But while we get an awesomeness of Americans (the official collective word) paying top dollar on our shores.
It is Italy (and whisper that around the French) which is the biggest draw for Americans at this time of year according to wall art creator StoryBoards.
The study zoned in on keywords such as ‘flights’, ‘restaurants’ ‘ski facilities’ and more next to 43 popular destinations.
Italian Americans
Smile: Kimonos, Japan
And found Italy has 93,000 average searches from September to December.
Of course the food, culture and history is a draw year-round.
But it’s the winter markets and the great skiing facilities and high-altitude luxury in the Italian Alps which brings the Yanks back.
Now Japan is going through its climactic challenges jus now but it’s as popular as ever with Yanks.
With 33,275.49 average searches.
Trunk call: Thailand
It’s the blend of ancient traditions and modern festivities, serene winter landscapes and vibrant city lights that does the job.
Thailand, a sunny winter destination with 88F average temperatures garners 23,000 average searches.
And it’s not just the beaches Americans flock to with the tropics and the temples high on the agenda too.
All Greek to us
Epic: The Acropolis, Athens
Classical Greece and its islands where culture and the pace of life feels unchanged over millennia is fourth with 12,293.11.
While the Caribbean because of its proximity and its party vibe is understandably also in the top 5.
And a variation on a winning theme here with the lesson today. Hotelidos and don’ts at your service.
With a tale to illustrate good service of a loved-up septuagenarian couple, a distracted receptionist and a Basil Fawlty hotelier.
Now swipe keys ought to have made our lives easier but the inventor obviously didn’t factor in amorous pensioners.
On this occasion at the Intercontinental Athenaeum it happened not to be my fault that I was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
And no neither me nor the Scary One were the amorous pensioners (how very dare you).
Knock three times
Spoiled and ruined at the Acropolis in Athens
I was in a rush, it’s true, to see the Acropolis in the two hours’ window I had in our group itinerary.
Although how long my new hotel friends had wasn’t clear… ‘Demetrius’ did look well relaxed in his gown and easy chair.
When his partner opened the door on a Bandanaman Scotsman.
This is the point when in true journalist traditions I should have made my excuses and left.
But ‘Maria’ invited me in!
We’ll skip over what happened next, but seriously, I politely turned down the request and headed for reception.
The hotel manager
Dip your toe into Kythera in Greece
Where the hotel manager was waiting to give out to the stressed young woman whom I really should have taken a bullet for.
His attention to my embarrassment didn’t stop there, of course, and when I got to my room the phone rang and he apologised profusely again for his receptionist.
And he asked me if I would take a basket of goodies as recompense.
And a porter turned up minutes later with two bottles of wine and fruit and figs and haloumi (well, it is Greece).
All of which, of course, as you can see left its mark and I’m recommending the hotel to this day.
I didn’t dare to ask what happened to the receptionist, just in case he told me.
While the wine I had to give up at customs when we flew to Kythera, off Greece.
And now the survey
Olympic James: Olympic Airlines to Kythera
A new study revealed that guest satisfaction has declined in virtually all hotel segments, from economy to luxury compared to 2021.
And that that indicates that hotel guests are feeling like they are paying more, but not getting more in return.
Cloudbeds, the hospitality management platform powering more reservations and happier guests for lodging businesses around the globe, recently released a new book.
Titled, More Reservations, Happier Guests: The Ultimate Guide for the Modern Hotelier, it could as easily be called… Hotelidos and don’ts at your service.
The bullet points
Doing cartwheels for you: The hoteliers
1. Start with the essentials: Every guest wants an efficient check-in, a clean, comfortable room, and a pleasant, frictionless stay.
One study found that if there is more than a five minute wait at check-in, guests’ satisfaction score can drop by 50%.
2. Set expectations: It is always useful to send a pre-arrival email or text to invite guests to start planning their stay.
And include important information such as safety protocols or changes to services.
3. Wow the guests: Turn a good stay into an unforgettable one. This can be done by offering a complimentary upgrade, a welcome amenity, or other thoughtful, personalised touches.
4. Offer digital service: Enable communications on digital channels such as text messaging, webchat, messaging apps, social media, or a chatbot.
5. Monitor guest feedback: Hoteliers can benefit by investing in a reputation management tool to track online reviews,
6. Ask for feedback: It is always a good idea to send a post-stay survey to guests a few days after their check-out which could include an invitation to share feedback on Tripadvisor or Google.
7. Master the art of service recovery: A survey in 2019 found that 42% of guests will actually return to a hotel if they are able to turn their experience positive by solving any issue immediately. And in my experience, it’s welcome, even when in dramatic Greek fashion.
8. Check in with guests during their stay: Hoteliers should send a quick text or short email survey to guests just after arrival or halfway through the stay to see how things are going.
9. Benchmark performance: It is useful to set survey and review objectives by department, along with timelines for achieving them.
10. Respond: It is important to mention that responding promptly to reviews and surveys – positive, negative, and mixed can benefit businesses.
