Slacker alert!

PING! Truly shocking news from the inbox: some businesses are expecting their employees to work as normal when they are travelling on business.

So says iBAHN, ‘the worldwide leading provider of secure wired and wireless broadband services for hoteliers and meeting organizers.’

Men over the age of fifty feel under the most pressure to put in a full day’s work when on the road, while 18-29-year-olds have the most relaxed approach. This could be a Generation Y dynamic, although my money is on the fact that men over 50 are likely to have a more senior position than the young’uns so feel more work pressure generally.

But then we don’t know anything about where iBAHN’s “findings” come from. Call me a pedant, but I like my consumer-facing research served with a healthy portion of sample size and methodology.

I’ve never worked in PR but I can see where this release is headed – iBAHN bigging up its own product which allows you to work "in the relaxed and stress free surroundings of a hotel room, lobby or bar".

If I did work in PR at least I’d be getting a good night’s sleep. Travelodge has some research of its own today – sample size 4000 – which says that people in PR and marketing are getting 7 hours and 7 minutes sleep per night, second-only to those perennial slackers in the ‘media and creative’ industries who have an extra five minutes in bed.

Excellent news – time for my mid-morning nap.

Martin Cowen, chief writer, Travolution

Space Cadets

While Travelodge has been busily spending £1 million on a new website, rival hotel chain Premier Inn has been setting its sights on clearly bigger and more important projects.

Now we're all for innovation here at Travolution, but surely a hotel on the moon is a step too far, rather than a giant leap for the budget accommodation industry.


Premier Inn MD Patrick Dempsey says:

Given the pace of space exploration and transportation possibilities beyond earth’s atmosphere, we feel that it is now more feasible than ever to expect travel to and from the moon to become a common occurrence within the next 20-30 years.

Given that, we wanted to steal a march on our rivals and be the first hotel chain to offer people the chance to have very comfortable and affordable lunar accommodation and get the same experience of the Premier Inn brand on the moon as they do on earth.

Days Inn, Travelodge et al must be kicking themselves at missing out on such a cosmic opportunity.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: travelodge premier inn

You couldn't make it up

According to Brand Republic, budget hotel chain Travelodge is offering any couple with first names Joseph and Mary a free night's accommodation over the Christmas holiday!

The puff on the company website continues the, er, festive theme:

"Today's Mary and Joseph will stay in a spacious Travelodge family room which can also cater for a baby and a manger.

"A free car-parking space will be provided for the donkey and there are plenty of £29 rooms available for the shepherds and Wise Men to book."

No, no, please stop...

The Brand Republic story says there is a dedicated "microsite" for customers to sign up for the amazing deal. As far as we can tell it's actually an email address at head office.

Bah humbug!

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Don't forget your laptop-arm-leg-teeth

Light-hearted end to everyone’s first week back from the Christmas and New Year break.

Apparently laptops are one of the most common items to be left behind in hotel rooms, followed by other electrical gadgets such as digital cameras and Ipods.

This startling revelation comes via Travelodge, who have compiled a list of most frequently discarded items across its 300 hotels in the UK.

Amazingly the most commonly abandoned possession is the ubiquitous mobile phone or charger, with – perhaps more understandably – toiletries and clothing in second and third place respectively.

If anyone ever chances upon a rather gummy looking guest or someone leaving the foyer of a hotel laden with luggage but minus an arm or leg, this is because false teeth or limbs also make the Top Ten.

The most unusual items, according to Travelodge, include a dossier belonging to a spy [how would they know that, apart from Top Secret being plastered across the front, perhaps?], a hollowed-out bible containing £250 in cash, and a six-foot length of snake skin.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

No surprises there then

…that a roundtable discussion in London today to be chaired by Opodo’s Simon Vincent was hastily re-organised in the wake of his imminent exit from the company, announced yesterday.

Thankfully for the handful of journos present and the rest of the panel, including representatives from Accenture, Travelodge, PayPal, Shopping.com and QVC, Opodo’s UK country manager Neil Mott stepped into the breech, and performed admirably.

Perhaps he’s vying for the top job?

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

The Travelodge library

PING! Trawling through emails and the words “Hilton Dumped at Travelodges” scream out from a list of subject lines.

Is this a wisecracking PR from Travelodge mocking rival hotel giant Hilton?

Surely not. It is in fact the title of a press release plugging the results of a survey carried out by Travelodge to discover the top five books – all autobiographies, interestingly – left behind in its chain of hotels.

Just in case anyone is remotely interested:

1 – Paris Hilton (thus the, erm, clever title of the email)
2 – Jose Mourinho
3 – Jordan
4 – Jade Goody
5 – Sir Alex Ferguson

[NB: This is not a blatant attempt to improve the Travolution Blog's search rankings by targeting eager fans of the US socialite, Hilton.]

Kevin May, editor, Travolution