hotels articles

Planning for vacations in London? Then let me shortly and briefly tell more London so that you can plan accordingly and enjoy to the maximum!

London is one of the worlds most sought after city for vacations as it is a beautiful amalgamation of historic buildings, well-known museums and galleries and of course one of the best USP is its dining, clubbing, entertainment and now a new range of boutique hotels. Location

London being the capital of UK is located beside river Thames. Connected by several airports, including London Heathrow, London Gatwick and London Stanstead, and with direct train links to the continent via the Channel Tunnel, and to the rest of the UK via domestic operators, the capital is comfortable to approach.

Staying options

New boutique hotels are these days hot favorite among tourists and there are also expensive hotels alongside smaller guesthouses. These hotels have immaculate service which are stylish and also have a real atmosphere rather than one manufactured by the marketing department of a large hotel chain, staying in one of these hotels can only make your trip to London more pleasurable and unforgotten experience.

Hot spots

You should indeed plan your itinerary well in advance so that you can enjoy maximum in limited time that you have and also don’t miss on anything. There’s so much going on in London that even the residents don’t see it all. You can see historical Tower of London or St. Paul’s Cathedral for example; some of the treasures and paintings in the museums and galleries; a show in the West End and some great drinking and dining. You can also take assistance of the reception staff to help you in planning and also they can help you buy tickets. And yes, to capture those delightful moments of your stay make sure that you have your camera with you while making a long list of the things you want to do the next time you visit.

How to navigate

London has a up to date public transport system.

A widespread underground network takes you to all parts of the city, and you will be priced on a “zone” basis, that makes much easier to calculate which tickets to buy and the total amount that would be spend. Also ask about the saver tickets if they come out to be cheap then go for them.

If you are comfortable traveling in London’s famous red buses, then they are pretty cheap options approximately £1 for central London journeys.

Otherwise traditional “black cab” is the other option that you can think of! These hackney cabs are easily available anywhere and everywhere and the driver is skillful at avoiding traffic jams, good to talk to and honest with fare meters, a journey with a hackney cab driver is a real London experience.

London is a very visitor friendly place and traveling around in London is very suitably provided by various forms of transportation. The most common mode of transport is the London Underground and it operates through out the day [from early morning to late night]. Other forms include buses, taxis etc. The whole city is divided into 6 zones with zone 1 and 2 referred as ‘Central London’.

With London’s endless choice of theatres, sports and music venues, you won’t be short of entertainment. This is the place to be if you’re looking for world-class art, exhibitions, music and more. More unbiased information can be found at Visit London.

Accommodation in London offers a variety of choices from budget low room rate [starting from £30] and to high class luxury rooms [greater than £1000]. The best hotel which I have stayed in is The Ritz and the best priced [in terms of location, service and price] is RegentPalace. More information on the choice of the hotels, price comparison, amenities information, photographs of rooms, online booking can be done at London Hotels.

Finding a place to eat in london is a difficult task not because of scarcity of restaurants but because of such a wide variety and number of places. Chinese, Indian and Italian are the most popular cuisines in London. London Eating provides the easiest way to identify the closest restaurants of the choice of your cuisine. But London is an expensive place in an expensive country. So mind your wallet when going out for dinner. A rough guideline : £5 per person: Sandwich Shop, £10-20 per person: Pub, £15-30 per person: cheap to medium class restaurant, £50-100 per person: very nice restaurant, £100 and above: Savoy or Ritz.

For theatre loving people London offers unmatched opportunities of musicals, plays, comedies. The main theatres are located in Central London and all the information/bookings can be done in Leicester Square area . Online information and booking of theatre tickets can be done here.

London hotels near the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace have become some of the most popular hotels in London. The tradition of the Changing of the Guard has been happening since 1660 and is steadily becoming more popular. The actual event is free and takes place when the new guards come from Wellington Barracks to relieve the previous guards, and are accompanied by a band. This usually lasts approximately 45 minutes and draws a large crowd, so being early is always necessary to see it best.

Several hotels are in the area, offering the convenience of being close to Buckingham Palace.

