Category: Hotel

In today’s tough economic times the annual summer vacation is one of the first things to go, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Let the large Lancaster Pa Hotels be the cornerstone of your new tradition – a “staycation.” A ataycation is a vacation without the huge travel costs because you stay closer to home. Instead of flying to Florida, Mexico or Europe have a staycation in Lancaster, and take advantage of the wide choice of hotels and the many different attractions in the area.

Lancaster, PA is in the heart of Pennsylvania Dutch country and is traditionally known for its large Amish community. It also is a central spot for learning about the Civil War and the African American contribution to the American Revolution. It is this diverse set of options that makes Lancaster so attractive and this diversity is reflected in the range of hotels Lancaster has to offer.

The many different types of hotels guarantee that there is something for every style and taste. For those that are looking to explore the historic and quiet side of the Lancaster area there are hotels that were built in the late 1800s plus hotels out in the country where you can awake to the birds and enjoy beautiful sunset views. Spa hotels will appeal to those looking for some pampering. A unique experience can be had staying in a hotel featuring a train caboose or by sleeping near a water park.

To help you choose which hotel is perfect for your staycation, consider the many things there are to do, and choose a hotel that is central to your attractions. To help keep the costs of your staycation within your budget, plan to take in the many free things there are to do in the Lancaster area. From your hotel you can be minutes away from 28 covered bridges, Amish country, one-room school houses, museums and factory tours with free sampling! If you are looking for a little bit more excitement there are water parks, haunted theme parks, paintballing and family amusement parks.

Combine a historical Lancaster hotel with tours of nearby Gettysburg and Harrisburg, historical walking tours, an Underground Railway reenactment experience and the National Civil War Museum for a staycation that is sure to please any American Revolution and Civil War history buff. If trains are more your thing, then you can’t get any better than a stay in the Lancaster area hotel that is near railroad museums and tours and rides on local historic trains.

While the history or railroad buff is off exploring, other family members can spend their time at the more than 100 factory direct stores that can be found close to any Lancaster hotel, at the Rockvale or Tanger Outlet Malls. Or they can take the short trip to Hershey, PA for everything chocolate related.

So, just because money is tight, you don’t have stay at home in the backyard this summer. Plan your Lancaster, PA staycation, starting with the hotel that will set the entire mood. The hotels in Lancaster not only are a place to sleep, they can be the cornerstone for the entire trip.

As creative people, ideas are our currency, our lifeblood. Creativity itself could be defined as having and developing ideas.

If we have no ideas then we have nothing to build upon, nothing to cherish, nourish and encourage to grow.

Our minds at any one time are full of ideas of different types, sizes, ages and levels of attractiveness. So how can we ensure we encourage this development of ideas, this creativity?

One possible way is think of your creative mind as a large hotel or mansion.

In each of the rooms is a guest that represents a creative project or idea that you’ve started in the past. It’s not important whether you finished the project, but that you had the original idea, invited it into your conscious mind and began to work on it. You committed some time and energy to it.

Then, each time you have a new idea and begin a new creative project based around that idea, it’s like a new guest arriving at your hotel.

They check in at reception, are given the key to a comfortable spacious room and are then invited to take to their new quarters and get accustomed to the surroundings, to make themselves feel at home. Each guest – each new creative idea – enters as an equal, and is given the same size room as all the other guests.

Or are they?

What kind of welcome do your new guests receive in reality? Are they greeted with as much respect, enthusiasm and bonhomie as all those in the past were?

Is your Creativity Hotel all crisp clean sheets, stylish comfy furniture, 24-hour room service and a complimentary mini-bar?

Or is it more in the style of a grubby fold away bed in a rundown motel, with cosy dimensions – two steps in any direction and youre provided with a convenient wall to lean against – complete with damp stained wallpaper and what looks like weeks old pizza sauce

And what about managing so many guests at any one time? Your Creativity Hotel is infinitely huge. Maybe at reception there’s a map of the hotel which shows at a glance who’s staying at each of the rooms?

But how do they interact with each other? Do they even mix at all?

Is each new guest invited to a lavish welcoming dinner, to socialise with all the other guests, form new connections and share experiences, returning to their room in the early hours of the next morning tired, yet all the richer and more developed because of it?

Or instead are the guests at your hotel told to stay in their rooms and keep themselves to themselves, to only come out for meals and fire drills. Oh and dont forget that 9pm lights out curfew!

