On the 13th June PREM Group launched a customer feedback tool on our Days Hotel Ireland website (see my Blog dated 13/06/2008) .We believe that we are the first Irish hotel chain to post real live guest reviews on our own website .Days Hotel Dublin Airport was the first to trial this initiative and it is great to see the guest reviews starting to come through . You can see these guest comments at www.dayshoteldublinairport.com simply click on the ‘reviews’ button . This feedback is usefully for our future guests to get a feel for our hotels before booking , but it also gives us some very valuable feedback on our business and how we can improve .The guest review facility will be rolled on all our Days Hotel and Inn websites in the next few weeks .We will also provide this service on some of our hotel websites in the UK and Belgium in the near future .

Last Friday ,as the results came in, I was a little disappointed that Ireland rejected the Lisbon Treaty . But over the weekend as I listened to the various opinions I began to wonder whether the NO vote was such a bad thing after all . What has really struck struck me more than anything has been the total lack of planning by the powers of be for the possibility that this treaty would be defeated by the Irish electorate . Surely in a closely fought contest there was always the possibility that the No’s would win and and a plan should have been put in place for that eventuality .

So we now have a situation where an estimated three million Irish voters look likely to have plunged the European Union, a bloc of nearly 500 million people, into chaos by their rejection of the Lisbon Treaty. Is it our fault that we have expressed our democratic right and rejected this treaty . Regardless whether you were for or against this Treaty ,those people charged for bringing this to a public vote should have prepared for either one of the two outcomes . So when we see reports of the European Union being plunged into chaos ,we should not blame the Irish public but those people who did not consider this out come and who failed to have the plan B ready .

Ireland is the only country in Europe to hold a referendum on the treaty. That’s because in order to accept some of the changes in power from Dublin to Brussels, the Irish Constitution must be changed.

Of course, the treaty’s proponents rightly pointed out that few countries in Europe have benefited from the EU’s largesse more than than Ireland. More than three decades of subsidies from the EU, in part, helped transform Ireland from Europe’s sick man into its most prosperous country. Now Irish supporters of the treaty are rightly worried that their influence in Europe will be badly diminished.

So what’s next? Brian Cowen will have to go to next week’s meeting in Brussels embarrassed that his attempts to convince voters of the treaty’s merits have failed. The bigger impact is, of course, on the credibility and future of the EU itself. But going back to the drawing board will prove difficult as the Lisbon treaty was already the product of years of tortuous negotiations.

In the meantime PREM Group ,like a lot of Irish company’s ,will continue to grow our business throughout Europe .We will continue to work closely with our colleagues in the UK,France and Belgium and look forward to opening Hotels in Germany and the Netherlands in the near future . We will continue to do business while we let our politicians deal with the wishes of the people . Maybe next time they won’t take those wishes for granted .

PREM Group have just launched an online customer feedback tool on all our Days Hotel Ireland websites.I believe we are the first hotel chain to post real live guest reviews on our own website (I know other third party websites such as booking.com and tripadvisor.com are doing it, but the individual hotel chains aren’t). The process works as follows: 2-3 days after the guest has stayed, our system will send them an automated e-mail from the hotel, requesting feedback on various aspects of their stay. The feedback is then automatically sent to the General Manager for review. He can also contact the guest if any serious issue has arisen. The reviews are then responded to by the GM and posted live on the hotel website. Research shows that 61% of guests now rate customer reviews as their number one influential factor when booking a hotel.

The reviews will be rolling, and will be continually updated as new comments are added.

The Days Hotel Dublin Airport is the first hotel to go live today . We plan to roll this facility out across our portfolio over the coming months .You can see how the reviews are going in Dublin Airport by logging on to www.dayshotelsireland.com

PREM Group previewed the new room for the Bedford Hotel Liege to a invited group of guests this week . The new room was very well received and we are now working on a programme to refurbish all 148 rooms by the end of 2008 . The hotel will be re-branded the Ramada Plaza Hotel Liege and will confirm its status as the best 4 star hotel in the city. The total investment in this hotel will be in excess of €1.5 million and will ensure PREM Groups commitment to Liege for years to come .

