We catch up with Martin Jeffrey, a man who truly has travelling and hospitality in his blood! Martin is a Senior Project Manager with the Swiss Hotel School in Passugg (SSTH), Switzerland and was formerly Director of Sales & Admissions, travelling the world to meet and recruit new students. Martin tells us about his life, career and what he has learned from both.



Name: Martin Jeffrey
Current company and title: SSTH Ltd. Senior Project Manager, Consulting

[JJ] Tell us a little bit about your work history:
[Martin] I will do my best to keep it short.....Before coming to Switzerland, I worked in numerous hotels and restaurants around the UK while studying hotel and catering at Henley College, including the Imperial Hotel in Torquay. While I was working at the Imperial I was offered an opportunity to work at one of the world's finest hotels, the Hotel Baur Au Lac in Zurich, Switzerland.

At first this video may come across as something a well-meaning guest may have put together...or perhaps a really dedicated prankster who's brought old internet humor to life (you'll find plenty of lists with these badly translated hotel "signs" on the web)...but wait! It's not a guest or a zealous joker...it's Expedia! Watch the video below:

The new Marriott Hotels & Resorts commercial, directed by Howard Greenhalgh for AMP is a beautiful work of art, with every type of dance flawlessly combined into one fluid motion...a message well delivered, I say! Watch the complete 1 minute version below:

Scala's First Project Will be the Urban Tavern at the Landmark Hilton San Francisco: The Hilton Family of Hotels announced that it has entered into an exclusive partnership with critically acclaimed restaurateur Donna Scala to develop signature casual dining concepts for its full service hotel brands. Scala, owner of Napa Valley's renowned Bistro Don Giovanni, will design and concept the new casual restaurants. Donna and her husband Giovanni have been responsible for several highly praised restaurants, including Piatti Ristorante and Scala's Bistro, which they opened in 1995 in the Sir Francis Drake Hotel. The year it opened, Scala's Bistro was named Best New Restaurant nationwide by Food and Wine Magazine, and Donna Scala received the distinguished honor of Best New Chef.

Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts, Asia Pacific’s leading luxury hotel group, has launched “CSR Champion Training” – an innovative programme to cascade corporate social responsibility goals to the grassroots hotel level and the communities in which Shangri-La operates.

The objective of the CSR champion training is to equip staff with necessary skills and knowledge on formulating, prioritising and implementing CSR initiatives by taking account of different cultures and local needs.

Marriott Rewards®, Marriott International’s award-winning guest loyalty program, is granting wishes with its “Redeem for Anything” program. Members can now create their own personalized rewards and redeem points for anything they want. Flying lessons, tickets to the Olympics, custom built golf clubs, if members dream it Marriott Rewards delivers it. The options are limitless.

yatt’it, the new online travel community from Hyatt Gold Passport, offers travelers an essential combination of candid, fellow-traveler advice and insider knowledge with a unique advantage – credibility. Designed for members of the Hyatt Gold Passport loyalty program, but rich in benefits for all travelers, yatt’it is the first travel site to offer expert insight and tips from local Hyatt concierges in over 40 destinations worldwide along with advice from confirmed frequent travelers. In addition, partnerships with well-trusted sources like Frommers.com and FlightStats.com will quickly establish yatt’it as a valuable online resource for worldwide travel tips.

Dubai is home to quite a few SSTH Swiss School Alumni - a few alumni got together early this April at Barasti Bar (Le Meridien Mina Seyahi) to network and catch up. Included were alumni now working in Banking and Security, plus hoteliers from Jumeirah International, One & Only Royal Mirage and the Mina Seyahi Complex itself. The meeting was hosted by SSTH Marketing Manager Jolanda Rechsteiner and UAE Alumni Chapter President Jitendra Jain (JJ).

A great (funny) look at the roles in the hotel industry - a new video from YoungHotelier.com titled "So you want to be a hotelier?"

Researchers say that the internet is the very encapsulation of ‘one-to-one’ marketing and, as such, gives a hotel the ability to establish enduring relationships with individual customers. But others think that internet will encourage disloyalty with the comparability with the competitions’ offering is ‘just a click away’.

Would really be ‘virtual contacts’ build a good business relationship between hotels and customers?

Are you a hotel eMarketer looking for ways to better communicate, educate and develop the role at your property/ies? This article explores some of the issues surrounding these efforts, complemented by a dose of perspective and a generous helping of best practices, all garnished, hopefully, by your own ideas and experiences. By Jitendra Jain

Finding Meaning: Wikipedia attributes the word ‘evolution’ to the Latin term ‘evolutio’ meaning "unfolding". While the tech and Internet revolution have anything but “unfolded” upon us (“exploded” would be more appropriate, given the short span of time over which most Internet-related developments have occurred), there is something to be learnt from the nature of these changes.

STARWOOD HOTELS & RESORTS LAUNCHES SPGTV.NET, a portal dedicated to the Starwood Europe Africa & Middle East TV channel Starwood Hotels & Resorts launches SPGTV.NET a website based on the TV productions of SPGTV the first lifestyle TV channel designed by a hotel industry and presently broadcasting in Europe Africa and Middle East in more than 280 hotels and resorts, with individually tailored versions for each of the company brands.

The two week holiday is dying out, according to a new survey revealed today by Holiday Inn. Families across Britain are struggling to find the time or money to go away with their loved ones, and a whopping 52 per cent of families definitely WON'T be going on a two week summer holiday this year, citing cost as the main problem. But shorter breaks of three or four days are becoming more popular for couples who juggle work and family life.



The average family now takes approximately four short breaks a year - feeling that a long weekend every three months stops them from getting too stressed with everyday life. And with the average spend being just £349.11 for a weekend away, that's only £1,396.44 to keep the whole family entertained for a year.

W Hotels Offers the Next Level of the Luxe Life with the Highly Anticipated Debut Of 'W The Card' The Ultimate Whatever/Whenever Experience(R). W brand's Exclusive, Invitation-Only "W"-IP Program Offers. Unparalleled Experiences, Insider Access and Indulgent Partner Perks. Unprecedented 24/7 W The Card Concierge Service Provides Round The Clock Access to the W Lifestyle Anywhere in the World



W Hotels is redefining what it means to be a VIP with the debut of "W The Card" - the W brand's all-access pass to a world of privilege. Marking the launch of one of the most exclusive hotel VIP services of its kind, W The Card offers a year full of fabulous experiences, irresistible partner perks, VIP treatments, and up-to-the-second updates on anything and everything happening in W hotel destinations around the globe. The ultimate Whatever/Whenever(R) experience, W The Card is the epitome of what it means to be an insider, including the opportunity to access the W brand's exclusive W The Card Concierge Service, 24 hours a day, seven days a week anywhere in world. This highly coveted card also holds the key to insider privileges with an enviable offering of shop-chic treats (perks offered by select high-end retailers, including 30% off purchases at W Hotels The Store); impossible reservations (at the W brand's most desirable dining experiences, including Todd English's Olives, Tom Collichio's Craft and Gerber Group bars); irresistible indulgences (benefits through Starwood's Preferred Guest Program), and so much more.

The latest series of Hotels.com commercials posted on YouTube, leveraging the power of the consumer review today...quite funny and effective. Enjoy!

Hotels.com Commercial - Guest gets a fur coat: