Umi hotels, the award-winning, independent hotel brand is celebrating its 5th birthday this week. The first location for the brand, umi London, opened its doors in 2007 and the company has since added hotels in Brighton and Moscow. In the five years, the budget hotel brand has expanded and become the umi Group by establishing a marketing agency to serve independent hotels … [Read more...]
IHG Announces Opening of First Candlewood Suites
IHG (InterContinental Hotels Group), announces the opening of the first Candlewood Suites hotel to include the brand’s new interior design package, created with graduate students at Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), one of the nation’s top interior design schools. “When the time came to make updates to our suites and public spaces, it made sense that we partner … [Read more...]
Turbo-charged tourism to deliver for hospitality industry
In the aftermath of Olympic success, Secretary of State, Jeremy Hunt MP has announced initiatives on both the domestic and international tourism front designed to ensure that the Olympics should be for Britain what Usain Bolt is for athletics – something that grabs the attention of the whole world and refuses to let it go. In his words: “We must use this extraordinary year … [Read more...]
London to enjoy ‘Olympic afterglow’
As reported in London’s Evening Standard, The New West End Company and Heart of London Business Alliance are predicting that London’s west End will enjoy a major boost to retail and other trading following the conclusion of the massively successful Olympics. Those in the hospitality sector who lost business during the Olympics will certainly welcome a return to ‘business as … [Read more...]
Social Media not a priority for hotels
Research by Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne (Switzerland) and RateTiger shows hotels going back to basics by increasing their focus on offline and direct sales in order to reduce third-party costs, instead of deploying new social media techniques. In effect, hotels are putting social media on hold as a marketing and selling mechanism, while they focus on driving direct bookings … [Read more...]