Tag: hotels

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100 new hotels planned for Travelodge

Budget hotel chain Travelodge has said it plans to build 100 new hotels across the UK over the next five years, creating approximately 3,000 new jobs.

Figures released by the hotel chain shows it saw an 8.8% rise in revenue, with income at £693.3m in 2018 ending 31 December. Adjusting earnings increased to £122m, up £9.6m.

Travelodge chief executive Peter Gowers told the BBC that strong growth in London was being offset by declining sales in the rest of the UK. He added: “These are uncertain times and we are not immune from the short-term challenges, but beyond, we remain confident that there are more opportunities ahead.

“We’ve invested in better quality and choice for our guests, while staying true to our budget roots.”

The chain has 575 existing properties across the UK. It has not yet been confirmed if the new hotels will be equipped with conference or meeting facilities.

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European hotel rooms see ‘strong growth’ in value

European Landmarks

Hotel values across Europe registered another strong year in 2018 showing 3% growth and reaching new highs, according to the annual European Hotel Valuation Index (HVI), compiled by global hotel consultancy HVS.

Although it was a more modest growth than that of 2017 at 3.9%, 2018 saw recovery for many cities as well as a levelling off in values for some markets, which had previously been depressed compared with the European average.

The annual HVI ranks the percentage change in the values of typically four-star and five-star hotels across 33 major European cities, both in Euro and local currency terms, as well as ranking each market in terms of the average price per hotel room.

Hotels in Lisbon, Moscow, Paris, Brussels and Berlin filled the top five slots in terms of highest percentage growth in values in euro terms, with Lisbon (9%), the year’s biggest climber.

On the back of the FIFA World Cup Moscow’s hotels recorded 8% growth in this year’s index with a RevPAR increase in euros of over 180% for June and July. St Petersburg showed a 6% increase, ranking it sixth in the HVI. In local currency value growth in these markets was even more pronounced.

Paris returned to the top five in this year’s index up 7%, while Berlin completed the top five also with 7% growth.

Only six of the 33 markets analysed experienced a value drop, with those at the bottom of the index, in euro terms, including Barcelona, which was badly impacted by the civil unrest caused by the strengthening of the Catalan independence movement; Hamburg, Manchester and Warsaw, which all suffered from an influx of new supply in the market; and Geneva and Stockholm, which were impacted by currency dynamics in 2018.

In terms of the absolute value of hotel rooms, those in Paris, London, Zurich, Geneva and Rome filled the top five slots for the most expensive in Europe, with Birmingham, Sofia, Bratislava, Bucharest and Manchester at the bottom end of the ranking.

Sophie Perret, director at HVS London, said: “Demand for hotel accommodation remains vigorous across most markets in Europe, and while economic growth for this cycle might be beyond its peak hotel demand is unlikely to suddenly fall away.

“For investors the advice is to factor in a slightly longer exit window and be cautious, but there are some good deals to be had by those seeking to acquire hotels in many European cities.”

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Cutting the use of plastic at Events

Plastic bottles

Reducing our use of plastic, particularly single use plastic, is a hot topic at the moment and we all know that there is a lot of waste created by events and exhibitions. Recycling has increased, but it’s probably best to stop the problem at the source. So, we’ve taken a look at a few things that can be changed to reduce our use of plastic at our events.

  • Plan from Day One

Talk to all the stakeholders and clients to see what is important to them. Do they have a sustainability policy? If so this should be shared at the earliest possible stage of planning.

Think about what will be thrown away at the end of the event and try to find an alternative from the start.

  • Venue finding

Ask the prospective venues questions about their use of plastic items and recycling policy and find solutions that are easy to implement. If you want a plastic-free event, then the best way to start is to find a venue and destination that matches your requirements. That’s far easier than introducing a new way of working to a venue that’s not set up for it.

name badge
  • Name badges

There are lots of alternatives to the plastic badge holder. The simple solution is just to clip the badge straight on to the lanyard and it’s easier to reuse the lanyards at another event afterwards.