At your service
Just swimmingly: In Greece
And so maybe one more for our hoteliers than our guests.
But it does provide an insight into what we are looking for.
Hotelidos and don’ts at your service. If you will.
And ahead of the unveiling of the Ken Buchanan statue in Edinburgh we’re thinking today. Out the box pugilist statues.
Tartan terrier: Ken Buchanan
Rock’n’roll in Philly
Rocky, Philadelphia: And with apologies to Tim Witherspoon, Bernard Hopkins and Philadelphia Jack O’Brien (the clue is in the title…
It’s all about Rocky Balboa… and you can get your selfie with the Great Man at the top of his steps in Philly and you don’t have to the run.
On a pedestAli
Let’s Rumble: Ali and Frazier
Muhammad Ali: And the best Ali statue is in sports-mad Philly which immortalises the great duel with adopted Philadelphian, Joe Frazier at the Joe Hand Gym.
Being Ali, we’ve counted 85 statues of Ali around the world, and of course you’ll want to see him in his hometown of Louisville.
Alexis Arguello, Managua, Nicaragua: And the late great Nicaraguan was a man difficult to worked up to dislike.
No trashtalking here with Alexis always making a point of asking his opponents how their family is… before beating them up.
And on one occasion, Glasgow’s own, Jim Watt, who I’d fanboyed in a record store and wished good luck for his next fight.
Which was… Alexis Aguero.
The Merthyr Matchstick
Here’s Johnny
Johnny Owen, Merthyr Tydfil, Wales: And we’d probably never have heard of Merthyr Tydfil, 23 miles north of Cardiff, were it not for one brave Welsh fighter.
Owen was given his idiosyncratic nickname on account of him being 5ft 8ins and 8st.
And his courage was his undoing when he was knocked unconscious in a world bantamweight title fight in LA and died from his injuries.
Johnny though lives for ever in the hearts of Merthyr (population 50,000) where he shares centre stage with Howard Winstone and Eddie Thomas.
Classical fighters
Fighting Romans: Boxer at Rest in Rome
Boxer at Rest, Palazzo Massimo alle Terme, Rome: And, of course, we’ve been boxing the ears off each other since when Cain struck Abel.
You’d expect Father Ted’s housekeeper, Mrs Doyle, to either snub the Turkish tea.
Or lay into it on Pilgrimage: The Road to Istanbul.
Mrs Doyle, aka Pauline McLynn, is yet to reveal her true self on the BBC2 show, next on on Friday, March 26 and available on Catch Up.
She, in fact, comes across as a bit ditzy and not at all religious.
Here come the girls: Edwina Currie, Fatima Whitbread and Pauline McLynn
I can vouch for that.
With Pauline effing and blinding like a true modern-day daughter of Ireland when I met her.
She was the speaker at an Australian Irish Chamber of Commerce lunch in Dublin.
My cup of tea
I was as a guest of the-then newly opened Flight Centre store in Dawson Street.
Pauline is joined on the Sultans Trail by six other celebrities, only four others who I recognise.
That’ll be javelin queen Fatima Whitbread, sports presenter Adrian Chiles, ex-politician Edwina Currie and comedian (and I use that term loosely) Dom Joly.
Here come the boys: Dom Joly, Mim Shaikh, Amar Latif and Adrian Chiles
The Sultans Trail is new to me.
But not the pilgrims who have been walking sections of the 2,200km stretch from Vienna to Istanbul.
Our super seven set out from Belgrade, and I am surprised that they didn’t check out its hidden palace.
What’s in a name?
And they make their way through Serbia and a little bit of Greece.
On their 1,000km two-week trip to the great city on the Bosphorus.
Our Lady in Medjugorje
In the first episode we see them walk through forests, pick lemons, climb castles (and one pilgrim, Amar Latif is blind).
And partake in a Serbian celebration to Our Lady. She’s big in the Balkans.
Before in a few episodes’ time we reach Istanbul and the Suleymaniye Mosque.
Cruise the Bosphorus
Istanbul is one of the great cities of the world.
And it has at various times been known also as Byzantium and Constantinople.
And Olé for Spanish Tourism Minister Reyes Maroto who is championing our return to Espana.
She told the TV station, Antenna 3: ‘We could be in a position to start implementing the digital passport when FITUR (Spain’s Travel Fair) in Madrid starts on May 19.’
The government over here in the UK has held out May 17 as the date when travel can resume from England.
Although that relies on the findings of the Global Travel Task Force report on April 12.
The lyrically named Haris Theoharis brings good news to us lockdown travellers… the carrot of summer holidays to Greece.
The Greek Tourism minister spoke to our public rather than at them like our politicians do when he spoke on British radio this week.
And Haris echoed what I’ve been saying for weeks…
“We don’t want to limit travel to those who have been vaccinated of course, but since we are mandating that before travelling someone has to have a negative test result, this is a waste of resources if people are vaccinated, to be tested every time they travel, the need for this testing could be limited by the vaccination certificate,” he said.
