Edifice Luxe by Genny Briar

Genny Briar

From: Scott Lansdowne (s.lansdowne@edificeluxe.com)

To: Charly Briar (c.briar@edificeluxe.com)

Subject: Hotel Job

Attachment Hotel PR – Job Description

Hi Charly,

I thought you might be interested in this… I know how much you “love” working as a copywriter. Here’s your chance to work in PR!

Travel is basically 100% of the time. You’d be based out of Bangkok travelling to all Edifice Luxe properties throughout Southeast Asia as the Public Relations Manager.

You’d be organizing hotel openings, hosting media, working with the locals to promote sustainable tourism, etc. etc.

See attached for more details and compensation. It’s your chance to finally be a real “expat”.

It starts next month, let me know!

Scott Lansdowne,
Marketing Manager, Sales & Marketing,
Edifice Luxe Hotels & Resorts
Boston Headquarters

¤ * § * ¤

Based out of Boston – where I was born and raised, and where all my friends and family lived – I worked in the marketing department for the world’s biggest hotel brand. The perfect job straight out of college with a decent salary and I was their copywriter. From day to day I instructed would-be vacationers to:

“Dive into extravagant minimalism, embrace modernity in an ancient landscape, abandon yourself in a journey of self-discovery at Edifice Luxe”.

Ok… so it was slightly on the fluffy and vapid side of things, but it was a start. A start I might add, at Edifice Luxe: The most chic hotel brand on the planet. Plus, the job had a commuting time of about seven minutes from my bed to my cubicle – I don’t do networking parties and I don’t do commuting – so I learned to deal with it. And of course, there was the promise that one day I too might embark on an incredible journey of self-discovery as an expatriate!

I accepted the offer immediately and moved to Bangkok two weeks later.

¤ * § * ¤

Hours after landing I was already at work. Unlike the rugged Bangkok landscape outside, Edifice Luxe Hotels & Resorts’ compound was pristinely manicured, expertly manned and smelled like freshly baked bread and Gerber daisies.

“You’ll be our brand ambassador when it comes to media,” said my new boss with a voice that inspired confidence; “Study the region’s top travel media, you’ll need to know who’s who. And of course, you’re expected to attend all the events – whether it’s a hotel opening or a door opening. Speaking of, here’s an invite for one tonight. It’s called The Hotelier’s Ball. See you there.”

Networking… Oh boy.

* § * ¤

My boyfriend Kai and I walked the short distance down the driveway of Bangkok’s landmark expat hub, The British Club. (I’d dragged him along with me on my fabulous journey of self-discovery; I obviously wasn’t embarking into the unknown alone!) I had made it through 24 years of life successfully avoiding these types of functions but my luck had run out: This was a party for the travel industry – and the media – and I was going to have to mingle, schmooze and (worse than bobbing for apples in a live lobster tank) network. I drew in a nervous breath as Kai and I rounded the corner: Nobody was as dressed up as we were.

“Don’t worry, you look great,” Kai told me. I shifted uneasily in my cocktail dress, cursed the uneven driveway, reignited my gate and strode forward with faux confidence toward the sounds of easy laughter and clinking glasses. Soft music emanated from tiny outdoor speakers while perfectly strewn rows of white lights undulated softly in the breeze. Everything about The British Club had a soft feeling to it: The music, the flowing dresses of the female attendees, even the conversation seemed to linger in the air before floating softly up toward the night sky. It was the closest thing to an old-fashioned country club I had ever seen.

Most everyone seemed older than us and they congregated in casual but distinctly exclusive groups. Older men with soft white hair and gentle faces assembled by the hors d’oeuvres and spoke in deep, smoky voices. They wore tailored shirts and tan linen trousers stretched to the limit over husky waistlines. Every belly laugh or hearty chuckle resulted in a good deal of alcohol falling out of thick scotch tumblers down on to the perfectly manicured lawn. No one seemed to notice, or care.

The older women grouped together as well. They were like sorority sisters, giggling and whispering with each other. Their hair, which betrayed their age with gentle wisps of grey, was assembled into loose chignons that moved softly when they laughed. Their makeup was modest and they wore elegant frocks and shawls. Both the older male and female expatriates seemed genuinely happy.

The younger women either donned chic pant suits or plain skirts and sweater sets. The pant suits congregated in a similar fashion to the older women, while the sweater sets sat by themselves at tables covered in white linen and gold confetti. I guessed that they must be expat mums.

