Sydney accommodation - State of Origin 3

Its now less than a week until the deciding game 3 of the State of Origin series between Queensland and New South Wales and if you still need to book accommodation you've come to the right place.

We normally specialise in CBD accommodation but for the State of Origin 3 we have a handful of rooms still available in Parramatta hotels. There is still availability at Homebush but the rates on offer are over $500. Parramatta is the business hub nearest to the stadium and its essentially fully booked now too but we have a couple of rooms up our sleeve for under $350/night.

So if you don't want to travel from the city to the game, Parramatta is definitely the best option and for under $350 its a lot better than trying to stay at Homebush in my opinion. E-mail or call us and we'll let you know what we can organise.

Go the Maroons!

Scotland trip

Although you can't tell by my lack of accent, I was actually born in Scotland (Edinburgh to be precise) and came to Australia when I was 7. It had been 15 years since I had been back to Scotland so when my mum mentioned she was going this year I jumped at the chance to go with her.

Last time I was there I stayed with my brother and his mates. I was mid-twenties so the time was spent drinking, eating and generally doing very little sight-seeing. The plan this time was to catch up with family, friends and see a lot more of the country (that wouldn't be hard).

I won't bore you with all the details but the places we went were:
Edinburgh
Borthwick
Melrose
Linlithgow
Spean Bridge
Inverness
Poolewe
Skye
Tayvallich

I also spent 3 days in London visiting friends and managed to get a ticket to the Queen's Tennis Tournament to see my boy Andy Murray in the quarter-finals.

The highlight of the trip, other than the fantastic weather we had, was climbing Stob Choire Claurigh (1177m) with my cousins.

(The view from the top)

 

(Me with proof I made it to the top)

 

Late Checkouts

Here's a great story about hotels embracing an opportunity to provide value that seems so simple I'm not sure why it hasn't been done all along.


Hotels Embrace Sunday Sleep-Ins with Late Checkouts

By Nancy Trejos

Hotels are encouraging their guests to sleep in on Sundays.

A growing number of hotels are granting travelers a reprieve from the oppressive 11 a.m. checkout on Sundays, when they have fewer guests checking in to take over their rooms.
Some examples:

• Westin Hotels & Resorts recently launched the "Make Monday Better" program which allows for a free 3 p.m. checkout on Sunday at all 193 properties.
• La Quinta Resort & Club in Palm Springs, Calif., is offering a Sunday 5 p.m. checkout free of charge throughout the summer. Guests can either stay in their rooms or use any of the resort's 41 pools.
• Novotel hotels grant Sunday checkouts as late as 5 p.m. for free. On other days, guests can check out at 5 p.m. for $75.
• The new Hyatt Union Square New York lets guests stay for 24 hours from Thursday to Sunday.
• The Peninsula Beverly Hills last year introduced "Peninsula Time," a program that lets guests stay at the hotel for longer than 24 hours. Guests can check in and out at any hour of the day or night at no additional charge. Want to check in at 8 a.m. one day and leave at 10 p.m. the next? Not a problem. Just request it beforehand.
• Radisson Blu offers free checkouts as late as 6 p.m. any day of the week, depending on availability. If there is limited availability, guests can still check out late, but it will cost them 20% to 50% of the room rate.

"We feel it speaks to our type of weekend guests - young adult leisure travelers who want to make the most of their time in New York and maximize the value they see in the hotel they choose," says Chris Holbrook, general manager of Hyatt Union Square. "We feel it is a great value-add that provides guests with the luxury of time."

Hotel managers say the service has been popular among travelers who often gripe about paying for a night, but not getting a full 24 hours. Guests particularly like staying in their rooms longer on Sundays to get over their weekend revelry or wait out the travel rush home.

Hotels set early checkout times to give housekeeping enough time to turn over a large number of rooms for new guests. Sunday is the ideal day to allow guests to linger longer, because more rooms will likely stay empty overnight.

"Since Sunday nights are the lowest occupancy nights for most hotels, offering a late checkout on Sundays does not put pressure on housekeeping to quickly clean the rooms to prepare them for check-ins," says Maryam Wehe, senior vice president at Applied Predictive Technologies, which does hotel consulting.

Javier Rosenberg, chief operating officer for Radisson, estimates that 15% to 20% of guests take advantage of the late checkout.

Experts say it's a way for hotels to distinguish themselves from competitors and attract repeat customers. Many hotel companies, including InterContinental Hotels Group and Starwood, allow late checkouts for their most loyal customers.

"Guests often feel that they have paid for a full night, and a few hours here or there should not matter," Wehe says. "As hotel brands strive to differentiate the guest experience and move away from 'nickel and diming' guests, being flexible about checkout time will leave a good taste with many guests."

But Wehe says hotels run the risk of overburdening their housekeeping staff. They could also lose revenue from business travelers who are willing to pay for an extra night even if they don't intend to stay just so they have a place to work or rest before an evening flight.

Frequent traveler Kimball Cassidy of Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif., has done late checkouts when she's had evening flights and needed to get work done. She says she will now only stay at hotels that offer late checkouts. "Remember, a hotel is also an office for us (who) travel," she says.

