Self Catering Checklist

Self Catering Expectations
When searching for a holiday rental most potential guests start with a wish list that includes ‘must have’, ‘nice to have’ and ‘in your dreams’ criteria. The more you are able to offer, the higher your property will rank on their short list, so check out these most-searched facilities and services.

Water Based Activities

Water based activities top the list of most holidaymakers ‘must have’ lists. If you are fortunate enough to be on the water, or near a beach, this may be sufficient to attract visitors to your listing. For winter lets where cold temperatures are in the picture, hot tubs are in high demand.
WiFi Connection

Having an internet connection ranks highly on holiday home wish lists and for many families it’s becoming a must have. A good mobile signal is no longer sufficient for the tech-tethered family who want to do more than check email and a little light surfing.

Pets Welcome

The ability to take the dog on holiday is one reason self catering homes have increased so much in popularity. Accepting pets can create a real advantage in areas where there is a lot of competition.

Eating Out

Attractive patios, decks and balconies set up for al fresco eating appeal to most people. Having facilities for the whole family to eat outside is important. This means supplying sufficient outdoor seating and eating space for the whole group.

That’s Entertainment!

Improvements in technology have changed the value prospective guests place on a potential rental choice. LCD HD TVs, blu-ray dvd player; iPod docking stations and gaming systems are growing in demand.

Good Quality Beds

Guests want a good night’s sleep and demand quality mattresses and bedding.

Self Catering Links

• Traditional Thatched Cottages in Ireland
• Inishowen Self Catering
• Donegal Self Catering
• Holiday Home with free Wifi

This article by Catherine Mack appeared in Irish Times

Support your local market

FOOD IS what brings most of us together at Christmas. You can have the decorated tree and loads of presents under it, but it is the smell of a baked ham, the sharing of some of granny’s Christmas cake, or just the first bite of warm brown bread and smoked salmon which creates a true season of goodwill.

Similarly, food is at the core of tourism and a linchpin of making our holidays truly sustainable. And this is why some food producers have realised that the product is a fundamental part of the fáilte and are offering services which enable you to put their fine fare on any self-catering cottage, castle or camping table in the country.

These are my food heroes, and the guys who are going to play a big role in keeping this part of our culture thriving.

Localmarkets.ie is a website where you can buy all the produce you drool over at farmers’ markets or simply on their site and have it delivered to any place in Ireland. So, if you or your loved ones are renting a place for a Christmas get-together – whether it is in Fermanagh or Fermoy, Donegal or Down – you can get a great stock of fine Irish goodies in without any of the arguments about who is doing the shopping. And if you own self-catering accommodation, it would be great to let your guests know about this new service too.

Superb artisan breads from Arbutus Breads, organic chickens from Dan Ahern, vegetarian burgers from Dee’s Eat Well, Be Happy burgers, organic salmon from Old Millbank Smokehouse, fruit and vegetables from Organic Republic, chorizo and cheese from the famous Gubbeen Farmhouse, are just a few things you can pop in your cyber shopping basket, for true farm to front door service.

This is a food delivery scheme for life, not just for Christmas, and will be held up as a sustainable tourism case study by many countries when they hear of it. You just need to order three days in advance for your produce to arrive packed in an expanded polystyrene (EPS) box, fully recyclable and environmentally friendly. You can either time it with your arrival, or ask your accommodation provider to store it for you until you get there as the box temperature is kept at below four degrees until opened. Orders must be a minimum of €30, plus €5 delivery charge. You can even shop a month in advance, and so avoid making it part of your last minute to-do list before you head for the hills.

Another switched on food producer is James Whelan Butchers in Clonmel (jameswhelanbutchers.com) who also has an online delivery service. With an array of fine meat, this prolific butcher (and concessionary at the new Avoca market in Monkstown, avoca.ie) will have your pans doing plenty of seasonal sizzling. After being custom cut and weighed, the meat is packed into a temperature controlled box in a dedicated packing room and delivered the next day to your holiday hideaway. For orders of more than €100 delivery is free to anywhere in the 32 counties, otherwise delivery is €10.