So these are expatriates, I thought; the people who leave their country, family and the familiar behind. And not just for two weeks’ vacation, but to immerse themselves totally and completely in the unknown. I suddenly felt capsized as I realized I may have embarked upon on a grander endeavour than I’d originally anticipated. I didn’t want to abandon my customs and I certainly didn’t want to fall out of touch with my friends and family.

Breathe.

Thankfully Kai stepped in just before I went into a complete over-analytical tailspin: “I’ll get us drinks,” he said over his shoulder as he walked away.

Don’t leave me!

“Great,” I said half to myself, “thanks.”

I was left alone and abandoned to ponder what it meant to be an expat and shift uneasily in my too-tight dress.

This is why I hate networking parties.

With no social props such as a drink or cell phone, I resorted to lighting one of Kai’s cigarettes. I hardly ever smoke and when I do, it’s always out of desperation.

“Tsk, tsk. You shouldn’t smoke my dear.”

I spun around quickly to see a soft, motherly looking woman, possibly in her early forties, smiling softly. I started to apologize as my cheeks flushed scarlet – I must have committed an expat sin by smoking at The British Club – when she stopped me, “Oh my heavens no, I was just teasing, actually, do you have an extra?”

I breathed a sigh of smoky relief and offered one of Kai’s cigarettes to the woman as she introduced herself: She was a writer for Asia’s biggest spa magazine and she’d been abroad for fifteen years.

A real expat!

I knew she’d be an endless well of knowledge about life abroad and I wasted no time, “Tell me everything! How did you come to be here, what’s the best part about being an expat, what’s the worst? Don’t leave anything out!”

“Oh my gosh, you’re really happy to be here, aren’t you?” she smiled genuinely. “That’s great but I don’t know where to begin. You really have to figure this out on our own; I bet that’s why you embarked on this journey in the first place, right?”

Wow, she was good.

“The one thing I can tell you for sure,” she continued, “is don’t get sidetracked from why you initially went away. It’s very easy to do, especially as a woman. New arrivals risk becoming spiritually malleable, even when they’re just trying to be accommodating. Don’t become a victim of someone else’s life plan.”

Spiritually malleable? A victim of someone else’s life plan? This isn’t a yoga retreat, lady.

I only wished she was as helpful as she was sweet. None of that was useful and I smiled nicely while willing Kai to come back with our drinks. I wanted the juicy stuff: Where to go shopping, the best expat hangout, what’s the latest gossip?

She wished me well and left to talk to some friends as I became painfully aware of my place on the periphery of this weird and wild world. I wanted in so badly, but to what I wasn’t sure. It never occurred to me to think about that sort of thing back home with my safety net of friends and family, but here, I was no one, and I had to change that. I wouldn’t give up that easily.

Kai finally emerged with two glasses of the wrong kind of Pinot, “Had enough?”

“Not yet,” I raised an eyebrow and smiled, “not just yet.”

* § * ¤

Genny Briar’s first novel, “Fully Booked”, comes out early 2012. Follow her @gennybriar

(Caption of image on blog landing page: A tourist holds a “mojito” in this May 29, 2010 file photo. REUTERS/Desmond Boylan)

The survey* of 1,000 travel fans and pilots, conducted by the private jet hire booking network, PrivateFly.com, asked voters to choose from a shortlist of 28 or nominate an airport of their choice.

Winner Barra airport received just over 22% of the vote. Licensed as an airfield in 1936, planes touch down on the beach at Traigh Mhor at the northern end of the island. These days, according to media reports, Barra welcomes around 10,000 air arrivals a year.

Commenting on the results, Adam Twidell, CEO of PrivateFly.com and an experienced pilot, said: “A thrilling view on approach is a huge part of the joy of flying – for passengers and pilots alike. It’s interesting to note that most of the airports on the list are smaller ones rather than major international airline hubs.”

Michael Galbraith, station manager for Barra airport, agrees: “It goes to show that when it comes to a stunning landing, small can definitely be more beautiful,” he said in a statement.

Here’s the top 10; click on the links to view footage of the air approaches:

1.       Barra airport (Scotland, UK)

Tiny Barra airport in Scotland’s Outer Hebrides has a unique beach runway – the only one in the world for scheduled aircraft – with flight times varying according to the tide as the runway is literally washed away once a day. The beach is also open to foot visitors who must observe the windsock to see if the airport is in operation. One voter commented “Beautiful scenery and it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity to land on a beach”.

2.       London City Airport (London, UK)

As the closest airport to London’s city centre, the approach to London City airport provides a highly scenic approach over iconic landmarks including Big Ben, the London Eye and the 2012 Olympic park. The approach is unique as the glide path is set at a steep 5.8 degrees as opposed to the usual 3, with one voter calling it “a thrilling descent with panoramic London views”.