All of which makes perfect sense.
Dip your toe into Kythera in Greece
All arrivals into Greece have to present a negative Covid test taken within a 72-hour window, while arrivals from the UK have to undergo a rapid test on arrival as well.
Having bought and then undergone a home test before travelling to the European Covid gateway of Bergamo in the Autumn I can verify that this is best practice.
And guess what, I wore my masks, cleaned my hands, kept my social distance just like all the other Bergamaschi and returned with barely a germ.
Greek leaders
Of course, I’m not holding my breath that we will be allowed what is our right, not a privilege, to be able to travel.
The cats don’t know about Covid
But when we do, and if initially it is only Greece, then I’m mighty glad it is as I could travel this ancient country all my days. Just like Odysseus.
The year 2021 is a very special one too for the Greeks as it is the bicentennial of the 1821 Revolution which saw them extricate themselves from the Ottoman Empire.
Out of their tree but I love them
It is just the Greeks’ bad luck, and they have had plenty of that in recent years, that the bicentennial should fall during a pandemic.
But these stoical (it is a Greek root and concept) people of ancient stock have been ploughing on regardless and will mark March 25 with pride and as much ceremony as they can.
Pick your venue
When we do get up and travelling again you’ll find me somewhere on Greece.
Be it Athens, one of its islands, Kythera, the second city Thessaloniki, or any of the other islands (Corfu was our honeymoon island).
I’ll keep the Greek flag flyng high
And when I do, of course, I will be contacting one my go-to providers, my old faithfuls TUI who are promoting holidays there from £188pp.
You know the story by now of me starting off my scribblinh career with the old Thomson Regional Newspapers which was an arm of their travel business.
No training or skill goes to waste. But I still have to master my Zorba dancing and I know where to go to to practise.
The other Greek words for love are ‘philia’ meaning friendship and which Aristotle popularised, and the Americans were big into, particularly those in Philadelphia (brotherly love).
Before they started falling out.
What’s in a word?
‘Agape’ is more a word denoting charity and God’s love for us and ours for him, while ‘storge’ is the love of parents for their children.
‘Philautia’ (behave!) is self-love while ‘xenia’ is hospitality though unfortunately it has been attached to an opposite Greek word ‘phobia’ or fear to denote a fear of foreigners.
And that has no place on this site, or among Bandininis and Bandanettes.
You’ll have a smashing time in Kos
It’s the meetings with other peoples and learning about their cultures which we’re all missing so much just now.
So let’s hear if for the Japanese who are bringing their own Zen to us in Europe (and Buddha knows we need just now) with their OKU hotels.
The OKU Kos opens on April 5 with 100 spacious rooms including suites with private and semi-private pools and a handful of private two-bedroom villas.
Greek island: Kythera
There’s a spa, hammer, sauna and fitness studio with daily complimentary yoga classes at the beach pavilion or yoga terrace.
Adults only
An adult-only resort with a main pool and direct access to a private beach I’d say this is ‘storge’ because the kids will love having their parents away.
With the faint hope of ‘eros’ for the adults.
And having honeymooned in another Greek island, Corfu, then I can vouch for these Greek islands. Happy times before the ‘paidia’ or children came along!
And at last they listened. To me, my English Canarian pal Mathew Hirtes and to the Tinerfinos and their cousins across the islands.
The Canaries are back on the UK exempt list, and I’m breaking out the Malmsey, the Canarian wine, much beloved by Shakespeare.
Part of the scenery: Jimmy, the Tinerfino
The Canaries, as I reported this week, have been returning rates of Covid infections way down on the UK.
And as Mathew has been telling us for months we’re safer over there than we would be here.
It’s also worth restating here how liberating this is for the Holiday Trinity that always infuses our sector… the holiday providers, the hosts and the holidaymaker.
And so without further ado…
Deal me in
My walking party
Jet2.com and Jet2Holidays, the UK’s largest operator to the Canaries, are recommencing flights.
To Tenerife, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote and Fuerteventura, from Friday from Glasgow and Edinburgh, Belfast and six other UK airports.
TUI holidaymakers haven’t seen the Canaries for 89 days but are already carrying their clients to Lanzarote and Fuerteventura.
There must be a plane waiting for me. And happen that my Tinerfino walking guide Eva is waiting for me to take me to Afur.
The holiday notes advise you wear flip-flops and you can walk around the Maldives island in just half an hour.
While if you run out of puff in the all-year round 30C heat you can pull up a lounger or have a dip in your own villa infinity pool.
All with a regulatory Strawberry Daiquiri, of course.
And again I know a man who is in Kuramathi right now… and another man in Ireland from Turkish Airlines who will get you there and look after your every need.
With Onur in Istanbul
Dip your toe into Kythera in Greece
Una ciocolatta di calda densa: In Bergamo
And again…. sarong, but oh, so right
Bet you didn’t expect that: Copenhagen