'No profiteering' from hotels following London bombings

Accusations that some hotels in London raised rates to take advantage of the chaos caused by the last week's bombings are unfounded, according to research revealed today.

Hotel benchmarking firm The Bench carries out a daily survey of 90 four and five-star hotels in the capital. Its research shows that the average room rate paid on 7 July was £148, compared with £149 on Wednesday, £147 on Tuesday and £143 on Monday. Occupancy on Thursday was 84 per cent, down from 93 per cent on Wednesday.

Russell Kett, managing director of hotel consultants HVS International, said: "The Bench's figures amply demonstrate that, on average, no such profiteering occurred in the 90 upscale hotels, representing 26,800 rooms, covered by their survey. The actual figures for Monday to Thursday last week follow the same trends as were demonstrated in the same week last year."

Thistle Hotels, which has the largest number of hotel rooms in the capital, has issued a statement to say it did not raise its rates.
"An emergency conference call took place at midday [on 7 July] with all London, Heathrow and Gatwick hotels to discuss the incident and to confirm that there would be no rise in prices and other contingency instructions were issued. The decision was also taken to waive all charges that would occur due to cancellations and no-shows for all bedroom and Meetings & Events bookings for Thursday 7 and Friday 8 July."

Marriott also said it did not increase rates to take advantage of those stranded in London. Marriott's International's Jürgen Giesbert said: "We tried to be as good a corporate citizen as we could. It was not the time to reap profits at the expense of others."

At the same time, consultants Deloitte believe that any impact on hotel rates in the capital due to reduced demand will be short-lived. Alex Kyriakidis, Deloitte's global head of Tourism, Hospitality and Leisure, says: "The recovery period post terrorist attacks is getting shorter...Our Hotelbenchmark data shows that post September 11th, the recovery period was some 18 months. However, in the case of Madrid, hotel occupancies recovered to their pre-attack levels within six months and tourism arrivals to Spain were up 3.4 per cent in 2004 compared with 2003, with a marginal decline in the second quarter of 2004 of only 0.3 per cent as a result of the attacks.

The World Travel and Tourism Council this week revealed that it expects business travel to the capital to fall by around 2.3 per cent as a result of last week's bombings, based on research carried out for the organisation by Oxford Economic Forecasting using a specially developed crisis event prediction model. The model uses the historic effects of events such as 9/11 and the Bali bombing and takes into account variables such as shock factor, any damage to infrastructure, government response and traveller confidence.


Taxi strike at Zurich airport enters third day

Business travellers flying to Zurich continue to experience disruption with their onward journeys as a strike among taxi drivers serving the Swiss city's airport enters its third day.

Taxi drivers serving the airport are demanding better working conditions and a minimum salary of SFr 4,000 (£1,750 a month) The strike began after negotiations between Unia, the union representing the drivers, and IG Airport Taxi, the umbrella group that represents the seven taxi firms working at the airport, broke down. Drivers are unhappy that the cost of an annual licence to ply for business at the airport was last year increased from Sfr 5,000 (£2,200) to SFr 10,000 (£4,400) while the number of licences was increased, making it harder to find passengers.

Unique, the company that operates the airport, has laid on a shuttle bus service to a point outside the airport where passengers can catch taxis. An airport spokesman said that a better alternative was to take public transport. "There are 250 trains and 800 buses leaving the airport each day. You can take a train to the next station and take a taxi from there. It might even be cheaper than normal."

Since the strike began, Unique has offered to rip up the contract with IG Airport Taxi, which currently runs to the end of 2008. If the taxi firms agree, it would open up the airport, which handles 17 million passengers a year, to any taxi in the Zurich area.


Skype from your mobile phone

The popular Skype internet telephone service has received a significant boost with the launch of a nifty piece of software called EpyxMobile.

The free software, from tech firm Epyx, allows you to use your mobile phone to call other Skype users for free and make calls to landlines and other mobile phones at rates of around a penny per minute to most major countries around the world. Before now, Skype has only been available to users with dedicated internet phones or wireless-enabled devices loaded with the Skype software.

To use EpyxMobile, you need two mobile phones, one with Bluetooth connectivity, and a Bluetooth-enabled PC. You then connect one phone and the PC via Bluetooth. After changing a few settings, you can then use your other phone to call the one linked to your PC and use the Bluetooth link to access the Skype service. Although the set-up is complicated, it can substantially reduce the amount you spend on calls from your mobile.

Skype has this week announced the launch of a new service with wireless hotspot provider Boingo. For US$7.95 (around £4.40) a month, Skype users can use any of 18,000 Boingo hotspots worldwide to access Skype. The SkypeZones service can be used at UK hotspots in many Choice, Quality and Sleep Inn hotels and at branches of Caffe Nero.