Both companies will be delivering until December 23rd, but it is worth bookmarking the food providers for all your future breaks or sharing on Facebook as well.

I will be spending some of my Christmas break in a yurt, sussing out the sustainable features of a 100-acre site at Mount Druid, in Westmeath, one of Ireland’s latest ventures into the world of “glamping” (boutiquecamping.ie). Tucked up by a wood-burning stove with my loved ones, a box full of goodies, plenty of fresh air if we want it, and a converted barn if we need to escape it too.

This is my idea of bliss for contemplating the year ahead in simple, natural style. It will be a year full of ethical travel, I hope, but sadly no longer on these pages. Many thanks for all the kind support over the years, for reading my rants and visiting places I love to support. I wish you all a peaceful and joyous Christmas, and hope that you will keep in touch as I continue on my journey.

Ethicaltraveller.net, twitter.com/catherinemack and Facebook Ethical Traveller. You can also follow Catherine’s travels around Ireland on her app, Ireland Green Travel, available on iTunes app store

This article was first published in the Daily Telegraph

Tripadvisor, the travel reviews website, has removed the slogan “reviews you can trust” from its hotel listings, in favour of the phrase “reviews from our community”.

The website is currently being investigated by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) following thousands of complaints from hoteliers about allegedly misleading and fraudulent reviews.

Although the slogan has been removed from the website’s hotel reviews, it still appears on reviews for other businesses, including restaurants and attractions.

Tripadvisor carries more 50 millions reviews which it claims are honest, reliable and written by “real travellers around the world”.

However, the online reputation company KwikChex.com has questioned the legitimacy of those claims. It believes that up to 10 million reviews are faked, and alleges that Tripadvisor does not do enough to authenticate its reviews or remove fraudulent posts.

Chris Emmins, the co-founder of KwikChex.com, said it has already been approached by more than 2,000 businesses, and is continuing to receive new complaints.

He also alleged that new evidence suggested TripAdvisor had “punished” businesses that make allegations of misconduct against it by placing a red warning notice or “red badge” on the hotel’s listing, stating that “TripAdvisor has reasonable cause to believe that individuals or entities associated with or having an interest in this property may have interfered with traveller reviews and/or the popularity index for this property.” TripAdvisor refutes this claim.

Mr Emmins said such practices would “add weight to the evidence not only of abuse and lack of diligence – but also that TripAdvisor are not, as they have claimed, merely a distributor of third party comment.”

Emma O’Boyle, a spokesperson from TripAdvisor, refused to comment on the ASA’s investigation, but said the removal of the slogan “reviews you can trust” was unrelated.

“As with all marketing messaging, the wording used on the TripAdvisor site is constantly evolving to reflect different aspects of the business,” she said.

“The ‘Reviews from our Community’, which is now visible on the hotel pages, is also part of our ever-evolving communication efforts, this time highlighting our commitment to our all-important community. The description of TripAdvisor as a trustworthy source of travel advice and information remains used in other parts of the site.”

She added: “Red badges are used only in cases of significant abuse of TripAdvisor’s policies, where TripAdvisor has evidence that the property’s management, or individuals associated with it, have violated our policies on review collection or submitting fraudulent reviews. In such instances, a Red Badge provides not only a warning to the property but fair notice to TripAdvisor users to consider when reviewing the property.”

- Oliver Smith

© Telegraph.co.uk

The Government is to charge all householders including holiday homes to have septic tanks inspected.

Householders with a septic tank will have to pay a registration fee of no more than €50, said Environment Minister Phil Hogan.

Mr Hogan said it was a modest payment and said that following the initial registration householders would not be required to register their systems for several years. He said it could be five years between each registration.

The minister accused the farmers union the IFA and opposition politicians and others of using scare tactics in suggesting that a fee of €300 could be demanded by the Government.

However homeowners who have old-style tanks will be forced to replace them – costing up to €5,000.

