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Tags: Hotel Blog Watch / Marriott Hotels / Hotel Restaurants / Celebrity Chefs / → All Tags
Marriott's Head Chef Revamps His Chef Blog
Where: United States
As you know, we keep our eye out for new hotel blogs on our Blog Watch, and have watched the evolution of Marriott’s blogs with great interest since Bill Marriott himself launched Marriott on the Move in January 2007. That was followed in January 2008 by Marriott in the Kitchen written by the mustachioed head Marriott International chef, Brad Nelson, whose mantra is “you’re only as good as your last meal.”
Now we are happy to report that the chef blog has just completed a re-design of the site and are using it to hype special events, such as Chef Laurent Tourondel’s (of BLT Restaurants) recent foray into the kitchen to personally fix a burger for Bill Marriott, complete with slideshow.
Tags: Hotel Blog Watch / TripAdvisor / → All Tags
TripAdvisor's 'We Are Not Making This Up' Blog is Still Glorious
We spend a lot of time harping on things we don't like: fugly carpets, opening delays, crappy service and high room rates. But here is something we really, really do like (for a change): TripAdvisor's blog, "We Are Not Making This Up." We mentioned this a couple of years ago, but it's still up and running and turning out amusing nuggets of text and photos from real people that make you lose (or help restore!) a bit of faith in the world out there.
You know, every once in a while you come across a review on TripAdvisor that is somewhere along the lines of, "This hotel is horrible!!!11one!!1 Do NOT stay here!!!1!! NEVER AGAIN!!" and you're like, hmmm, this person is certainly quite distraught — but it's sort of funny, though. But have you ever wondered what happens to the reviews from people who are so distraught (or just so set on telling everyone in the world that the coffee maker was broken) that it was actually not publishable by TA? Enter the WANMTA blog.
Tags: Hotel Blog Watch / Embassy Suites Hotels / Hilton Hotels / → All Tags
Embassy Suites Ventures Into the Biz Travel Blogosphere
It's looking like more and more hotels and hospitality-focused companies are zeroing in on the business travel sector (er, are they maybe the only ones that are really traveling these days?) — and now Embassy Suites has gotten in on what seem to be two of the hottest trendy-trends in the industry: social media (or, like, blogginess) and business travel.
The chain has revamped and repositioned its BusinessBalance.com site, and while the previous iteration of the site was all about offering advice to biz travelers, it's keeping all that up but with new experts dishing out the tips — and in a blog format. Sweet. Oh, and they switched from a Flash site to a more reader-friendly HTML-style site. Yay!
The blogging experts offering up the tips are:
· Jane and Michael Stern of Roadfood.com (writing about food, obviously)
· Erin Whitehead and Jenn Walters of FitBottomedGirls.com (writing about fitness)
· Erin Kane and Kristin Brandt of ManicMommies.com (writing about balancing work and life)
Some of the newer blog entries give tips on how to stay fit on the road (whether it's heading out of the hotel's immediate area to find a hiking trail or just treading water downstairs in the hotel pool) — and there are some pretty sweet food tips here, too.
Head on over to check out the new site. We dig.
Tags: Hot Hotelier News / Hotel Blog Watch / Hyatt Hotels / → All Tags
Hyatt's CEO Gets His Bloggin' On
Hyatt would like you to know that they understand the Internet. They're a big-box hotel chain, yes — but look! They're down with that Twitter stuff and the blogs that kids these days are so into (note: being social media-savvy does not mean they are allowed to put any less effort into their booking website; it should, like every hotel website should, strive to be freakishly easy-to-use).
Over at USA Today's Hotel Check-In, Hyatt Hotels CEO Mark Hoplamazian is bloggin' away — well, he's written two blog entries on Check-In's monthly "Checking in with the Chief" series, that is.
Tags: Overservice / Hotel Blog Watch / Bill Marriott / Marriott Hotels / → All Tags
Bill Marriott Hearts the Employee Who Gave a Guest His Pants
Well, we're going to go ahead and put this in our "Adventures in Overservice" category, even though this is just sort of a story about someone doing something ridiculously, exceptionally nice for a stranger — regardless of whether this was a hotel employee/hotel guest arrangement.
Yesterday (so April 2nd, which leads us to believe this is a legitimate tale and not a joke at all), Bill Marriott blogged about a particularly interesting Marriott customer service anecdote that had him quite tickled: a Canadian Residence Inn employee actually gave a guest his pants. For real.
Tags: Hotel Blog Watch / Hotel Deals / Shell Hospitality / → All Tags
Shell Hospitality Turns Hotel Deals Into Entertainment
Every hotel and its dog are getting blogs these days, but some are actually worth mentioning; we're mentioning the Shell Vacations Hot Deal Blog on their strength of their great puns because we do love a headline that gives us a good groan.
"Stop Whining and Start Wining" was Shell's recent effort for a Napa Valley promotion. Hey, we laughed. They get even cleverer--when they're promoting their Las Vegas accommodation they blog a movie script about burning buildings filled with puppies. You've got to admire a hotel chain that can turn weekly specials into something we actually enjoy reading.
