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The power of new media
- and how to use it
While the web offers countless opportuni-
ties, it can also pose threats to operators
M
odern media is both a blessing
and curse to the hospitality
industry. One benefit is the ease
with which hoteliers and restaurateurs
are now able to communicate with their
The 70-bedroom Verta is located on the River Thames in Battersea customers and potential customers. The
days when hotels sent out hundreds of
Von Essen handed keys to Verta
expensively printed brochures on
request are fast disappearing as
Hotel's unique selling point is private helicopter pad
customers trawl websites for the same
information, which can be provided at a
By Tom Walker Verta, the seven-storey hotel, fraction of the cost to a wider audience. BOB COttOn is
will feature a subterranean spa In 15 years, the internet has chief executive of
Von Essen hotels has completed and a rooftop restaurant. The revolutionised the way in which people the BHA. Leisure
the handover from Weston spa, covering two levels below can access information, to the Opportunities is a
Homes of the Hotel Verta the boutique property, includes industry's immense advantage. member benefit of
development and the new treatment rooms, a hydrothera- Websites can be up-dated regularly, the BHA, for your
London Heliport terminal in py pool and a sanarium. special offers can be introduced and free copy call
Battersea, London. Hotel Verta forms part of the withdrawn at the touch of a button, and 01462 471932
The new 70-bedroom £150 million Bridges Wharf rooms can booked on-line in an instant.
flagship hotel, von Essen's first development and, according to But, of course, other developments appear which may not be
in London, is scheduled to the group, will be the first so welcome. One of these is the emergence of social networking
open in the summer of 2010 integrated hotel heliport sites and, in particular, TripAdviser. In many ways, the good
following a final fit out. solution in Europe. hotelier should have no problem with this. Indeed, it is
The project was initially The property, part of the incontestable that such sites serve a useful purpose in advising
scheduled to open in June Bridges Wharf development, is and guiding potential guests about the style and quality of hotel
2009, but has been delayed von Essen's 30th hotel and also accommodation. Accurate reviews are helpful to both the hotel
several times due to problems the group's biggest hotel by (negative comments can highlight unnoticed lapses in the
in the excavation of the site. room numbers. operation of a hotel) and also for the potential guest who is
seeking reliable information about a property.
Few hoteliers have any objection to this, but the flip side
ABode to open new Chester property
centres on the dubious motives of some of those who contribute
to TripAdviser. How truthful are all the comments made –
Boutique hotel operator Plumtree Mee and include favourable or unfavourable? How do we know for sure that
ABode will open a 85-bed- bespoke art collections customers making adverse comments have actually stayed at the
room hotel at the HQ created by celebrity photog- hotel? Are anonymous comments justified? How accurate, for
mixed-use complex in Chester, rapher, Brian Aris. example, was TripAdvisor's latest list of the ten dirtiest hotels
Cheshire later this year. Facilities at the hotel will in the UK? And, from the customer’s point of view, how do they
The property will be the include a 76-cover Michael know that any favourable comments have not been made by the
group's first new-build and Caines Champagne Bar and hotelier himself or by his friends? Such sites – and new ones are
will become the sixth ABode Restaurant ABode, owned by on the way – suggest that they will become even more important
to open in the UK, following entrepreneur Andrew in the future. TripAdvisor alone has more than 25m user
sites in Glasgow, Manchester, Brownsword, plans to develop generated reviews and generates £500m of corporate business a
Exeter, Canterbury and a portfolio of 15 luxury hotels year. The website's influence will undoubtedly grow.
Chelsea, London. in strategic locations. The All the more reason, I suggest, for some degree of control to be
The interior of the hotel company is looking to open introduced. At a meeting of hospitality associations in Barcelona
has been designed by its seventh site in Salisbury. there was concern about the way the sites operated. All agreed
there should be some standards of authentication.
© Cybertrek 2010 Read Leisure Opportunities online www.leisureopportunities.com/digita l 11
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