More information from www.epyxmobile.com, www.skype.com and www.boingo.com


Easier passage to India from newcomer Jet

Fast-growing Jet Airways is gearing up for a major expansion of services to London this winter. At the same time the Indian carrier hopes to launch its first ever transatlantic flight, one linking Brussels with New York.

The new UK services are expected to get under way at the end of October. They will see a new route being opened between Delhi and Heathrow and the doubling of Jet Airways' flights between Mumbai and Heathrow.

Fares and schedules have yet to be announced but the current daily Mumbai-Heathrow service departs India at 13.20 (services on Monday and Thursday leave slightly earlier) to arrive in London at 17.40. The return flight departs Heathrow at 21.25 to reach Mumbai at 10.50 the next day. Connections are available at Mumbai to and from 40 domestic destinations. Other international services include links between Mumbai and Singapore along with Chennai to Kuala Lumpur.

Privately-owned Jet Airways, which started flying to London in May this year, is seeking to change the image of Indian airlines on the world stage. Rightly or wrongly, the latter haven't enjoyed the best reputation for service in recent years.

Chairman Naresh Goyal told Business Traveller, "Our crew and in-flight catering are multi-cultural. We want to challenge other Asian airlines for service and reputation. It's not rocket science to become the best carrier in Asia."

Current flights from Mumbai to Heathrow are operated by Airbus A340s with fully lie-flat seats in business class along with 73 inches of legroom. Services to Singapore and Kuala Lumpur are handled by Boeing 737-800s with conventional business class seating providing 58 inches of legroom. The airline's business class checked baggage allowance is 40 kilos which is 10 kilos higher than the industry standard.

* The growth of flights to India (besides Jet Airways, services are now operated by Air India, British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and Bmi) and Shanghai (where British Airways has just joined Virgin Atlantic and China Eastern) contributed to an 11% growth in traffic handled by BAA airports during June.


Bonus miles as Lufthansa and Swiss align loyalty programmes

Members of the Lufthansa and Swiss frequent flyer programmes (FFPs) can claim bonus miles for all flights taken with either airline between July 20 and September 15. In addition, members of Lufthansa's Miles and More FFP will be able to collect award, status and Hon Circle (the highest tier) miles operated by Swiss. And miles which are earnt can now be redeemed for award flights with Swiss.

Bonus miles (for both Miles and More and the Swiss Travel Club) amount to 1,000 extra miles for a short-haul economy class or 2,000 miles for a short-haul business class flight. Long-distance flights qualify for bonus miles of 2,500 for economy, 5,000 for business and 10,000 for first class.

Details of the offer coincide with the news that Lufthansa and Swiss have received government permission to merge their operations. It means that both airlines will harmonise their schedules to provide better connecting possibilities at Frankfurt, Munich and Zurich from the start of the winter timetable.

But the future of the Swiss Travel Club remains unclear. Says FFP guru Ravindra Bhagwanani of Frankfurt-based Global Flight Management, "What might happen is that Lufthansa merges Travel Club into Miles and More in the same way as it took over the FFPs of Austrian and Poland's LOT [these carriers fellow members of the Star Alliance]. So far Swiss will not reveal its plans for Travel Club."

* Lufthansa will launch a five times a week service between Frankfurt and Algiers on July 15. It is offering double FFP miles for flights taken before November 30.

More information from www.lufthansa.com or www.swiss.com


Air NZ unveils revamped planes

Air New Zealand's new look for its long-haul fleet was unveiled this week. The airline is spending NZ$160 million (£60 million) on the relaunch which will eventually see eight 747s and eight 777s refitted with lie-flat beds, on-demand in-flight entertainment throughout the plane and a new premium economy class.

Regular flyers with Virgin Atlantic will give a nod of recognition when they see Air New Zealand's new Business Premier class. The airline has gone for 22 inch wide leather armchairs that convert into 6 foot 8 inch flat beds, arranged in a herringbone pattern, just like Virgin's. The seat includes an ottoman footrest, in-seat power and a 10.4 inch screen.

In the new Pacific Premium Economy class – the only premium economy service offered to New Zealand - there will be 23 seats, each 18.5 inches wide and with a pitch of 38 to 40 inches. "With Pacific Premium Economy fares available at just 25-30% more than economy fares we have seen strong bookings, particularly for San Francisco and London, with a total of more than 7,000 sectors booked across North America and London routes," said Air New Zealand chief executive Ralph Norris.

The new planes will come into service on the Auckland - Los Angeles - London route (flights NZ1 and NZ2) from 5 November.

As part of the revamp Air New Zealand has ordered some 14,000 new salt and pepper sets and almost 650,000 items of cutlery.