p26 Hotels may15 12/5/09 11:49 Page 26
Hotels & resorts
Rupert Murray
020 7921 8010
rmurray@ttglive.com
For the latest accommodation news, visit ttglive.com/hotels
Westin offers
‘Angels’ breaks
WESTIN Hotels & Resorts has joined forces with
Sony Pictures to become the official hotel
partner for The Da Vinci Code sequel Angels &
Demons which is released today (May 15). High quality: the Grand Hotel in Eastbourne is England’s only five-star hotel on the coast
The Angels and Demons Experience includes a
two-night stay in the Westin Excelsior Rome and
a place on the official Angels & Demons tour.
The tour involves solving puzzles and decoding
‘Basil, we should
secret messages hidden in ancient sculptures
and texts, and takes visitors around beautiful
piazzas and historical sites in Rome.
The package, which is available until early be like the Grand!’
2010, also includes a 20% discount at the hotels
restaurants and bars.
Rupert Murray.
to hotels and attractions to ensure their quality
Sony senior vice-president Mary Goss Robino A HOT summer might be good news for British is the best it’s ever been,” he said.
said: “With the movie set primarily in Rome, this hotels but establishments offering a Fawlty “In our area about 55% of hotels are officially
is the ideal opportunity to offer movie lovers and Towers-style welcome can put off holidaymak- assessed and that number needs to increase.”
others a truly special way to explore the city and ers, research has found. Holidaymakers looking to swap foreign shores
get to know some of the movie’s original sights.” Retail Active, which sends thousands of mys- for British ones may be surprised to learn that
tery shoppers to hotels every year, believes stan- there is only one five-star hotel on the English
dards need to improve if domestic tourism is to coastline, The Grand Hotel in Eastbourne.
Hilton tops list for
fulfil its potential. It’s marketing co-ordinator, Jackie Webley,
“Fawlty Towers establishments still exist, said it is hard to maintain high standards but
Google searches
damaging the industry’s image and putting off with investment it could be done.
holidaymakers,” said director Julian Chamberlain. “People are travelling across the globe and
HILTON and TripAdvisor are two of the most “We get dozens of staying in hotels with
visible travel websites on Google. horror stories. With more
UK hotel horrors
star ratings as high as
Marketing agency Greenlight analysed Google British people deciding seven now, so British
natural search results for March using 1,200 to holiday at home, the ■ A couple on a romantic weekend break hotels need to be well
generic and destination-led key words. hotel industry needs to shared their love nest with a bees nest. maintained to keep up,”
TripAdvisor.co.uk ranked top, capturing 43% weed out these lingering ■ Guests in the bar of a Devon hotel were she said.
of the searching audience, while Hilton.co.uk was bad examples.” told to go to bed at 10.30pm if they “All hotels have a
the highest-ranking hotel chain, and the only one Keeping standards high wanted breakfast in the morning. responsibility and an
in the top 20, reaching 6% of all searches. is of paramount impor- ■ Dressing for dinner in one chilly Cardiff opportunity with the
Laterooms.com was the best-performing tance, according to East hotel meant putting on overcoats. trend for domestic
agent, taking second place overall, followed by of England Tourism chief ■ Guests who’d unwittingly booked during holidays to show off what
Hotelclub.net in third. They achieved 32% and executive Keith Brown. a swingers’ weekend in Blackpool were we can do and keep
28% visibility respectively. “To take advantage of asked to share with three other couples. our standards high to
The research also revealed that the most used the increased interest in
Source: Retail Active
encourage people to take
search term was “Paris hotels”. domestic tourism it is up holidays in the UK.”
26 15.05.2009
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