Friday 18 December 2015

Why photography matters when marketing your hotel


Head of LT Photography Peter Jefferson with some top tips for tip-top images:
  • Most people make their decisions about holidays or business trips online, increasingly using phones and tablets to access websites

  • The first impact of a website is visual -  many people leave a website in less than a second, you need to grab their attention

  • A dark, small looking room will put potential Guests off, as will grainy out of focus pictures

  • A quick snap taken on your phone may save time but will not sell your hotel

Friday 27 November 2015

Why four out of five is the new average


Two out of three ain't bad in Meat Loaf's world and in hospitality four out of five has become the new average over the last decade. A bold statement, perhaps, so join me as I examine the forces that have nudged society's service expectations up for the better. 

Monday 2 November 2015

Rubbing shoulders with the titans of travel

Us and Them on Google Page 1

If you go down to Google's front page, you're sure of a big surprise ! 

Little Touches Details Club going cheek to cheek with you know who. Call it what you wish: a competition sandwich, a side order of them and us, but we are there, fair and square, in the Page 1 glare of any him or her that happens to stumble upon the search results for the term "Blackpool hotels." 


Sunday 25 October 2015

LT Video Faves - Tap Coffee London



Lifestyle blogger Steve Booker is our host as he takes us to a refreshing coffee "indie" in the UK capital. "For me it's all about the little touches at places," remarks Steve at 2:21...

Wednesday 30 September 2015

New kid on the OTA block

Let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start. When you read you begin with ABC. When you sell rooms you begin with OTA. I don't remember Julie Andrews singing that line either, but for many accommodation providers, online travel agencies have been a lifeline to overcoming the perishable should-a would-a could-a nature of room sales. 

Friday 28 August 2015

Little Literature - The Billy Butlin Story



Having both worked and played at the Butlin empire, it is perhaps alarming that I did not read Billy Butlin's official autobiography until summer 2015. Holidaying at his coastal enclaves from 1999 onwards and on the payroll for the 2011 season at Minehead resort, I greeted the book from the perspective of a happy camper who got a fleeting but darn good peek at the inner workings.


Friday 24 July 2015

The @ saga

As far as I'm aware, Yahoo, AOL and Microsoft have never owned, run or managed a single B&B, Guest House or Hotel. Yet if the hefty wad of business cards and leaflets I have collected are anything to go by, you'd be forgiven for thinking that each of the technology giants has a thriving hospitality division. tomsbandb@yahoo.com, dicksguesthouse@aol.com and harryshotel@msn.com. 

Friday 26 June 2015

LT Video Faves - Sweat the small stuff


TED Talks have a reputation worldwide for being the Rolls Royce of business intelligence in a bite-size video format and Rory Sutherland's "Sweat the small stuff" leads that mantle on the attention to detail front. 
 "It may seem that big problems require big solutions, but ad man Rory Sutherland says many flashy, expensive fixes are just obscuring better, simpler answers. To illustrate, he uses behavioural economics and hilarious examples"   
Ted Talks blurb 

Thursday 30 April 2015

Touches on Tour at the UK Blog Awards


For months I had been boring people at 4Networking groups across the North West that I was up for two UK Blog Awards in my 40 seconds pitch ! Now it was time to head down to London to see if I could flourish in Food & Drink and triumph in Travel.

Friday 20 March 2015

Room for a little one ?

Little Touches operates in a market that is dominated by a big two. It is a case of Strictly vs. X Factor, Coke vs. Pepsi or Boeing vs. Airbus as we take on Visit England and The AA. Some may say that I'm delusional, optimistic or downright crazy to think I am disrupting the status quo, but I always point to the wording in what is arguably the greatest ever television advertisement - Apple's Think Different:    

Wednesday 4 March 2015

Little Touches in a video nutshell


Some call the above type of video a "sizzle" video, but I'm going to let you be the judge of whether it is a case of sizzle or fizzle ! 

The video was filmed in the Woodland Suite at Ribby Hall Village, as part of a fantastic day on Stand 50 - meeting faces old and new - at Blackpool Expo

Saturday 24 January 2015

LT Video Faves - Omotenashi, Japanese Hospitality



Wouldn't it be great to pop to the supermarket or a bookstore and be dazzled by employees using a single low cost resource to make your day more pleasant ? Well in Japan, thanks to a phenomenon called Omotenashi it is a daily reality to find a side order of helpfulness at the checkout and a paperback preserver at the payment point. You see our friends in Japan see all industries as a prime candidate for an injection of thoughtfulness.