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Odds & Ends
June 13, 2008

• In case you missed this last month, UK budget chain Premier Inn has apparently purchased a plot of land on the moon to build a lunar motel by the year 2033. My first question: Who is the real estate agent charged with selling property on the moon? My second question: If you can afford to vacation on the moon, are you really going to want to stay at a motel? ...

• Here's a sort of beginner's introduction to using Facebook pages to market your company. Facebook applications are really the way to go, but if your hotel doesn't even have a page yet, that's a good place to start ...

• PKF Hospitality Research put out a press release touting a "strong relationship" between hotel performance and the NBA Finals. I'm no math wiz, but when you're talking about averages ranging from about 2.5% to 4%, there's not a ton of variance there, so of course the numbers will be relatively close. Oh well, at least PKF has a sense of humor ...

• A Travel + Leisure writer shares tips on avoiding hidden hotel charges. This article is noteworthy if only because, according to this report, The Lodge at Woodloch apparently charges US$7.38 just for picking up the phone—regardless of whether a call is even placed ...

• What do hotels really need to improve on? Kitty Bean Yancey's readers offer their suggestions ...

• Derek Gale beat me to this, but according to a survey of 4,000 hoteliers by Expedia, Japanese tourists make the best guests. Americans are most likely to adopt the local culture, but we're also most likely to go out in public in a Brett Favre jersey and jean shorts ...

• Sheraton Stockholm Hotel last month was the site of a historic summit between U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice and the rock band Kiss ...

• HotelChatter picks up on the hottest new hotel trend: hotel pools featuring wild bears ...

• A guy ran naked through a bunch of hotels in Bulgaria this month, claiming to be a member of the Hilton family in order to get free drinks. As if the real Hilton clan didn't embarrass the company enough ...

• I used to live in Milwaukee and still get up there about once a month. The city has a number of nice, classy, lounge-style hotel bars—Metro Bar & Café at Hotel Metro and Envoy at Ambassador Hotel are two of my favorites—but methinks the best hotel spot for a high-energy night out in Brew City is Aqua at Comfort Inn & Suites Downtown Lakeshore. Go figure ...

Finally, a note to whatever regular readers this blog has: I finally got a simple redirect URL for this blog that doesn't involve a ton of numbers and .htmls and whatnot. Simply type hotelsmag.com/kirby and you'll be directed straight here. Exciting, I know.

Posted by Adam Kirby on June 13, 2008 | Comments (0)