tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-70395889797656617902024-03-13T06:27:06.731+01:00Andrej's Miscellanylife, Bratislava, Slovakia, eCommerce, SEO, public policy, UWC and whatever else I feel I can put on permanent recordAndrejhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11489063296757203876noreply@blogger.comBlogger97125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7039588979765661790.post-71510106163328806492013-02-02T00:09:00.000+01:002013-02-02T00:20:51.872+01:00A Hotel As It Should Be - in Budapest<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.braincorp.hu/parlament/wp-content/uploads/BW-Parlament-Breakfast.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://www.braincorp.hu/parlament/wp-content/uploads/BW-Parlament-Breakfast.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Budapest hotel scene gets mentioned as a bit of a cautionary tale in hotelier circles as Budapest hotel prices are on the low side.<br />
<br />
From a guest's perspective you can do incredibly well at reasonable rates. On a recent trip on a cold days in December we drove from Bratislava for work.<br />
<br />
For the one night in Budapest I chose <a href="http://www.parlament-hotel.hu/">Best Western Premier Hotel Parliament</a>. The reviews were quite positive (an impressive 9.2 on Booking.com) and everything seemed right including the under EUR 60 price on a Double.<br />
<br />
We parked easily in the street in front of the hotel (it was free on a Sunday evening but paid from 8 am).<br />
<br />
Check in was smooth and soon we were on our way to a large room (in the corner tower with large windows).<br />
<br />
The room was initially cold as the heating was through a combination AC in the ceiling. But it was elegant, comfortable and with a relatively luxurious bathroom with a nice bath tub, toilet and bidet.<br />
<br />
We walked a few minutes to get dinner, passing by a supermarket open late.<br />
<br />
We slept very well in the hotel and looked forward to a breakfast served down in an atrium restaurant. The breakfast was great - well stocked and re-stocked, with a little bit of everything from pastries, through veggies, cheese, meats, yogurt, fresh fruit (including juicers for grapefruits and oranges). Two fully automatic coffee machines serving good quality coffee (Nespresso), fruit juices, cereal, eggs, sausages...<br />
<br />
In the afternoon when we returned after a busy day to collect the car we were able to freshen up with free water, tea and coffee in a wonderful lounge.<br />
<br />
Everything seemed offered generously with not a moment when we would have felt that they were trying to charge us for a senseless extra. Everyone on staff was professional, unobtrusive, spoke good English.<br />
<br />
In fact the only extra I paid was for parking: the reception offered as standard service to keep updating street parking every three hours during the day. They asked only for the cost of tickets (reasonable street parking rate).<br />
<br />
The short stay did not leave time to visit the wellness area but we did note the highly positive reviews all around.<br />
<br />
I could go on about details but you probably get the picture. Best Western Parliament Budapest is a city hotel as it should be, an honour to its genre.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/J-GVhA6Nn90?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
<br />Andrejhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11489063296757203876noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7039588979765661790.post-19883680359926710572012-10-17T21:22:00.003+01:002012-10-17T21:24:22.717+01:00Shuttle taxi from Tel Aviv to Ben Gurion AirportJust returned from a family trip to Tel Aviv and had an urge to share this tip.<br />
<br />
I found it quite a challenge to Google a credible looking and reasonably priced van service from the centre of Tel Aviv to the not so distant Ben Gurion Airport (TLV).<br />
<br />
We traveled as a group of seven, including a child needing a booster seat, leaving for the airport at 2 am. I therefore did not feel like dealing with ordering regular taxis - we would have needed two, the child seat and large cars to fit our luggage. Their pricing, although heavily regulated, involves all sorts of separate charges (late night, luggage, number of passengers, child seat...). I could not find any sherut (shared van) service between Tel Aviv and the airport.<br />
<br />
Upon a lot of searching I chanced upon a service called <a href="http://www.satas.co.il/">Satas</a>. I phoned them at +972 3 532 7901. The person who answered spoke reasonably good English but transferred me on to Nadab, whose English was even better. He arranged a van for us (to fit seven but there were actually 11 seats) and quoted a rate of NIS 270 (about EUR 55 or USD 70 at exchange rates prevalent in October 2012).<br />
<br />
I was actually incredulous and had him confirm it several times making sure there were no hidden extras. This rate was comparable to the ideal case scenario of two cabs not overcharging us.<br />
<br />
Nadav emailed me a direct contact for the van driver. A nice large van showed up on time to pick us up in central Tel Aviv and drove us to the Ben Gurion Airport (serving both Tel Aviv and Jerusalem as Israel's main international airport) in less than a half hour (of course this was in the middle of the night so with no traffic).<br />
<br />
The helpful and patient driver asked for that NIS 270 (and earned a nice tip, too). Found this great and decided to blog about it to perhaps make this Tel Aviv airport shuttle service easier to find for those who need it. Please note the website actually quotes higher rate than what we were charged and they offer services all around Israel, not just to Tel Aviv.Andrejhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11489063296757203876noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7039588979765661790.post-58523978695383762962011-08-20T08:45:00.000+01:002011-08-20T08:45:38.505+01:00What Google Trends terms should you watch to know about panic?This <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/google-trends-signs-of-panic-2011-8?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=moneygame">Business Insider article</a> is trying to watch for a coming by following these <a href="http://www.google.com/trends?q=the+depression%2C+guns%2C+deflation%2C+fractional+reserve%2C+fiat+currency&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=0">terms on Google Trends</a> (click through and you can play with the terms yourself):<br />
<br />
the depression, guns, deflation, fractional reserve, fiat currency<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.google.com/trends/viz?q=the+depression,+guns,+deflation,+fractional+reserve,+fiat+currency&date=all&geo=all&graph=weekly_img&sort=0&sa=N" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="143" src="http://www.google.com/trends/viz?q=the+depression,+guns,+deflation,+fractional+reserve,+fiat+currency&date=all&geo=all&graph=weekly_img&sort=0&sa=N" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<br />
How about this set? <a href="http://www.google.com/trends?q=debt%2C+gold%2C+prices%2C+eurozone%2C+eurusd&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=1">debt, gold, prices, eurozone, eurusd</a><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.google.com/trends/viz?q=debt,+gold,+prices,+eurozone,+eurusd&date=all&geo=all&graph=weekly_img&sort=1&sa=N" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="143" src="http://www.google.com/trends/viz?q=debt,+gold,+prices,+eurozone,+eurusd&date=all&geo=all&graph=weekly_img&sort=1&sa=N" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<br />
See the spikes in our times? Would any of those be a good indicator that the push will come to shove?<br />
<br />
And what would you propose as a good Google Trends keyword set to know when the public is getting seriously panicked?Andrejhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11489063296757203876noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7039588979765661790.post-84029052540284203322011-08-15T22:39:00.001+01:002011-08-18T17:07:45.862+01:00A Liptov Weekend: Hotel-Hopping on a WhimLast weekend found us in Demanova Dolina, right under the illustrious Chopok peak in Nizke Tatry (Low Tatra) mountains. We drove there late on Friday afternoon more or less on impulse.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibYapNICp1Fx-38ss6b3YDhypjlDEx1w_zJbt7FePplRtVQJPU4XyixeLngywtjl9bzHj6Vml-FcB78LMqW8JP-dLRWKSOivFoMZXkL4uAiA7fHT9hqh8Bz7CI4gaxenCWQIp69o4uks-G/s1600/P1040369.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="A Standard Room at the hotel Ostredok is large and done up in a neat colour scheme" border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibYapNICp1Fx-38ss6b3YDhypjlDEx1w_zJbt7FePplRtVQJPU4XyixeLngywtjl9bzHj6Vml-FcB78LMqW8JP-dLRWKSOivFoMZXkL4uAiA7fHT9hqh8Bz7CI4gaxenCWQIp69o4uks-G/s320/P1040369.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>I was secretly hoping to score a room at the Hotel Ostredok - it came recommended from a friend whose <a href="http://bubble.sk/#/en/event-and-production/hotel-ostredok/">agency organised some of the glamourous guests</a> and I have complete faith in her recommendations. But when I called Ostredok only had a room for Friday.<br />
<br />
We were pleasantly surprised to find that other nice hotel we stopped by were full for at least one of the nights of this mid-August weekend. Tri Studnicky, a four-star from the Tatry Mountain Resorts (Slovak financial group J&T) portfolio was only available Saturday (and Chopok Wellness Hotel 4* as well as the appealing <a href="http://www.penziondrak.sk/">Penzion Drak</a> were full).<br />
<br />
<b>Hotel Ostredok</b><br />
Slovak three stars guarantee nothing but I was expecting much from <a href="http://www.ostredok.sk/">Ostredok</a>. We ended up liking most everything there, finding it adequate to the price charged, with the exception of the restaurant and crappy pillow.<br />
<br />
Room 308 on the third floor (no lift) was really, really large and would have actually easily fit four beds (it turned out there was a third fold out bed already in the room posing as an ottoman). We loved the yellow (laminate wall panelling and oversized number on the room door inside) and grey (carpet) colour scheme, which my <a href="http://www.winwin.sk/architektky/">resident interior design expert</a> pointed out was a rare departure from the usual Slovak brown and brown ambience.<br />
<br />