* Grange Rochester Hotel

* Dover Hotel

* Comfort Inn Buckingham Palace

* Hamilton House Hotel - Victoria

* Blair Victoria Hotel

These London Hotels are within 0.819km to 1.059km of Buckingham Palace and range in price and quality (2 Diamond to 4 Star).

In addition to the hotels in the area are many other attractions which are very popular with many.

* Buckingham Palace - A tour of the palace may be taken for a small fee and tickets are available for purchase from the Ticket Office, located at the Canada Gate in Green Park.

* Queens Gallery - The Queens Gallery is a collection of Royal items and is open to the public. There is a fee for entry but does include an audio tour.

* The Banqueting House - As the only remaining complete building of the Whitehall Palace, it is very popular and well known for many royal and social gatherings.

* Royal Mews - Guided tours are available of this working stable. It is known for its royal collection of coaches and carriages.

* Hard Rock Café - Since 1971, the Hard Rock Café has been a vital and popular addition to London. The Hard Rock is well known for its collection of memorabilia from several celebrities that have visited. This tour is free and also includes a merchandise store.

* Westminster Cathedral - This cathedral is a central part of the area and attracts over 8,000 people every week. Its beautiful and unique architecture makes it on of a kind.

* St. James Park - The Park is the oldest Royal Park in London and is known for its beauty and location, as it is centrally located between Buckingham Palace, St. James Palace and the Houses of Parliament.

To go to and from the London hotels in the Buckingham Palace area are tube/railway stations. There are several tube stations in the area for easy connectivity to several places in and around London. A few tube stations near Westminster are:

* Victoria

* Charing Cross

* Waterloo

* Vauxhall

* Battersea Park

Utility company London Electricity has produced a comprehensive document containing over 40 money-saving ideas for London hotels that, if implemented will significantly boost their profits.

It seems rather like turkeys voting for Christmas when electricity companies offer free advice to customers explaining how they can cut their electricity bills, but London Electricity’s head of business marketing Tony Galloni explains:

“Supplying around 6,000 hotels and restaurants in and around London has allowed us to get a good handle on how energy is used in catering and hotel industry. A little bit of thought on managing energy will result in savings that will lead directly to increased profits for the hotels. With global warming such an immediate issue we all need to give attention to how energy is consumed, and ensure that we can do it as efficiently as possible. Hotels consume vast amounts of energy because of the fact they operate over 24 hours, and guests remain largely unconcerned about the amount of energy they use while staying in the their rooms.”

The cost-busting guide, available to any hotel manager in the capital, contains 40 tips on how hotels can cut their utility bills. Many are described as “low cost and common sense” by the authors, such as turning the hotel heating down 1° C to get a 10% reduction in heating bills. Other ideas include: replacing all standard tungsten bulbs in the hotel with low-energy ones that use one-fifth of the energy, and ensuring that water heaters are regulated so that just enough hot water is produced for the hotel’s guests and isn’t warmed simply to just go cold again. Other suggestions include things done as second nature in most households; switching off electrical appliances such as TVs in the lounges when not in use, and killing the power to the photocopier in the business centre or office when not needed. Plus, there are many other ideas contained in the guide that hotels in London would be advised to adopt, if not to increase their profits then at least to cut excessive energy consumption.

London Electricity estimate that an average medium-sized hotel in London - one that contains 100 rooms, swimming pool, restaurant and a bar - would save in the region of £7,500 per year if they adopted all the recommendations incorporated in the guide. That sort of figure should appeal to all hotel owners; from those running family-owned establishments to big-name, multi-national hotels that could increase their corporate profits by millions if they applied all of London Electricity’s recommendations across their entire hotel chain.

London enjoys a swarm of travelers each year because of the rich and unforgettable experience it offers. The once conservative London now enjoys a sense of modernity and is regarded as one of the coolest cities in the world. So be wise, plan your trip ahead of time.

You will be amazed with the large variety of hotels, from London 5 star hotels to 2 star hotels… from chic and pricey London boutique hotels to budget bed and breakfast hotels. Make sure to choose a hotel according to the purpose of your visit keeping proximity and cost in mind.