Consider too that each new idea we have as creative people each new quest at our Creativity Hotel does not come from some unknown alien place, but from the same place that all our other ideas have come from. So surely it makes sense to re-introduce them as old friends, let them mix a little and have the opportunity to thrive in diverse and creative surroundings?

Next time you wonder about not having new ideas, ask yourself how you really treat the new ideas and inspiration that come to you? Do you record them eagerly then let them develop naturally? Or do you treat them with contempt or suspicion or worse still ignore them altogether?

Every great achievement in the history of humanity started with a single idea. So think for a moment about how some of those ideas may have been treated had they arrived in their initial state at your Creativity Hotel.

Of course you can take this idea of your Creativity Hotel as deeply or as light heartedly as you wish, the options are virtually limitless. Adapt it so it works best for you and have fun with it.

But to allow yourself to be as creative as possible, ensure you do all you can to make YOUR Creativity Hotel a bustling, stimulating and happy place where new guests cant help but come flocking, and soon flourish in the company of others of a similar mind

Copyright 2006 Dan Goodwin.

While Sharjah doesn’t have the kind of glitz and glamour that other tourist destinations of UAE possess, but it has an innate charm and likability factor that makes it extremely popular among tourists and explorers. The region of Sharjah is referred to as the Arab Capital of the World because it retains relationship with Arab culture and has deeply rooted traditions and heritage. Providing incredible insights into the lives and times of Arabs, this region has become a prime tourism destination for those who want to learn and explore. The best part is that alike other Arab destinations; this region also offers a wide range of accommodation options. Several leisurely luxury hotels in Sharjah are known for their myriad services that can easily make a trip more memorable. Whether one chooses hotels near Sharjah airport or opts for something in the heart of the region, they can expect kaleidoscopic services aimed at leisure and entertainment.

Choose a luxury hotel to get services such as swimming pools, well manicured lawns, tennis lawns, snooker tables, video games parlor, beauty salons and access to fine dining restaurants. Choose a luxury hotel near Sharjah airport to enjoy proximity to other regions of UAE and to get special services such as cab pickup or drop, 24 hours room service, doctor on call, baby sitters at minimal prices and access to fitness centers, aerobic classes and gyms. Those who have kids can book luxury hotels in Sharjah to make their trip more leisurely. This is because these hotels are known for offering play areas for kids and have special dance classes, karate or martial arts classes, cooking classes and lawns where kids can enjoy the leisure of life. Hotels near Sharjah airport are also known for offering other kinds of services such as spacious rooms and views of the beach. A number of luxury hotels in Sharjah have such stunning balcony views that travelers will feel instantly invigorated.

If that is not enough, a number of customized services such as free shuttle ride to the beach are available for travelers to get incredible views of Sharjah. The best part about Sharjah is that it has a brilliant amalgamation of cityscapes, landscapes and traditional villages or districts. When travelers choose a good accommodation option, they complement their entire trip and make their stay unforgettable. Therefore, before booking rooms, travelers must involve themselves in a bit of internet research to compare prices of different hotels and resorts and to find out which one of them provides the range of services they require. Lastly, it is recommended that travelers who plan on visiting Sharjah during peak months must do their booking beforehand, preferably 4 weeks prior to arrival to avoid any last minute hassles or fusses.

What exactly differentiates a hotel from the other? With so many hotel chains to choose from, the competition has just gotten really tough. Is it the number of stars, price, location, promotion, customer service, internet access?

Location

Most travelers now have more tools to plan their trips. And before they book your hotel, and even before they contemplate on staying at your hotel, the first thing they check out is your location. They know where they want to go so they search for the nearby hotels first. They look at that nifty map that has dots where hotels are located. From a radius of a few miles, they then come up with a list of possible options. Only then will other factors like price, amenities etc. come in.

Value For Money

Obviously, the dollar figure is very important to the all-too-discerning traveler. Pricing can definitely sway a customer to book or not to book. But more importantly, customers need to know if the value you are offering is worth their dollars. Yes, the hotel rate per night might be on the high side but if the customer can see that you’ve already thrown in the wireless internet and the breakfast, they will be more forgiving. This is especially convenient for business travelers whose hotel stays are paid for by the company. This ensures that they no longer need to foot the extras that they need.

On the other hand, you will also have customers who are travelling for pleasure. They are more than happy to explore the breakfast options outside the hotel. And they are not too keen on checking their work email so internet access is not an essential. For this group, the room only rate is very good and discount for last minute bookings also help seal the deal. Many hotel managers and owners today are utilizing the use of hotel management software to get to know the specific needs of their target market better.