3.       Jackson Hole Airport (Wyoming, USA)

Set against a backdrop of the Teton Mountains and entirely surrounded by the spectacular scenery of the Grand Teton National Park, Jackson Hole airport was declared a USA national monument in the 1940s. One voter commented: “The beauty of the Grand Tetons is amazing as you are approaching Jackson Hole, especially at the beginning of sunset! Awesome is the only word”.

4.       Aruba Airport (Dutch Caribbean)

Queen Beatrix International Airport is the gateway to the Caribbean island of Aruba. Located on the island’s west coast, the runway approach gives stunning incoming views of the island as you fly over the ocean. It was originally a US airbase, and was developed into an international airport in the 1950s. One voter commented: “You can see the island ocean to ocean, outlined in white. Just nature at its best”.

5.       Malé Airport (Maldives)

Surrounded by the Indian Ocean and offering highly scenic views of the archipelago of the Maldives, Malé airport (officially called Ibrahim Nasir International Airport) is situated on Hulhulé island, one of the twenty-six Maldivian atolls closest to the capital island Malé. It was originally built by a workforce of 2250 local volunteers in the 1960s. One fan commented that “you often see turtles and dolphins on approach”.

6.       St Barts Airport (French Caribbean)

With a runway length of just 650 metres, Gustaf III Airport on the Caribbean island of St Barthelemy does not cater to international flights – only scheduled and private charter propeller services. With very tight angles, hills, unusual wind conditions and the short landing strip to negotiate, it is a very challenging descent, with only the most qualified and highly-trained pilots able to land there. One voter likened it to “landing on an aircraft carrier”.

7.       Queenstown Airport (New Zealand)

Situated on the South Island of New Zealand, a landing at Queenstown offers birds-eye views of New Zealand’s famously beautiful scenery, including Lake Wakatipu and the Southern Alps and Remarkables mountain ranges. The airport is particularly busy in the winter when these turn into some of the world’s finest skiing slopes. One fan commented: “The stunning low level approach brushes past the great Southern Alps, you are able to see people skiing as you fly in. Simply beautiful”.

8.      Gibraltar (British overseas territory)

Gibraltar airport, owned by the Ministry of Defence as RAF Gibraltar, is the world’s closest to the city that it serves, being just 500 metres from Gibraltar’s city centre. The runway is actually intersected by a main road which closes every time a plane lands or departs. The rock of Gibraltar looms large on the stunning approach, causing unusual wind patterns and turbulence. One voter commented “Challenging winds and a great view – not to mention a slight feeling of superiority when you cross the closed road!”

9.       Narvik Airport (Norway)

Narvik Airport is located within the Arctic Circle in northern Norway, and is one of the world’s most northerly airports. It was built in 1972 and originally used as a military airport. The approach offers stunning views of the wintery landscape with one voter describing its location as “surrounded by arctic landscape, mountains, lakes and fjords”.

10.     St Maarten (French/Dutch Caribbean)

The Princess Juliana airport on the Caribbean island of St Maarten (Saint Martin) is exceptionally close to the beach, with low-flying aircraft skimming the heads of holidaymakers below. The sunset bar area at the end of the runway is the ultimate plane-spotter’s viewing spot: In a local ritual, thrill-seekers ‘ride the fence’, hanging on during the jet blast from a 747 take off. One fan called the landing “terrifying yet brilliant”.

*  The PrivateFly.com Favourite Airport Approach poll was conducted from October 11 to November 25, 2011 on PrivateFly.com. Results were generated by PrivateFly website users and from social media invitations across a range of global sites. 1018 votes were received in total, with 79 different airports receiving a nomination.

(Caption on blog landing page: Barra beach landing. Image courtesy of PrivateFly.com)

British pubs and brewery group Greene King are doing well this year. Asked why they were enjoying higher half-year profits, the 212-year-old Suffolk based firm told reporters this week that hard-pressed consumers struggling to cope with economic pressures were seeking solace in their local pubs.

Pubs have always been a place to escape the workaday, to celebrate our wins, cushion our losses. But is, as the headlines routinely scream, British pub culture now seriously under threat?

Answers come by the tankard in “The Search for the Perfect Pub”, a recently released pub crawl-meets-liquid social history. In it, Paul Moody and Robin Turner trawl the Kingdom to distil how business interests, weak political will and an authenticity sapping idea of “progress” have ganged up on the traditional watering hole, threatening our last vestige of freedom, a “liquid escape from the daily grind.”

This, the authors think, is something even non pub-goers should resent; each boarded up public house severs another link to our shared community-drinking heritage, a gut-lining history than can be traced back on these islands to the Roman roadside tabernae circa 43 AD.