A few good examples are the Langham Hotel London, located at the West End of the city and ideally situated near Regents Park. It’s only a short walk from the best shopping areas like Regent Street, Bond Street and Oxford Street. If you are looking for budget accomodations in London, try the London House Hotel. Business travelers will not go wrong in the upscale Jumeirah Carlton Tower.

There are many modes of transportation in London. If you like to travel in style, renting a chauffeured vehicle is quite common in London. You can take the fast underground trains, commonly known as the tube, for shopping or to visit any of London’s famous attractions. Get a single day or multiple day discounted travel pass.

It’s not a bad idea to start the day by taking a bus or underground to St. Paul’s station off the Central Line to see the St. Paul’s Cathedral which is quite an architectural wonder, and an awesome historical breathtaking beauty. Stop in at Vinopolis, if you want to experience worldclass wine tasting. Here, you can learn everything about winemaking.

Of all the other sights, the Thames offers the most famous one in London and you can get an impressive view of the city from the Tower Bridge. From there when you reach the north bank, don’t miss out the Tower of London. It’s a very historical and a must see sight.

A lot happens in London each day, events like concerts, shows, sports, festivals and plays are very popular. When you are ready for some fascination…you would enjoy the excitement of witnessing live show rehearsals at the Royal Albert Hall. History of this stunning building is sure to fascinate you.

After a tiring day, you may want to reward yourself with a sumptuous and succulent meal. London has scores of restaurants that offer dozens of cuisines from various parts of the world. It’s a good idea to join Henry the VIII and his special guests who will perform a festive show at The Medieval Banquet located at Ivory House, St Katharine’s Dock.

Hotels had the London markets buzzing in early morning trading, after Black-stone’s knockout $26bn ([pound]13bn) deal for Hilton Hotels on Tuesday. The surprise buyout drove up shares across the sector, with Inter-Continental Hotels Group rocketing up the blue- chip leaderboard to close 49p higher at 1,307p.

There was talk in the market that the Blackstone deal could resurrect speculation over InterContinental’s future. Earlier this year, it was reportedly a private equity target. One analyst said the hotel sector had seen a number of mergers and acquisitions and the interest would continue, whether through internal consolidation or private equity buyouts. “There has been a land grab, and a brand grab in the sector,” he added. Millennium & Copthorne also closed up, gaining 26p to 678p, and Whitbread rose 52p to 1,805p.

The hotel bounce helped boost the FTSE 100, which finished 33.3 points higher at 6,673.1. Airlines made their way back after dips earlier this week, with British Airways top of the pile among the prestige stocks and easyJet also up in the second tier.

Panmure Gordon released a note urging Aviva to sell its non-life insurance business. It was a call backed by the market, as shares in the UK insurer climbed 13p to 768p. The broker said: “The recent floods, non-life rates in freefall and investors ascribing very little-to-no value to its non-life operation, a sale is an obvious route to a re-rating of the shares.”

Shares were also up in Land Securities over talk that the group was set to launch a share buy-back.

One market-maker said: “This would be a first for Land Securities and would provide a huge vote of confidence for the share price.” It finished near the summit of the top-tier risers, up 36p at 1,768p.

There was further chat of a takeover bid in the offing at Scottish & Newcastle, with traders backing Carlsberg to launch a bid worth 700p per share. While there was initial interest, when the dust settled the stock held steady at 633p.

Another reheated rumour, this time in the mid tier, came in the form of a potential 900p-per share takeover bid for Quintain Estates by an unidentified suitor. The shares gained 25.5p to 747p.

The appearance of the activist investor ValueAct on its shareholder register boosted “shake-up or breakup” speculation at Rentokil Initial, which rose 5.25p to 172.5p. The vermin extermination group was backed by UBS, which raised its target price from 185p to 175p, saying the outlook was improving for the firm.

Investors backed Morgan Crucible, despite the group revealing its first-half profits would be hit by the strength of sterling. In a first-half trading update, it said revenues would still be up 8 per cent over last year, with the brokers Cazenove and Bridgewell backing the stock. The market also reacted well to news the business was looking for potential acquisitions. The shares rose 4.75p to 297.5p.

