Motel Relations

One day grandpa says to grandma "Why don't we go to the motel like we used to do when we were young and get kinky?"

So they get to the motel and go into the room.

Grandpa takes off his glasses and says he going to get into the shower to freshen up.

In the meantime grandma takes off her clothes and gets into bed.

She decides to do some leg stretches to limber up ( it's been awhile ).

Well she throws her legs over her head and they get caught in the headboard.

Right then grandpa walks out of the bathroom and sees her that way.

"My God woman" he says "you need to put your teeth in and comb your hair!".

Name and Shame Campaign

We missed Paul Henry this morning and had to catch up with his grilling of Helen Kelly from the CTU on the interweb. Kelly is the spokesperson behind the provocative "Name and Shame Campaign" to protest against the 90 day work trial regime and expose alleged "bad" employers.

Henry's suggestion towards the end of the interview that bad and inefficient employees could also be exposed is an interesting proposition.

We are curious if the accommodation and tourism industry have a position on the National led government's employment laws?



Source: TVNZ

Property Rights?

Today we received the following notice from a website that we have published a small selection of pictures with.

To protect the innocent, we have replaced the website's name with xxxx.

"Unfortunately, it appears that your product, Anti-Green, contains content that is not suitable for printing on xxxx.

We will be removing this product from xxxx shortly.

Design contains an image or text that infringes on intellectual property rights. We have been contacted by the intellectual property right holder and at their request we will be removing your product from xxxx’s Marketplace due to intellectual property claims."

Gee, we wonder who made that request? Sorta ironic if it was from an organisation that has little respect for other people's property rights.

So dear readers, as a public service we respectfully request that you do not publish the above image anywhere on the interweb for fear of causing the intellectual property right holder any further anguish.

Friday The 13th

One of the many idiosyncrasies of the accommodation industry is that we go out of our way to avoid offering to the public a "Unit 13."

As moteliers, it's not that we an overly superstitious lot. It's just that it would wreck our day if we were unable to sell the last room that happened to be unit 13 to a phobic guest. And besides, we like to ensure the comfort of all guests - even those that are superstitious! 

How do moteliers avoid offering a unit 13? 

Sometimes units are numbered in number blocks eg: 1-10 and then, 21-30. This is along the same principal of multi-floored accommodation complexes, where units on the first floor are numbered with the first numeral depicting the floor, eg: the first floor units would start from 100 and the second floor from 200 and so on.

Some accommodation complexes simply skip unit 13 by having unit 12 followed by a unit 14. Another trick is to have a unit 12A, but the trouble with this is that everyone knows it's really unit 13!

It is also fairly common for commercial building high rises not to have a 13th floor. 

It must be said that many commercial accommodation complexes offer a unit 13, however why do many persist with a mystical avoidance? Surely in this modern world, the enlightened public laugh in the face of ludicrous and irrational superstitions. 

Er, NO! 

A Harris Poll (Forbes, March 2009) found that of those surveyed:

• 31% said they think astrology is "very" or "sort of" scientific
• 44% believe in ghosts
• 31% believe in witches
• 33% said they believe intelligent beings from other planets have visited
• 25% are superstitious about knocking on wood
• 13% are superstitious about a black cat crossing a path
• 12% are superstitious about walking under a ladder
• 11% are superstitious breaking a mirror
• AND 9% are superstitious about the number 13

Good grief! Maybe those moteliers that smugly persist in "hiding" unit 13, understand more about the frailalties of the human condition than those that don't.

Will "Balconing" be the next motel/hotel craze?

Being a professional socially responsible blog, we do not like to encourage unseemly activities by guests staying in motels (Cue Tui ad).

However, last year we exposed a phenomenon occurring behind closed hotel and motel doors - Bed Jumping. That's right, the crazy antics of guests taking photos of one another mid-flight as they jump on motel/hotel beds and sharing these images on the internet!

Earlier this year, we discovered a new world-wide phenomenon occurring at motels and hotels that we predicted would grow in popularity - Balcony Diving! 

Many multi-floor motel/hotel buildings tend to conveniently nestle close to a pool and this mixed with an exhibitionist guest accompanied with a camera wielding accomplice can produce great web viral video - much like this one: 



And this one:



Unfortunately, one of the consequences of guests leaping from a great height (usually after consuming large quantities of alcohol) is that they tend to regularly maim themselves.

We see that The Guardian has reported:

"The number of balcony accidents is already triple that of previous summers, with hotel owners saying there seems to be a growing craze for balcony dares and local media pointing to a series of internet videos labelled "balconing".

As we head towards warmer climes in New Zealand, accommodation operators of multi-floor buildings should brace themselves for guests frequently hurtling themselves off guest room balconies;-) 

"Yellow Pages" Gives The Fingers!

As a small business we are open to an increasing amount of scam offers.

Recently, we received the following fax from a company claiming to be from "Yellow Page New Zealand." All we needed to do was simply fill out a few simple details, sign and fax back and our business would be submitted to Google in order for folk to easily find us- sounds like a great service!

If fellow business owners bother to read the small print it may dampen some enthusiasm. Signing this document apparently locks the business owner into a 2-year contract at a monthly cost of $159.

OK, we have seen this MO many times before, however what struck us was the scammers unique sense of humour. The Yellow Pages logo that they were using to trade-off had been cheekily turned upside down to give their prospective clients the fingers ;-)

Yellow Pages Scam

June Guest Night Stats a Pleasant Surprise

The latest accommodation survey results for June have been released today by Statistics New Zealand. 