In the two years the writers spent ascertaining just how much pubs matter to us, they had to fight against the brave new identikit boozers and dive deep to locate the real, rustic wheat amongst the sports-bar chaff. Their book is subtitled “Looking for The Moon Under Water”; George Orwell’s search for a utopian pub of that name (he fantasised about it in an Evening Standard column in 1946) mirrors their own.

Pub chain JD Wetherspoon today owns 14 The Moon Under Waters – though none will match up to Orwell’s stringent list of attributes of which has the perfect pub, where motherly barmaids call you ‘dear’ and which sells “tobacco as well as cigarettes.” As Robin Turner writes in a blog entry, “In days of ‘vertical drinking establishments’, most people’s experience of pubs is about as far from the Orwell version as it’s possible to get.”

Our pubs, says campaigner Josie Appleton, convenor of The Manifesto Club (“for freedom in everyday life”), were once “buzzing with real life. Prostitutes, gaming, deals being done, people having affairs, a sense of intensity and illicitness.” Now they’re all about polite after-office chats.

Yes, they’re clean and serve good food, but ‘pubtivists’ bemoan the prevalence of CCTV cameras, bouncers, the no-smoking rule, and woeful lack of live music due to a complicated permit system.

Like so many growth businesses, pubcos have traded personality for profit – but they are not solely to blame. As Appleton says in the book, we are living in cosseted, over-regulated times – where the middles classes consume wine at home or at gastro pubs, and the lower classes take to supermarkets’ cheap booze or drink in city centre super-pubs run by large companies.

I take slight issue with gripes about gastro pubs. Blurring the line between pubs and restaurants, they have filled a niche, attracting punters trading down from eating out at expensive restaurants and those happy to avoid busier venues full of rowdy twenty-somethings or aggressively drunk groups of men. The food at gastro pubs is surprisingly good, even Michelin standard, and they can attain a community ambiance.

The pub isn’t dead quite yet. We learn that if we were to visit five UK pubs a day, every day, it would take us 28.5 years. However, of the country’s 52,000 pubs, some 50 close a week. But the well-run ones are not going out of business. As Richard Dollimore, chairman of the Newcastle and Northumbria branch of CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale) tells Paul Moody: “the good pubs, with good vibes and decent ale, will always do well.”

Moody and co-author Turner locate many pubs of independent spirit across the country, from London to Edinburgh, Devon to Blackpool; the book is in part a guidebook to the most fascinating watering holes in the country (one only wishes they’d thought to include an index).

We discover the Pack o’ Cards in Combe Martin, Devon. Shaped like a deck of cards, with 52 windows, 13 doors and four floors, the inn (you can stay here too) was built by a “gambling squire” in 1680. Others take a bit more gumption to reach: The Marisco Tavern on Lundy Island requires a two-hour voyage across the Bristol Channel; a klaxon signals the last boat back – miss it, and you have to wait three days for the next one.

“Everyone’s perfect pub is out there,” writes Robin Turner. “If you’re looking for it, you’ll know it when you find it.” This book can only help the search.

(The Search for the Perfect Pub: Looking for the Moon Under Water, by Paul Moody and Robin Turner, Orion Books RRP £14.99)

(Main caption on blog landing page: Detail of the book cover)

The Chancellor shouldn’t drag his heels on the timings around APD for business jet flights in the UK

In Chancellor George Osborne’s Autumn statement (November, 29), he announced the extension of Air Passenger Duty (APD) to trips taken aboard business jets, effective from April 2013.

The extension of APD to business aviation was announced in the March 2011 Budget with many expecting it to come into operation in April 2012 alongside the increases in APD bands for airline passengers (the details of which will be announced imminently). Some commentators are seeing this as a delay.

The timings may be unclear but the Chancellor need not drag his heels. If APD is to be calculated the same way for private jet passengers as it is for airlines, it would add a relatively small increase to the costs of a private charter flight and would be unlikely to cause much alarm to passengers.

Currently, the duty applies to airline flights in bands according to both the distance of the journey and the class of seat. Average passenger payload is 2.8 per flight, so the impact on a return flight from London to Paris would be to increase the cost overall by 3.5 percent (£134.40 on a typical £3,900 return journey).

Following Tuesday’s announcement, I believe that two areas remain unclear:

• If APD will be calculated the same way for business jet passengers – i.e. according to distance travelled and seat pitch. Should the Chancellor introduce a new APD band for private jet passengers, the reaction may be different.
• There is likely to be an issue around the collection of APD from customers. Business jet flights are like taxis and flights departing from the UK can be operated by UK-based operators or by overseas operators whose aircraft happen to be here. UK operators will undoubtedly introduce robust processes to collect APD from passengers and pass this revenue to the Treasury, but who will ensure that overseas operators do the same on flights departing from the UK?