The bed was OK but the pillow and duvet where from such slippery materials that they virtually undressed themselves on contact. The pillow was understuffed with what felt like pure plastic and I found it truly uncomfortable to sleep on. The hotel simply needs new duvets and pillows (the covers were of decent quality but kept sliding off as they did not close in any way).<br />
<br />
The hotel's only restaurant is La Collina and it serves Italian food. It let us down with incompetent staff. We were served by three really friendly and polite young waiters/bartenders but they simply did not know their job. They started us off with a great impression, promising the kitchen could do and has done in the past pasta without gluten. In all fairness, this one promise they delivered on.<br />
<br />
The soup of the day was a very tasty pumpkin but a really small portion of insubstantial thin soup was EUR 3. And then the incompetence started. Our main course arrived and we never received any further attention from the waiters. They missed out on the chance to sell us wine (!), more beer, desert, coffee. They deprived their employer of maybe EUR 25 in extra revenue and themselves of perhaps EUR 4 in tips. When after not being able to flag down a waiter in over 40 minutes I went to pay at the bar, I was explained that I cannot put a tip on my credit card because "it goes to the company in Bratislava."<br />
<br />
The food itself was not bad. The wine menu looked OK (though for some odd reason the years were given for foreign wines but not given for Slovak wines), the views were great. If there was a head waiter who knew the basics of serving guests at a mid-market restaurant we would have had a great time.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaQnET9ZnPpAF_WXn0OzVQkmAQ4H-a-NQe_EvI_PtjtDtaBRVIXHMjJ8YM50c81LcLNI6NbSemAT1rsHIXaZM4GohoX6vElEPwy-ICU86gnGHfolWDuweQqo_WwUp8-RNQwxWzOYxRfLEI/s1600/P1040363.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="If I were the owner of Ostredok I would go to complain to the construction contractor about this tile work." border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaQnET9ZnPpAF_WXn0OzVQkmAQ4H-a-NQe_EvI_PtjtDtaBRVIXHMjJ8YM50c81LcLNI6NbSemAT1rsHIXaZM4GohoX6vElEPwy-ICU86gnGHfolWDuweQqo_WwUp8-RNQwxWzOYxRfLEI/s320/P1040363.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>On other issues, if I were to nit pick I would mention the shoddy plasterwork in the bathroom, which two years after refurbishing looks like it has been there for 20 years. In the morning the water pressure in our third floor room was less than adequate as well (though my wife had a nice warm shower in the evening).<br />
<br />
But on the plus side, all the staff were friendly, breakfast was decent, architecture was a great example that a good designer can make a place look nice and feel pleasant on a budget. We enjoyed the hotel and anything (other than the cracked plaster between the tiles) can be fixed with a little bit of training. After all Ostredok gets really hot in its main season, which is winter, when you can better appreciate being literally tens of metres from the slope and ski lift in one of Slovakia's prime skiing resorts.<br />
<br />
<b>Tri Studnicky</b><br />
On Saturday we moved to <a href="http://www.tristudnicky.sk/">Tri Studnicky</a>, the 70% more expensive four-star hotel. Again, a Slovak four star rating actually does not guarantee a good hotel and there are plenty of unpleasant four star hotels around the country you would regret staying at.<br />
<br />
Not so the Tri Studnicky. We loved the hotel and found the high price justified by their faultless service, genuinely tasteful designer interiors, great breakfast and neat if small spa.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOMiVcxbdBXmPA5Tstux5cGBvqgpy7ht6Xzvs0THQs3nVkEgwU_R5CwwS2nZdzSVebjO8DK_Z-KYGAHZcKGBu_aBFVOt2AsjWFsLFcz5jmZGkVy8e_zIaRPOZbn7nQ54Sz3ttBWB1-bw7u/s1600/P1040372.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="A Standard Room at the Tri Studnicky was small but really pleasant." border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOMiVcxbdBXmPA5Tstux5cGBvqgpy7ht6Xzvs0THQs3nVkEgwU_R5CwwS2nZdzSVebjO8DK_Z-KYGAHZcKGBu_aBFVOt2AsjWFsLFcz5jmZGkVy8e_zIaRPOZbn7nQ54Sz3ttBWB1-bw7u/s320/P1040372.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>The lobby was beautifully furnished and decorated, a rare occurrence in Slovak hotel design. Out Standard Room was small but very functional and it never felt cramped. We had a view of the stream, which was really charming. I appreciated the info packet, which is still all too rare in many hotels. There were typos to fix but at least the packet was there.<br />
<br />
We took advantage of our free two-hour entry in the small but tasteful Spa. It is only open from 3 pm to 8 pm but was not full. We used the two jacuzzi baths (indoor and outdoor) and there were also two saunas. The fitness room looked like a place I would want to use if we were staying any longer.<br />
<br />
We ate dinner at the Tri Studnicky restaurant (which claims to be 'excellent' on a banner by the hotel above the main road) and I must simply say it was excellent. A competent, experienced server (whose only fault was he did not come to say goodbye before he left to be replaced by another friendly and competent colleague).<br />
<br />
If the hotel manager (who has been <a href="http://restauracie.etrend.sk/udalosti/hoteliersky-oskar-v-nizkych-tatrach.html">awarded a top national award in 2011</a>) were to ask me about room for improvement I would maybe send her to <a href="http://asalko.blogspot.com/2010/08/wellness-patince-well-done.html">Wellness Patince</a> to see how every staff member there automatically greets any passing guest. On the same note the spa lady could have given us a quick tour on arrival (would not have had to leave her chair for that given the size of the spa). But that's really about the only minor gripe I could come up with if pressed. The up-market looking clientele seemed appreciative of the hotel's qualities.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTBMMzFgGch7kzGn8cmLkJJb8D4doeodFAPW-m6ogAzbogA591RFHocrePxHcSv3KzeHWOK8FHIPXDMbYfKVjaVAVOMyuxoeEDoiAJIDkYKYJg7nRY7Szz2x4-3C3yVgHWZZL7thXo2t3I/s1600/P1040367.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Remember, the Low Tatras are about these beautiful mountains, not about hotels." border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTBMMzFgGch7kzGn8cmLkJJb8D4doeodFAPW-m6ogAzbogA591RFHocrePxHcSv3KzeHWOK8FHIPXDMbYfKVjaVAVOMyuxoeEDoiAJIDkYKYJg7nRY7Szz2x4-3C3yVgHWZZL7thXo2t3I/s320/P1040367.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>Where to stay in Liptov then? You will do well with Penzion Drak, Hotel Ostredok or Tri Studnicky and there were many other place we passed by that look passable to promising.<br />
<br />
It is wonderful to see such great tourism infrastructure in place in <a href="http://www.visitliptov.sk/">Liptov</a>. This beautiful piece of Slovakia is well worth visiting as a family destination, sports or nature-lover destination, however far you are coming from.Andrejhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11489063296757203876noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7039588979765661790.post-28403041930425058902011-06-18T20:01:00.000+01:002011-06-18T20:01:27.086+01:00Great Asian Noodle Bar in Vienna - Sharing Fruits of My Research...You know I take eating out seriously so when my son went on a trip and we had a chance to eat out in Vienna, I spent a good half hour looking for the right Asian restaurant to visit. We were in no mood for posh, we wanted honest Asian fare at a reasonable price, without a need to dress up.<br />
<br />
We hit the road from Bratislava with a print out with four options and used the 45 minutes drive to make a decision.<br />
<br />
The options were:<br />
Saigon Restaurant at Getreide Markt<br />
<br />
+43-1-5856395<br />
<br />
Yellow at Mariahilferstr. 127<br />
<br />
Chang Asian Noodles at Waaggasse 1<br />
<br />
We landed at number three on my list, Chang Asian Noodles. This turned out to be a great choice - a well designed place on the right side of the Vienna city centre (coming from Bratislava on the highway). We had unpretentious, oustanding noodles, which put any Bratislava noodle bar (incl. Buddha Brothers) to shame, paying less than 30 euros for two noodle dished, a chicken satay starter, glass of wine and two mineral waters.<br />
<br />
I do this kind of research (not only on food but other venues) before travelling anywhere and wil lmake a point of sharing my lists on the blog.Andrejhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11489063296757203876noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7039588979765661790.post-61776175378922618672011-01-07T23:13:00.000+01:002011-01-07T23:13:28.914+01:00Austrian Tabloid Fined €20k for Lifting Girl's Facebook Photo to Illustrate her Alleged Prostitute Namesake's Murder StoryWow, writing a short headline to this one seemed tough.<br />
<br />
Interesting tale of offline/online media interaction - Austrian tabloid paper fined EUR 20 000 by Austrian court after using a photo of the wrong "Lucia Rehakova" from Facebook to illustrate story on an eponymous murdered prostitute. <br />
<br />
Rehakova, a Slovak student of teaching, said she had feared she would not be able to get a teaching job after Slovak newspapers widely reprinted her photo. In 1995 there were <a href="http://slovniky.korpus.sk/?w=reh%C3%A1kov%C3%A1">1 183 women named Reháková</a> in Slovakia in 2005, according to the state language institute <a href="http://slovniky.korpus.sk/priezviska-bibliografia.html">Surnames Database</a> . With Lucia being a very popular Slovak girl's name we would expect there to be oh maybe like 20 of them. Four of them are in fact on Facebook (in Google search results).<br />
<br />
Is it sad or funny that you can still google a Lucia Rehakova photo on the Kurier.at website without any explanation or apology and without knowing whether it is the wrong or right one...<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXFtM8aWgGgdiImW_B4rxAqjDIaMU-NdIXCWYvK_Qo_0TKV0XV6Yx0ZXC2jnGQKlIXBeD7ggzWFwR3Ud8SCnsSPWp0Y6mkRbbXbvqtJE7zHGPQIAecSJGfQbUF7A1ksKVmTJo0XZzmS2uk/s1600/kurier-rehakova-skandal.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXFtM8aWgGgdiImW_B4rxAqjDIaMU-NdIXCWYvK_Qo_0TKV0XV6Yx0ZXC2jnGQKlIXBeD7ggzWFwR3Ud8SCnsSPWp0Y6mkRbbXbvqtJE7zHGPQIAecSJGfQbUF7A1ksKVmTJo0XZzmS2uk/s200/kurier-rehakova-skandal.jpg" width="108" /></a></div><br />
<br />
The real Lucia should consider suing Slovak papers too for violating her rights - picking up the photo from Austrian paper is not sufficient sourcing. <br />