  • Ban plastic water bottles and single use coffee cups

Ask your venue to provide alternatives. If there’s a goodie bag, how about putting a keep cup or reusable bottle in there for the event attendees to use. Lots of people have their own already and are happy to use them. They also carry water bottles, so water dispensers can be used, with ice and fruit, instead of bottles of water.

  • Straws

Ir’s now quite unusual to be given a drink with a plastic straw. Lots of venues are now using paper straws, but consider if you need straws at all.

  • Signage

Can the signage be re-used, or if not can it be recycled? Try not to laminate any paper, as this can’t be recycled.

  • Conference bags and incentive items

Make sure they are environmentally friendly and of value or they will be discarded during the event.

  • Recycling

The recycling bins need to be obvious and have clear labels of what can be recycled in which bin.

This week Excel has announced a ‘No Plastic’ campaign and all plastic straws have been removed by retailers in the central boulevard. They also offer a discount to customers who have a reusable cup. Permanent water fountains have been installed to provide free chilled water to visitors, exhibitors and organisers who bring a reusable container. They’ve also introduced new waste bins to enable visitors to sort their rubbish more easily.

Scandic Hotels decided to stop using plastic straws and cocktail sticks in all of its hotels and are working to remove all single-use disposable items made of plastic. They were using approximately 1.3 million straws and 120 000 cocktail sticks every year. The plastic lids for take away coffee mugs have been replaced with biodegradable ones. This group has provided toiletries in large dispensers for many years.

IHG has already removed plastic straws from around 1,000 hotels in Europe, Middle East and Africa and they’ve announced that plastic straws will be removed from all hotels by the end of 2019, which is more than 5,400 hotels in nearly 100 countries. They are also are introducing bulk-size bathroom amenities to several hotel brands in the Americas, as part of broader efforts to reduce waste.

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Rate Check – book early for better value for money

pound sign

We all know that there are lots of factors that will make a difference to the rate charged by a venue, such as the day of the week, the date, the location.  We’ve taken a look at one of our client’s events that could take place in January or March 2019 and compared the costs. 

Decreasing bar chart from SimpleIcon http://www.simpleicon.com/

As well as the hotels in the table, 19 additional hotels were contacted and there was no availability on both dates.

The brief is for a one-day conference:

  • Attendees: 55 people
  • Location: Central London or countryside location accessible from Heathrow Airport
  • Venue style: Hotel, preferably 5* or boutique hotel in London or country house outside London
  • Meeting room layout: cabaret style
  • Catering: separate areas for refreshment breaks and lunch
  • Food & beverage: 3 servings of tea/coffee and lunch
  • Accommodation : 55 bedrooms on Friday night

The rates below are for a daily delegate rate including 3 breaks, plus bed and breakfast, as the client wanted to have dinner offsite.

rate comparison checker

EDGE Venues advises clients to book as far in advance as possible to achieve the best possible rates and in the majority of cases the comparison supports this.  Unless the client waits until the very last minute and is prepared to compromise, the rates will only increase as availability becomes scarcer closer to the event date. 

There was no obvious saving taking this event outside London as there were fewer hotels to choose from that met the client’s requirements.

Points to note

The venue finding was done in September 2018, so an 18-week lead time to the January date and a 25-week lead time to the March date.

*We were unable to compare these conferences at all of the same hotels as some of them were already booked on the relevant date, but for comparison purposes they are similar in style, standard and facilities.

