Budapest, the city known as the “Pearl in the Danube”, keeps on winning awards and has just been voted number one by Tripadvisor as the city which offers best value for money, not just in Europe but worldwide.
The list showing some of the awards that Budapest achieved over the past 12 months puts it high on the agenda as a destination well worth considering for your next conference or event.
Number 1 – Best value for money city in the world / 2014 -Tripadvisor
Number 2 – Best city in the world / 2013 – Conde Nast Traveller
Number 6 – Most popular European travel destination / 2014 – Travel and Leisure
Number 11 – Friendliest cities in the world / 2014 – Conde Nast Traveller
Number 17 – Conference city of the world / 2013 – ICCA
The Intercontinental Budapest has also been awarded Hungary’s Leading Business Hotel 2014, a prestigious award presented by the World Travel Awards TM and voted for by senior professionals working within the travel and tourism industry.
Intercontinental Westminster becomes Conrad London St James
As of Monday 1st September 2014 The Intercontinental London Westminster became known as Conrad London St James. Owners of the property, Supreme Hotels, agreed to part company with IHG and went on to sign a franchise agreement with Hilton to rebrand as The Conrad.
The Conrad brand currently operates 23 hotels worldwide but hasn’t had a presence in London for seven years. The Chelsea Harbour Hotel once belonged to Conrad before it was taken over by The Wyndham Group in 2007, earlier this year it became the first in a new group of hotels called The Monogram Collection from Millennium and Copthorne.
Supreme Hotels are owned by The Splendid Hospitality Group who operate 13 hotels in the UK, they currently work with IHG, Hilton and Choice Hotels and have development plans for five further hotels.
As of mid July 2014 Topland acquired the Hallmark portfolio of eight hotels, Topland already consisted of 12 Menzies Hotels, six Thistle Hotels, the Hilton Brighton Metropole, the Hilton Glasgow and The Royal Crescent Hotel in Bath.
Menzies are now offering as standard bacon rolls on arrival, unlimited tea/coffee and water, afternoon cakes and free WiFi and hope to push this across to Hallmark as well.
Every single Menzies hotel now has an environmental accreditation for Green Tourism and they also now have 3 AA Rosettes across the group too.
The Trinity charity auction is back and the website www.trinityauctions.co.uk will be going live on Monday 1st September 2014 and run for one month.
The team from Trinity Event Solutions has been round the UK and abroad to visit hotels and venues taking part in the Trinity Triple Challenge. Hundreds of prizes have been donated and each will be auctioned over the next month, with the aim of raising £20,000. There are a variety of lots which include country breaks, city weekends, afternoon teas, dinners and days out. Some of the highlights are:
•“A magical weekend in Monaco” with flights for two people from a London Airport and accommodation at the Columbus Monte-Carlo Hotel in a Junior Suite. The winning bidder will also receive two 2 tickets for the 39th International Monte Carlo Circus Festival on Saturday 17th January 2015
•A night at The Grand Hotel Brighton in a deluxe room with dinner, spa treatments and two tickets to Komedia
•Relaxation in the Welsh countryside with a two night escape in a Hunter Lodge for eight people at Celtic Manor Resort
•Theatre break in London for two people, staying at the Copthorne Tara hotel in a club room with dinner in the Bugis Street Restaurant
•Dinner, bed and breakfast for two people on one of Weston Parks’ Dine and Stay events. The options include Autumn Flavours or traditional Christmas Dining or Valentine’s Day
•A visit to Blenheim Palace with a personal tour of the gilded State Rooms and gardens followed by a Champagne lunch in the new Champagne Bar
Every week new prizes will be added to the auction, so bidders need to keep visiting the site to see what’s new.
Jacqui Kavanagh, Managing Director said: “The charity auction is part of Trinity’s Triple Challenge of visiting 500 hotels and conference venues this Summer. Again, we are aiming to raise £20,000 which will be split between our nominated local charities: the Children’s Air Ambulance, Hospital at Home and the Sue Ryder Hospice, Thorpe Hall. I would like to encourage everyone to bid generously also thank all the hotels and conference venues who have supported this initiative.”
The Children’s Air Ambulance which benefitted from the Triple Challenge last year, said: “The online charity auction set up by Trinity was an excellent example of fundraising by thinking outside the box. The innovative auction raised a phenomenal amount of income for TCAA as well as helped boost the profile nationally of the new service. The team from TCAA would like to thank everyone involved for such an excellent initiative and an extraordinary amount of income raised in such a short space of time.”
Ardencote Manor are an independently, privately owned hotel sat in the Warwickshire/Staffordshire country side yet only 10 minutes from J15 of the M40. They have grown from what was an 18 bedroom manor house 17 years ago to a 110 bedroom hotel with a dedicated conference centre and spa.
80% of the hotels profits get reinvested in the hotel and in January 2014 they installed fibre optic broadband meaning the hotel can now offer city centre speed in a rural setting, the capacity of the broadband will allow each delegate to connect up to three devices.
In January 2014 the conference centre was enhanced with two unlimited refreshment stations, these stations offer tea, coffee, cold drinks and snacks available throughout the day to all delegates.
In March 2014 the hotel installed the latest AV equipment in all of their meeting rooms meaning that the screens can now be connected to via wireless technology.
Three years ago the hotel built a pavilion on the lake which can be used for BBQ’s, drinks receptions and team building. The hotel are looking in to the possibility of using their lake for activities so watch this space…
Hotel Britania, a Boutique Art Deco hotel in the centre of Lisbon has been recognised in Expedia’s Insider’s Select annual awards for exceptional customer service. The hotel dates from the 1940’s and was designed by the famous Portuguese modernist architect Cassiano Branco and is the only hotel of that period to have survived intact.