<br />
(found via <a href="http://www.metro.co.uk/news/852047-student-wins-payout-after-newspaper-facebook-photo-mistake">Metro.co.uk story</a>)Andrejhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11489063296757203876noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7039588979765661790.post-6800474282266390132010-10-21T22:06:00.000+01:002010-10-21T22:06:48.295+01:00Blue Bay Hotel in Netanya BluesThree nights at the Blue Bay Hotel in Netanya, attending a friend's beach wedding. We chose the hotel at the friend's recommendation for convenience (a few minutes drive from where the weddding took place) rather than any impressive looking features or positive reviews.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4_68nHpTdi2KyoMqGtIRRS7QewxVn3x-g5sWN-q_ECim4wNHmrddlhoH3wWwyNH1RQR41HRYazhL5o88tykVRfeAyb4BvcGfyFOKR5wZjLfJJIsmvS7FmmXYlu8SRXffwCsGk_6WlM2Yl/s1600/blue-bay-netanya.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" alt="Blue Bay Hotel Netanya Photo - borrowed without permission" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4_68nHpTdi2KyoMqGtIRRS7QewxVn3x-g5sWN-q_ECim4wNHmrddlhoH3wWwyNH1RQR41HRYazhL5o88tykVRfeAyb4BvcGfyFOKR5wZjLfJJIsmvS7FmmXYlu8SRXffwCsGk_6WlM2Yl/s320/blue-bay-netanya.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>The hotel actually has bearable architectural qualities, decorated with taste, or at least without any 'distaste'. The room we stayed in probably used to look good, like 6 years ago but it was well worn rather than in a state of disrepair. Unlike in many newer hotels, the shower worked, water fixtures worked, most lights worked.<br />
<br />
We were annoyed with the narrow entrance space and overall the room was not well suited to having the extra bed added. Across the hall I got a peak of a room that seemed very different from ours - a hard-wood floor rather than our wall-to-wall hotel style carpet from a bygone era and more space - I would assume that's the 'superior' room.<br />
<br />
<br />
We arrived in the dark and I was sceptical about sea view as much as to complain to the receptionist we were paying for it. He assured me all the rooms had seaview and his words turned out to be very accurate when we woke up next morning with perhaps the best view of the sea I've seen in a hotel.<br />
<br />
On arrival I had to return to reception to mention the extra bed we had requested (and were paying a not so friendly extra amount for). It arrived carried by a man who pretended not to really speak English but he understood the request to bring an extra towel for the third guest.<br />
<br />
Breakfast is a good Kosher breakfast. Depending on what those three words mean to you, you either know what I am talking about or it would simply take too long to explain. For connoisseurs, here is an overview: a sizable buffet with three or four warm dishes, cheeses, "salatim", some sweets, bread and three types of rolls. Coffee not to die for (or Israeli instant). Oh, and since the breakfast is milchig, no sausages or salami (but there is some fish). And the Kosher kids run amock bumping into your chair not only without apology but without as much as acknowledging your existence.<br />
<br />
Kosher kids running amock were a recurring topic poolside but the cold water was a bigger problem. <br />
<br />
The lobby bar service was far from impressive in terms of selection, attentiveness of staff, professionalism. But again, the decent Israeli service standards prevailed: with every order (even the misunderstood one) the linguistically challenged man brought us a bowl of pretzels and peanuts and dusted off our table. He even tried to prevent me from leaving him a tip at one point. <br />
<br />
I would not call the staff friendly and we never had the impression anyone enjoyed serving us. A good word to describe most staff was smug (the reception staff), oblivious (wait staff), bored (security guard outside). The only friendly gestures came from the (I assume Ethiopian Israeli) cleaning staff.<br />
<br />
But, like much of Israeli hospitality, the hotel turned out OK. Not great, not to rave about, with lots of annoying little details but OK to spend a few nights (although I would hesitate recommending it for a long vacation). The Scandinavian and Russian holy land bible trip groups seemed happy enough, as did the guests at multiple weddings and bar mitzvahs taking place.Andrejhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11489063296757203876noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7039588979765661790.post-32626309897288100722010-08-28T22:25:00.000+01:002010-08-28T22:25:26.389+01:00Moods Boutique Hotel Prague - a Quick Stay and Review<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb30GkX1oMn-SKsUvs6ofAZbIcE6ZgPaEO3Qo6lv2UOnAAqizDp4itf6l3mDfTgi71rIZP3s7F8tQRN2x9JHS3jPJfZdyLwD-ftYp7iISrgPobXXEomBDeCy78LU-uKi2THUnqw9Ocu1C0/s1600/230820101095.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb30GkX1oMn-SKsUvs6ofAZbIcE6ZgPaEO3Qo6lv2UOnAAqizDp4itf6l3mDfTgi71rIZP3s7F8tQRN2x9JHS3jPJfZdyLwD-ftYp7iISrgPobXXEomBDeCy78LU-uKi2THUnqw9Ocu1C0/s320/230820101095.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hästens Bed at the Hotel Moods in Prague</td></tr>
</tbody></table>I had to travel to Prague for a few hours of meetings in August and the timing warranted an overnight stay. I therefore looked for a nice play to spend the night that would guarantee a good night's sleep, under EUR 100 for the two of us.<br />
<br />
As this was a Sunday night weekend rates applied and there were literally hundreds of hotels to choose from on Booking.com. I took advantage of their new feature that presents guest ratings in words and restricted my search to hotels with ratings over 9 out of 10, which Booking.com labels Superb (why settle for Fabulous if you can have Superb, right?).<br />
<br />
We ended up with the Moods Boutique Hotel, a new place in Klimentska near Florence, reportedly a 'Superb' hotel, not least because it was minutes from where my meetings took place. Booking.com offered Moods for EUR 99 for the Standard Room including breakfast.<br />
<br />
I phoned the hotel directly (though its <a href="http://www.hotelmoods.com/">http://www.hotelmoods.com/</a> website was pretty hard to find in Google). The friendly receptionist said they had rooms free, I could just come without reserving and may even be able to get a few euros of the published 'Best Available Rate'.<br />
<br />
<b>Did we enjoy the night at Moods? Yes.</b> <b>Did I think it was worth the price we paid? Sure. Is this a Superb</b> <b>hotel? Well let's say I would rate it pretty good.</b><br />
<br />
<b>Getting there</b><br />
Klimentska is reasonably central but Moods sits at a weird spot. The street is one way from that spot, in both directions. This means that you cannot get to Moods via Klimentska itself but have to reach it the only way through a side street (which appears nameless on Google maps), coming to it from Lannova or Barvirska.<br />
<br />
We did not figure this out until we walked the area a bit on foot so even though we saw the hotel, getting to it by car took us another half hour of circling through one way streets of Prague 1.<br />
<br />
Prague 1 also means there is hardly any street parking - there were numerous empty spots but all marked as resident spots with blue lines. The hotel uses parking facilities in the next door Hotel Klement but these were full and we were either offered parking at another hotel a few minutes walk away (Bila Labut) or told to park in Petrske Namesti square, where there is public parking (metered on weekdays from 8 am to 6 pm with two hour maximum).<br />
<br />
<b>Checking in</b><br />
As advised via telephone we showed up annonced. The gentleman at reception looked surprised but was polite enough. I explained that I had phoned about a room. He asked what I had been promised. Truthfully, I replied I had been told there were rooms available and we could get a discount on the published rate.<br />
<br />
After a while of searching (which allowed me to note the Vitra chair I was sitting on) and asking his colleague from the bar to check on the state of a room (305) he said he would give us a room slightly larger than most at a rate slightly lower than EUR 99 - at 90. This seemed a great deal and we accepted gratefully, to be escorted upstairs.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>The room</b><br />
Let me get the good stuff out of the way. Moods makes a lot of its Hastens beds. The bed was good, but there was a crack between the two mattresses. There are free coffee and tea makinjg facilities.<br />
<br />
The floor was hard wood (walnut?) and nice enough. The furniture was very simple, white polished surface. There was an LCD TV, minibar. The lamp is a nice Artemide, as advertised on the hotel's website (along with Hastens for beds, Apple and Bose for stuff in rooms beyond my price level).<br />
<br />
<br />
A reviewer on booking.com talked of forward looking design but in that respect I would beg to differ. Buying an expensive bed and floor is nice and good but not really a design thing. The rest of the design at the Moods was either missing or questionable.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6pfuddVuE1PSVA2up0hQPygM2XO1wWPA7bvs9YVr_7Y8kaJ91LsXLqa5FpMSrhL6G0NDJHcUiGSVqRbREnekbPnBk0NGHbtYIFlM5-h9muO2DnEV6z4tQ4UjB9wUkkwjO9UhHkLudoHQ4/s1600/230820101094.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6pfuddVuE1PSVA2up0hQPygM2XO1wWPA7bvs9YVr_7Y8kaJ91LsXLqa5FpMSrhL6G0NDJHcUiGSVqRbREnekbPnBk0NGHbtYIFlM5-h9muO2DnEV6z4tQ4UjB9wUkkwjO9UhHkLudoHQ4/s320/230820101094.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Artemide Lamp and Wall Decoration at Prague Hotel Moods</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Perhaps what bothered me most was the overall feel - very cold and empty. The wall design relied on quotes from a book (by Czech writer Peter Sis??) and these were also interspersed in other spaces. The furniture was minimalist.<br />
<br />
A signature feature was a colour-changing LED lamp behind the head of the bed, which had a set of (mechanically poorly functioning) controls for colour and intensity. I guess to match the colour to your MOOD, get it, right?<br />
<br />
Where the room took turn for the cheap was the bathroom. No design, cheapish looking tiling and most importantly Roco fixtures (armatury). I have a feeling not all readers will identify with the paragaph but: in a four-star design/boutique hotel you need a Hansgrohe if you can't afford Axor, schematically speaking.<br />
<br />
