Perth trip

Considering the amount of bookings we make in Perth it was a little embarassing to admit that I hadn't been there in 30 years and certainly hadn't seen any of the hotels (other than online).

Thankfully I remedied this in the last week of July when I spent two days looking through hotels, introducing myself to sales managers and thanking a number of reservations staff that have been so helpful for us.

I stayed at the Mantra on Murray and was pleasantly surprised to find out when I checked in that I had been upgraded to an executive studio suite (pictured below), had a welcome note from the GM and a bottle of wine.

Here is the list of hotels I visited in Perth:

Aarons All Suites
Mantra on Hay
Mantra on Murray
Citigate Perth
Perth Ambassador

It was interesting to hear that despite the WA economy smashing it on the back of the mining boom, it was a case of the haves (the mining industry) and the have nots (anyone not linked to the mining industry). From our perspective, the Perth hotel market has been doing extremely well this year but after speaking to the sales managers you find out that they sell out every Tuesday and Wednesday night, sometimes Thursdays but the rest of the week is pretty quiet. I also learnt that regional WA Tourism (and course retail) is struggling at the moment like the rest of the country.