Blogs

Beautiful Schools is a new online venue search service showcasing UK independent schools as potential venues for meetings, conferences and events.

Beautiful Schools has over 60 schools throughout the UK listed on its website.

The schools offer unique surroundings for bespoke and special events, meetings, celebrations and away days.

Many of the schools have first class sports facilities, state of the art technology, art and music suites as well as fully equipped conference and meeting rooms. They are often found in unique and beautiful buildings.

Picture: Rendcomb College

Details: http://beautifulschools.co.uk/

Details: Published: 08 August 2017; Hits: 4535

Plans have been submitted to build a new Roomzzz Aparthotel in Church Street in the centre of Liverpool with 114 apartments.

The new Roomzzz Aparthotel would be located between the second and seventh floors of the former George Henry Lee department store in Church Street. The space has been vacant since 2008.

The second floor would feature a reception, a grab-and-go pantry and a gym. Some of the apartments would lack windows because of the building's deep footprint.

Liverpool City Council has yet to set a date to consider the application.

In the meantime Roomzzz are expanding in three cities this autumn.

Roomzzz London Stratford is scheduled to open with 98 apartments on the doorstep of the Olympic Park and Westfield Shopping Centre.

Roomzzz Newcastle City will see an addition 74 apartments added to its existing 14.

Roomzzz Manchester Corn Exchange also opens this autumn with 114 apartments in central Manchester’s Grade II-listed Corn Exchange building.

Details: http://www.roomzzz.com/

Details: Published: 08 August 2017; Hits: 4536

Are pod-hotels with micro-rooms destined to be the hotels of the future? The issue is raised by Skift – the global travel industry intelligence forum. They claim several boutique hoteliers are betting big on micro-hotels.

Co-founder of American-based BD Hotels, Richard Born, opened his first pod hotel back in 2007.

“These aren’t small rooms that are cheap,” Born argues. “The materials we use are very high-end and we’ve designed the rooms in a meaningfully important way. You’re sacrificing space, not quality. There’s a niche in the marketplace of people who want high quality and design but also want a boutique feel.”

In purely economic terms pod-hotels make sense in that a 180 sq-ft room of a typical pod-hotel compares with a 325 sq-ft room in a standard three star hotel.

This allows developers to build a third more rooms without having to charge nightly rates that are a third lower.

Advocates of pod-hotels also claims that guests now want to spend more time in lobbies, regardless of their age. They are places for “entertainment, communal tables, virtual concierge walls, giant televisions, local artists, exhibits and tastings.”

Hence they believe guests are spending less time in their hotel rooms compared with 40 years ago.

Hotel bedrooms are functional places to sleep and bathe.

Many pod-hotel rooms don’t have desks as people are working on their laps. Therefore the bedrooms require less square footage.

Makarand Mody, assistant professor of hospitality marketing at Boston University’s School of Hospitality Administration sums up the case for the pod-hotel:

“The room and a comfy bed are simply a place to come back to after a day of experiences, which is why many of these micro-room hotels offer interesting public spaces with innovative dining and social options. So why not make the rooms smaller, but more efficient, and instead provide more to do within the hotel but outside of the room?”

See Skift article: https://skift.com/2017/07/05/pod-hotels-owner-thinking-small-to-grow-big/

Details: Published: 12 July 2017; Hits: 4414

Celtic Manor Resort in Newport has launched a new apprenticeship programme to help train the next generation of hospitality professionals.

The new two-year apprenticeship scheme offers a comprehensive programme encompassing all the operational aspects of the hotel and hospitality industry.

The modules will cover food and beverage, conference and banqueting, front of house, housekeeping and kitchens as well as a stint combining all these areas at the resort's Coldra Court Hotel.

Apprentices will also be given access to a wide range of learning and development courses with subject matter including personal development, teamwork, guest relations, presentation and interview skills.

Celtic Manor Resort is one of the UK’s leading conference resort with almost 600 bedrooms spread across four hotels in South Wales.

Details: http://www.celtic-manor.com/

Details: Published: 25 July 2017; Hits: 4233

Hilton London Bankside, in conjunction with the Bamboo Bicycle Club, has just launched a fleet of six bamboo bikes for guest use.

The bikes are robust, easy to ride and claim to be more environmentally friendly. They have been built from scratch by hotel staff – under the expert guidance and tuition of the team at Bamboo Bicycle Club.

Each bike is named after the team member that built it.

The bamboo bikes are securely stationed outside Hilton London Bankside and available for hotel guests to use at any time during their stay, free of charge.

Hilton London Bankside is also creating its own bicycle trail map of the local area.

Details: http://www3.hilton.com/en/hotels/united-kingdom/hilton-london-bankside-LONSBHI/index.html