Roco fixtures are certainly not offensive looking but around the shower head at the Moods Boutique Hotel the metal hose covering was already 'unbound' detached from the handle part, uncovering a piece of the plastic hose within.<br />
<br />
There was a bidet but the bath itself was very narrow and thus uncomfortable. This to me was a questionable choice, too. The White Company toiletries were not enough to fix the mixed impression.<br />
<br />
Overall this was not design that worked for me and my resident <a href="http://www.designdot.sk/lektori/nas-tim/">design dot expert</a> said it was because there was not that much design.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRH9D7aDG-an7LIkAUpd74KuS8euLR_pqsyRXTvaAaOYCQgpXo-cIwCl0Idgx6Au2iQZ3RiAmWplvAEAawziYLQ_-ANT4qMQDVbVq0RKv2qTuKB15EaHeGKqi0L7HNsV01L1_T5v3zxQu9/s1600/230820101093.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRH9D7aDG-an7LIkAUpd74KuS8euLR_pqsyRXTvaAaOYCQgpXo-cIwCl0Idgx6Au2iQZ3RiAmWplvAEAawziYLQ_-ANT4qMQDVbVq0RKv2qTuKB15EaHeGKqi0L7HNsV01L1_T5v3zxQu9/s320/230820101093.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">View from Room 305 at the Moods Boutique Hotel in Prague</td></tr>
</tbody></table>But then in the morning our window suddenly showed what could unassaultably be advertised as a Vltava river view (there really was a bit of water visible and a floor above it would likely be much more). <br />
<br />
<b>The common spaces</b><br />
There are some nice details in the lobby and restaurant although as a whole these spaces do not amaze. To be brief, I wouldn't go there for the design. <br />
<br />
<b>Breakfast</b><br />
No reservations about breakfest. A small but kind buffet, with a cosy feel. Sausages, eggs, cereal, fruit, cold cuts, veggies, salads, roasted veggies, cake, croissant, good bread and three carafes of actual fruit juice. A Douwe Egberts coffe automat (good choice in its class).<br />
<br />
I am also sold on the breakfast being until 11:30 (with continental breakfast being served per order any time during the day).<br />
<br />
Design-wise lots of effort (including Vitra Eiffel chairs) but a result with a questionable feel.<br />
<br />
<b>Other remarks</b><br />
<br />
As always the experience turns on the staff. Here the staff were very good (although by no means perfect). Most interactions were pleasant although I did not always quite feel understood (this may simply be on account of me speaking Slovak, right?).<br />
<br />
The staff were very kind in lettin gus keep our luggage at reception all day and when I asked for a room to change in they offered the underground conference room all to myseld.<br />
<br />
<b>Verdict</b><br />
I would go back to the Moods because the bed was good, breakfast was good, staff tried hard. But with the feeling that for the same rate or slightly higher I may be able to do better at some of the many Prague hotel options.<br />
<br />
Then again, there is that other class of rooms at the Moods, the Deluxes, Maisonette and Apple. Maybe if I splurged on those I would walk away with a different impression?Andrejhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11489063296757203876noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7039588979765661790.post-74409079905610459372010-08-28T11:44:00.000+01:002010-08-28T11:44:15.219+01:00Can you make money with planned Slovak tax changes?One of the proposed changes in Slovak income tax law would eliminate an exemption from capital gains on apartment sale. Currently, if you buy an apartment in Slovakia and register the address as permanent residence for two years or own it for five years, you do not have to pay tax on the income from selling it at a profit.<br />
<br />
Slovak Finance Minister Ivan Miklos proposed a series of tweaks in tax laws to generate extra revenue as the deficit left over by the previous cabinet of populist Robert Fico spiralled out of control.<br />
<br />
The proposal would make people pay a capital gainst tax (at the current 19% income tax rate) on gains from selling an apartment regardless of when it was acquired and how long the owner lived there. It wouls apply to all properties acquired after January 1, 20111.<br />
<br />
If this specific proposal passes it should mean that anyone who has been thinking about buying an apartment in this down market for speculative purposes should do so before the end of December 2010, boosting demand this year compared to the start of next.<br />
<br />
I am not sure how you could estimate the magnitude of this effect and whether it could be significant enough to trade on given transaction costs. But nonetheless anyone considering selling an apartment in the near future should do so in December rather than January (assuming there isn't a strong upward trend in place of course that would overpower the tax change effect).Andrejhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11489063296757203876noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7039588979765661790.post-18955832481209722862010-08-09T23:05:00.002+01:002010-10-29T06:58:57.672+01:00Wellness Patince: Well Done<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.wellnesspatince.sk/modules/gallery/photos/uvod/orig/copy-of-exterir-8290n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://www.wellnesspatince.sk/modules/gallery/photos/uvod/orig/copy-of-exterir-8290n.jpg" width="224" /></a></div>On a whim we decided to spend a long weekend at the Wellness Patince, a four-star hotel with thermal baths in the South of Slovakia at springs dating back to the Romans. We came back very satisfied with the experience and I have since recommended the wellness to several of my friends (and at least one went with her family).<br />
<br />
<b>The location</b><br />
Patince is at least two hours from Bratislava travelling along the south of Slovakia and can be longer depending on traffic. There is a shorter route crossing though neighbouring Hungary but we did not feel like negotiating the highway toll system.<br />
<br />
The area itself is pleasant, near an old thermal swimming pool although some of the older facilities around are run down.<br />
<br />
<br />
We rented a small human-powered bicycle car from the Western Saloon (an establishment near but completely separate from the hotel) but returned it early as the nicer unit recommended by staff seemed close to falling apart. Similarly, the lunch at a nearby restaurant (two minutes walk from the hotel) was a disgrace (we did much, much better at <a href="http://www.divakacica.sk/">Diva Kacica</a> in Landor - Hajlas just outside of Komarno propper, a tastefully decorated pension with classy cuisine of the kind I feel should exist around Slovakia but rarely do).<br />
<br />
The hotel is near a small lake with thermal water. It is a bit smelly (mineralised smell) and murky looking but pleasant enough. You can walk around the area and see the remnants of bygone glory (including an open air cinema and interesting looking cottages) of a Communist-era resort, which we liked.<br />
<br />
<b>The hotel</b><br />
Wellness Patince is only a few years old. It is nice and quite simple though by no means an architectural masterpiece. The hotel connects to a large indoor wellness pool, a sauna world, outdoor pools and other facilities all open to the public and accessible to hotel guests without limit at no extra charge.<br />
<br />
The staff were nice and everyone greeted guests as they walked by, which I had not been used to in Slovakia.<br />
<br />
Our stay was the Summer Package and should have included several extras (free bike rental, free trip on the Wellness 1 from the Patince Marina, on the Danube some 2 km from the hotel). Noone made an effort to offer us these and we did not feel like demanding.<br />
<br />
We had been told in advance part of our stay overlapped with a corporate event but this had no negative influence on our stay oru access to facilities at any time. <br />
<br />
The hotel's own internet presence is poor - so much so in fact that I had to write them an email about this, pitching Pizza SEO's services. <br />
<br />
<b>Rooms</b><br />
Our room, a Classic room was a generous size and fit the three of us more comfortably than most double rooms would. There was extra floor space to play and desk and closet space to store our stuff.<br />
<br />
The decor was tasteful enough (yellow and brown) with reasonable laminate flooring, quality windows.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguItRe3v_kfaVMdNddyrsHrQT3cgDv5QpK07qvCutpGt9a0EtOWk9rw0rOso5Rgf_-5SrkLVzFh3YH0wob4FLTkTov5B9RGW_F8pb2JMiumgHq4NA2FnVOPeL6q75meA9jKl6J8Rfpf-p4/s1600/180720101047.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguItRe3v_kfaVMdNddyrsHrQT3cgDv5QpK07qvCutpGt9a0EtOWk9rw0rOso5Rgf_-5SrkLVzFh3YH0wob4FLTkTov5B9RGW_F8pb2JMiumgHq4NA2FnVOPeL6q75meA9jKl6J8Rfpf-p4/s320/180720101047.jpg" width="320" /></a>Some construction details showed small structural problems - bits of the wall in room and hallway were stained, apparently near water pipes of bathrooms.<br />
<br />
There was a large piece of spider web hanging from the ceiling in our room. The room cleaning was so unobtrusive as to appear unavailable and our room ended up not cleaned on several of the days though no doubt if we had asked the friendly cleaning staff would have quickly obliged.<br />
<br />
The bathroom was not the most practical in terms of offering space to hang up three sets of towels. The water pressure had its moments but was ok through most of the stay.<br />
<br />
<b>Food</b><br />
We ate a half-pension at the unpretentious but good quality restaurant. The buffet breakfasts were more than satisfactory and dinners were always at least satisfactory. On one of the nights a grill on the terrace was in operation and those in the know (including people who seemed to be the owners) ate from the grill. Great chicken, veggies, fish (though I noticed at one point the lady used the same serving tweezers to place raw marinated meat on grill and serve finished grilled meat on plates).<br />
<br />
Dinner started with a large board with finger food including smoked salmon, different ham and cheese canapés, veggies, etc. There were two soups and four main dishes with additional options. Fruit and small cakes were for dessert.<br />
<br />
The wait staff removed used dished very rapidly, sometimes too rapidly to my taste but everyone was polite, pleasant and friendly.<br />
<br />
There was a good selection of wine, Slovak and foreign, served with grace.<br />
<br />
The restaurant only served very limited options for lunch and we never took that but ate a few meals at the poolside wellness bar. This had a bit of a factory canteen decor and the food would also have suited factory workers - many items were deep-fried and the salads, the wellness 'option', were unspectacular.<br />
