Edinburgh for free

As a principal capital city and major corporate and tourist destination, Edinburgh cannot be the lowest cost place to visit. However a visit to Edinburgh does not mean spending money everywhere, every day. Edinburgh has some wonderful free attractions and things to do. So if you are in Edinburgh on a budget, visiting with your family or just seeking out great value, here are my suggestions for things to do without bringing out your wallet or purse. Whether you have a spare few hours, a day or a few days, spend time exploring the city’s free attractions.

Awards for quality

We’re feeling just a little bit pleased with ourselves after returning from the Best Western Hotels annual members conference in London. Both BEST WESTERN PLUS Bruntsfield Hotel and BEST WESTERN PLUS Keavil House Hotel were recognised for their high quality within the Best Western group in Great Britain.

Best Western Hotels Quality Assessment

Every Best Western Hotel worldwide has to achieve a minimum standard for the provision of service amenities and for the quality standards of the hotel. Each Best Western hotel is independently owned and operated but has decided to join the global hotel brand Best Western for branding, sales and marketing services. There is a well used term that “you are only as strong as your weakest link” and therefore the brand partners worldwide use a rigorous annual quality assessment to ensure that each and every Best Western hotel meets the standards required. If a hotel fails to achieve these standards then its time within the Best Western brand is limited.

Now on WordPress

Blogger was OK to get a blog started for the first time but after about a year I decided that I needed something a little more professional in look and functionality. So here we are, my first post in my new style blog in WordPress. It’s early days and a bit of tweaking of style and functionality is needed but I’ll get there over the next week or so.

The dangers of Groupon promotions for hotels

Many industry commentators write that the hotel business is returning to a period of increasing occupancy, rate and yield. That may be the case for honeypot locations such as London, Paris, Rome, Stockholm, Venice or New York but many hotels in principal, and certainly secondary locations, have still to experience this uplift. For the majority of hotels, business is still very tough, and getting tougher by the month. For this group of hotels, creative ways of attracting business is a daily struggle. What place do widely distributed discounts have in this promotional activity and do these discounts result in the acquisition of loyal customers?

Edinburgh Tourist Tax

There are serious proposals in the city of Edinburgh for a tax to be levied on tourists staying in hotels to raise funds for the city’s investment in tourism promotion. A city is no different to a company or a country; in these difficult economic conditions, finances are stretched and imaginative ways of raising additional funds and augmenting normal sources of city funding are being sought. However an Edinburgh tourist tax, a bed tax, or whatever name the concept is called is not the solution for the city of Edinburgh

La Dolce Vita…in recessionary times

The achievement of first class, memorable customer service is a target for all service businesses, especially hotels & restaurants. Achieve it and you can set yourself apart from the competition, miss it and you just become another business in the market segment that you operate in. We’re in the midst of what many commentators say is the worst economic crisis since the 1930s. Consumer spending is under stress and unnecessary or non-essential spending is being reduced. Restaurants everywhere are struggling and it’s not uncommon to find empty tables in restaurants where reservations many days in advance were required to secure a table.