Australia Day (non) long weekend

I'm in Melbourne from tomorrow morning (Saturday) and not flying back until Monday evening. The office will be closed on Monday and with the Australia Day public holiday on Tuesday we will return on Wednesday January 27. Sure, its officially a long weekend but we're taking this opportunity to make it one! It would un-Austraaaaalian not to ...

Golf hotels

I found this article in one of the industry newsletters I read and thought it was worth sharing. Its for all the golf fans out there (like myself) but its also about unique hotels.

Click on the title below to read the full story and check out the slideshow to see some great pics. One of the photos is of the Old Course Hotel at St Andrews which I'm lucky enough to have stayed at.

Bunker down in a crazy golf hotel - CNN.com

(CNN) -- Golf is a game which lends itself to luxury stays in swanky resorts, so not unnaturally the accommodation offered in its hotels and clubhouses is often of the highest standard with cutting edge architecture and design to the fore with no expense spared.

But there is also room for the quirky and downright odd so Living Golf has trawled the world to come up with some examples of the best on offer and the most unusual.

We have discovered there is something for everyone from the classic Old Course Hotel at St. Andrews to a planned five-star underground complex as well as a run-of-the-mill motel which can satisfy the needs of both petrol heads and golf lovers.

There are falcons rising out of the desert and lodges that can put golfers truly in tune with the wilds of Africa because everywhere golf is played, architects and entrepreneurs are pushing the boundaries to attract customers to their complexes.

The spectacular entrance to the clubhouse at the Abu Dhabi Golf Club

Movember follow-up

Back in November, I posted about my friend Dirk who had taken up the Movember challenge. I mentioned I would show an "after" pic to let you know how he got on ... so here it is:

The challenge given to Dirk was to grow a Freddie Mercury (on the left) and as you can see he did a pretty good job given he had just one month.

Dirk raised over $400 for The Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia and Beyond Blue. He's already set loftier goals for himself in 2010 ... but great work Dirk!

Christmas and New Year's break

We are now closed for the Christmas and New Year's break and the office will re-open again from 9am on January 4, 2010. If you need urgent assistance during this time please leave a message on the voice-mail or e-mail me.

As we have done over the last two years, instead of sending out Christmas cards, we have made a donation to the Starlight Foundation.

Thank you so much for your support through a challenging year and we look forward to bigger and better things next year. We hope you have a very merry Christmas and look forward to working with you in 2010.

Dalai Lama fills Sydney

Last month it was Britney Spears and Pearl Jam that filled Sydney hotels, but they weren't as big a drawcard as the Dalai Lama.

I noticed a week or two back that Sydney was filling quickly this week and did some research to find out why. It was then that I found out the Dalai Lama was going to be in Sydney from the 1st to the 4th. Combine this with the end of corporate travel season and I knew it would be a busy week for the hotels.

With this in mind, I loaded up on rooms for this week and thought I had judged the demand fairly well but when I completely ran out of rooms on Monday afternoon I knew it was trouble. Sydney was close to filling on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights. From Tuesday onwards, each morning I managed to find only a handful of "affordable" rooms. If you hadn't got in early and needed last minute accommodation, you had to pay over $500 for a hotel.

Its getting busy again on Wednesday and Thursday next week in Sydney but I'm sure it won't be anywhere near as crazy for the hotels as it was this week when the Dalai Lama came to town.

November - Peak Corporate Travel Season

November tends to be one of the busiest corporate travel months of the year as everyone tries to get business done before everything shuts down over the Christmas holidays.

Obviously this year has been a rough one for corporate travel so exactly how busy November would be was anyone's guess. Corporate demand keeps cities busy at this time of year, but its the events and other things happening that fills the hotels and brings our service in to demand.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, the month got off to a great start thanks to Tiger Woods playing in the Australian Masters in Melbourne. I didn't give Britney Spears much credit for just how busy it was but it seems I may have been mistaken as the weak after when she was in Sydney, along with Pearl Jam, demand was through the roof. The same week there was a large rail conference in Adelaide that made it crazy busy.

The only frustration with both events was that I knew they were coming, I just didn't imagine the demand for rooms would be to the level it was. The phones rang off the hook and while I had some rooms ready to go, it was nowhere near enough and it was disappointing have to tell so many people that a city was full.

This week, Britney Spears and Pearl Jam came to Brisbane, in the same week that Hulk Hogan was in town and the first cricket test match of the summer is at the Gabba on Thursday. Thankfully I was prepared, grabbed plenty of rooms but they still didn't last too long. Tomorrow (Wednesday the 25th) is the absolute worst of it and so many people have needed that one night. I ran completely out of rooms this afternoon so my fingers are crossed that there are some cancellations overnight and I can find availability in the morning.

Movember - Changing the face of men's health

One of my friends is taking part in Movember and has been challenged to grow a Freddy Mercury-esque mo. I might post some progress pics if he doesn't mind ... but I made a donation to this worthy cause today and if you don't know anything about Movember, see below.

I just made a donation to Movember - the men's health charity raising awareness and funds for prostate cancer and depression in men.

What many people don't appreciate is that close to 3,000 men die of prostate cancer each year in Australia and one in eight men will experience depression in their lifetime - many of whom don't seek help. This is a really important cause that has long been neglected and I ask that you join me by making a small donation at: http://au.movember.com/mospace/199559/

The funds raised go to the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia and beyondblue: the national depression initiative.

The Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia will use the money raised by Movember to fund research into the causes, detection, diagnosis and improved treatment of prostate cancer.

beyondblue will use the money raised by Movember to fund the beyondblue info line and to increase community awareness about depression and reduce the stigma associated with the illness.

For more information on the outcomes of Movember go to: http://au.movemberfoundation.com/research-and-programs/