Smoking room

I read this interesting article from one of the industry newsletters I receive.

Smoke Travels to Non-Smoking Hotel Rooms, Study Shows

May 17, 13 | 12:04 am

By Kim Painter

Anyone who has ever walked into a "non-smoking" hotel room and caught the distinct odor of cigarette smoke will not be surprised by the findings of a new study: When a hotel allows smoking in any of its rooms, the smoke gets into all of its rooms, the study suggests.

Nicotine residues and other chemical traces "don't stay in the smoking rooms," says Georg Matt, a psychologist from San Diego State University who led the study, published Monday in the journal Tobacco Control. "They end up in the hallways and in other rooms, including non-smoking rooms."
The study found smoke residue on surfaces and in the air of both smoking and non-smoking rooms in 30 California hotels where smoking was allowed. Levels were highest in the smoking rooms, but levels in non-smoking rooms were much higher than those found at 10 smoke-free hotels.

Volunteers who stayed overnight in the smoking hotels also ended up with sticky nicotine residues on their fingers, whether they stayed in smoking rooms or not. Urine tests found additional evidence of nicotine exposure in those who stayed in smoking rooms, but not those who stayed in the non-smoking rooms.

Click here for the rest of the article.

Sydney stay - The Westin

After my trip to Melbourne two weeks ago I was lucky enough to have another ridiculous invite from the same client. He is celebrating 15 years of his business and flew his "inner circle" of close friends and clients to Sydney for the weekend. Again, without going in to all the details the higlights were dinner at Rockpool Bar & Grill on Friday night and the Golden Slipper on Saturday.

Our accommodation was at The Westin Sydney which I've booked numerous times for clients but had yet to stay in myself. The Westin Melbourne is one of my favourite hotels so I was looking forward to seeing its Sydney counterpart. The highlights of the stay were breakfast each morning at Mosaic Restaurant and the "rain shower" I had on Sunday morning, such a great way to start the day!

Yes, that's three trips so far this year and three 5 star hotels stayed in.

Travel-related stresses

Here's an interesting article I came across about what people stress over when travelling. I can relate as I struggle with staying healthy and active on the road but usually I'm only away for a night or two so it doesn't really effect my routine too much. There are some good tips below on how not to deviate from the routine too much when you're away from home (and the gym).

Travelers say eating healthy and exercising on the road are more stressful than airport security

Vicky Karantzavelou - 29 March 2013, 11:21

SAN FRANCISCO - A new survey from TripIt, the leading mobile travel organizer from Concur, revealed that eating healthy, exercising on the road, and coming home to a to-do list are more stressful for frequent travelers than airport security.

When asked how stressful certain travel-related activities are, 67 percent of frequent travelers said exercising was either somewhat or very stressful; while 66 percent said eating healthy was stressful. The top five activities identified by the majority of respondents as stressful include:

Travel-related activity	"Somewhat stressful"	"Very stressful"	Total
1. Exercising	50%	17%	67%
2. Eating healthy	47%	19%	66%
3. Coming home to things waiting for me	45%	19%	64%
4. Airport security	44%	15%	59%
5. Driving in an unfamiliar city	42%	12%	54%

The majority of travelers did not find checking in to the airport, the flight itself, picking up a rental car, or communicating with partners and/or kids to be stressful.

"As someone who is constantly traveling, eating healthy and keeping up my fitness routine are incredibly important," says Trish Friesen, editor in chief at TripStyler.com. "My two biggest travel health tips are to make sure there's always a rainbow of color represented on your plate, and in a pinch, never underestimate the amount of exercise that can be done on the carpet of your hotel room."

To help travelers exercise and eat healthy while on the road, TripIt recommends these tips:

• Carry healthy, portable snacks, like whole almonds or a banana to curb cravings
• When ordering from a menu, substitute an appetizer or small plate for the entree
• Opt to walk or take the stairs, instead of the people mover or escalator
• Aim to increase your steps with an activity tracker or app, and take the scenic route
• Ask the hotel concierge for a map of local running routes or trails
• Take advantage of hotels that loan guests workout gear, yoga mats or shoes
• Use the hotel room to do crunches, push-ups, and chair dips any hour of the day.

Melbourne stay - Crown Metropol

It wasn't work but I was lucky enough to be invited through a friend and BMW to a ridiculous trip to Melbourne including a driving experience day at Phillip Island. I won't go in to all the details but the overview is that we had a fabulous dinner at the casino on the Saturday night and then drove down to Phillip Island the next morning trying out four different BMW's on the way and then spent the afternoon racing around the track.

It was an excellent trip and I don't post it to brag, but one of the highlights was staying at Crown Metropol for the night. I've booked a couple of clients at the hotel before but hadn't yet seen it myself. I expected to be sharing a room as part of the group but that wasn't the case and as you can see from the pic below the rooms were spacious.

We were on the road early the next morning but I did have time for a very quick breakfast in their restaurant Mr Hive which is also where we had a couple of drinks in the bar the night before. Even from my quick overnight stay, I'd certainly recommend the hotel as one of the best in the city.