If those issues are solved, I believe the industry will embrace the change. Introducing APD for private jet flights will be another way of moving the sector forward and integrating with the travel industry as a whole. Other key areas of change are making business jet flights more widely available through travel agents and providing online aggregation and booking.

Private jet charter is increasingly being seen as a viable and comparable form of time-efficient travel, with two-thirds of European flights going where airlines don’t operate a direct service*; and offering optimal scheduling flexibility.

*Source: EUROCONTROL Air Traffic statistics

(Caption on blog landing page: Chief executives Steve Ridgeway of Virgin Atlantic, Carolyn McCall of easyJet, Willie Walsh of IAG and Michael O’Leary of Ryanair (L-R), calling on the British government to scrap Air Passenger Duty (APD), pose outside the London Stock Exchange in London November 17, 2011. REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett)

Why not beam e-books onto passengers’ personal devices, we wondered. Or, even better, stock audio books.

So it was nice to see Cathay Pacific Airways announce today that a collection of audio books will be on all their Audio and Video on Demand-equipped medium- and long-haul flights from December. This adds to their expansive library of 100 movies, over 500 TV programmes, 888 music CDs, 22 radio channels and programmes in nine languages.

Audio books will be in English, but the airline tells me that should they prove popular they will consider launching titles in other languages.

The first batch of spoken-word stories span best-sellers, how-to tomes, autobiographies and classics:

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Vol. I – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Around the World in Eighty Days – Jules Verne

No Country for Old Men – Cormac McCarthy

Now You See Her – James Patterson

The Autobiography – Eric Clapton

The Affair – Lee Child

Daughter-in-Law­ – Joanna Trollope

The Fear Index – Robert Harris

The Lowdown: Blogging for Business

The Lowdown: Top Tips for Wannabe CEOs

Which books would you most like to listen to at 30,000 feet? Let me know and I’ll pass it on.

The airing of the ABC television series “Pan Am” is dosing older audiences with Jet Set nostalgia, and raising the eyebrows of younger ones with its scenes of air stewardesses undergoing preflight weigh-ins, grooming inspections and girdle checks (a bottom slap).

As the show’s star, Christina Ricci – she plays a purser – said in a media interview: “[the girls] had to be these intelligent, gracious hostesses who could be… emissaries in a way and I don’t think I realised that and I think that a lot of people won’t realise that until they watch the show.”

Pan Am flight attendants were all of a certain weight (between 110 and 135 pounds), health (excellent) and personality (extremely charming)… and single. Though they looked the part, modern audiences may squirm at the sexism and gender discrimination on display.

The Association of Flight Attendants released a statement on the show following its premiere in September. Pan Am, it wrote, “highlighted the myriad of social injustices overcome by the strong women who shaped a new career.”

Despite the union’s justifiable pride in how far the rights of flight attendants have come, can one detect a hint of nostalgia for travel’s “golden age”? The statement continues: “The fictional, glamorized world of Hollywood’s Pan Am is a far cry from today’s realities of air travel that ditches high fashion for ‘low cost,’ jam-packed airplanes and massive cuts to Flight Attendant staffing.”

In an interview with Movieweb.com, Pan Am’s executive producer Jack Orman points to the larger truth behind the fiction: “They got it right the first time. Transcontinental commercial flights started in the late ’50s and we really haven’t gotten any faster… I think the appeal of Pan Am as a brand is the idea that travelling was fun and glamorous and entertaining and in a more innocent time certainly before all the security and all the rigmarole that you have to go through to get through the airport.”

Light security gives Pan Am its biggest plot point: Espionage. One of the stewardesses, Kelli Garner, moonlights as a CIA courier and gets into all kinds of scrapes in Paris, Berlin, Jakarta.

According to former Pan Am stewardess Nancy Hult Ganis, who worked as a producer on the show, airline employees really were recruited by the CIA. In an interview with wired.com, Ganis said she turned up stories about the carrier’s involvement with the U.S. State Department on “behind-the-scene missions.”

Several of the brushes with history dealt with in the show are true stories: JFK’s Berlin visit in June ’63; evacuating a planeload of pre-Cuban prisoners from the Bay of Pigs invasion.

Overly romanticised it may be, but Pan Am is an alluring, stylised foray into a time of discovery, excitement and passion increasingly hard to find for the modern traveller. It is also the story – absorbingly fictionalised, of an iconic airline that laid the groundwork for our cross-continental world.

