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. 

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.

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. 

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 

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.

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:    

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.