By 2013 there will be more mobile internet users than desktop internet users” – Brian Brady, Google, Ireland

(September 14th) Fáilte Ireland will hold its annual e-business conference which explores how we can bring technology and tourism together so that Irish businesses can sell more effectively to the 21st Century tourist. The event will take place at the Carlton Hotel, Dublin Airport from 8.00am.

This year’s conference, entitled “Engage, Explore and Ignite Your Online Presence”, will focus on how tourism businesses can use effective social media and mobile web apps as key sales channels, particularly given the fact that mobile internet use is set to exceed desktop use over the coming years.

Speaking in advance of the conference, Mr Kevin Moriarty, Fáilte Ireland’s Head of operations in Dublin, emphasised:

“The majority of travellers now research, plan and book their holidays through the internet and tourism businesses have no option but to engage with new technology. In short, if you’re not online, you’re dead to potential customers. To date, we in fáilte Ireland have helped over 3,500 small and medium enterprises to avoid that fate and to plug into their full potential via the internet through our Web Check and e-business training programmes.

“This conference will be an extremely important addition to this work and will provide business-friendly advice and valuable insights into how tourism can really win back customers by properly exploiting new social media”.

The internet has fast become the travel agent of choice for tourists. The Fáilte Ireland 2010 visitor attitude survey found that almost 70% of overseas holidaymakers used the internet to plan their trip to Ireland. Indeed, when it comes to actually choosing where to go, almost half (48%) of all holidaymakers surveyed cited the internet as the primary source of information which led to them choosing Ireland.

After choosing to come to Ireland visitors continue to use the internet to book or purchase some elements of their holiday. The most popular purchase/booking made online in 2010 was booking air or sea carriers at 96% which was then followed by accommodation at 73%.

120 delegates from the Irish tourism industry will attend the upcoming conference ranging from hotel managers and marketing managers to owners and proprietors of other accommodation, activity providers and more.

Delegates will hear from a number of online experts such as Brian Brady, Google Ireland who will outline how mobile devices can add to a business’s online marketing strategy and Andrew Weld-Moore, Manager of Online Sales Operations at Facebook who will examine the benefits of using social networking sites, such as Facebook, can help to optimise your businesses web presence.

Speaking about how mobile devices will impact on the Irish tourism industry Brian Brady, Google Ireland explained -

“Today over 50% of new internet connections is coming from mobile devices. By 2013 there will be more mobile internet users than desktop internet users, meaning smartphone devices will be the primary method of accessing the internet for the majority of people globally. As the mobile web expands and mobile applications proliferate, the opportunities available for businesses to reach consumers and grow their businesses will increase as well.

“The mobile revolution represents an enormous opportunity for the travel sector to acquire users. In Ireland, currently 7% of all travel related queries come from smartphone devices; in 2009 this was less than 1%, which is evidence of the exponential growth. In the UK 14% of all travel related queries come from smartphone devices, illustrating the continuing trend among consumers to rely on their smartphone device as the first step in the travel decision making process.

“Critically however, 79% of websites are not optimised for the mobile web and my presentation at Fáilte Ireland’s conference will focus on presenting the emerging trends in mobile usage and illustrate why it is essential to integrate mobile into your overall marketing communications plan”.

Fáilte Ireland’s new e-business tool – an online booking comparator application which can be accessed on the tourism authority’s WebCheck Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/#!/webcheck) – will be launched at the conference. This open access online comparator can be used to compare the costs, services and technical features of 15 different booking companies instantly.

Speaking about how tourism businesses are currently benefitting from social media Andrew Weld-Moore, Manager of Online Sales Operations at Facebook explained –

“More than 30 billion pieces of content are shared every month on Facebook and each person has an average of 130 friends that these actions are shared with through their news feed. This creates a personalised experience where you discover relevant information through the lens of your friends and communities.

“We have always known that a recommendation from a friend is the best kind of marketing and, on Facebook, those in the tourist industry can make the most of the social graph and let people talk to their friends about the places and things they’ve enjoyed.”

A workshop will also take place during the day which will enable attendees to meet with direct booking engine companies and Online Travel Agents (OTAs) to discuss their offerings on a one to one basis.