Though hotel rates in the first six months of 2011 rose by just 3 percent globally, the HPI* points to Sao Paolo’s impressive 27 percent rise, and Singapore, Hong Kong and Sydney which show double-digit price increases.

Nigel Pocklington, senior vice president, global marketing at Hotels.com says there are several factors at play here:

“The relative strength of currencies, particularly in Sydney where you have a weaker pound up against a stronger Australian Dollar… and limited supply, especially in Sao Paulo and Hong Kong, also pushed up demand and fuelled prices.”

Across BRIC nations, the HPI reveals Brazil was up 7 percent to 132 pounds, Russia was up 11 percent to 141 pounds, India was up 2 percent to 85 pounds and China was up 4 percent to 92 pounds.

Corporate demand is inelastic regarding hotel prices per se, with employers more concerned about macroscopic economic indicators, but though business travel fell alarmingly during the last recession, Pocklington reaffirms that: “Business travel has gone up 10 percent this year, and there are no signs that businesses are making the same mistakes again.”

Hotels.com (part of the Expedia group) says the survey’s findings are consistent with the Global Business Travel Association’s projection that worldwide business travel spending will rise 9.2 percent in 2011.

In a statement, the company writes: “At a time of economic turmoil in the developed world, it’s important to remember that some markets are still doing very well and outstripping the traditional powerhouses of the global economy… It’s fair to say that hotel rates are serving as a good barometer of the growing importance and popularity of cities in these rapidly-developing countries to the global business community.”

There were some surprises: A 19 percent fall in Shanghai as hoteliers re-adjusted after 2010’s World Expo event added dramatically to the city’s rooms. (Intense supply-side action was also seen in New York, with 20,000 rooms in the construction and planning phases; London tops the European chart with over 4,500 additional rooms.)

Luxury mavens should ponder the HPI’s “Where to go for 100 pounds a night” section. Marrakech and Warsaw offer five-star hotel accommodation averaging less than 100 pounds a night, but a host more, from Bangkok and Bali to Dublin and Vienna, offer four-star rooms for that price.

Budapest had the cheapest room cost per square metre at just 2.10 pounds; Dublin was the best value in the euro zone at 2.96 pounds. London was one of the most expensive cities surveyed with each square metre costing the equivalent of 5.82 pounds and Stockholm was the dearest at 8 pounds.

My gaze, however, was drawn to a light-hearted section near the end of the report looking at sleeping routines. This found that more Norwegians said they chose to sleep naked in their hotel bed than any other nation, with the British a close second. But, the Spanish get the top prize. They are the most amorous away from home, with 62 percent passing the time making love.

*The Hotels.com HPI tracks the real prices paid per hotel room (rather than advertised rates) for 125,000 properties across more than 19,000 locations around the world.  The latest HPI looks at prices in the first half of 2011 compared to those in the first half of 2010.

(Caption on blog landing page: View of a bedroom suite during the inauguration of the Mandarin Oriental hotel in Paris June 28, 2011. REUTERS/Charles Platiau)

By 2019, the EU’s rail traffic will be deregulated. What issues does this raise for the operator and their customers?

Imagine this: A rail service to suit all budgets, where a traveller with just one electronic ticket can enjoy a swift, safe and sustainable journey to just about any destination on the network.

Thanks to a combination of deregulation, common standards for train control and command systems, and the extension of high-speed track, much of the world’s rail industry – and its passengers – stand on the threshold of just such a bright and borderless future.

The European Union’s national train companies are now free to pick up passengers in other countries as long as the journey originates in their domestic market; and by 2014, the ability to conduct a journey between two domestic points will be extended to foreign companies.

High-speed lines are starting to facilitate faster, cleaner travel between major cities from Spain to Finland. So much so that on some key routes rail travel is fast gaining market share as a low-cost, low-carbon alternative to both air and road transport. As more countries sign up to the European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) cross-border interoperability looks set to become a reality right across the continent.

Optimising opportunities
Yet few national rail operators are in a position to optimise these exciting new opportunities – or give their customers the integrated rail transport experience that they increasingly demand.

Most European rail companies still operate their own schedules, booking platforms and ticketing, so it’s impossible for a customer to book and pay for a trip involving several carriers in a single transaction. What’s more, few of Europe’s train-traffic fleets are fully fit for purpose. Saddled with ageing or otherwise inadequate rolling stock, and mired in often fractious disputes with the companies that run rail infrastructure, some operators struggle to keep trains running at all – let alone on time and on budget.