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Destination Focus on Monaco

Nestled between France & Italy, The Principality of Monaco is a mere 35-minute drive or 7-minute helicopter from Nice-Cote d’Azur International Airport which has connections to 100 international destinations and 70 flights a day to Europe’s main hubs. With its 300 days of sunshine and everything in walking distance, it is the ideal year-round destination for events. Sandrine Camia, Director of the Monaco Convention Bureau shares her hidden secrets…

Unique selling points of Monaco as a destination

  • Monaco is one of the easiest destinations to reach from UK & Ireland with more than 25 daily flights from London City, Heathrow, Gatwick, Luton, Manchester, Edinburgh, Leeds, Liverpool, Newcastle, Southampton, Bristol, Exeter, East Midlands, and Belfast.
  • Monaco is considered one of the safest nations in the world and where everything is within walking distance.
  • There is a great selection of hotels offering 2,500 rooms and a long-lasting tradition of welcoming demanding clients.
  • The Grimaldi Forum Monaco is a high-tech, eco-certified convention centre, with 35,000 square meters of floor space, it can host events for up to 3,000 people.
  • The mild temperature makes it perfect destination for every season, including winter when destination offers very good value for money.
  • Principality of Monaco is also a dynamic, competitive and innovative community possessing real knowledge hubs and experts in many sectors.
View of Monaco

Value for money

  • The destination offers very good value for money, especially outside of the summer peak periods. Prices of hotels in Monaco are equal to or lower than those in the same category in other major European cities. Here are few examples:
  • Hotel rates of Monaco Meetings offer are starting at 206 euros in 4-star category for low season 2019 (January to march + November & December) and 171 euros in 3-star category, including breakfast and WIFI access, upgrades and complimentary rooms for staff.
  • Destination is compact and safe. Most of hotels are walking destination to the convention center, offering big savings on time and transportation.
  • Monaco has a wide selection of restaurants and venues. It is famous for unique venues (Salle des Etoiles, ballrooms of Hotel de Paris and Hotel Hermitage …) and highly rated restaurants, but many more offer various menus and accessible range of prices: brasserie style, Italian, international, vegan. For groups, event organizers will find attractive dine-around solutions at very competitive prices.
A selection of destination images of Monaco

A selection of venues

Monte Carlo Société des Bains de Mer (SMB) manages and owns four hotels – Hôtel de Paris Monte-Carlo, Hôtel Hermitage Monte-Carlo, Monte-Carlo Beach, Monte-Carlo Bay Hotel & Resort and the Méridien Beach Plaza – with a total of 850 rooms. Combined, these hotels offer 50 meeting and banqueting rooms, 30 restaurants and bars, three spas, a Beach Club, 23 tennis courts, an 18-hole golf course and four casinos to choose from.

Fairmont Monte Carlo offers professional meeting facilities supported by a comprehensive array of professional and state-of-the-art services. The event planners offer expertise in planning events and the hotel’s meeting venues comprise of spaces suitable for an executive meeting for 10 and a professional conference for 900. Meeting venues include flexible meeting rooms, dedicated boardrooms, upscale hospitality suites and one of the largest ballrooms in the French Riviera. Fairmont Monte Carlo also offers certified meeting professionals and a Learning Environment Specialist who are on hand to organise and oversee the critical details that make a meeting great.

Hotel Metropole comprises of 126 rooms, including 64 suites, two Michelin starred restaurants, a pool-side restaurant designed by Karl Lagerfeld, Lobby bar, Spa Metropole by Givenchy and six conference rooms. This includes three meeting rooms featuring interiors by Karl Lagerfeld; Homere is ideal for presentations, Penelope & Ulysse are meeting rooms that can be combined or used separately, The Foyer is perfect for small committee meetings, a reception office or coffee breaks whilst The Theatre can be customised for lots of different types of events.

Key Figures

  • Monaco hosts around 500 business events per year.
  • Monaco has seen significant increase of meeting & events business for the past 5 years.
  • MICE business represented 26% of tourism activity in 2017 (against 18% in 2012) with a 6% increase of room nights compared to 2016.
  • Finance, Medical and IT sectors represented 59% of M.I.C.E. business activity in 2017 with an increase of market share of 5 points and +6% of room nights compared to 2016.
  • These same sectors represented 48% of MICE Business in 2013, the year of the launch of a new marketing campaign for promoting business tourism in Monaco.
  • The trend is strengthening in 2018 with an increase in the number of room nights by + 10% by end of June (more than 8,000 overnight stays) and a market share of 32% of total tourism for the first semester.
A selection of images of Monaco

Support from Monaco Convention Bureau

To facilitate the organisation of each event, the Monaco Convention Bureau offers and delivers a unique, high-value “Monaco Meetings” package, featuring affordable harmonised hotel rates and great benefits and services offering great value for money.