<br />
Outside of the wellness a few stands offered simple food - some serving fish with chips or bread as fast food seemed appealing.<br />
<br />
A lobby bar, in an unappealing room secluded from the actual lobby served specialty coffees with a very eager and willing bartender. The other bar, open late, was in the bowling alley downstairs. <br />
<br />
<b>The wellness</b><br />
The pools were nice and clean and even at their fullest did not feel crowded. The large indoor pool allowed for a bit of swimming and the warm sitting pool was undemanding. The outdoor pools were alright too.<br />
<br />
The sauna world was appealing and pleasant and the gym seemed well equipped (and never used).<br />
<br />
<b>The verdict</b><br />
We thoroughly enjoyed our four nights and would not hesitate to go back. Having said this there were small aspects that disturbed me and would have liked an opportunity to be asked by a manager for my views and seeing these things fixed.<br />
<br />
The wet walls do not seem sustainable. The cleaning service needs to be more efficient because the four stars bind: the room needs to be cleaned daily, ideally before lunch, we need towels changed (and would appreciate extra towels). The Wellness Bar could try to live up to its name a little more: having seen the cars in the parking lot I think there is a clientele that would appreciate this (sophisticated salads and sandwiches instead of french fries with fried meat). <br />
<br />
Inevitably comparisons with <a href="http://asalko.blogspot.com/2009/07/hotel-therma-dunajska-streda-good-and.html">Hotel Therma Dunajska Streda that we visited</a> came up. The distance (since Dunajska Streda is about half the distance of Komarno) works in its favour, as does the price. The staff attitude is comparable across the two (and a big part of the good experience in both cases) and our room at the Therma was cleaned daily as it should have been.<br />
<br />
But Therma is in the middle of an industrial zone in a former office building and feels very outdated with the ashtrays on landing you pass through going from the elevator to your room.<br />
<br />
Wellness Patince is cleaner, nicer, more readable architecturally, with a larger pool, healthier food.<br />
<br />
The weak web presence is a genuine shame - the product on offer deserves to be communicated better.<br />
<br />
I am determined to go back to Patince, look forward to my stay already and I will also make an effort to tell them what could be better as a friend rather than a critic.Andrejhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11489063296757203876noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7039588979765661790.post-43220081256119705752010-06-09T22:30:00.000+01:002010-06-09T22:30:49.263+01:00Seen this ad format before?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirDM227i-Oy7oPv7_tu-6qg60uNetQkSWbNJbZoPlA1W8ZoMSO-AuJ5r3AuKVdzqDuDHoCCwZlt36mJrviJAcMfFr-S9v7fRiK_v0tdRq1eXyD9HypcsmQqOkOUYmoLiV0No2CPtvVcDgU/s1600/zemanta-promoted-article.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirDM227i-Oy7oPv7_tu-6qg60uNetQkSWbNJbZoPlA1W8ZoMSO-AuJ5r3AuKVdzqDuDHoCCwZlt36mJrviJAcMfFr-S9v7fRiK_v0tdRq1eXyD9HypcsmQqOkOUYmoLiV0No2CPtvVcDgU/s320/zemanta-promoted-article.jpg" width="132" /></a></div>Spotted this cool ad format in Zemanta on Blogger - a promoted Related Article you can add as a link to your blog post. Clever.<br />
<br />
Reminds me of an old idea I always liked and still haven't seen although it's trivial to implement: a contextual hotel search (admittedly inspired or at least stimulated to think about by the now very defunct Auction Ads - an eBay contextual ads network). <br />
<br />
Say for <a href="http://www.bratislavahotels.com/">Bratislava hotels</a> you could send dates and a location as a parameter to display a selection of hotels in a given area available on certain dates. There could be any number of optional parameters. Obviously, there are more than a few websites that could implement something like this on a global scale in days not to mention Google itself.<br />
<br />
These contextual ads could be shown alongside event information - for conferences, concerts, sports events, etc.<br />
<br />
<br />
We've <a href="http://pizza-seo.blogspot.com/2008/09/pizza-seo-getting-zemantified-by-minute.html">blogged about Zemanta</a>, the Slovenian startup on the experimental Pizza SEO blog before.Andrejhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11489063296757203876noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7039588979765661790.post-3103512768289289542010-02-07T15:03:00.001+01:002010-02-07T15:04:39.016+01:00Is to. Simply the Shortest URL Shortener Ever?My <a href="http://asalko.blogspot.com/2009/09/shortest-3-letter-url-shorteners.html">Definitive List of Shortest URL Shorteners</a> on this blog is now completely obsolete. All of them were four characters long (including the dot) but a new winer has appeared:<br />
<br />
<b><a href="http://to.">to.</a></b><br />
<br />
This shortener leaves much to be desired in terms of interface and features BUT: it generates REALLY short URLs such as:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://to./jre">to./jre</a> (which incidentally takes you back to this very post).<br />
<br />
That's a total of seven characters. And you can get to it by typing mere three (to.) and hitting Enter in your browser. <br />
<br />
This in fact is the shortest URL shortener I am aware of at the moment. It should be easy enough to emulate by other TLDs should the choose to.<br />
<br />
I discovered this shortener randomly through a blog comment from <a href="http://un.org.nz/">Sal</a>. The .to country top level domain (TLD) belongs to the Kingdom of Tonga (H.R.H. Crown <a href="http://www.iana.org/domains/root/db/to.html">Prince Tupouto'a seems in control</a>) and you can register these through tonic.to, the registrar.Andrejhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11489063296757203876noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7039588979765661790.post-39759530208493616252010-02-05T23:06:00.000+01:002010-02-05T23:06:42.434+01:00PROKOP 2010 - the new Slovak PR AwardPROKOP 2010, Slovakia's first ever PR awards, will be announced on February 11, 2010 at the "design factory" in Bratislava.<br />
<br />
Jury shortlisted 13 projects from seven agencies for the competition organised by the Slovak Association for Public Relations and the advertising trade magazine Stratégie.<br />
<br />
SEESAME, an agency from Bratislava, leads the nominees with four shortlists, followed by Neopublic Porter Novelli from Bratislava and Košice-based Communication House with two each.<br />
<br />
The competition is divided into three categories: Corporate Communications, B2B and B2C PR, Community Relations and Internal Communication. <br />
<br />
The jury is composed of six men and two women and is chaired by Vladimir Bystrov, the Strategic Planning Director at the agency Bizon & Rose in Prague, Czech Republic. The criteria judged are innovativeness, creativity and flexibility, with a view to demonstrated results. <br />
<br />
Tickets for the awards ceremony cost EUR 10 and can be purchased by contacting waradzinova@gmail.com.Andrejhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11489063296757203876noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7039588979765661790.post-64896587595711809732009-12-19T01:52:00.004+01:002010-05-25T11:28:51.245+01:00People to follow on Twitter in 2010 #follow2010<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBHyNuZAirBB53C4RfiHeCY6LYjznPAqj6wgAYBZjNGiJ1sl0e3_r9PxhPLxqJljVOgcpAIOuEAXMlGYy3y-cKPA6MrnZV3Zg83aje7R29oPTWb5LhcC3ozvQmAtkG_pwnOPi41bl4f003/s1600-h/twitter-klout.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBHyNuZAirBB53C4RfiHeCY6LYjznPAqj6wgAYBZjNGiJ1sl0e3_r9PxhPLxqJljVOgcpAIOuEAXMlGYy3y-cKPA6MrnZV3Zg83aje7R29oPTWb5LhcC3ozvQmAtkG_pwnOPi41bl4f003/s320/twitter-klout.jpg" /></a></div>UPDATED May 21, 2010 with a link to @matushiq's <a href="http://matushiq.sk/2010/05/koho-sledovat-na-twitteri-v-roku-2010-follow2010/">Who to follow on Twitter article</a> (in Slovak) <br />
<br />
Technological progress can make your life better. I watched closely the growth of Twitter in 2009 and it has allowed me to listen to (and even <a href="http://twitter.com/asalko">communicate with</a>) some amazing people.<br />
<br />
They can be found in <a href="http://twitter.com/asalko/following">my follow stream</a> but here is an incomplete annotated list sorted by topics:<br />
<br />
<b>Online marketing</b> <br />
@<a href="http://twitter.com/doshdosh">DoshDosh</a> are some of the cleverest and coolest internet marketers out there. @<a href="http://twitter.com/Halfdeck">Halfdeck</a> is a SEO with a capital S. @<a href="http://twitter.com/JustinBoland">JustinBoland</a> (as @<a href="http://twitter.com/brainsturbator">brainsturbator</a>) can run circles around most people. @<a href="http://twitter.com/melanienathan">melanienathan</a> is a very personable Canadian linkbuilder. I am not smart enough to always understand @<a href="http://twitter.com/memeticbrand">memeticbrand</a> but when I get it it's amazing content. @<a href="http://twitter.com/rishil">rishil</a> rarely posts an uniteresting tweet. @<a href="http://twitter.com/rustybrick">rustybrick</a>, the smart voice in SEO and author of the iPhone Siddur. @<a href="http://twitter.com/WesUnruh">WesUnruh</a> is another gem, a clever guy if there ever was one. <br />
<br />
<b>Online travel</b><br />
@<a href="http://twitter.com/alexbainbridge">alexbainbridge</a> and @<a href="http://twitter.com/hotelblogs">hotelblogs</a> are two people in the online travel industry I greatly respect. @<a href="http://twitter.com/travolution">travolution </a>is another account worth following for online travel news.<br />
<br />
<b>Other English content</b> <br />
I find @<a href="http://twitter.com/MindHacksBlog">mindhackblog</a> tweets always succint and interesting.<br />
<br />
@<a href="http://twitter.com/notcot">notcot</a> posts lots of fun stuff. I am happy to have met @<a href="http://twitter.com/trendycrew">trendycrew</a> in person thanks to Twitter. @<a href="http://twitter.com/HarvardBiz">HarvardBiz</a> posts links to great stuff in the Harvard Business Review. @<a href="http://twitter.com/">tmbchr</a> is in a class of his own.<br />
<br />
<b>The honour roll</b><br />
These are people who are legends on and off Twitter and justifiedly so:<br />
