Vibe Hotels announced their new website today and claims..."The new website is peppered with exciting features to extend the personality of the brand into the online arena and has been designed to promote interactivity with our guests." However, I don't see much evidence of that...absolutely no guest generated content on the site, or any way to interact with anyone, other than the traditional "contact us" link. As far as I can tell, this website is stuck in 1.0. Too bad...it looks great though.
Mobil Stars
Well, it's that time of year again...ratings season. Mobil just released their four and five star assignments. You can read the entire list here. Here's a scorecard...
Five Star- 32 total
Indie's 15
Four Seasons 8
Ritz 5
Penninsula 2
Raffles 1
St. Regis 1
Four Star- 119 total
Indie's 64
Ritz 23
Four Seasons 15
Mandarin 5
St. Regis 4
Park Hyatt 3
Others 5
Overall, the indie's claimed 52% of the ratings...that's very impressive. The big franchise winner is Ritz at 39% of chain rated hotels. Although, if you're aiming for five star and are in love with chains, go with Four Seasons who earned almost half (47%) of the five star ratings for chain properties.
All in all, independents remain at the top. I dont think that's going to change. What say you?
Wiggly Kidz
If you're looking for a way to make your little guests happy, try this...Wiggly Kidz
Steve Riskas, founder of Wiggly Kidz, recently sent me a few activity bags to try-out on my own kids. They passed with flying colors.
In brief, this is a great product... and in keeping with the company's mission to foster child development through imagination and creativity. All of the contents are safety oriented, colorful and full of things to put together, glue, color, etc. There's quite a variety to choose from. And, for the price it's a perfect giveaway for your rugrat arrivals. We particularly enjoyed the King's and Queen's bag.
Children's feelings and impressions are often the most important, especially on the road. Cranky kids can ruin an entire trip. On the flipside, entertained and happy ones can make an otherwise mediocre stay very memorable. This is a smart buy when you consider what's at stake.