US One
34
0
y
123
 Travel and Web 2.0 Marketing En US One
34
4
y
124
 Hostel Buenos Aires Hotel Reviews En/Sp Arg More
33
2
y
125
 ADV Italia [Link Dead] Travel Agents It It More
32
2
y
126
 Brasilien Destination Ger Brasil One
32
1
y
127
 Chronicles of On The Road Travel Destination En Arg One
32
3
y
128
 My Travel Backpack Backpackers En Can One
32
1
y
129
 Trabber Noticias Air Travel Sp Sp One
32
0
y
130
 Intermundial Travel Insurance Sp Sp One
31
1
y
131
 Rumboperdido Destination Sp Aus More
31
1
y
132
 City-Guide.cc UGC En – More
30
14
y
133
 Los viajes de Jota – – – –
30
0
y
134
 BuhlerWorks by Joe Buhler Travel 2.0 En US One
29
0
y
135
 Entreprendre dans le e-Tourisme Travel 2.0 Fr Fr One
29
0
y
136
 Hawthorne Hotel Hotelier En US More
29
0
no
137
 Nos vamos de turismo! Destination Sp Arg One
29
0
y
138
 Erin Julian [Link Dead] Travel En US One
28
1
???
139
 eTourismus.info Marketing Ger Ger More
28
1
no
140
 En Trancision Destination SP AR One
26
0
y
141
 Bull City Muttering [Link Dead] Mice En US One
25
0
y
142
 eurotrip Travel Sp Arg One
25
1
y
143
 They Let Her Travel Travel Stories En US More
25
0
??
144
 The McCluskey Blog Marketing En US One
24
2
y
145
 Top viajeros Destination SP Sp One
24
3
???
146
 Two Dog Zoo Travel Travel Stories En US One
24
0
no
147
 Weekendhotel Weblog Hotel Reviews Dutch NL More
24
2
y
148
 Airport Blog Airports En UK One
23
0
y
149
 Holiday Pad 2.0 Accomodation En UK One
23
0
y
150
 Blog.rydges.com Destination En US More
21
2
y
151
 E-hotel Destination En Latvia One
21
3
y
152
 Es Mi Peru Destination Sp Peru One
21
0
n
153
 Ibiza a pie de foto Photo SP Sp One
21
1
no
154
 Kirkland Weblog Destination En US More
21
2
y
155
 The Wine Camp Blog Wine En US One
21
1
y
156
 Travel & Tourism Technology Technology En US More
21
1
y
157
 Travel Stuff Aggregator En – One
21
1
y
158
 ComercializaciÃrismo! Marketing Sp – One
20
0
y
159
 Vuelos Baratos en Internet Air Travel Sp – One
19
0
y
160
 MACO Caribbean Living Destination En Carrib One
17
2
y
161
 Tango Diva Travel Blog Solo Woman En US One
16
1
y
162
 The Cottage Lake Placid [Link Dead] Hotelier En US One
16
3
y
163
 The Front Desk Travel En US One
16
0
no
164
 The Materialist Travel En US One
15
1
y
165
 VibeAgent Blog Link Dead] Hotel reviews En US More
15
4
y
166
 Focus Barcellona Destination It Sp One
13
0
y
167
 Mike Wylie [Link Dead] Marketing En US One
13
1
???
168
 The Trippist, Amsterdam Destination En NL More
13
0
y
169
 aaron dalrymple Marketing En US One
11
0
y
170
 Passions of a Zealot Hotel Property En US One
11
1
y
171
 Discover the French Riviera [Link Dead] Destination En Fr One
10
1
y
172
 Vintage Tees – En US One
7
17
y
173
 Canadian Tourism Destination En Can More
5
1
y
174
 Hotel Warrior [Link dead] Hotelier En US One
3
0
no
175
 The Suite Life Hotels En – One
1
1
y
176
 Adirondack Base Camp Destination En US More
0
0
n
177
 Argentinaân Destination En Arg One
0
0
no
178
 AviaciÃtor Air Travel En – –
0
0
no
179
 blog.entornao Travel 2.0 Sp – –
0
0
no
180
 Brand Canada Blog Marketing En Can –
0
0
no
181
 Chanters Lodge Hotelier En Kenia One
0
0
n
182
 Diane Clarkson Marketing En US More
0
0
no
183
 Farecastblog.com Air Travel En US One
0
0
no
184
 Gourmet Station Blog Food En ? 0
0
0
no
185
 Grub Street Restaurants En US More
0
0
no
186
 Guardian Travel Travel En UK More
0
0
n
187
 Hoteles Hotel Reviews SP Sp One
0
0
no
188
 Hotels , Friends and more Marketing Sp Sp One
0
0
no
189
 La Descripcià Blog de Barcelona Travel – – –
0
0
no
190
 Lonely Planet | Travel Blog – En – More
0
0
no
191
 New York Hospitality Hotelier En US One
0
0
no
192
 Notas do Turismo Destination Sp Arg One
0
0
no
193
 Randy’s Journal Air Travel En US One
0
0
no
194
 Real Travel Travel En – More
0
0
no
195
 Travel Blogdig Aggregator – – –
0
0
no
196
 Travel Start-Ups Startups En US One
0
0
no
197
 Travelvice Air Travel En – –
0
0
no
198
 TripAdvisor: Not Making Up Hotel Reviews En US More
0
0
no
199
 TurismoNet : Biblioteca digital [Link Dead] Research Sp Sp More
0
0
no
200
 Wine Goddess Wine En US More
0
0
no