@<a href="http://twitter.com/andybeal">andybeal</a> @<a href="http://twitter.com/dannysullivan">dannysullivan</a> @<a href="http://twitter.com/dcurtis">dcurtis</a> @<a href="http://twitter.com/fredwilson">fredwilson</a> @<a href="http://twitter.com/johnon">johnon</a> @<a href="http://twitter.com/leeodden">leeodden</a> <br />
<br />
<b>Slovak (and CZ) tweets</b><br />
This list includes a number of people I know in person but know even better thanks to Twitter:<br />
@<a href="http://twitter.com/dusoft">dusoft</a> who has a well deserved cult following on Twitter, @<a href="http://twitter.com/baoding">baoding</a> who converses intelligently in English, Slovak and Hungarian, @<a href="http://twitter.com/braque">braque</a>, the most genuine Slovak marketer on Twitter, @<a href="http://twitter.com/kamelka">kamelka</a>, a funny Slovak studying abroad, @<a href="http://twitter.com/jurajjavorsky">jurajjavorsky</a> who seems a great guy on and off Twitter and @<a href="http://twitter.com/kvasinka">kvasinka</a> whose several social media streams are well worth following. @<a href="http://twitter.com/madciapka">madciapka</a> has lots of followers for a good reason. @<a href="http://twitter.com/marekp">MarekP</a> is worth following for online marketing stuff. @<a href="http://twitter.com/dmagician">dmagician</a> is also genuine and smart. @<a href="http://twitter.com/markokolar">MarkoKolar</a> is a smart and ambitious graphic designer who is a pleasure to work with online. @<a href="http://twitter.com/matushiq">matushiq</a> is a budding scientist and funny. @<a href="http://twitter.com/seocentrum">seocentrum</a> is good at both domaining and SEO and would make a top class domain broker. @<a href="http://twitter.com/PxPxE">PxPxE</a> are friends who are going to do well on Twitter. @<a href="http://twitter.com/radobato">radobato</a> is a massively experienced journalist and a good guy, @<a href="http://twitter.com/TiborHoloda">TiborHoloda</a> is the best tweeter among Slovak DJs and a genuine, great guy. @<a href="http://twitter.com/tobiasr">tobiasr</a> sometimes has interesting stuff to say (in English).<br />
<br />
A few more people/brands good at internet marketing @<a href="http://twitter.com/sifra">sifra</a> @<a href="http://twitter.com/ataxocz">ataxocz</a> @<a href="http://twitter.com/cuketka">cuketka</a><br />
<br />
<b>Personal</b> <br />
@<a href="http://twitter.com/brendenwhalley">brendenwhalley</a> is a long lost close personal friend I am happy to be around again on Twitter. @<a href="http://twitter.com/nanotweets">nanotweets</a> is a friend I hope to never lose touch with.<br />
@georgin is a profile that won't be updated any time soon but <a href="http://twitter.com/georgin/status/2826209638">luckily the last tweet is recursive</a>. A colleague and friend who we <a href="http://blog.pizzaseo.com/sk/zomrel-juraj-kerhat/">tragically lost</a> (in Slovak) this year and really miss.<br />
<br />
<b>People I've left out</b><br />
I've left out many great people who are not such great Twitterers (but have accounts and should use them more often in 2010). I've also left out some great Twitterers who I don't know personally or whose signal to noise ratio is inconsistent or unfavourable. I am sensitive to anyone who posts stuff that I find sexist, racist, rude or aggressive in a stupid way. <br />
<br />
<b>Who do I tag to share their people to <a href="http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23Follow2010">#Follow2010</a></b>:<br />
Anyone I have mentioned is welcome to share a list on Twitter or elsewhere - let me know if you post one so that I can link to it. I want to see @<a href="http://www.ambience.sk/">dusoft</a>'s list (true to form, came through first <a href="http://www.ambience.sk/twitter-follow2010/">here</a>), @<a href="http://www.tourcms.com/blog/alexbainbridge/">alexbainbridge</a>'s, @<a href="http://sotak.blog.sme.sk/">matushiq</a>'s (better late than never - Matushiq <a href="http://matushiq.sk/2010/05/koho-sledovat-na-twitteri-v-roku-2010-follow2010/">posts his list</a> in Slovak on May 21) and @<a href="http://blog.ataxo.cz/">ataxocz</a>'s.<br />
<br />
I will also update this post if I come across any omissions or errors. Happy holidays!Andrejhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11489063296757203876noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7039588979765661790.post-38432262925169503312009-12-09T22:20:00.000+01:002009-12-09T22:20:05.088+01:00Don't Waste Your 'Potential', American ExpressI saw an intriguing (to a search markering professional) ad in the underground in London and @dusoft was kind enough to snap this shaky photo of it for me.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9WhsYN0MOpMBWPHntvL5602A7b8CGIOPpGPDqCHNYmiHPM8F2R7PYsVvZncDHKq1HvHnEpvw6lp4Km8r-mDcGxWotorjXZDJDWgtejVaOeo833WFs5rT35YR7cGPRNbpBZvYhzjDY7EuF/s1600-h/potential.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9WhsYN0MOpMBWPHntvL5602A7b8CGIOPpGPDqCHNYmiHPM8F2R7PYsVvZncDHKq1HvHnEpvw6lp4Km8r-mDcGxWotorjXZDJDWgtejVaOeo833WFs5rT35YR7cGPRNbpBZvYhzjDY7EuF/s320/potential.JPG" /></a><br />
</div><br />
American Express urges you to "realise the potential" by using the membership rewards programme. The ad contains a URL (www.americanexpress.co.uk/potential) but also another interesting bit: it says you can just search for 'potential'.<br />
<br />
We had a small discussion with <a href="http://twitter.com/dusoft">@dusoft</a> what that meant. I thought maybe they had optimised for the probably not terribly competitive KW 'potential' on google and ranked. He said the top spots would definitely be taken by dictionary definitions.<br />
<br />
I followed up, first trying to search for potential on google.com but nothing related to the campaign came up. When I tried google.co.uk, here is what I saw:<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsbUDYcvdjXtNKM4g9ZJZYy13ZeDw4qx9PZnm-7n5vGVw2Ch892JFP3xEID42X-rG9cO_bfxe3sHs66PSkDKzBs2qixErSI6MsNWn9il-NIg-xQtbUNsTX7Cjm3GrEanMX-7cYR2YrxC4Q/s1600-h/potential-adwords.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsbUDYcvdjXtNKM4g9ZJZYy13ZeDw4qx9PZnm-7n5vGVw2Ch892JFP3xEID42X-rG9cO_bfxe3sHs66PSkDKzBs2qixErSI6MsNWn9il-NIg-xQtbUNsTX7Cjm3GrEanMX-7cYR2YrxC4Q/s640/potential-adwords.jpg" /></a><br />
</div><br />
American Express uses Adwords to serve an ad for searches for potential. Surprisingly, the URL displayed with the ad, http://americanexpress.com/Potential fails to resolve. The UK version (www.americanexpress.co.uk/potential) does work, but redirects to the hideous http://www212.americanexpress.com/dsmlive/dsm/int/gb/en/personal/membershipbenefits/rtphomepage_pr.do?vanity=americanexpress.co.uk/potential&vgnextoid=be57afbe98603210VgnVCM100000defaad94RCRD<br />
<br />
So here is my free advice for UK's American Express:<br />
1. Do not waste your potential!<br />
2. Optimise organically for 'potential', maybe the top position isn't achievable but a top 5 should be for someone with your resources<br />
3. Make sure the display URLs you use for Adwords ads actually resolve<br />
4. Users appreciate clean URLs<br />
<br />
Danny Sullivan mentions two examples of entities using a call for search for navigation - Matt Mullenweg says to search for 'Matt' on Google on his business card (see <a href="http://paulstamatiou.com/im-2-on-google">here</a>) and Sony said to search for '2012' to find the film. Unlike American Express, these two seem to work.<br />
<br />
Someone with their resources should really be able to do better than this, right?Andrejhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11489063296757203876noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7039588979765661790.post-29442457334759550972009-11-25T00:56:00.001+01:002009-11-25T07:28:45.014+01:00Professional deformation makes me leave deformed rants on a great website<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://grafixpol.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/Port_VOC_051.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Artist Peter Kalmus in shot by Oto Hudec for Janeil Engelstadt's Voices from the Center, hotlinked from the Grafixpol blog without kind permission but in good faith" border="0" height="151" src="http://grafixpol.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/Port_VOC_051.jpg" width="243" /></a><br />
</div>I was leaving a rant on a <a href="http://grafixpol.com/blog/2009/11/09/613/">Polish graphic designer's blog</a> about the poor usability of a flash-based <a href="http://voicesfromthecenter.net/">site they have produced</a>. <br />
<br />
The website <a href="http://voicesfromthecenter.net/">Voices from the Center</a> covers an amazing project by <a href="http://janeilengelstad.net/">Janeil Engelstadt</a>, an American artist who spent time at the <a href="http://www.vsvu.sk/?lang=en">Bratislava Academy of Fine Arts and Design</a> as a Fulbright Scholar. She interviewed people around Central Europe on the end of Communist Rule - very topical since we are doing a lot of soul searching for the 20th anniversary of the "Tender Revolution" (that's what we call the Velvet Revolution here in Slovakia).<br />
<br />
My mother sent me a link to the site and I first couldn't understand why. Later she showed me the site, since both she and my father are interviewed there. I enjoyed browsing around but I shared her frustration with the user experience - a Flash site by obviously talented graphic designers but with little regard to conventional usability principles (this is not my first <a href="http://blog.pizzaseo.com/no-licence-for-flash-abuse-seo-and-google-indexing-flash/">Flash rant</a>, of course).<br />
<br />
I was frustrated enough to leave <a href="http://grafixpol.com/blog/2009/11/09/613/#comment-27">the rant</a> and the authors were nice enough to reply, saying they disagree, since the site isn't strictly informative and aims to encourage exploration.<br />
<br />
Of course, my professional bias made me respond again: drawing on <a href="http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20030825.html">Nielsen</a> I argued that a more usable website would better encourage exploration (and sharing of this great content).<br />
<br />
By the same token I admitted that they would find many of the sites I am involved with ugly. I tried to explain that harping on usability was for me what we call a "professional deformation" in Slovak. I realised though that this expression did not have the right meaning in English. I googled for the right English equivalent, since I 've had a need for this phrase repeatedly. I came across this great <a href="http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=25044">discussion on wordreference</a> - shows that there really is no functional English equivalent. The best they come up with is saying you're biased by your profession, which I guess is a reasonable substitute but does not quite cover the connotational meaning of the "deformed" or "distorted" professional. You can lose a bias but once something is malformed it is harder to put right.<br />