We are not the only company to have seen the attractiveness of investing in Belgium with 175 foreign investment deals happening in 2007 . 

Belgium remains one of the most attractive countries in Europe for Foreign investment .

The political crisis seems to have had little impact on foreign investment in Belgium. Ernst & Young registered 175 foreign investment projects last year, earning Belgium fifth position amongst the most attractive investment destinations in Europe, with only the UK, France, Germany and Spain currently performing better. However, Belgium is ahead of The Netherlands, Ireland and Denmark. The Americans in particular are investing in Belgium (49 investment projects), followed by the French (21), the British (16), the Dutch (14) and the Germans (13).

De Standaard /Vlaams-Brabant/Brussel ; Thursday 05 June 2008 ; p.25

 Premier Apartments Liverpool have won the award for Best Self-Catering Accommodation 2007/2008 at The Annual Mersey Partnership Tourism Awards held last night!Hosted by BBC North West Tonight presenter Ranvir Singh, the event was held at the BT Convention Centre, part of the stunning new Arena development at Kings Dock. More than 500 guests enjoyed a night that rewarded the region’s hotels, visitor attractions, venues, bars and restaurants.After a rigorous process undertaken by independent representatives from the business community including specialists from the hospitality and tourism sectors. All entries across all categories in this year’s awards were assessed and judged  by a panel of 5 senior business figures. This panel compiled a short list of entrants considered eligible to be entered in the 2nd round of Judging. The businesses and organisations represented on the short-list were then visited and assessed by specially trained researchers acting as “Mystery Shoppers who completed written reports detailing their experiences at each finalist.

“Premier Apartments Liverpool were noted for their excellent customer feedback, and a focus on repeat and business customers. They also demonstrated a commitment to staff training and a true understanding of their market.”As a result of our fantastic win, we are now in the running for the Regional Tourism Awards being held later this year!   The photo above shows GM Marie Melling and her team collecting the award .

Back in January one of my first postings on this BLOG was ‘Belgium-Europe’s best kept secret’  (see ARCHIVE at the bottom of this page to read that posting).In that BLOG I wrote about how wonderful Belgium was to visit as a tourist but how poorly the country sold itself internationally . This opinion has been borne out by  recent Eurostat figures .The tourism index is calculated from the sum of the number of nights of stay, both from national and international tourists, divided by the number of residents. This results in an index for the whole of Europe of 4.7. Belgium hardly makes 2.8. All our surrounding countries do better and fluctuate around the European average. The fact that the index is lower with a high density of the population works against Belgium. The French and the British for instance much more often travel for a few days in their own country than Belgians do. Perhaps the rather unique Belgian phenomenon of a second home at the coast or the Ardenne also plays a role, because those nights are not counted by Eurostat. In a reaction Tourism Flanders says that it reported better figures year after year, so that the Flemish index has risen to a more positive 3.17.

This is a sneak preview of our new 4 star bedroom that will be rolled out in the Carlton Hotel Antwerp over the next few months .A variation of this room will appear in the new Ramada Plaza Liege (formerly Bedford Hotel Liege) towards the end of this year and also in our new 4 star hotel in Brussels ,details of which will be announced shortly. The room will offer a new luxury bed with pillow top mattress, ipod docking station,flat screen TV with Internet access,wi-fi,workstation desks,safes with power source for recharging laptops,and much much more . A lot of thought and experience has gone into this room ,we love it , what do you think ? Feedback is welcome and if you happen to be in Antwerp ask for Christel and she will be happy to show it to you . In a few weeks we will be inviting our customers to try it out and give us feedback .

Congratulations to Sean O’Keefe and his team at Days Hotel Kilkenny for organising the Teddy Bears Picnic charity event .