It has been a topsy-turvy few weeks for Micro Focus International, which makes business software. Last week, it sunk after a fairly positive trading update, before topping the risers the following day following broker support. Yesterday, it was the biggest loser in the medium tier after it raised [pound]36.4m in a secondary placement. The placing of 14 million shares at 260p was revealed in a statement from UBS. The stock closed down 7.4 per cent at 262.25p

Confusion reigned at WorthingtonNicholls, which dropped on the back of a statement that one market-maker described as “quite extraordinary”. Traders were unsure how to react to news that the group had materially understated its business pipeline in last week’s results. It says the pipeline stands at [pound]125.3m, not the previously stated [pound]61.3m. Worthington fell slightly in afternoon trading but rallied 2.24p to 115.25p at the close.

The software company DDD Group spiked after securing a licensing contract from one of the world’s largest mobile phone manufacturers. Samsung is set to launch a 3D mobile in South Korea with DDD’s software and content. The market backed the firm, which will get a royalty fee for every handset sold, with the shares doubling to 12.75p. One trader, however, expressed fears the stock had come too far too soon. DDD was founded in Perth in 1993 and struggled to maintain its value after listing on AIM at 79.5p in 2002.

Pan African Resources fared well on its readmission to AIM, rising 45 per cent to 8.75p. The firm is set to buy 74 per cent of Barberton Mines as it looks to change from a junior gold exporter to a mid-tier gold producer.

The siesta is making a comeback, recycled for the modern world as “Iberian yoga”. Far from the afternoon snooze that consumes valuable working time, Spain’s siesta is being rebranded as essential for spiritual wellbeing and a balanced life.

Long hailed as the country’s greatest contribution to civili- sation, the siesta - “Spain’s secret weapon”, according to this weekend’s ABC newspaper - is being relaunched in Seville.

Hoteliers in the southern hotspot are trying to lure visitors back from the beach by offering rooms between 3pm and 7pm at 30 per cent of the normal rate, to slumber through the hottest hours. The idea is that you emerge refreshed to enjoy the late afternoon, sunset and after dark, which Spaniards savour as the best time of the day.

As part of the campaign, which has adopted the slogan: “After eating I sleep”, you can even book your afternoon snooze from the very restaurant where you enjoy your leisurely, wine-soaked lunch.

That way you don’t hit the road in an alcoholic haze - a disproportionate number of Spanish motoring accidents take place after lunch - or stumble back to the office half asleep.

“Every decent lunch deserves a period of repose or rest afterwards. And every day in this hot season needs a period of refreshment for the mind,” Manuel Otero, president of the Association of Sevillian Hoteliers, said.

Many visitors wilt in high summer because they don’t pace themselves. “Midday in the summer in any Spanish city breaks the will of the most determined and stubborn person,” he added.

Spanish summers are becoming increasingly ferocious, imposing an afternoon pause on those both at work and play. Hoteliers say their campaign, or-ganised jointly with the city’s restaurants, represents a flexible solution to a slack season.

The initiative has been greeted with scepticism by the region’s Hostelry Union because it implies extra work for its members. “It could be a way of dignifying the old custom of hiring hotels by the hour,” a spokesman said.

Experts believe the optimal siesta is around 20 minutes long. Shorter and you don’t disconnect sufficiently, longer and you emerge groggy and bad-tempered. Even companies recog-nise their workforce performs better after the break. Many, including the nationwide courier service MRW, have set aside soothing siesta zones with reclining chairs for their employees to snatch 40 winks.

“A short siesta after lunch at work could soon become the norm,” predicted La Vanguardia, the hardnosed newspaper of entrepreneurial Catalonia, last year.

Spain tried to abolish the siesta in the 1980s before joining the EU, and two years ago in response to a globalised economy. Employers now prefer to rehabilitate the ancient custom, once denigrated as Mediterranean sloth, as “Iberian yoga” - a term originally coined by the Nobel Prize-winning writer Camilo Jose Cela - and make it part of modern life, as essential as the creche, the gym and company- funded language classes.

Of the Australian tycoon Alan Bond it used sometimes to be remarked that, after a nuclear war, there would be only three things left alive: seaweed, cockroaches and Bond. In British business these days, there is probably only one man with the same kind of durability: Peter Sutherland, chairman of BP. The recent warfare at the top of the giant oil company, which led to the early departure of its muchadmired chief executive Lord Browne, might not have been nuclear. But it was noticeable that after the dust had cleared, Sutherland was still in his job and Browne wasn’t.