Helicopter tours over Lisbon are the latest tourism attraction. There are various options: regular, customized for any location in Portugal and thematic experiences. The service will operate from Lisbon’s heliport in the Port area and prices start from 35 euros.
TripAdvisor has awarded the Certificate of Excellence 2014 to the No.28 tram and the São Jorge Castle. Both are iconic symbols of Lisbon and great experiences.
1.The Knowledge Challenge : Developing Trinity’s venue knowledge by visiting a total of 500 venues over two days
2.The Charity Challenge: Raising money for our three chosen charities The Children’s Air Ambulance, Hospital at Home and Thorpe Hall, our local Sue Ryder Hospice
3.The Venue Challenge: The opportunity for venues to showcase their properties, be innovative with their site visit, add fun to our industry and really promote their venue both to our Team and to our Clients as well
Everyone visits 20 venues, which counts towards their annual target of visiting 100 new or refurbished venues every year. All site visit reports are loaded into our database and our clients have access to these reports.
A wide variety of hotels are involved, from large groups to independents as well as specialist meeting and unusual venues. Once the site visit weekend has been completed the prizes are loaded onto an auction website to raise funds for our chosen charities. The Auction site will be open in September to our buyers and those people who support these charities. The charities which will benefit this year are: Hospital at Home, Lincolnshire & Nottinghamshire Air Ambulance and Sue Ryder – Thorpe Hall Peterborough.
If you find yourself in Nottingham and are in need of a spot of rest and relaxation, the Crowne Plaza may well be the place to go. Urban Escape, its onsite spa, has recently undergone a £1m renovation. You can now enjoy the luxury of a heated swimming pool, spa, steam room, ice station, relaxation area, gymnasium, as well as a great selection of treatments provided by The Urban Rooms beauty salon.
Similarly, two other luxury European venues have recently undergone major changes to the facilities and services that they offer. Forte Village Resort in Italy has seen its convention centre be completely redesigned, and now boasts a total of 18 conference rooms, and 4 large meetings rooms with impressive state-of-the-art technology features. Extra luxury accommodation has already been added, with further refurbishments to rooms scheduled for 2015, and two brand new restaurants will soon be opening.
Meanwhile Hotel Dubrovnik Palace in Croatia has been fully reopened as of April this year, following various renovations to its rooms and main restaurant, Elafiti. The new look of the rooms has been designed to reflect the coastline, which can be seen from every room and suite thanks to the private balconies offering a stunning view of the sea. As a meeting venue, there are 8 flexible conference and meeting rooms available.
We posted a blog back in May reporting on the extensive renovations and refurbishments made to the newly named Puente Romano Beach Resort Marbella, including an overhaul of its conference centre, and the transformations of its 8 restaurants, one of which being the two Michelin starred Dani Garcia Restaurante.
Similarly, two other luxury European venues have recently undergone major changes to the facilities and services that they offer. Forte Village Resort in Italy has seen its convention centre be completely redesigned, and now boasts a total of 18 conference rooms, and 4 large meetings rooms with impressive state-of-the-art technology features. Extra luxury accommodation has already been added, with further refurbishments to rooms scheduled for 2015, and two brand new restaurants will soon be opening.
Meanwhile Hotel Dubrovnik Palace in Croatia has been fully reopened as of April this year, following various renovations to its rooms and main restaurant, Elafiti. The new look of the rooms has been designed to reflect the coastline, which can be seen from every room and suite thanks to the private balconies offering a stunning view of the sea. As a meeting venue, there are 8 flexible conference and meeting rooms available.
News of Luxury European Hotel Refurbishments
We posted a blog back in May reporting on the extensive renovations and refurbishments made to the newly named Puente Romano Beach Resort Marbella, including an overhaul of its conference centre, and the transformations of its 8 restaurants, one of which being the two Michelin starred Dani Garcia Restaurante.
Similarly, two other luxury European venues have recently undergone major changes to the facilities and services that they offer. Forte Village Resort in Italy has seen its convention centre be completely redesigned, and now boasts a total of 18 conference rooms, and 4 large meetings rooms with impressive state-of-the-art technology features. Extra luxury accommodation has already been added, with further refurbishments to rooms scheduled for 2015, and two brand new restaurants will soon be opening.
Meanwhile Hotel Dubrovnik Palace in Croatia has been fully reopened as of April this year, following various renovations to its rooms and main restaurant, Elafiti. The new look of the rooms has been designed to reflect the coastline, which can be seen from every room and suite thanks to the private balconies offering a stunning view of the sea. As a meeting venue, there are 8 flexible conference and meeting rooms available.
The Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre (QEIICC) in London is set to close from late July until early September as it embarks on an extensive refurbishment project. With planned works to include total renovation of the main entrance foyer, reception and registration areas, as well as a replacement of all carpeted floors, conference chairs and tables, and improvements in connectivity, the refurbishment should result in a ‘more modern and stylish environment’ that focuses on ‘enhancing the [overall] customer experience’.
QEIICC is an award-winning events venue situated in the heart of Westminster, and is surrounded by various London landmarks and attractions, including Big Ben, Westminster Abbey and the London Eye.
Refurbishment plans at QEIICC
The Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre (QEIICC) in London is set to close from late July until early September as it embarks on an extensive refurbishment project. With planned works to include total renovation of the main entrance foyer, reception and registration areas, as well as a replacement of all carpeted floors, conference chairs and tables, and improvements in connectivity, the refurbishment should result in a ‘more modern and stylish environment’ that focuses on ‘enhancing the [overall] customer experience’.
QEIICC is an award-winning events venue situated in the heart of Westminster, and is surrounded by various London landmarks and attractions, including Big Ben, Westminster Abbey and the London Eye.
