There are some clients that you can’t feel anything else but absolutely thrilled to be working with them.

Aegean Sky – an amazing hotel in Malia, Crete – is one of those clients. For the second year running, Aegean Sky took first place in the Travel Republic favourite hotels list, based on guest reviews.

One more year, another success for a Greek hotel that prides itself in high quality personal service.

And there is a good reason for this.

Panos – the Aegean Sky owner – and the Aegean Sky team understand exactly their guests’ needs and the changing face of tourism. We have been working with them for over three years now, edging close to four, and from the word go they have understood the significance of listening to your guests and learning from them every single day.

In these difficult time for Greece, Aegean Sky is an excellent example of what can be achieved by people who love what they do working with dedication and a careful approach based on their guests’ needs.

Aegean Sky is just one of our clients who offered FREE ACCOMMODATION this year to any of their guests stuck in Greece due to strike action. They are the people who take care of guests. They have so many stories of getting things done – from fixing a guest’s camera to helping another guest get a replacement passport and make their flight. The stories are countless but they all vouch for the same thing. These people genuinely care for their customers.

The Aegean Sky care for guests doesn’t stop the moment they leave the hotel. We have been working with them to help them navigate the online world. We monitor reviews, help them understand the lessons their guests want them to learn. Aegean Sky is there, every day, with a blog, on Facebook, on Twitter, with e-mails, with events, with an open mind. They have an impressive engagement history and they will keep going through it all cause they love seeing guests having a good time.

Once more, it is an honor to be working with a hotel that strives for better things every single day.

Read more

• Aegean Sky blog: Thank you for making us your favourite hotel for the second year running
• Travel Republic blog: Your favourite hotels from 2011

Press Release

• English: Greek hotel tops favourite hotel list for second year running
• Greek: Ελληνικό ξενοδοχείο ανακηρύσσεται το αγαπημένο των πελατών παγκοσμίως για δεύτερη συνεχόμενη χρονιά

Manolis will be doing the rounds as ever, with a huge backpack and his vast repository of knowledge.

This year it’s all about the meetups and boy do we have a busy schedule! We ‘d love to meet up with everyone if at all possible so please drop me a line and I’ll arrange an appointment or quick coffee. We are taking some meetings in central London too but it’s best if we catch up on the exhibition floor really.

We will also be going to the Travel Blog Camp once again. It was just such a great experience last year, we loved meeting all the bloggers and taking part in the lively debate. We are expecting great things again this year.

I’ll try to update again on WTM but in the meantime here are some nice little videos from last year (or perhaps you’d like to take a look all all our updates from WTM 2010).

Hope to see you there!

Sometimes news about strikes and travel disruption can get a bit old when you work in a hotel. Lately in Greece they happen often. Do you become a bit nonchalant about it all? Should you?

Certainly not!

People who have booked a few days off are not looking forward to being stuck in an airport waiting for a flight home.

This is were your responsiveness as a hotelier and your good policy will have an opportunity to shine through. Assess the challenges that your clients face, analyse your business model and design a realistic policy that will keep your guests happy. This is especially important when a country is so much in the news for all the wrong reasons – like Greece is this summer.

We certainly saw the value of good policy practice last year with the enormous success of the Golden Bay Hotel policy when faced with strikes in 2010.

This year we continued to work with our clients so that they can remain responsive and keep aware of circumstances that affect their guests. Golden Bay continues to offer free accommodation to its guests if they are affected by the Greek general strike.

Aegean Sky – catering to a younger crowd – is also working hard to make sure that no guests arrive or leave unhappy. Check out the blog post and you may also want to take a quick look at their Facebook and twitter engagement (dicslosure: we handle their digital comms among other things)

It was in anticipation of the crises conditions that we published our white paper on Policy and Crisis Communications for the Hospitality Sector last year. We know it’s difficult to have to deal with difficult conditions for a second year running but we hope that in our white paper all hoteliers can find value and invest meaningfully in policies that will help them survive and prosper.

A wide consultation website is up, called the Red Tape Challenge.

