10 Tricked Out Hotel House Cars

It seems that there is a trend amongst some accommodation providers to appease those guests that feel the guilt of living in a modern society.

Shower pressure is being restricted, lighting is getting dimmer and rooms are becoming littered with notices hectoring guests to use less.

We say that an accommodation experience should be one of luxury, excess and fantasy. A haven away from those that wish to inflict their guilt upon others. 

We salute those accommodation providers that provide an environment where guests have chance to live out a fantasy, live beyond their means, if only for one night... Ok, that's a great segway for us to cut and paste the "10 Tricked Out Hotel House Cars."

For your viewing pleasure, we have found 10 hotels that unashamedly ferry their guests around in some of the most expensive cars on the market:

1. Jaguar XJ
· Where You Can Ride It: Shutters on the Beach and Casa Del Mar, Santa Monica, California. Guests at these beachfront hotels can get chauffeured around in style but only within Santa Monica.
· Ticket to Ride: FREE for hotel guests. Room rates start at around $500 a night

2. Porsche Panamera 4S
· Where You Can Ride It: Gansevoort Hotel and Gansevoort Park in New York. Having two sister hotels in the same city means that guests will want to go back and forth from one hotel to the other. Naturally, a Porsche is the car for the job.
· Ticket to Ride: FREE. Room rates at the Gansevoorts start around $300 a night.

3. Range Rover
· Where You Can Ride It: Mondrian South Beach in Miami. Guests at this bayfront hotel can be ferried to the Mondrian's sister hotel, The Delano, on the beach. There's plenty of room for your rollerblades!
· Ticket to Ride: FREE. Room rates at the Mondrian start at $350 a night.

4. Bentley Continental GTC
· Where You Can Ride It: At the Haleuakani in Honolulu which has a exotic automobile amenity program called "Art in Motion." Guests can choose from a Maserati Gran Turismo, a Bentley Continental GTC, a Lotus Elise and a Lotus Exige S to play with during their stay.
· Ticket to Ride: You have to pony up at least $7,000 for the hotel's suites to have access to this program. But regular ole' guests can rent the cars for the day starting at $250. (The Bentley is the most expensive car to rent at $995 a day.)

5. Hermes Rolls Royce Phantom
· Where You Can Ride It: At The Four Seasons George V in Paris who had the luxury car custom-made to their specifications and which includes Hermes-customized upholstery and accessories.
· Ticket to Ride: Room rates here start around €750 a night but renting the car costs an additional €3,800 for day trips and €750 for airport pick-up.

6. Mercedes Maybach
· Where You Can Ride It: At the Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi where the use of a chauffeur-driven $410,000 Maybach is available with the hotel's most expensive package see below. The hotel also has a Rolls Royce on hand if you so desire.
· Ticket to Ride: The car can be yours exclusively for seven days when you book the $1 Million Hotel Package which includes a stay in a three-bedroom suite, private jet excursions, all food and drink and more.

7. Rolls Royce Extended Wheelbase Phantoms
· Where You Can Ride It: At the Peninsula Hotel Hong Kong which actually has 14 of these cars on hand. Not feeling the Phantoms? You can also choose from a helicopter or two custom Mini-Coopers.
· Ticket to Ride: The cars are complimentary for guests in the suites which start around $8,800 a night.

8. Yet Another Rolls Royce Phantom
· Where You Can Ride It: At the Pretty Woman Hotel aka The Four Seasons Beverly Wilshire in Beverly Hills. The cars are available on a first come, first serve basis for hotel guests and they can be dropped off (or picked up) from any location within a three mile radius.
· Ticket to Ride: FREE. Rooms at the Four Seasons here start around $400 a night.

9. Mercedes Maybach 62S
· Where You Can Ride It: At the Ciragan Palace Kempinski in Istanbul where guests can hire the car and its driver for airport transfers or for private rental.
· Ticket to Ride: Room rates start around $600 a night but the ride in the Maybach will cost you extra.

10. BMW 7 Series Limousines
· Where You Can Ride It: At the Grand Hotel Europe in St. Petersburg which has seven BMW 7 series limousines in their luxury fleet. Looking for something more sporty? The hotel can also chauffeur you around in a BMW X1 or X5 at your wish.
· Ticket to Ride: Room rates start around $400 a night but an airport transfer in the limo will cost about $115.

Business As Usual For Christchurch Motels

We see on Facebook that the Christchurch Motel Association (CMA) are asking for assistance - Forget about sending off a Red Cross package or writing out a cheque.

