Who’s got style? CitizenM in Amsterdam named trendiest hotel

by Melanie Nayer on

If you’re not one to sacrifice fashion – ever – then you’ll do well to stay at CitizenM in Amsterdam. According to a release from hotel review site TripAdvisor, CitizenM was selected out of 719 hotels and awarded the ‘trendiest” title.

The hotel is located in the center of Amsterdam and boasts “affordable luxury for the people”, which is a good thing for fashionistas looking to pick up a few luxe items in Amsterdam.The hotel’s high tech rooms are built offsite and then stacked together to form the hotels (think: Legos). Internet connections and WiFi are free and every room is lit by LED lights to save energy.

If you’re hoping for something trendier and closer to home, Chicago’s Wit Hotel took second place, and the W Fort Lauderdale hotel in Florida came third.

Other notable honors include:

Best Bargain in the World – Arcadia Residence, Prague, Czech Republic
Best Luxury (4&5 star hotels) in the World – Golden Well (U Zlate Studne), Prague, Czech Republic
Best for Families in the World – Sirkeci Konak Hotel, Istanbul, Turkey
Best for Romance in the World – Hilton Moorea Lagoon Resort & Spa, Moorea, French Polynesia
Best All-Inclusive in the World – Drowsy Water Ranch, Granby, Colorado
Best Relaxation and Spa in the World – La Amada Hotel, Playa Mujeres, Mexico

The TripAdvisor TRAVELERS’ CHOICE Awards recognized 719 hotels around the world after reviewing the comments and ratings from over 15 million TripAdvisor users.%Gallery-67351%

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‘Tis the season for 2010 travel predictions

by Katie Hammel on

As the year comes to a close, it seems everyone is offering up their predictions for 2010 travel trends. Which destinations will be the new hot spots? Will the cost of airfare rise or fall? Will people travel or won’t they? As with every year, some predictions will be spot on. Others will just seem like the same ideas from last year dressed up with new names.

Rick Seany, CEO of FareCompare, centered his predictions around air travel. He says we can expect more a la carte pricing, fuel surcharges, and in-flight advertising. He also says deals will be much harder to find…but we’ve already seen some low fares for the first quarter of 2010, so let’s hope he’s wrong there.

TripAdvisor made predictions all across the board. The listed the destinations they think will grow in 2010, which included spots in Turkey, Mexico, Germany and Scotland, and made predictions about fees and traveler behavior patterns. For example, 22% of travelers expect to be more environmentally conscious about their travels next year.

Nile Guide’s 2010 predictions ranged from where we will go to how we’ll get the information to plan our trips. Having access to information on the go (via travel apps) will play a huge part in how we plan our travels. They also predict the availability of in flight wi-fi will continue to increase.

The Independent got in on the act too, with a travel forecast from Editor-in-Chief of Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Julie Kinsman. Kinsman predicts more travelers will mix business with pleasure. That may be true, but do we really have to call it “bleisure?” She says “granny chic” (which may just be “shabby chic” recycled from the late 90’s) will be a popular decor style and that we’ll see more boutique B&Bs, luxury all-inclusives and eco-lux resorts in the coming year.

What are your travel predictions for 2010? Tell us in the comments.

Corporate travel databases: give morale a shot in the arm

by Tom Johansmeyer on

“Corporate,” “database” and “morale” usually don’t show up in the same sentence – at least not without some sort of negative word nestled in there. Images of tedious data entry are conjured, which does nothing for your state of mind while on the road. Yet, these words can be joined, and the resulting concept can be a gold mine for any company with legions of road warriors. Every employee accumulates knowledge while traveling. They learn which restaurants are best (and worst) in a particular city, and they develop coping strategies that their colleagues may find useful.

The curse of a travel-heavy company, of course, is that the employees don’t see each other often enough. When they do, talk turns to business first, and many of these tips remain hidden. A single place where the collective wisdom can be stored and shared can make business travel much more enjoyable tolerable while fostering communication where it might not exist otherwise.

I’m still stunned by the fact that I only saw the corporate travel database in action once during close to a decade of frequent business travel (frequent = around 40 weeks a year). It was pure genius, worked well and was used regularly. With the social media tools now available, it’s even easier than it was back then to implement the concept. Rather than a “database” in the traditional sense, a company could use a Facebook page, LinkedIn account or even a simple message board to share ideas, experiences and advice with coworkers.

So, how do you get a corporate travel database off the ground?

1. Someone needs to own it

No project gets off the ground in Corporate America without a “champion.” Clear it with whoever has the rubber stamp before pulling the trigger, and become the first contributor. Post regularly, and tell people about it – especially those who are going where you’ve already been.

2. Identify likely helpers

Find the eager beavers who will join the cause – every company has a few. Everybody wants to be heard, and this is a save and easy way to gain a voice.