<br />
So apologies to the <a href="http://grafixpol.com/">talented Poles</a> for party crashing their blog and kudos (and some <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Link_love">link love</a>) to Janeil for <a href="http://voicesfromthecenter.net/">Voices from the Center</a>.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="zemanta-pixie" style="height: 15px; margin-top: 10px;"><img alt="" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/pixy.gif?x-id=03bafcd0-c843-423b-bc2b-a87633739a34" style="border: medium none; float: right;" /><script defer="defer" src="http://static.zemanta.com/readside/loader.js" type="text/javascript">
</script><br />
</div>Andrejhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11489063296757203876noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7039588979765661790.post-60299390867332068272009-11-14T21:56:00.001+01:002009-11-14T22:00:23.333+01:00Ameritania Hotel NYC Paying Indian "SEO's" to Post Comment Spam?The comments on this blog are moderated. I was surprised yesterday when this comment on my <a href="http://asalko.blogspot.com/2008/10/renting-apartment-from-izumi-von.html">post about my 2008 stay in New York</a> landed in my box:<br />
<blockquote>Amsterdam CourtHotel,belvedere hotel new york,boutique hotels new york,manhattan hotel rooms,boutique hotel manhattan,ameritania hotel new york-http://www.ameritanianyc.com<br />
</blockquote>from a blogger.com user without a public profile.<br />
<br />
My post does mention the Ameritania, a hotel in the Theater District where we spent a few nights. But I would not expect a company of such stature to resort to such obsolete tactics as blog post spam.<br />
<br />
When I checked my blos stats today, this is what I saw:<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpgzjTozQPpoo2jZySyoLXEgaM-zER679Tyyj4EvErukgYB3Zauy_-x10NRxrl3crEUP53BuWYRv0cRldiO084O_yhJGH-rGurnyVNklHyoiA6685twAT2GTHCMOYaLmEc5GHOwCXW_U9R/s1600-h/ameritania.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" alt="Indian SEO spammer building links for Ameritania Hotel in New York" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpgzjTozQPpoo2jZySyoLXEgaM-zER679Tyyj4EvErukgYB3Zauy_-x10NRxrl3crEUP53BuWYRv0cRldiO084O_yhJGH-rGurnyVNklHyoiA6685twAT2GTHCMOYaLmEc5GHOwCXW_U9R/s320/ameritania.jpg" /></a><br />
</div><br />
<br />
In other words, Ameritania in New York hired an Indian "link builder" to help improve its search engine rankings. He or she searched google for <a href="http://google.com/search?q=ameritania+hotel+new+york+inurl%3Ablogspot&start=20">blogs on blogspot containing the words ameritania hotel new york</a> and posted comment spam containing a link to the hotel.<br />
<br />
As an experiment a little while ago I paid for a few links to an Indian link building company. I was apalled with what they came up with. The quality of these links on a variety of fake blog sites was beyond poor and they could easily hurt rather than help.<br />
<br />
The same applies to comment spam in 2009. It's not going to help Ameritania and it's quite embarassing. If I did actually want to leave comments with URL I would make a comment that speaks to the content of the blog post. Or at least one of those usual spammy coments, that sometimes look genuine (along the lines of "Wow, what a great site. Enjoyed reading your stuff. Why not check out XYZ.com").<br />
<br />
With that kind of assignment, at <a href="http://www.pizzaseo.com/">Pizza SEO</a> we would have contacted the blogger and tried to convince him to turn the mention of Ameritania into a link. Often this is doable and results in great links. But then agan we cannot afford to offer something like 20 links for $100 the way many of our Indian competitors do.Andrejhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11489063296757203876noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7039588979765661790.post-77525308074888159482009-10-25T15:42:00.001+01:002009-10-25T16:06:43.743+01:00You need cool things to put on Facebook?<p class="zemanta-img" style="margin: 1em; float: right; display: block; width: 276px;"><a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Facebook.svg"><img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/06/Facebook.svg/266px-Facebook.svg.png" alt="Facebook, Inc." style="border: medium none ; display: block;" height="100" width="266"></a><span class="zemanta-img-attribution">Image via <a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Facebook.svg">Wikipedia</a></span></p>You sign up for an account on Facebook and you try to excel - you see that the people who post lots of fun stuff are popular. Since it's 2009, you Google it: Cool things to put on Facebook is aparently a searched term and gets this blog post on Facebook ads a steady trickle of traffic.<br />
<br />
Unfortunately that post is no help in answering. So before <a href="http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/10/ff_demandmedia/">Demand Media</a> get the "Cool Things on Facebook" video out, I decided to dig a little, have some fun and think of and research sustainable ways of generating fun things to put on Facebook.<br />
<br />
<b>1. Start following funny video sites, joke sites, etc.</b><br />
There are tonnes of these, search for them, follow them, repost the really funny stuff. A good twist on this is to track sites few other people know. Maybe look for niche humour sites or foreign sites.<br />
<br />
<b>2. Befriend various people who post cool stuff</b> and repost their stuff to friends who do not know them<br />
<br />
3. Know that you are not alone in this quest. <b>Check the replies in the following Yahoo Answers threads</b>: <a href="http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090809140837AAFeb3g">What funny things can I post on Facebook</a>? <br />
BTW, the user was looking for things as clever and funny as "I have just woke up, i would of woke up earlier but i was asleep." or "right i think it is time to check the inside of my eyelids, ill be back in 8 hours."<br />
<a href="http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090824165940AASwpKw">What are some cool things to post as your status on facebook?</a><br />
<a href="http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090416154915AAebHEg">What are some cool things i can add to my facebook page?</a><br />
<br />
Do you have any other ideas of cool things to put on Facebook to share with the readers here?<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="margin-top: 10px; height: 15px;" class="zemanta-pixie"><img style="border: medium none ; float: right;" class="zemanta-pixie-img" alt="" src="http://img.zemanta.com/pixy.gif?x-id=fd0571ae-b978-4b09-a53b-b30f375063b3"><span class="zem-script more-related more-info pretty-attribution"><script type="text/javascript" src="http://static.zemanta.com/readside/loader.js" defer="defer"></script></span></div>Andrejhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11489063296757203876noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7039588979765661790.post-7997396210852060882009-10-23T23:18:00.000+01:002009-10-23T23:18:58.749+01:00Can Apple afford to be this unresponsive?<div class="zemanta-img" style="display: block; float: right; margin: 1em; width: 250px;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/89457812@N00/3076145853"><img alt="Welcome, MobileMe" height="180" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3254/3076145853_9c6cd745ab_m.jpg" style="border: medium none; display: block;" width="240" /></a><span class="zemanta-img-attribution">Image by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/89457812@N00/3076145853">ensign_at_e233net</a> via Flickr</span><br />
</div>This was supposed to be a tweet but it's too twisted of a story for 140 characters.<br />
<br />
I visited <a href="http://www.logofogo.sk/">www.logofogo.sk</a>, a friend's site. A weird pop up appeared (and I've seen it somewhere before):<br />
User name and password are being requested by http://www.logofogo.sk. The site says: idisk.mac.com<br />
<br />
When I clicked on Cancel, the site continued loading but the error popped up several more times and I had to click it away.<br />
<br />
I coppied the error message and <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en-GB&q=user+name+and+password+are+being+requested+by+http%3A%2F%2Fwww.the+site+says%3A+idisk.mac.com">searched for it in Google</a>. I was amazed to find a <a href="http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2174304&start=0&tstart=0">discussion of the problem</a> on the official Apple site forum going back a month, to September 23. Another users asked in mid-October: <a href="http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2196162&tstart=0#10390926">Why is my site requiring a password to view</a>?<br />
<br />
Aparently, for users browsing with Firefox, the bug affects sites using Apple's Mobile Me service (www.me.com). The service synchronises info between iPhone, mac computers and other Apple devices. I have come across reports going back to 2008 on the problem.<br />
<br />
Something seems amiss at Apple if user after user of their pricey software and hardware complain about a massive bug that hurts their websites for weeks, without anyone from the company responding. And I had for a moment considered getting a Mac (kidding, not really). <br />
<br />
Some people obviously use the Mobile Me platform for ecommerce publishing. If I was one of them, this would definitely make me reconsider.<br />
<br />
Oh and a bonus: when I was composing the tweet that never materialised I wanted to "ping" Apple's Twitter account but they actually don't seem to have one (other than @itunestrailers).Andrejhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11489063296757203876noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7039588979765661790.post-57049143206711482362009-10-01T23:00:00.001+01:002009-10-01T23:01:48.828+01:00Is the conference discount on hotel room sometimes a surcharge?<p class="zemanta-img" style="margin: 1em; float: right; display: block; width: 190px;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/80285688@N00/3861267695"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3440/3861267695_4751ee2b1c_m.jpg" alt="Perth - Sheraton Hotel - ballroom set for conf..." style="border: medium none ; display: block;" height="240" width="180"></a><span class="zemanta-img-attribution">Image by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/80285688@N00/3861267695">leozaza</a> via Flickr</span></p>You stay in a hotel room. The man in the identical room next to yours is paying 40% less.<br />