To anyone who knows him, that was no surprise. Sutherland has one of the toughest skins in global business. Through a series of big jobs — in politics, trade, finance and industry — the bluff Irishman has sailed from one triumph to the next. A lawyer by training, he has arguably the world’s most impressive CV. As well as heading BP, he is chairman of Goldman Sachs International, set up and ran the World Trade Organisation, and is a former European commissioner.

Despite such eminence, he has remained, at least so far as the British media are concerned, a largely background figure. ‘The role of the chairman is not to be the public face of the company, ‘ he has said. ‘I’m not a driven chairman, I look to find a consensus.’ Maybe so, but he’s not shy of combat either: once a prop-forward in top-level Irish rugby, he has been known to flatten a West End mugger.

Born into a relatively modest Dublin family, he was educated at University College and qualified as a barrister, appearing in such famous cases as the one in which Charles Haughey stood accused of illegal arms dealing. ‘I never planned to be anything other than a practising barrister in Ireland, ‘ he says.

But his real talent turned out to be working the space between politics and business.

Those who meet Sutherland find him charming, amusing and intellectually challenging in equal measure. A thread of steel runs through his hearty demeanour. He talks in long, perfectly composed paragraphs, and has already understood and dealt with any possible counter-arguments before they’re raised.

Opponents tend to come off worse, even if they might not realise how it happened.

He got his first big break when Garret FitzGerald appointed him Ireland’s attorneygeneral in 1981, when he was just 35. Next stop, Brussels: in 1985, he became Ireland’s EU commissioner and struck up a close relationship with the high priest of integration, the French EU president Jacques Delors.

Sutherland took charge of competition policy, one of the few posts in Brussels with any real clout. He was even briefly touted as a possible successor to Delors — who was said to favour the idea — and the British briefly supported him for the job, presumably on the grounds that it would be nice to have someone who spoke English as their first language.

That one got away, and Sutherland does not hide the fact that he hankered after it: ‘I relished my roles in public service and would have loved to have been the President of the European Commission. I would have been prepared to give up any other career or business interest to do that. It is the noblest political movement of the modern era.’ Disappointment did not hold him back. On leaving Brussels he took up the chairmanship of Allied Irish Bank. Again, the timing was good: the rapid expansion of the Irish economy made it very difficult for any bank with a franchise in that country not to make money.

And he was far from finished in the international arena: next he took over the running of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, presiding over the Uruguay agreement which significantly opened up global trade. When Gatt was transformed into the World Trade Organisation, Sutherland became its first director-general. The WTO has been a force behind the rapid rise of globalisation: it’s not the only reason our houses are full of cheap Chinese-made goods but it’s certainly one of them. Turning Gatt into the WTO was a major success, and Sutherland remains one of the few people on the world stage with the patience to try to inch trade negotiations forward. It is, without question, his most striking achievement.

Not his most lucrative, however. On leaving WTO he levered himself up to the summit of global capitalism. Goldman Sachs invited him to chair its London-based international arm — opening doors, soothing egos and networking ferociously. The timing was, as ever, immaculate. Not only was he slotting himself into Goldman when the firm was embarking on a decade-long run of unbroken success, he also stepped in just as it transformed itself from a partnership to a limited company. Along the way he collected a reported £125 million in Goldman shares — not bad for someone who claims not to know much about investment banking.

Yet it is probably at BP that he has made the more lasting impact, chairing the company through much of Lord Browne’s long but sometimes turbulent reign. Browne made a pair of big strategic bets at BP: that oil was too cheap in the late 1990s, making it a great time to buy your rivals; and that Russia was the most important source of new oil.

In a move that will drive substantial foreign investment in India, Standard & Poor’s became the third major ratings agency to raise India’s sovereign rating to investment grade. The rating now stands at BBB-/A-3. S&P cited a strong national balance sheet, foreign exchange accumulation, strong capital flows and prudent debt management. Though this is a sovereign rating upgrade, it does not affect the Indian government much since it does not borrow much from foreign markets.