Cleanliness Goes A Long Way

Great location and reasonable price are must-haves but are not enough for most people still. A single review saying that the rooms are filthy is a definite deal-breaker. It is incredibly difficult to find willing customers who will book your hotel knowing that the possibility of bathrooms being dirty is very high.

This is the same for the blankets, pillows, and towels. Worse is that people really make the effort to share this not-so-good information online. With Facebook and Twitter a click away, it is very easy for this secret to leak out. It is crucial to keep everything nice and clean. Maintaining a hotels cleanliness is an important part of hotel management.

With technology getting obsolete by the seconds, one wonders if there is any relevance to the future. Especially for the trendy hospitality industry, where the race is to compete in fulfilling guest expectations. These expectations are related to the product, its character and personality. Hotel chains spend a tremendous amount of time and money in researching user-friendly technology to remain competitive. Hotels are going hi-tech in every area of guest experience.
A quick review of the use of technology in hotels reveals an interesting conclusion. Hotels, which do not keep pace with technology, may lose their guest base while at the same time, a traveller who does not keep himself updated with technology may feel out of place in hi-tech hotels. Most city hotels are well equipped with latest, state of the art technology. The future hotels might see hotel rooms with much more advanced technology. For example, hotels are now adopting biometrics technology. This technology uses voice, fingerprints or retina scan for personal identification, replacing the room key and combination safe in the rooms. One has to glare at the door to get it opened or, touch the biometric sensor to open the safe.
Practically all good hotels have high definition television sets, but with the advent of 3D revolution, hotels will have to switch to new technology sooner than later. The same technology will also be useful for telephonic and video conferencing.
Touch screen telephones, compressor free mini bars, in-room environment control, electronic do not disturb signs etc, have now become as part of granted features in the rooms. The introduction of Control l4, is going to further revolutionize the hotel systems. Imagine walking to the door of the room, the system detects you, turns on the lights, TV, sets temperature of the room, and awaits your arrival at the door. The TV starts to play a welcome message or introduces the room features as you enter the room. The system also manages the wake call and do not disturb process.
Future hotels are going to use room window glass as a TV screen. A switch will make the glass opaque and a projection system from the ceiling will start your favourite programme on the screen with surround sound digital speakers.
Today, hotels offer high-speed wireless broadband internet connectivity in the rooms with interface to the TV. Some hotels however, offer wireless internet in the entire hotel, in every nook and corner. One can use the laptop anywhere. Hotels also offer colour-printing facilities from the laptop at a central printer in the Business Centre.
Room motion sensors detect motion and body temperature, and set the room parameters to suit your body needs. If no motion is detected beyond a specified period, it turns off the air-conditioning, lights and TV. Timer settings are crucial for success of this system.
For those who need to relax their muscles, hotels offer an electric massage chair in the rooms. No need to go to the spa for time strapped guests needing a quick fix.
For satisfying a demanding hi-tech traveller, the art is to anticipate needs and tailor the product with such elements that satisfies these needs and wants. A few years back an hotelier could not have imagined a guest carrying his virtual office in his laptop, or his music collection in his i-Pod or MP3. Well, today he does. Hotels are therefore providing connectivity of these gadgets to the TV and sound system. Hotels are also providing connectivity cable to connect digital camera to the TV. The guest can view the quality of pictures in the privacy of his room.
The bathrooms in hi-tech hotels are a delight to the eye and experience. Most hotels have frost-free mirrors, Multiple Volt shaver sockets, temperature controlled Jacuzzi. Rain shower and aqua massage systems. Heated seats for water closet and bidet are provided for additional comforts. A small colour TV at the foot of the Jacuzzi and extension of room telephone. What one would see in the future is that the mirror will double as a computer screen and one could watch mails while soaking in the bath tub, sounds interesting!.
The biggest challenge for the hotelier is to keep pace with technology. Implement technology in a cost efficient manner and to know where to draw a line. While being Hi-Tech sounds good, the concept also has a feel good factor, one must understand what and how much should be adopted in a hotel.
This is just a glimpse of different shades of technology being used or about to debut in hotels across the globe.
The ultimate quality of the experiences and degree of satisfaction of hundreds of guests and visitors depends upon judicious and right use of technology. The smallest glitch in the system is enough to ruin the experience. The art is to anticipate the needs of tomorrow and provide them today, leaving one to wonder what happens the day after.
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