Because in the end, the Shell blog is simply about special deals on some of their hotels, with a new deal usually coming out every Thursday at midnight, and the deals can only be booked online. Places like the Desert Rose Resort in Vegas and Orange Tree Golf Resort in Scottsdale, Arizona are part of this group and savings can be up to 50% off. Or you can just read the blog for a few laughs, like we did.
Tags: Hotel Blog Watch / Intercontinental Hotels / → All Tags
Intercontinental Finally Gets This Whole Blogging Thing
We're wondering if times are a'changin' in the world of hotel blogs and hotels are finally figuring out what the heck a blog actually is. Because, drum roll, here's another hotel blog that we can think pretty warmly of.
The Intercontinental group are running their own In The Know Travelogue blog and it's both good-looking and readable. Looks like we'll have to learn not to be shocked by that when we see hotel blogs.
The Intercontinental blog has photos and tips from destinations all round the globe with some good ideas of what to do and not a mention of their hotels apart from just one link each post to the local accommodation. In other words, low on advertising, high on usefulness.
They also feature occasional videos of concierges showing us the highlights of their city and these are pretty professionally produced, even if the Perth concierge couldn't manage to tuck his shirt in. That's a relaxed Aussie for you.
[Photo: In The Know]
Tags: Hotel Blog Watch / Marriott Hotels / Bill Marriott / Hotel News / → All Tags
Bill Marriott Speaks About Proposition 8
Most people know that Bill Marriott is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (as is the rest of the Marriott fam).
In light of California's passing of Proposition 8, which eliminates the right of same-sex couples to marry in California, Bill Marriott felt compelled to make sure nobody concluded that Marriott's affiliation with the Mormon church — a huge proponent of the Prop 8 — was a reflection of his (or his company's) stance on the issue.
Tags: Hotel Blog Watch / Hotel Weddings / Maine Hotels / → All Tags
The Little Inn That Could
We don’t mean to be picky about hotel blogs but, well, we are. And considering how picky we are, the Newagen Seaside Inn should be pleased that we find their blog actually pretty OK.
But--because there’s always a but--we definitely picked the wrong day to drop by their blog. Right now the first post you see is about a dream wedding which they describe as being perfect, but the newly-weds are beaming at us from under an umbrella on a dreary-looking day. Not exactly our idea of a dream wedding. Then again, some consider rain on your wedding day good luck.
That said, the Newagen Seaside Inn’s blog is still pretty readable. There’s a mix of self-promotion (especially for their weddings) and general info on Maine, and nice pics to go with it. There’s even an interview with a family who’ve apparently been vacationing at this same hotel for 40 years but unfortunately they didn’t ask them why they’d never thought of choosing a new destination.
To sum up: the Newagen Seaside Inn has put together a much more professional hotel blog than some of the big guns, so we’re saying thumbs up. But we’d be very careful about choosing the season if we got married there.
Tags: Hotel Blog Watch / Ramada Hotels / Chicago Hotels / Hotel Blogs / → All Tags
Not Keen Yet on Ramada’s Chicago Hotel Blog
The latest in Hotel Blog Watch comes from AmandaK. Enjoy.
We’ve been a bit shell-shocked of late in our hotel blog watch that some hotels are actually putting together blogs we like. But we’re cured now because we’ve found another hotel blog that, to put it nicely, we’re really not that keen on.
Gone are the days when a hotel got brownie points just for knowing that such a thing as a blog could exist. Our standards are higher now. And the Ramada Inn Lake Shore in Chicago gets a half a point for trying but not much more yet for its Chicago Hotel Blog. Sorry guys, but it needs some work.
Tags: Hotel Chelsea Takeover / Manhattan Hotels / Hotel Blog Watch / → All Tags
More Drama Unfolds at the Hotel Chelsea as New GM Moves to Evict Long-Term Residents
Things have gone from bad to worse for the residents of the storied Hotel Chelsea in Manhattan this week (check out our full coverage of the saga here).
Yesterday, new GM Andrew Tilley -- who claimed to "be a friend to the tenants" -- is reported to have posted eviction notices on the doors of "a large number of residents," some of whom had been living at the hotel for up to twenty years.
Tags: Hotel Blog Watch / Best Western Hotels / Hotel News / → All Tags
A Hotel Blog We Actually Like? We Must Be Trippin'
Are you sitting down? Because it's not often that we readily dole out the ol' compliments -- especially when it comes to our Hotel Blog Watch feature (seriously, do some of these hotel companies know what a blog is?), but Best Western has officially won our hearts with "You Must Be Trippin.'"
Aside from the fact that we were already partial to the blog because of the name alone (looks like a HotelChatter headline, doesn't it?), we are loving the constant updates, the variety of authentic, personal voices, and the fact that this blog is actually useful to guests and not just a big giant read-at-your-own-will advertisement for Best Western.
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