Updates:

  1. Tim’s The Boot should have been here with an authority of 56 and 4 favs. at place 83. I Mixed it up with BootsnAll that I can’t get correct on their Technorati ranking.
  2. Vagablond should be once, not twice on the list.
  3. In one way or another I missed Vicky’s Tracking Tourism with an authority of 12 and rank of 169.
  4. And there he was on my link list all the time: My favorite waiter of Waiter rant with a – Wow – impressive rating of 917 and 121 Favs…..Should have been number 2 !!!
  5. And looking for the ranting Waiter’s authority I realized that I also forgot my friend Ken Burgin of Hot and Cool with an authority of 4
  6. From time to time I have to weed out Dead links

Last edited by GJE on November 13, 2011 at 2:33 pm

Hilarious: Judge in The Hague fines Blogger for ranting about Dutch Telecom Company Call Center Employee

Frontal Naked

Warning: if you follow links of this post you will be confronted with pictures of nude persons.

Blogging can be costly.

Peter Breedveld publishes a Blog Frontaal Naakt which means so much as (Con)Frontal Naked or more semantic: The Naked Truth. Each post starts with a nude picture. That may have influenced the judge in this basically Christian and hence puritan little country. Both links point to the same Blog.

Peter is a journalist. In a rant going on in several posts [I erased the links, see update below] he describes his unfortunate encounter with a saleslady of Dutch Telecom provider Vodafone’s call center. I will describe her as Miss X. To be fair he was a bit personal, but the point he wanted to make was that employees of a big company should not be allowed to con a client under the protection of the deep pockets of the big company.

Both Vodafone and Miss X sought a court order against Peter to erase the infamous posts and Miss X felt harassed by the posts, claimed damages and specifically wanted to have her name erased from the Blogs.

Last wednesday the verdict was published.

The Judge dismissed the case of Vodafone entirely

However, the Judge honored the claim of Miss X, the Vodafone call center employee:

  • Peter has to pay Miss X damages of Euro 500,- (she had asked Euro 1,000,-), because Peter had been much too personal in his rants.
  • In additions Peter has to pay the costs of the court proceedings and the Lawyers which is in total Euro 1.203,55.
  • Finally he has to erase the name of Miss X and is not allowed to post any combination of letters that could be interpreted as a link to her name from his Blogs, lacking to comply with the order he will forfeit a fine of Euro 1.000,- per diem (oh, sorry that means per day) with a maximum of Euro 10.000,-.

Note: He had already erased her name before the verdict.

I’ll tell you why this is hilarious.

Simply go to this link on Web Archive Org and there you will see the full name of Miss X in an older version of Peter’s site. No way, I presume, Peter can take her name away there. Then you Google on the full name of Miss X, and you’ll find this link: Dokter Lutser, look for the October 6 post [alas the site has been removed since].

The court order solves nothing: Miss X, who claimed in court that she was harassed by telephone privately at home, because everybody could Google her name, still can be harassed and Vodafone ends up with a lot of egg on its face.

The sad part of this all is that there are so few hits for the rather unusual name of Miss X. on Google that probably she had to create her own 5 minutes of fame.

