State of Origin 3 accommodation

If you're after Brisbane accommodation for State of Origin 3 you've come to the right place! Don't worry about last minute websites or ringing hotels, we have by far the best prices in town.

Our options currently have a two night minimum stay in place, so if you do need more than one night, here's what we can do:

* One bedroom apartments (4 - 4.5 star): $395 on the 4th, $240 on nights either side

* We have a 5 star hotel with a rate of just $340/night!

* We have a 4 star hotel with a rate of $335 on the 4th and just $247 on nights either side

Get in quick because we don't have a large number of rooms. And of course ... go Queensland!!

Changes coming to the Perth hotel market

With Perth being the hottest hotel market in the country over the last two years much needed changes are coming. Here's a good article from WA today with the summary of what's on the way:
http://www.watoday.com.au/travel/crown-stakes-its-claim-in-the-west-20120614-20ce9.html


Crown stakes its claim in the west
June 16, 2012

UNDERNEATH and around that prominent Perth pyramid the Intercontinental Burswood, a lot of construction work is going on as the hotel prepares to become Crown Metropol Perth on June 27. The neighbouring Holiday Inn Perth Burswood is also in for a name change — from Wednesday it will be the Crown Promenade.

The changes are part of a $750-million makeover aimed at transforming the Burswood Entertainment Complex into a "destination" to be called Crown Perth from September. The Intercontinental has been busy refurbishing guest rooms and suites with a striking monochromatic palette that emphasises modern angular lines.

Downstairs, changes include a $20 million splurge on a day spa and a sprawling palm-fringed multi-pool entertainment area that's very Las Vegas meets Middle East. Those who've done well in the casino can lounge in one of six private cabanas ($165 weekdays, $250 at weekends) in an area known as the Enclave.

Chef Guillaume Brahimi, who already delights diners at his Sydney Opera House restaurant and Melbourne's Crown complex, will open a Bistro Guillaume at Burswood in September. A gastro-pub, The Merrywell, will open in the same month. Intercontinental/Crown Metropol rooms start from $435 a night; Holiday Inn/Crown Promenade rooms start from $285 a night. 

Trio of boutique stays

Perth's shortage of accommodation will ease with the opening of three hotels in the next six months. The Terrace Hotel, comprising 15 suites, is due to open in the city centre next month. The 236-room Fraser Suites Perth will open on the East Perth foreshore in October, and the 56-room Quincy Boutique Hotel is due for completion in November following an ambitious seven-month build in a former car park tucked behind the Perth Ambassador Hotel. Perth may need at least 1900 more hotel rooms by 2020.

To help things along, the Western Australian government has a raft of hotel development incentives: the first "incentivised" hotel site is the redevelopment of FESA (Fire and Emergency Services Authority) House in the city.

Lady Gaga fails to deliver

No, I'm not talking about her on-stage performance ... I'm talking about filling the Brisbane hotel market. She's not my taste or style in music so this was not a concert I was ever going to attend.

Usually, big name musician + midweek concert in Brisbane = good things for the Brisbane hotel market (and of course us). So it was a rather disappointing surprise when the city failed to fill on Wednesday or Thursday last week when her concerts were on. I'm not sure if this was due to the Monday public holiday, the fact that its June and that corporate travel is slow or just that her concerts were out at Boondall and not at Suncorp Stadium (just outside the CBD).

What did surprise us tho was that the city filled on Tuesday night thanks to the Socceroos World Cup qualifying match against Japan at Suncorp.

We've loaded up on rooms for Coldplay in November which is midweek, during peak season and at Suncorp ... so it should be similar to U2 & Jay-Z, Bon Jovi, etc and be a very big event for the Brisbane hotel market.

Hotel websites

Thanks to one of the industry newsletters I read for pointing out this gem from The Hotel Internet Marketing Blog.

As we spend a lot of time on hotel websites and 3rd party hotel booking sites, I do wonder why they make things so hard.

K.I.S.S. :-)

Borat thanked for lifting Kazakhstan tourism

From an industry newsletter this morning:

Borat thanked for lifting Kazakhstan tourism - Destination News - etravelblackboard.com

On the eve of the release of his new film ‘The Dictator’, Sacha Baron Cohen and his previous flick, ‘Borat’ have been thanked for boosting tourism to Kazakhstan.

Once banned from Kazakhstan for satirizing its people, Borat was recently acknowledged by Kazakhstan Foreign Minister Yerzhan Kazykhanov as being responsible for sparking massive interest in the country, AFP reported.


“With the release of this film, the number of visas issued by Kazakhstan grew tenfold,” local news agencies quoted the foreign minister as telling a session of parliament.


“I am grateful to 'Borat' for helping attract tourists to Kazakhstan.”


‘Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan’ was released in 2006 to international acclaim.


But the Central Asian nation from which the film’s protagonist hailed took issue with the movie with its harsh depiction of Kazakh rural life and its people.


According to AFP, earlier this year, Kazakhstan lodged a formal complaint with the Olympic Committee of Asia after a spoof Kazakh anthem from the movie was broadcast at a sports event in Kuwait.

Melbourne trip

I've been to Sydney several times this year but last week I was down in Melbourne for the first time in a number of years. Melbourne is a very quiet market for us at the moment. The hotels are always extremely busy on the weekends (with leisure travel) but unless there is a major concert in town or Tiger Woods playing golf, its not usually too hard to find accommodation midweek.

Since I have very little pull down there right now I did some research to find the best accommodation deal and came up with a great rate for a 2 bedroom apartment (I had some friends staying with me) at Docklands Apartments Grand Mercure.

Other than seeing AFL games at Etihad Stadium, I really hadn't spent any time in the Docklands precinct. Its a little bit further away from the centre of the CBD than I thought but with the free tram stopping about 100m from our apartment block getting around was no problem. On the waterfront there were plenty of good restaurants and cafe's so this too wasn't an issue.

The Docklands Apartments aren't an actual hotel as such, instead its a number of apartment buildings next to each other that Grand Mercure manage. Essentially this just means that there is a separate check-in location and they then give you the keys and tell you which building and apartment you're in. Since there are no porters, no room service, etc the cost was so much cheaper than other 2 bedroom options around the CBD.

If you don't need the full services of a hotel, I'd recommend this property when you're travelling with a few others and want to keep the costs down. 

Docklands - New Quay

Easter trading hours

Easter and the April school holidays are a notoriously slow time for us and corporate travel on the whole. The states all seem to have different holiday dates and with numerous public holidays scattered throughout the month travel tends to shut down for a few weeks and picks back up again in May.

We've had a busy February and March so this isn't such a bad thing as we get the chance to catch our breath, regroup and prepare for the run to the end of the financial year. Due to the lack of calls and requests around this time we're going to take it a little easy and reduce our opening hours again.

From this week (starting April 2), we'll open at 9am each morning and close around 4:30pm. Obviously if we're busy we'll be open for longer but I highly doubt that. We will not be working the public holidays and so will have April 6 & 9 off (Good Friday and Easter Monday respectively).

I hope you enjoy the Easter break and don't over-indulge too much on chocolate ...