Christchurch moteliers are a bunch of hard nosed, pragmatic folk that are soldiering on under adverse conditions. They have suggested that the best assistance that can be given is to encourage people to still visit Christchurch. The CBD is being cleared up and for the majority of Christchurch it is "business as usual" so please send guests to Christchurch. Spread the word Christchurch is open for business and the CMA members have a bed for you.

Although news reports are focusing on what has been damaged, demolished and closed, we see that Christchurch & Canterbury Tourism were quick to get the word out that: 

Approximately 98% of accommodation providers and tourism attractions are now up and running in Christchurch city and the wider Canterbury region.

The best assistance you can give businesses in Christchurch is to continue trading with them.

Stripped Down Hotel Offer

I must admit that I never heard of Tune Hotels - they operate properties in London, Bali and Malaysia. The hotel group have announced plans of expanding further into the UK by opening a further 15 hotels in London by 2017.

Tune Hotels have a unique point of difference. In order to offer low entry tariffs, they charge for all extras including: luggage storage, daily housekeeping, hairdryer, safe, television, Wi-Fi, towels and toiletries.

The use of the bed and shower seem to be the few room amenities that are inclusive of the knock-down room rate;-)

In the following video, Mark Lankester CEO of Tune Hotels explains a little about the budget airline model that the hotel group have introduced to the accommodation market: Click HERE.

We are not convinced that the public will be necessarily turned on by this experience.

In the accommodation industry if you can create a consistent, comfortable and safe environment with a sense of occasion then you will succeed. One acid test for any accommodation complex is to speculate how many couples that check-in are likely to engage in sex. If it is a high ratio then as an operator, your'e doing it right!

Something tells us that if an eager gentleman books into a Tune Hotel with his girlfriend or wife looking for love, he may check-out dissappointed:

Wotif.com using traditional media to become edgy

Part of the unique story about the stratospheric rise of Online Travel Agent, Wotif.com has been their cost effective use of the internet and word of mouth to promote their services. Generally little investment has been made in the Mainstream Media.

Along with other OTAs, Wotif.com's promotional philosophy appears to be changing with a television promotion HERE and more use of newspaper advertising and radio for generic branding.

The online travel space is becoming crowded and extremely competitive. Ironically there appears to be an increased investment in traditional media to stand out. With the assistance of the MSM, Wotif.com are positioning themselves to the public as a brand that has a cheeky and fun with a spontaneous personality.

A recent example was following Labor's election win, when Wotif.com seized the opportunity to express themselves with a full page ad in The Australian with a tagline: "Enough about seats! Let’s talk beds."

Apparently the ad is the first in what will be a series of edgy topical generic branding initiatives:

Motel Guest's Attitude

It always amuses me when some motel guests just don't get the following self-evident truth:

Legal threat against TripAdvisor?

While we generally support the concept of online guest reviews, we are aware of the vexing problem when accommodation providers experience alleged malicious reviews.

A UK company KwikChex that offers businesses online reputation management tools and their own online customer feedback platform claims to be representing 120 hotels that are threatening legal action against TripAdvisor.com. 

KwikChex say that they have been frustrated in trying to remove adverse online reviews on TripAdvisor on behalf of their clients.

KwikChex are preparing to send TripAdvisor a dossier containing details of negative reviews that are claimed to be untrue, damaging or legally unsubstantiated. If their clients reviews are not removed, KwikChex are threatening group defamation charges that they are claiming to front in courts on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.

On behalf of their clients, KwikChex are also demanding to see the algorithm behind the rating system for hotels as well the strategy behind an email marketing campaign.

It is difficult to evaluate if KwikChex have a legal case or have the necessary resources to take on Expedia owned TripAdvisor. It has to be kept in mind that KwikChex by going public with a threat of litigation is gaining valuable publicity with a sympathetic group of accommodation providers and are highlighting their own services.

The ability for the public to use a web-based platform to review and recommend (or not!) a product or service seems to be a basic internet freedom that most take for granted.

If TripAdvisor are taken to court, it will be fascinating to see if the courts are willing to try and impose regulation upon platforms of social networking.

Aussie Election a Great Result For Kiwi Tourism

Australia is waking up this morning with the harsh realization that the strange but interesting ranga that they had been flirting with is now their PM.

Kiwi tourism operators should be preparing themselves for an onslaught of Aussies tourists looking for a brief respite from the reality of living in a country that is to be lead by a woman that assaults the eardrums of decent folk with such a ghastly colloquial twang.

Connecting via iPod

In our household September has been eagerly anticipated for some time.

A couple of months ago my son's 18-month old iPod Touch decided that it had enough and stopped working. We sent the iPod back to it's maker and the word soon came back that it's condition was terminal. Our bad luck!