By the simple count and tone of all the comments this little affair generated, I believe Peter did a good job pointing these practices out. Nothing so frustrating as to try to get contact with a Telecom Moloch. The other Dutch Telecom companies are no better in this respect I can assure you from some experiences myself.

Another aspect of the case is that sales peoples’ phone calls are notoriously taped in this little country and the tapes of the telephone calls in question were not made part of the court proceedings. I suspect on purpose, as Vodafone doesn’t want to admit this practice. Such tapes, the X Tapes, could have demonstrated the way the actual telephone conversation took place and whether Peter or Miss X was a bit over the top. I hope time will learn.

Update November 29, 2007:

Peter Breedveld has erased all Blog posts regarding the Vodafone affair, as in the comments section people were trying to get the name or a letter combination referring to Miss X into his Blog with as a consequence he could be hold responsible.

He admits that in the end the Telecom Moloch Vodafone won.

Long live freedom of speech!

The Hague’ s Grand Old Lady Le Meridien Des Indes Sold to Pehac


Pehac, Pan-European Hotel Acquisition Company N.V., is a blank check company recently formed under the laws of the Netherlands as a public company with limited liability (naamloze vennootschap or N.V.) to serve as a vehicle for an acquisition of one or more operating businesses in the hotel industry in Europe. It is AEX listed since spring 2007.

According to a press release dated 16nd November 2007:

PEHAC announced today that it has signed a stock purchase agreement with sellers Lehwood Vienna GMBH, Starman Deutschland Holdings GMBH and Lehwood Netherlands Holdings B.V. to acquire a freehold interest in Le Meridien Grand Hotel Nuremberg and leasehold interests in six additional hotels, including Le Meridien Park Hotel Frankfurt, Le Royal Meridien Hamburg, Le Meridien Stuttgart, Le Meridien Munich, Le Meridien Vienna and Le Meridien Hotel Des Indes in The Hague. Further, PEHAC announced that it is in final negotiations regarding the proposed acquisition of a leasehold interest in Le Meridien Barcelona, a 229-room hotel, from Starman Hoteles Espana. Assuming the successful completion of each of these transactions, these hotels will continue to operate under a license and management agreement with Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide Inc.

PEHAC believes that this combination of acquisitions offers a rare opportunity to acquire a platform of high-quality hotel properties in key-European cities, enabling it to pursue a successful buy- and build strategy.

The portfolio, excluding Le Meridien Barcelona, represents an aggregate of 1,819 hotel rooms and is expected, based on performance year-to-date, to generate approximately €102 million in revenues in 2007. Under the terms of the stock purchase agreement, the total purchase price, excluding Le Meridien Barcelona, will be € 49.25 million, and is expected to be closed in cash, without the use of debt financing. PEHAC will commit to spend an additional € 10 million for necessary capital expenditures, which amount is expected to be used primarily for the refurbishment of the freehold property in Nuremberg. Each of the other hotels subject to the stock purchase agreement as well as the Barcelona property have been extensively renovated in recent years.

Based on operating results in 2007 and estimates it believes to be reasonable for the coming year, PEHAC expects the portfolio of hotels, excluding Le Meridien Barcelona, to achieve approximately € 8.0 million in earnings before interest, depreciation and amortization, or EBITDA, in 2008.
Given the high-quality assets in the portfolio, and assuming the successful implementation of a pro-active asset, property and project management strategy and the continued implementation of Starwood’s respected management system and favorable market conditions, PEHAC believes that there is significant potential for further operating improvements for the portfolio.

Well…what will happen with the name now?

WTM 2007: First Impressions

Happy Hotelier's WTM Press Card
A proud member of the Press 🙂

Yes I succeeded to get the press card and I am proudly showing it here as proof. It is my first, but definitely will not be my last. Maybe the idea of applying for a press card will inspire fellow Bloggers to do the same for other venues, fairs, or whatever.

I hopped over to Londen City Airport from Rotterdam with VLM. This was very convenient time wise and legroom wise.

I was lucky to have some dear friends who had a bed and a breakfast for me, but the route door to door from The Hague to Excel took the same time as the commuting to my friend’s address in a little suburb North West of London (half way to Luton).

During my tubing around in London it surprised me how many Londoners are leaving their papers and big paper coffee cups in the trains where cleaners collected them by the sacks full.

WTM has the same problem: Almost all food is offered in paper or carton and they produce tons of waste: An idea for WTM 2008: Back to porcelain and glass as reportedly green conscious organization?

More to follow.