By 2019 all rail traffic within the European Union will be deregulated – opening up the marketplace to a wide range of new providers, including airlines and private equity players. In order to compete, today’s rail companies require a new and transformational approach to doing business – an approach that will help them meet the needs of the modern rail passenger and position both rail traffic and infrastructure operators to become successful players in a rapidly globalising marketplace.

They will need more efficient business models, better fixed asset and rolling stock maintenance, and above all, considerably better customer relationship management.

New models, new solutions
New business models are already taking shape. Witness the Public Private Partnership (PPP) financing model that has enabled high-speed train traffic through the Pyrenees between Figueres in Spain and Perpignan in France. Meanwhile, significant increases in both high-speed and regional traffic account for most of the 21 percent increase in cross-border traffic within the EU over the past decade. Despite relatively slow progress toward continent-wide technical standardisation, rail traffic and infrastructure operators have found novel ways of circumventing the challenges of diverse track gauges and signalling systems. Case in point: The train axle system with variable gauge wheels that enables the Paris-Madrid service.

Much more, however, needs to be done. Rail companies now need to reconfigure their own operations, intensifying efforts to develop the leaner, low-cost operating models that have already helped transform much of the airline industry. They also need to implement the sort of rolling-stock maintenance solutions that have so improved customer service at Metro de Madrid, leveraging best practices from other industries and leading-edge technologies to minimise project risks and reduce project timelines and costs.

Most urgent of all, perhaps, are new initiatives for customer interactions. Customers across Europe are clamouring for more reliable, more affordable and more efficient rail services that enhance mobility, especially between and within cities. They require flexible rate structures and seamless, interoperable ticketing systems – the sort of E-ticketing interoperability that travellers within the Netherlands now enjoy, but Europe-wide.

Providing such a service will involve overcoming deep regional rivalries and other major political hurdles – but the means of delivering it are already available. By leveraging analytics-driven solutions that offer better customer information and customised campaign management, and by pursuing distribution initiatives that make the most of best-in-class technologies, rail companies will be able to improve their own revenue management and respond with speed and agility to the constantly escalating requirements of their customers.

(Caption on blog landing page: The ICE German high speed train is seen after it arrived at St Pancras station in London, October 19, 2010. REUTERS/Andrew Winning)

The Transport Committee, which presses for travel improvements for Londoners, heard that the hardware is there but more needs to done to ensure London’s transport infrastructure can take the strain during a period when a third of Londoners will be obliged to significantly change their travel patterns.

UK transport bosses must tread a fine line enacting programmes which both address strict Games regulations and the needs of Londoners. It is a balancing act, but one in which local politicians see scope for common-sense tweaks.

As committee chair Caroline Pidgeon told me, “They’re not going to take the Games away from us if we do some things that aren’t quite what we signed up to. So let’s have some sense in this, and push boundaries.”

Pidgeon was referring in particular to the Olympic Route Network (ORN) and Paralympic Route Network (PRN), roads unencumbered by pedestrian crossings and parked cars, with side roads blocked off and turning options deactivated. The network is causing particular consternation to London councils, despite the fact that they will operate on just one percent of London’s tributaries.

Which roads when?
To complicate matters, “Games Lanes” make up a third of the 109-mile long ORN and are only accessible to the 80,000-strong Games Family (Olympics athletes, team officials, media, sponsors) and their fleet of 1,500 coaches and 4,000 cars and vans.

“Everyone understands athletes and officials should be able to use Games Lanes,” Pidgeon said. “But sponsors and VIPS; quite honestly some of them should be using things like the short train journey from St Pancras, which will be far more pleasant than driving all that way.”

Pidgeon was referring to the high-speed Javelin service which is designed to whisk thousands of sports fans from central London to the Olympic Park in a few minutes.

London’s iconic black cabs are under current rules disallowed onto these lanes and have threatened to blockade city streets if their concerns on this subject are not addressed. Talks are ongoing between TfL and the taxi companies.

Defending the exclusive use of Games Lanes at a culture, media and sport select committee hearing on November 15, LOCOG Chairman Seb Coe said: “The reputational damage to this city is at its highest if we can’t get those client groups round London quickly and to those events that they are either competing in or managing for us.”

“It is very important that taxi drivers are not being disadvantaged in this process,” Coe told the select committee. “I would be concerned if anybody carried out a threat of disruption during an Olympic Games; it’s tough enough to organise as it is.”

Up the junction
With an extra three million journeys expected during the Games’ busiest days, TfL are breaking down the entire Olympic period in half-hour intervals to let businesses know where and when pressure points are predicted and how to best avoid them. Hotspots are due to seriously affect city employees who work near the main London rail termini, as well as around the key financial districts of Bank and Canary Wharf.

