Month: November 2014

Danish hospitality giant acquires Copenhagen Marriott Hotel

Dan Winther

Solstra, the brand behind Copenhagen’s Hotel Bella Sky and Crowne Plaza Copenhagen Towers, has acquired the Copenhagen Marriott Hotel. The sale makes Solstra – a majority owner of Scandinavia’s largest exhibition and conference facility the Bella Center – one of Denmark’s largest operators in the hotel, conference and hospitality industry with a revenue of approximately DKK1bn (£107m) annually. As part of the purchase, Solstra will change its name to to BC Hospitality Group A/S. The Copenhagen Marriott Hotel will continue to operate as normal. Oscar Crohn, managing partner at Solstra…

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Amazon to Get Into Hotel Booking With Launch of Travel Site

Dan Winther

Amazon.com is poised to launch its own travel service, featuring booking at independent hotels and resorts near major cities. The initial rollout of Amazon Travel would feature a curated selection of hotels within a few hours’ drive from New York, Los Angeles, and Seattle. The service will likely go live around January 1, 2015. We contacted representatives of three independent hotels, two of which signed up for the new Amazon service and one that was strongly considering the option. Properties would load their room types, availability, pricing information, and photos…

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Deck the Malls: Christmas shopping tips for New York, Boston and Chicago

Dan Winther

Thomas Breathnach breaks out his big city Christmas shopping tips for travellers heading to New York, Boston and Chicago this season.   by Thomas Breathnach 1. New York Over 100,000 Irish travellers fly Stateside for the annual transatlantic shopping splurge and, unsurprisingly, most of them fill their Christmas stockings in NYC. The Big Apple might still be struggling to find itself a post-Carrie Bradshaw style icon, but in terms of trends, bling is out – and with the city’s Garment District booming again, local designers are most certainly in. This…

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Couple ‘Fined’ £100 By Hotel For Bad Review on Tripadvisor

Dan Winther

A couple were “fined” £100 by a Blackpool hotel after they wrote an internet review describing it as a “rotten stinking hovel run by muppets”. Tony and Jan Jenkinson stayed at the Broadway Hotel in August and were so disappointed with their accommodation that they took to TripAdvisor to share their experience. The couple later found their credit card had been charged £100, with the hotel stating its policy was to charge for “bad” reviews. The policy, included in a booking document, reportedly says: “Despite the fact that repeat customers and couples love…

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A Deadly Tourist Destination now, once land of smiles

Dan Winther

World’s favorite tourist destination is slowly turning into a deadly tourist destination. We are not saying this but Australian author John Stapleton is suggesting that widespread police corruption, violence and crime are all blighting a country once commonly referred to as the ‘Land of Smiles’ In his book Thailand: Deadly Destination, Mr Stapleton attempts to expose the reputation of Thailand as a welcoming country, claiming a boom in tourism since the 1960s has created a hatred of foreigners and a ‘murderous indifference’ to the millions of tourists who flock to…

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Here’s How To Book The Best Hotel In Town With Just One Tweet

Dan Winther

Stefano Pozzebon A new service on Twitter allows users to reserve a hotel room with just a couple of tweets. The system is called #TweetStay, and is from the hotel booking website Stayful. Here is how it works: First the costumer tweets their request to a Stayful account, including destination, price range, arrival date and number of nights. At this point, the Stayful team negotiates a private deal with the hotels available in town, securing a cheaper offer than most of the costumers would get on their own. Here is…

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