Every few weeks they are publishing the regulations affecting one specific sector or industry. At the same time they are publishing the general regulations that cut across all sectors such as equality and employment.

Everyone can comment and feedback on these regulations, detailing the ones that are useful and explaining how the burdensome ones are hindering their business development.

Ministers will have three months to work out which regulations they want to keep and why.

The regulations for Hotels and Holidays are already up.

Having answered a great number of consultations in my time I would urge everyone to participate.

Here are some tips for strong consultation responses, that I’ve learned over the years:

1. Keep it brief and to the point.
2. Give examples and numbers. Statistics can speak volumes.
3. Try this formula: Problem – effect – proposed solution.
4. Show how each problem affects the industry AND the consumers. Problems that affect only the industry are usually treated with suspicion.
5. Offer the chance of a meeting to discuss the issues and /or further information if required.

So, will you be responding?

I receive newsletters from my favorite retail outlets each and every single day with some clever little pun and some not-really-relevant-but-close products. Little pillows, the Union Jack on absolutely everything and crazy ideas about parties and events.

I very much doubt that the street parties will really take off but I can definitely see friends getting together to watch the event with some popcorn and sparkly tiaras. Reminds me of Eurovision parties a bit.

The world of crafts is hard at it as well, with my personal favorite being the Knit Your Own Royal Wedding.

Set of Four Royal Wedding Coasters by Claryce Design - click to see it on Etsy

William and Kate Royal Wedding Commemorative tea towel by TaylorsType - click to see on Etsy

Knit your own Royal Wedding by Fiona Goble - click to see on amazon uk

I would also urge you to take a look at the Observer’s alternative wedding tributes – people are getting really creative about this stuff.

I particularly like MJ Delaney’s spoof royal wedding Bollywood film. I think that it’s very interesting how Bollywood is now – arguably – part of British culture, and this fusion of alternatives to what we traditionally think as British in tourism terms should be taken advantage of more often.

I couldn’t close this one without including the T-Mobile Royal Wedding. Old joke? Sure. Still funny though.

I’ll be in Greece at the time of the Wedding but I aim to watch it via YouTube (yes, the Monarchy is moving on – see how the Royal Wedding will take advantage of the web). It will be very interesting to see how the procession will be used to showcase London at its best and I’ll be watching out for any interesting visitor and retail statistics afterwards.

This Sunday some great ladies, our selves with Sofia AND our client (and Sofia’s mum) Mama Despoina hit the news stands with an article by Ms. Elli Ismailidou on female entrepreneurship online – you can find the article here in Greek.

Mama Despoina (check out the SoMaFusion case study) spoke about her work with handmade jewellery and how it all started with her children moving away and her having to come to grips with technology in order to stay in touch.

My friends loved the jewellery I designed. So why not create an e-shop and sell online?

(..)

I wish that more women dared to realise their dreams via the web

Our own Sofia spoke about the bias that women entrepreneurs might be facing:

The bias has nothing to do with Internet businesses but with women in business generally. The key to not allowing anyone to judge you based on gender is the quality of your work and constantly being on top of new developments in your field. Beyond that, it’s very important to be sincere in your work, recognising that everyone is an expert at something specific, not at everything and that we all learn new things every day.

(…)

Especially in Greece, the cause of many problems is not so much the gender of the entrepreneur, but the fact that in Greece, entrepreneurship as a whole faces major challenges. Bureaucracy, lack of flexibility and a market-based for many years on artificial props, rather than encouraging genuine innovation are just some of the issues. Surely, however, women have great potential in this area and can approach things differently.

The article also featured Marilou Tzempelikou (fashinating), Alice Korovesi (hellenic property), Vicky Kolovou (netwire) and the Greek Girl Geek Dinners by Despoina Bakirtzi. Our thanks to Vicky who mentioned us to Ms. Elli Ismailidou.

Working a lot with hotels we are always a bit surprised by the sharp differences in how hoteliers and their trade associations put their case forward in different countries.