At least 85 percent of businesses at Canary Wharf, for example, will vary staff working hours and encourage others to work from home or take a holiday. Canary Wharf houses approximately 120,000 workers and sits on the Jubilee underground line that runs to the Olympic Park at Stratford.

However, real-time efforts could make all the difference between seamless travel and congested chaos; TfL will be steering people from using flared-up routes, keeping Olympics spectators off the commuter-full Jubilee Line at rush hours for example and diverting them on to the National Railway from Liverpool Street.

This might be easier with overseas visitors than set-in-their-ways locals. “If you’re from outside London, up to a point, you will follow the route you’re told; but Londoners [...] know all their shortcuts and will continue with them,” thinks Caroline Pidgeon.

TfL Commissioner Peter Hendy told the panel of the committee’s previous session on October 11 that workers in London Bridge should perhaps, “…have a beer before you go home because you will not be able to get in the station for a bit” on days that an Equestrian event turns out up the river at Greenwich. Queues of 90 minutes are forecast for station access in London Bridge and Greenwich.

Down the river
TfL reaffirmed on Tuesday that they are trying to promote the river as an alternative route to and from events. An additional 40 scheduled trips will be made each weekday during the Games on River Thames passenger services, which already carry five million customers a year between central London and Greenwich.

But the transport committee on November 15 challenged why Games ticketholders will get free travel within zones 1–9 on London’s public transport network but will only receive discounted fares of 30 percent on river services.

“Using the river is a great way for tourists particularly to enjoy the sights and have a nice relaxing trip to their venue,” Pidgeon told me. “People are booking these trips now and I don’t blame them; I think [the river] needs to be promoted as well as the other modes of transport.”

As passenger demand management becomes better understood between now and the Games, Hugh Sumner, director of transport for the Olympic Development Authority, told the London Assembly to expect life as unusual.

“We’ll all be doing slightly different things in terms of where, when and how we’re travelling, but will it be a vibrant city next summer? Yes it will. We want to encourage people to have a great time in Summer 2012.”

(Caption on blog landing page: Paralympian Oscar Pistorius of South Africa poses for photographers during a photo-call near Tower Bridge in London September 7, 2012. REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett)

One of the most irritating things about business travel – of air travel in general, really – is flying when your seatmate is a crying baby or a non-stop chatter and you’re trying to work, sleep or just enjoy the in-flight entertainment.

But even when you’re not sitting next to a teething infant or gabby neighbour, the hum of the plane engine can be distracting.

Whether you need complete silence to get that report done before you land, hope to catch up on some sleep during a cross-country red-eye, or simply want all outside noises blocked so you can watch Casablanca in peace, noise-cancelling headphones can help.

According to data provided by FindTheBest – a data-driven comparison engine – when consumers are looking to purchase headphones, the most common feature they search for is noise-cancelling functionality. Fifty-two percent of consumers researching headphone features look into noise-cancelling functionality; that’s more than the amount of searches for the next three top researched features: Wireless (20 percent), microphone (18 percent) and volume remote (11 percent).

But there are several other factors to take into consideration when looking for a quality set of headphones for business travel – from the weight and style of the headphones to its frequency range and sensitivity. The headphones below are the top Smart Rated noise-cancelling headphones; the Smart Rating takes into consideration product features – including the features above – as well as the reviews and ratings of experts.

Top 5 Smart-Rated, Noise-Canceling Headphones:

1. Shure SRH940
Style: Over ear
Frequency low/high: 5Hz/30kHz
Weight: 322g
Impedance: 42 ohms
Sensitivity: 100 dB

2. Sennhesier HD25-SP II
Style: On ear
Frequency low/high: 30Hz/16kHz
Weight: 115g
Impedance: 60 ohms
Sensitivity: 114 dB

3. Sennhesier PXC 450
Style: Over ear
Frequency low/high: 8Hz/28kHz
Weight: 240g
Impedance: 150 ohms
Sensitivity: 108 dB

4. Bose QuietComfort 15
Style: Over ear
Frequency low/high: N/A
Weight: 207.5g
Impedance: N/A
Sensitivity: N/A

5. Creative Aurvana X-Fi
Style: Over ear
Frequency low/high: 20kHz/20Hz
Weight: 245g
Impedance: 450 ohms
Sensitivity: 105 dB

(Grace Nasri is Managing Editor of FindTheBest. Any opinions expressed are her own.)

(Caption on blog landing page: Publicity image of Shure SRH940 headphones)