The main conditions for taking advantage of the Monaco Meetings offer are:
RFP has to be sent to your local Monaco Convention Bureau
Significant occupancy of the Grimaldi Forum Monaco
Book a minimum of 1,200 room nights during a minimum of two consecutive nights and two hotels located in the Principality.

Monaco meetings offer includes discounted hotel rooms and meeting space rental, complimentary welcome cocktails for all participants, discounted airport transfers and free access to public buses in the Principality.

Subject to size, length of stay, significant occupancy of convention centre, the Government could also offer financial support in room rental at the Convention Centre. Financial support should be commensurate with the economic impact of the event. There is no minimum or maximum basis, just a tailor-made proposal.

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How to stand out from the crowd and attract the Agency sector


With so many Agents to communicate with and stiff competition in the marketplace, how do you make your venue stand out in a crowd and attract the Agency sector? Jacqui Kavanagh, Managing Director, Trinity Event Solutions, shares some of her top tips that gets her attention…

Tell agents your relevant, juicy news

Agents, by our very nature, tend to take on news and offers when they really tell us something we do not know, something that is not in the general arena. This gives us a reason speak about it with our clients and it helps us show how we can add value to them and they benefit from using your venue.

Get rid of the noise

If you could get only five key messages across to an Agent to help them understand your venue, your pricing, your position and your USPs, how would your communications be different? Don’t take a broad-brush approach which includes wedding offers, father’s days lunches etc – make your message relevant to the events industry and the clients who are booking conferences and meetings.

Help agents to understand you

Demonstrate your knowledge of your bookings. For example, when offering an agent a second option don’t wait for us to ask the most likely follow up questions – is it a direct booking, have they been before, have they been on a site visit, when are they due to make a decision? And if we don’t ask those questions then why not? If we put your venue forward, no doubt the client will ask us – lets save each other time.

Empathise with agents

All agencies are on a service level time with our customers – that’s how we are judged on our service – most of these are 8 hours turnaround on large bookings and 2 hours on small bookings. Any delay in getting back to the agent is not going to make them look good in their clients’ eyes, it could put the client relationship at risk, or mean that you don’t get on to the client’s proposal. So ask yourself, why would an agent return to your venue with an enquiry if they don’t get the response they need.

Treat the agent as a partner and build a trusting relationship

Relationships take time and should never be assumed, but once they are nurtured they last a very long time and are not broken easily. The bond can be built up by honesty, going the extra mile and understanding what that agent needs to convert the business. The agent needs to convert the event, so make sure it is with you.

Why an agent will convert business for your venue

If they trust that you are going to look after their client – this only comes by doing what you say you are going to do and then go a little bit further (upgrades, early check in, room gift etc). It’s not a good idea to work against the agent either on the show round or during the event as the relationship built up between the client and the agent is very strong.

Often the agent will be working with the client on many other events so the allegiance is very high. The client will report back to the agent and this will break any trust you have built up. Prepare yourself well, based on the information the agent has given you before any showrounds, meetings or the event itself.

If you are unsure or have any questions ask the agent beforehand, not the client, as this will build up your knowledge the client preferences to meet their needs and show the agent you respect their relationship. Always feedback to the Agent after the meeting and ask for guidance on the next step together; this is crucial to secure the business and show the agent that this is their client.

Say Thank You

It’s so easy to say but it really does go along way – even if it is after you have been released as an option. This will ensure you are considered for future events and ask if there was anything else you could have done to secure the business – but be prepared to take criticism if your responses were unclear or your pricing too high. Feedback is always good for learning something new.

All of the above is common sense and basically how any of us would like to be treated so to stand out from the crowd.

I’d like to hear if you make any changes and whether they deliver results – email jacqui@trinityeventsolutions.co.uk.