Our blog has remained a little bit idle after the busy days of HOTELTrack ’09, but now we are back on the track after having compiled some of the best hotels that registered during this last week. We have prepared a choice of hotels, classified by exotic destinations.

Amidst the Caribbean waters we find a cluster of islands that form a nation with an odd name, Antigua & Barbuda. The Cocos hotel, a resort composed by 26 little wooden bungalows lies in the middle of the ocean, enjoying one of the most impressive islands of the Caribbean. A little bit further on but located on island as amazing as the Cocos Hotel, we find Sangri-La’s Rasa Sayang, a resort –spa located on Batu Feringgi beach in Malaysia. Enjoying a infinite sunset feeling the waters bathing your feet must be an unforgettable experience. Also in Malaysia, but specifically focused on those traveler interested in urban tourism, we recommend the Thomas Bernthaler hotel, a five star hotel located in Kuala Lumpur which registered last Thursday, April the 23rd.

Apart of being exotic, Dubai’s Versailles Hotel is located in the capital of one of the most luxurious of the East. If you are planning to visit that country, do not hesitate to visit the datasheet of this hotel. It is worth the effort. Finally, we would like to highlight the Mandakini Castle Hotel in Jaipur, India. A classy three stars hotel, full of the flavors of the East. A hotel recommended for urban or business tourism.

Last Thursday took place HOTELtrack’09 within the framework of the Sitc (hospitality tradeshow), an encounter taken place in Barcelona and gathering more than 60 professionals from the tourism industry.

This year Hoobing had the opportunity to participate reading the paper “Intermediary Free Environments, an Opportunity for the Hospitality Industry”, and we had the pleasure to share table with Emilia Jódar, Yahoo! Search Account Manager and Ramón Solé, Product manager for Rumbo.es and Viajar.com. Unfortunately, Viçenc Martí, Vueling’s Marketing General Manager could not stay due to work compromises.

First of all we would like to thank Lluis Soler for organizing the event, both the topics reviewed – revenue management, innovation within the hospitality industry, online positioning, etc.-and the readers were excellent. Fernando del Corral, Asunción Zorrilla y Javier García Cuenca were superb in their presentations relating revenue management. Oscar Casasnovas clearly pictured how an independent hotel can innovate in social media marketing and showed the importance not only of listening but also of participating in the conversation, so being able to carry out improvements in the hotel service with the aim to loyalise possible customers.

We, on our behalf, wished to review the evolution of the distribution systems within the hospitality industry, before the internet era, during the first steps of online distribution, what is currently going on and finally, which are the latest trends. Following our motto Book directly | travel smart, direct sales are becoming more and more important, especially during hard times like today’s, a moment when there’s a tendency to cut down intermediary costs.

As a conclusion to HOTELtrack’09, in our opinion, not only innovation is important to generate revenues as Hosteltur online journal noted last Friday, the 17th: microsegmentation of customers is also essential for hotel-driven marketing campaigns to render really effective. To get to know the customer and send him the information he really needs is the best way to “hit the target”.

During this last two months the use of the micro-blogging system has seen a spectacular increase. Even Tim O’Reilly echoed this trend. Companies, media and even individuals use this communication channel to inform, build a corporate image or improve personal and professional relationships.

Twitter was the first micro-blogging system that appeared when mixing components from social networks and blogs; it allowed inserting short messages in the fashion of short articles of only 140 characters. Its simplicity, infinite number of updates and the possibility to use the said tool through mobile phones and pda’s make of Twitter a tool extremely useful for those travelers wishing to inform about their whereabouts at any moment. A good example is Soultravelers3, a blog written by a family that is travelling around the world and, for instance, wants to share their visit to Seville by means of their Twitter account. What better than uploading a video from one of the “Semana Santa” parades?
We would like to highlight that Soultravelers3 has been awarded the first prize in the Micro-Blogging category by the Travel Blogger Awards hosted by Lonely Planet, for bringing forward an amazing ‘What are you doing now?’ experience. Check their gallery on Twitpic – a site to share photos on Twitter- where they keep uploading content to picture all their comments on Twitter.

Another Twitter user that ended up being finalist in the Travel Blogger Awards in the micro-blogging category is Nerds Eye View, a girl from Seattle who, equipped with an ukulele, a camera and a passport as her only luggage, just decided to travel around the world and recount her experiences on Twitter

As you can see, the blogosphere brings us some really incredible cases.On Hoobing we also use this tool to bring you our latest news: last hotels and blogs that registered with us, the “blog of the week” section”, sector news, etc. You can visit us and become our follower

In the last days two more Hotel Chains have registered with Hoobing.com. On one side, Hotetur Hotels & Resorts, a group based in the Balearic Isles and including more than 10 entities located in Mexico, Cuba, Dominican Republic and the Balearics. On the other, The Three Corners, a hotel chain counting a dozen hotels in Egypt’s Red Sea coast, which we had the pleasure to meet in the past ITB trade show in Berlin.

Now that the Easter holidays are here, take this opportunity to visit their datasheets on Hoobing.com and book directly on their official web sites, where you will find all you need to get some days of well-deserved rest.

During this last week two international hotel chains like GRT and Anantara just registered their hotels with Hoobing.com. GRT Hotels& Resorts is a hotel chain with 8 entities in India that we got to know during our stay in the last edition of the ITB trade show in Berlin. Their resources combine a range of hotels of different categories located in both urban and holiday environments. India is a wonderful country that does not need any introduction. But maybe you do not know it yet. That’s why we recommend you to visit Alba’s blog “El sueño de la India”, Best photography Blog in Lonely Planet’s Travel Blogger Awards.

On the other hand, Anantara is a group with 10 amazing hotels peppered along countries such as Thailand, Maldives, Indonesia and Abu Dhabi, the biggest country within the UAE federation. We especially recommend this chain to those looking for a escapade in the paradise of the Indic Ocean, dreaming with never-ending beaches and crystal-like waters.