3. Publicize your successes

As people take advantage of these shared tips, let everyone know, especially if there was a business impact. For example, “John Smith’s client loved dinner at Pomodoro Rosso … we was so tired of restaurants in midtown.”

4. Get granular

Simply being redundant with TripAdvisor and other user-generated content sites won’t help you out. Think local, unusual and relevant to the travelers in your company. You’re looking to solve a problem. So, find and contribute real on-the-ground intelligence. Late-night bars that will be open after a day of marathon meetings, for example, are both valuable and had to find when you’re new in town. The names of restaurant managers who are sympathetic to a little palm-greasing can be gold when you need a table on short notice. Every detail counts.

5. Respect boundaries

Know your company’s policies, and abide by them. If you use Facebook for your travel-sharing tool, be sure access is tightly controlled. Also, management needs to be on board, and the “right” people (different in every company) have to be kept in the loop. If your tool is developed properly, you’ll have one hell of an intelligence file. Just think of what would happen if it got into the wrong hands!

So many companies fail to tap the collective knowledge of their employees in so many ways. While a corporate travel database may not boost sales or share business information, it can help with morale and client entertainment (and, ultimately, relationships). Knowledgeable people become more productive, especially when they don’t have to cope with the quirks of a strange place while figuring out the intricacies of a new project. And, it’s always good to have at your fingertips the info you need to blow off a little steam. In the end, performance goes up, and people feel better about their jobs.

We have the tools at our disposal, and there’s no shortage of information. The only thing missing is the effort that pulls the two together.

50% of air travelers will fly with the flu to avoid a fee

by Katie Hammel on

I’m a one of the those people who always seems to get sick after a long plane ride. A few days post-trip, I suddenly get a runny nose, sore throat and all the other telltale signs of a cold, most likely contracted from a sick passenger. Usually it’s minor, and I’m out of commission for only a few days.

I guess I’ve just been lucky that it hasn’t been the flu, because, according to a recent TripAdvisor survey, over 50% of travelers would choose flying with the flu over paying a fee to change their flight. As if we needed more reason to get a flu shot before we travel this season, now we know that someone with the flu may end up on our flight, just to avoid the fee.

Out of 2,327 people, 51% said they would fly while sick with the flu rather than pay the $150-$200 fee (plus any change in price) imposed by most airlines in order to change their flights to a later date. This is obviously, alarming news, but I can see why it is the case that people would rather cough up some germs on their fellow passengers than cough up the extra cash to change the tickets. Especially because costs for the new dates will often be higher, meaning you may end up paying more like $300-$400 per ticket for the change.

In the case of inescapable commitments, I can understand why someone would not change the ticket. But for a leisure trip, I would consider it. Of course, I don’t want to get others sick, but from a purely selfish standpoint, I don’t want to spend my time in the air shaking and shivering with the flu, or to spend my entire vacation laid up in bed. But then again…if I felt well enough to get on the plane despite having the flu, I would definitely do it rather than incur the extra charges and have to change all my travel plans.

On his blog, Christopher Elliot offers a solution – airlines need to lower or waive the change fees during flu season. We need to stop financially penalizing those who get sick and allow them to change their flights easily, or they will continue to fly and risk spreading the flu to other passengers.

Is there a Long Tail for travel?

by Jeremy Kressmann on

There’s been plenty of discussion about author Chris Anderson’s Long Tail theory since it was first proposed in 2004. The theory, which suggests selling niche products can be just as profitable for businesses as the huge blockbusters, has been attracting plenty of attention both from its supporters and detractors. Recently Anderson laid out the case on his blog for how the Long Tail applies to travel.

According to the Long Tail, the most popular tourist destinations have always been places like Paris or Tokyo because they were the cities airlines could fly to most efficiently and that had the greatest demand from visitors. But in the last ten years, the growth of low cost carriers and word of mouth recommendation websites like Tripadvisor has changed that model. We’re no longer forced to take what our travel agent says at face value. Users online tell us what’s worth seeing and the flights have gotten so cheap we’re willing to be more risky about where to go. Now instead of Paris or Tokyo, for instance, you’re just as likely to hear your friend went to visit Provence or Osaka.

According to Long Tail creator Chris Anderson, the numbers back this up. He cites data from the UK between 1998-2008, when visitors to the “Top 50” travel destinations dropped 10% from 36% to 26%, while visitors to “everywhere else” increased by the same amount. It does take a leap of logic to arrive at Anderson’s conclusion – there’s nothing here to account for the effects of the economy on travel, and without seeing the Top 50 destinations, it’s hard to say what other factors are at play. Still, the implication of the “Travel Long Tail” is striking. More of us seem to be throwing the advice of travel “experts” out the window and setting off on our own, and that’s a tremendously exciting trend.