Overall it's good news with total guest nights in June 2010 increasing by 7 percent compared with June 2009. After May recorded the only comparable guest night decrease for the year so far, June's positive results are to be welcomed. With the first month of Winter's guest night results behind us, trade so far has not lived up to the worst of gloomy predictions.

Against a longer term trend, the North Island has out performed the South Island for the second month in a row by achieving an 8 percent increase in guest nights, compared to the South Island's 6 percent increase. 

Ten of the 12 regions recorded more guest nights in June 2010 than in June 2009 with the West Coast and Nelson/Marlborough/Tasman isolating themselves from the pack as the only regions to record a decrease.
The regions showing the largest decreases were: 

• Bay of Plenty, up 24 percent
• Otago, up 11 percent
• Auckland, up 7 percent).

International visitor guest nights in June 2010 increased by 4 percent compared with June 2009. 

It was especially pleasing to see that domestic guest nights increased by 9 percent in June 2010 compared with June 2009. This all but cancels out the domestic decline recorded the previous month. After staying at home for the first month of Winter, Kiwis appear to have stirred and have made the most of the fair-weather. 

Hotels attracted the lion's share of June's guest night increase and continue the trend of taking market share from other sectors. Hotels had the largest increase in guest nights, up 9 percent compared with June 2009.

All other accommodation types also recorded increases: 

• motels, up 5 percent
• holiday parks, up 14 percent
• backpackers, 1 percent.

Hotels had the highest occupancy rate (44 percent) of all the accommodation types in June 2010, followed by motels (37 percent), and backpackers (32 percent).

It has to be kept in mind that June 2009 was considered to be a relatively low base month that may have made comparable increases recorded in June 2010 somewhat flattering. However, a win is a win and we optimistically look forward to maintaining guest night increases throughout the cooler months ahead.

Who's going to eTourism this year?

One highlight for us last year was attending the inaugural eTourism Conference in Wellington. Lea Boodee and her team at on-Cue put on a very successful gathering of tourism industry folk at Te Papa.

eTourism has become a buzzword in an environment where more than 80% of global travellers first turn to the Internet when making travel plans. The Internet has empowered travellers, but has also distracted them. When on-tour they not only inhabit the real world, but continue to interact with a multitude of virtual communities.

So how do tourism operators leverage the increasing customer use of the Internet to research and purchase travel related items online and to gain loyal returning visitors?

For us it was a no-brainer to register again this year for the 2nd eTourism Conference, 31 August and 1 September this year being held in Auckland.

Lea Boodée  from onCue Conferences + Events has kindly given us a run-down on what to expect:

"A spectacular line up of speakers will provide delegates with terrific insight into some of the latest marketing trends and business practices in the tourism industry in the digital age. Speakers will present how to take advantage of the latest social media and mobile marketing tools, and discuss some of the challenges and opportunities facing tourism operators and marketers in an ever-changing online business environment. This conference will leave you buzzing with new ideas to implement when you return to the office, saving you weeks of research and valuable time!"

As a bonus, this year "The TourismTech Expo" will run concurrently at the Ellerslie Event Centre and entry will be free of charge for eTourism attendees. 

Sounds great!

In order to encourage more fellow moteliers to join us this year, "Motella" has become a Supporting Sponsor of the eTourism Conference. 

We have registered online HERE, booked the flights, reserved a hotel room and look forward to seeing you there!

Customer Service FAIL?

Have you ever had one of those days?

Any customer service role can be difficult, however there can be special challenges in the travel industry as you are often dealing with customers that have left their brains at home and are on edge away from their usual comfort zone.

As a customer service professional you often bite your tongue, smile and keep the peace...Not so Steven Slater, a flight attendant who is at risk of becoming a folk-hero.

Soon after a plane touched down at JFK Airport, Slater lost his cool with an uncooperative passenger and snapped.  An argument ensued and punches were thrown. Slater broadcast a few expletives over the airplane's loud speaker system and announced: "I've been in this business 28 years and I've had it!" Slater then grabbed a beer and exited the plane in style by activating the emergency chute before ditching his job and driving home.

Steven Slater - we think we know how you feel;-)

Millennium and Copthorne Hotels

We posted an item at the end of May this year about the Millennium and Copthorne Hotels New Zealand Ltd (MCK) that fronted up to their bemused shareholders with unspectacular returns and a bizarre story about dodgy Chinese deals resulting in having one of its hotels stolen from under them. 

MCK owns, leases, manages and franchises a portfolio of 30 hotels in New Zealand under the Millennium, Copthorne and Kingsgate brands. The Company, that has hotel assets with a net book value of $326 million recorded a modest profit of $12.4 million for the year to December 2009.

MCK's trading performance for the six months ending June 2010 has improved with revenues of $61 million compared with $54.5 million in the same period last year. Occupancy has increased to 68.1% compared with 63% for the same period last year. Not surprisingly the hotel group has found overseas tourist markets remaining soft, however we were surprised that they have reported a lift in the domestic tourism market. 

In spite of improved trading, we see that MCK have reported a $20.2 million loss in the six months to June 30 2010.

Ignoring the losses incurred with the shenanigans of exposing themselves in China, MCK has taken a one-off non-cash hit of $26.8 million by the recent tax changes relating to the way depreciation of commercial buildings will be treated for tax. Interestingly tax woes may continue with fears that depreciation changes will cost MCK up to $2 million a year in additional taxation that will cancel out any gains from the 2% reduction in corporate tax.

It will be interesting to see how the new depreciation tax rules will influence the bottom line of accommodation businesses, in particular those that wish to continue to add value by investing in refurbishment and future development.