Take Greece for example. Being Greek we can safely say that complaining seems like a national pastime. However some things ring true. The state is not doing enough. Greece does not have the impressive and overall amazing Visit Britain resource. The corporate site has a wealth of information and statistics to help anyone working in the travel market – even details of what each nationality prefers. Nor does Greece have a four – year marketing plan supported by the Prime Minister no less, involving representatives from the travel and tourism industry. It’s sad but there you have it. And if Greek tourism professionals complain a little bit more it’s to be expected. Right? It’s all the state’s fault. Right?

Wrong.

We would never agree with that assessment. Sure there are policies of support that are just not there. Sure there are marketing plans on a national level that we’d like to see. Sure we’d like robust policies instead of policy by press release and vague promises to travellers.

However, the proverbial buck cannot stop there. It doesn’t even begin there. It begins in your own business, in your own professionalism, in your own desire to see a job well done and make sure that your guests had a lovely time. Analyse their needs, be there, be visible, learn, improve, move on with the times.

You will remember two of our clients, Golden Bay and Aegean Sky.

Did Golden Bay staff threw their hands up in the air when Greece suffered from strikes and people couldn’t fly home last summer? No. They analysed, they assessed, they worked with us to build their policy and they were rewarded. The numbers speak for themselves. In a challenging area of Greece they are going from strenght to strength with solid reviews from their guests.
| See the relevant post: Solve your client’s problem: How one hotelier offers tailored services during the strikes in Greece |

Did Aegean Sky staff rely only on their contracts with tour operators and sat back to enjoy they ride? Did they complain when numbers didn’t go their way? No. They analysed, they assessed, they invested in building a personal relationship with their guests and understanding their needs. Their latest success is that they are on the top of the Travel Republic list for the favourite hotels of 2010 – beating more prestigious destination the world over.
| See the relevant post: Greek hotel, SoMaFusion client, tops favourite hotel list for 2010 |

These are not huge hotel complexes, they do not belong to an international behemoth. They do not pay us astronomical sums. They are not in the red financially speaking. How they do it? It’s not rocket science. They love what they do and take responsibility for turning things around.

The state has a role to play. But if we forget our own responsibilities while trying to convince the state to face its own we are never going to get anywhere.

This excellent result rewards Aegean Sky for a long standing belief in meaningful relationships with guests and constant improvement based on face to face and online reviews.

Aegean Sky is an excellent example of a Greek hotel which has grasped the challenges of tourism’s changing face and is adjusting its operation and policies to constantly meet guests’ needs. With an impressive engagement history, both face to face and online, Aegean Sky is constantly improving and offering exactly what its guests need.

We have been working with Aegean Sky for over three years and we are currently handling all their digital comms and associated policy. It is really an honor to be working with a hotel that strives for better things every single day.

Read more

• Aegean Sky blog: Thank you for making us your favourite hotel for 2010
• SoMaFusion & Aegean Sky Press Release: Greek hotel tops favourite hotel list for 2010 (also available in Greek)

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UPDATE 24 January

Selection of media coverage

Express – Best hotel in the world? Only £25 a night
Daily Mail – Aegean Sky Hotel in Malia, Crete voted world’s best hotel
Mirror – £25-a-night hotel voted “best in the world”
Metro – Guests vote £25-a-night Aegean Sky Hotel ‘the best in the world’

ΠΑΤΡΙΣ (GR) – Διεθνής διάκριση για το κρητικό ξενοδοχείο Aegean Sky

Here’s a nice little video by Farelogix which explains that whole story pretty well and in simple terms.

The creator obviously has a vested interest in the market so keep an open mind.

I will refrain from commenting on the story for now. Suffice it to say we have been going round and round discussing this for quite some time to no avail.

(Hat tip: tnooz)

Shall we play spot the difference?

(click on the image to see the full e-mail)

(click on the image to see the full e-mail)

They are very different, not only visually but in what they say, how they were sent, which list of receipients received what.

I could go on and on about why we do things differently and how we plan for them but there is only one thing you need to know:

One size DOES NOT fit all.