However, the rating upgrade will have a very significant effect on corporate India’s activities. Indian companies raised $30 billion in debt, largely through convertible securities, between April 2004 and March 2006. Even before the rating upgrade, Indian dollar-denominated debt was finely priced at 57 basis points above six-month LIBOR. The spread over LIBOR is expected to fall further, while the rupee is expected to strengthen.

The rating upgrade reflects strong growth in India’s economy. According to the Central Statistical Organization (CSO), Indian GDP growth is expected to be 9.2% for the fiscal year 2006-2007 (April-March), topping the blistering 9% growth of 2005-2006. Estimates for 2006-2007 show manufacturing growth at 11.3% against 9% last year, while construction grew at 9.4% against 14.2%. Agriculture grew by only 2.7% against 7% in 2005-2006. Within the services sector, banking and finance has expanded by 11.1%, while trade, hotels, transport and telecommunications have grown by 13%.

The premier Indian stock exchanges are sitting pretty, as overseas stock exchanges and private equity funds line up for a stake. Deutsche Börse, Nasdaq, the London Stock Exchange and the Singapore Stock Exchange are all in the fray for a 5% stake in the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) prior to its IPO this May. The exchange has been valued at $800 million. Earlier, the National Stock Exchange (NSE) sold a 5% stake to the NYSE Group, General Atlantic, Goldman Sachs and Softbank Asian Infrastructure Fund. The NSE has been valued at $1.2 billion. The Indian market regulator, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), has stipulated that a single investor cannot control more than 5% in either stock exchange. -Aaron Chaze

The rise of brand hotel chains in the UK is threatening the existence of hundreds of independent hotels.

According to a new survey from Hotel Reservation Service, almost half of the 300 owners surveyed are in direct competition with a chain and more than a quarter report a drop in bookings as a result.

Chains are criticised for their failure to invest in local communities or to engage with them. A total of 62 per cent of independent owners believe brand hotels in their area make an insignificant contribution as an employer or trainer of local people, with a similar figure claiming they fail to buy local produce or services.

“We used to have an active hotels association in Leicester,” said James Bowie, owner of the Belmont House Hotel in the city. “We would put on citywide promotions and share information. But in recent years the chains have become much more reluctant to share any information - they’ve become much more insular.

“Consequently, the association no longer exists.”

Mr Bowie said that the vast marketing budgets of the chains can make a big difference, while custom flowing through web-sites can be a mixed blessing. The sites may ask for a cut of up to 25 per cent and insist on the lowest possible room rates being quoted.

“The big boys can absorb these kind of costs better than the smaller operators,” he explained.

For Ricky Kapoor, commercial director at the 85-room Old Waverley Hotel in central Edinburgh, winning the battle against the encroaching chains means upgrading the hotel facilities and keeping prices down, adding value to the proposition.

“We have added things like wi-fi, so the facilities are four- star, but we’re charging three-star prices ,” he claimed.

Rather than always competing on price, Mr Kapoor argues that reinvesting in the product, offering extras like a free bottle of wine in every room and concentrating on good marketing strategies can make a difference.

“We have to come up with creative ideas and ensure our quality remains high.” .

As Andrew Beale, owner of Beales hotels in north London, pointed out, many of the large chains are now owned by private equity firms, which have stripped the assets to the bone in a search for higher margins.

“I’m not worried about the chains at all because I’m in a totally different place from them,” he said. “If you’d asked me 10 years ago, I’d have said they felt like a threat, but groups like Thistle, Ramada Jarvis and Queen’s Moat haven’t had any money spent on them for years.”

As in any industry, if you stand still, you are likely to be left behind, said Mr Beale, whose family has managed to keep refreshing its products since 1769 (he is an eighth-generation owner).

Grant Appleton, commercial director of Hotel Reservation Service, argued that the type of online booking service that customers use can make a difference in encouraging them to visit independent hotels.

“Using an impartial booking system such as ours means a fairer deal for the independent hotel as the customer can search for a room that suits their needs.

“By not promoting one hotel above another the customer also gets more choice, value and ultimately a better deal.”

Hotel Reservation Service charges a flat fee for hotels to list on its site, rather than a percentage of room rates.