You would think that we would be reasonably p*ssed, however due to our addiction to commercialism and our uncanny ability to always look on the bright side we circled September on the calendar as the time when the new updated iPod Touch was due to be released. Sure enough at the beginning of this month, the Apple deity Steve Jobs announced to his cult of fanatical followers that it would be so. A new iPod Touch has been released and it now comes equipped with a couple of cameras, HD video recording and a screen resolution that's better that life itself.

Naturally we will be shelling out $500 for a replacement.

Essentially the iPod Touch can do everything an iPhone can do, except it doesn't have the ability to connect to a cellular network - it can however connect to the internet via Wi-Fi. 

So what does this mean for the accommodation industry? Accommodation providers with children or grandchildren will first be introduced to the new iPod Touch when their wallet suddenly becomes $500 lighter. Then they will note that their guests will start turning up to their motels and hotels en masse with these devices.

Thanks to Apple, there will be unprecedented consumer demand for quality Wi-Fi in accommodation complexes from guests with multiple devices and it is inevitable that there will be increased expectation that this is to be given free.

With the functionality of High Definition video, guests with an iPod Touch can easily make person to person video phone calls over wifi networks. An HD video movie can be easily shot, edited and uploaded to YouTube that will share "here and now" handheld experiences, including reviews and recommendations that will inevitably include accommodation. 

The iPod Touch with it’s inherent Wi-Fi and instant access to apps makes it easy guests to review  businesses. Traveller reviews are the currency of social networking and the iPod will allow guests to easily post website reviews on the likes of Jasons, AA Travel, TripAdvisor etc.

There is an opportunity is for savvy high-tech accommodation providers to start building location-based information resources for guests around their complex. The introduction of camera on iPod Touch will create a larger uptake in the use of QR (Quick Response) codes and other optical triggers like Microsoft Tags to allow the provision of rich media to guests.

Often social networking fads are the most unlikely and the application Ping by Apple that makes it easy for fans and followers to give music recommendations could be the next big thing. Could accommodation providers use Ping to share their own music tastes or a genre that closely follows their brand?

One fad that is currently with us and is unlikely to fade anytime soon is location based social networking such as Foursquare and the potential of Facebook's recently released Facebook Places. Although the iPod Touch hasn't got the GPS functionality of the iPhone, location based platforms will enable iPod users to identify their location by the Wi-Fi connection that they are hooked up to.

Accommodation providers have a challenge and an opportunity to take part in the increasing conversations that online communities are having about their travel experiences.

This is a phenomenon that accommodation providers will not be able to opt out of.

NZ's Adventure Tourism Accepts Regulatory Control?

In response to a review ordered by Prime Minister John Key into the adventure tourism industry it has been reported that a compulsory registration and an audit regime is likely to be imposed.

Much like the recent example of the hapless taxi industry, NZ's Adventure Tourism industry appears to be happy sleepwalking towards regulatory control.

In our post HERE we wrote:

"For the sake of New Zealand's tourism industry we hope that the adventure tourism operators are able to back themselves by finding their own reasoned voice. They should be rejecting the politically correct default position of surrendering themselves to regulation by proving that they are able to stand up for themselves and continue along the pathway of self-regulation."

On behalf of adventure tourism operators, Destination Queenstown Board chairman Mark Quickfall and the Tourism Industry Association were quick to give unqualified support for regulation before any details had been fleshed out.

So what do we know so far?

A regulatory scheme could capture 1500 commercial operators that will be charged between $1000 - $2,200 for an initial audit. Further periodic audits would be necessary at an undetermined frequency, however subsequent audits would be half the price of the initial audit. It is not clear if registration fees would be an additional ongoing cost for operators?

It is estimated that a nationwide regulatory regime would cost between $150,000 and $250,000 to set up and it is not reported if this will be self-sustaining or require ongoing funding input to maintain.

One concerning description of the proposed regime is that it will be "world-leading." This is bureaucracy-speak that can be translated into meaning: expensive, prohibitive and ineffective.

NZ Adventure Tourism To Offer Jetpack Flights

Growing up in the 70s we were promised the future will bring us our own personal jetpacks. In spite living in the 21st century going on 10 years now, a casual observer would have noted that this has yet to come to fruition.

We are pleased to learn that flying around with a hi-tech jetpack will soon be possible.

Kiwi Jetpack inventor Glenn Martin is planning to enter the adventure tourism industry by opening a space-age theme park, where tourists will pay between $290 and $320 for a 10-minute flight. 

Sounds great!