<br />
You are attending a conference. The organisers gave you a code to use when booking accommodation in the official conference hotel to receive a discount.<br />
<br />
You make the reservation at the alleged discount and maybe never find out that the same room reserved through the hotel's public website costs far less and comes with better terms (I stumbled upon a Prague hotel offering a conference rate of EUR 88 during a recent editors' conference, the hotel website showed a rate of EUR 58 for the same date).<br />
<br />
There are a few possible economic rationales:<br />
- the hotel is simply using the pricing power gained from being the 'official venue'<br />
- an intermediary marks up the rates (although sometimes the hotel itself does)<br />
- the rates for accomodation subsidise lower charges to organisers for other services<br />
<br />
I found a nice clarification called <a href="http://www.acm.org/sig_volunteer_info/whyhotel.htm">Why stay at the conference hotel</a> on the website of a US computer association. They say:<br />
<blockquote>On occasion, one of the many internet providers or sometimes the hotel itself will offer a few rooms in their inventory at a lower price than the conference is offering. There are often restrictions and penalties associated with these rates.<br />
</blockquote><br />
So next time you are attending a conference make sure to crosscheck the rates with the hotel website and third party sites.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="zemanta-pixie" style="height: 15px; margin-top: 10px;"><img alt="" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/pixy.gif?x-id=cbae98ec-c451-4383-9d14-ae6e73418589" style="border: medium none ; float: right;"><script defer="defer" src="http://static.zemanta.com/readside/loader.js" type="text/javascript">
</script><br />
</div>Andrejhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11489063296757203876noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7039588979765661790.post-52935123764677210882009-09-26T00:44:00.002+01:002011-01-19T16:45:12.954+01:00Dell in Bratislava's Largest Illegal Building (Legalised Ex-Post)<div class="zemanta-img zemanta-action-dragged" style="display: block; float: right; margin: 1em; width: 310px;"><a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Bratislava_2007-07-21_02.jpg"><img alt="Aupark Tower and Nový most, Bratislava" height="225" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8f/Bratislava_2007-07-21_02.jpg/300px-Bratislava_2007-07-21_02.jpg" style="border: medium none; display: block;" width="300" /></a><span class="zemanta-img-attribution">Image via <a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Bratislava_2007-07-21_02.jpg">Wikipedia</a></span></div>I thinks these stories need to be told. We went through a period of massive illegal construction here in Bratislava. Toothless construction authorities had no way of making builders remove illegal buildings, if they were able to prove they were not against the public interest. At most, they were able to fine the builder a few million crowns, which in the context of a construction budget is a small price to pay not to have to wait to get all the required permits. <br />
<br />
So around the city aggressive developers erected buildings without permits and without regard to their effects on the area. Local residents occasionally protested but generally there was no recourse. <br />
<br />
The buildings would get legalised and then occupied, often by big name tenants. At one point I realised that this may be a way of putting pressure on the developers - if tenants will be reluctant to occupy these questionable buildings, developers will care a little more about building things by the letter. <br />
<br />
The Bratislava seat of Dell is a great example. Dell, a publicly traded US-based company, which undoubtedly has a CSR department, moved into a building constructed without a valid permit. This building, an unseemly modern edifice in Fazulova street, a fairly central address, started out as the largest illegal construction site in Bratislava (this <a href="http://reality.etrend.sk/komercne-nehnutelnosti/byvalej-ciernej-stavbe-na-fazulovej-urady-odobrili-12-poschodi.html">article by the highly respected Slovak economic weekly Trend</a> confirms both that the building was illegal and that it was long before legalisation known to be the future seat of Dell). The investor of the building actually paid the highest ever fine for illegal construction in Slovak history. <br />
<br />
Later on the company had a permit for a three-story building, meanwhile building the 12-story Dell Bratislava seat. <br />
<br />
There is little doubt Dell knew about all this. Of course it has no direct legal responsibility but it should have never moved into a building like this, if it really means the whole CSR spiel seriously. Implicitly supporting illegal actions goes against several of Dell's Seven Key Tenets:<br />
"Integrity: We do the right thing without compromise. We avoid even the appearance of impropriety." - looks improper to me to have someone build a building for me violating laws even if it gets legalised later<br />
"Honesty: What we say is true and forthcoming, not just technically correct. We are open and transparent in our communications with each other and about business performance." - this implies Dell should admit they knew what was going on was illegal.<br />
"Courage: We speak up for what is right. We report wrongdoing when we see it." - in this case, Dell supported wrongdoing by buying into the Fazulova building.<br />
<br />
BUT:<br />
"Responsibility: We accept the consequences of our actions. We admit our mistakes and quickly correct them. We do not retaliate against those who report violations of law or policy."<br />
<br />
Based on this Dell should apologise to the people of Bratislava and consider donating money to make Bratislava a nicer place, don't you think?<br />
<br />
(To be fair Dell is not the only company who supported illegally constructed properties by renting in them. HB Reavis built the <a class="zem_slink freebase/guid/9202a8c04000641f8000000007d6b271" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aupark_Tower" rel="wikipedia" title="Aupark Tower">Aupark Tower</a> (in the photo above, since I could not locate a decent photo of the Dell building on Fazulova), which ruins views of the Old Town and dominates views of the architecturally valuable New Bridge. The Chief Architect of the City of Bratislava Stefan Slachta called the 22-floor Aupark Tower "an exclamation mark of arrogance". The city part of Petrzalka then led by a Mr. Bajan, permitted this tower despite disagreement of the City of Bratislava and in violation of existing regulations. Which respectable tenants reside in the controversial building (and undoubtedly agreed to rent way before the building was legalised): Telefonica O2, Eset, GTS Nextra and IBM, to name but a few. Great corporate citizenship, guys.)<br />
<br />
<div class="zemanta-pixie" style="height: 15px; margin-top: 10px;"><img alt="" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/pixy.gif?x-id=b0a1681d-2732-4505-9efb-d9aed7534491" style="border: medium none; float: right;" /><span class="zem-script more-related more-info pretty-attribution"><script defer="defer" src="http://static.zemanta.com/readside/loader.js" type="text/javascript">
</script></span></div>Andrejhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11489063296757203876noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7039588979765661790.post-30641592047527232802009-09-25T21:55:00.001+01:002009-09-25T21:56:23.337+01:00How many Twitter followers do you need to qualify?<div class="zemanta-img" style="display: block; float: right; margin: 1em; width: 210px;"><a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Anti-tank_cubes%2C_Tilford.JPG"><img alt="Anti-tank cubes" height="150" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fd/Anti-tank_cubes%2C_Tilford.JPG/300px-Anti-tank_cubes%2C_Tilford.JPG" style="border: medium none; display: block;" width="200" /></a><span class="zemanta-img-attribution">Image via <a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Anti-tank_cubes%2C_Tilford.JPG">Wikipedia</a></span><br />
</div>250+ to become the Senior Manager of Emerging Media Marketing (via <a href="http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/cs/2009/09/how_twitter_and_crowdsourcing.html">Conversation Starter</a>). BTW, <a href="http://www.tastynectar.com/blog">Brett Tilford</a> proposed the number of Twitter followers as a hiring signal in a <a href="http://personalbrandingblog.wordpress.com/2008/10/22/your-network-will-soon-be-a-job-qualification/#comment-16053">comment</a> on Dan Schawbel's blog.<br />
Oh yeah, this is <a href="http://www.revolutionmagazine.com/DigitalPM/News/919867/Best-Buy-seeks-job-applicants-250-Twitter-followers/?DCMP=EMC-Media-PM-Bulletin">old news</a>. I missed it.<br />
<br />
Oh, and <a href="http://twitter.com/asalko">I</a> would not qualify.<br />
<div class="zemanta-pixie" style="height: 15px; margin-top: 10px;"><a class="zemanta-pixie-a" href="http://reblog.zemanta.com/zemified/db98bc51-395a-4a23-9e26-97e70b1f259b/" title="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]"><img alt="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=db98bc51-395a-4a23-9e26-97e70b1f259b" style="border: medium none; float: right;" /></a><span class="zem-script more-related more-info pretty-attribution"><script defer="defer" src="http://static.zemanta.com/readside/loader.js" type="text/javascript">
</script></span></div>Andrejhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11489063296757203876noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7039588979765661790.post-34356672994398730892009-09-15T07:28:00.022+01:002010-10-22T11:36:12.439+01:00Warning: ApartmentsNYC911.com may not deliver what they promiseUPDATE September 1, 2010 - just a heads up to potential victims - I am investigating what I suspect is another alias for Izumi von Hardenberg. Similar apartments with similar descriptions (seven) are now being offered on a site called NYC No Fee Apartments Rentals (nycnofeeapartmentrentals.com) and via Tripadvisor (and the related FlipKey service but also, in keeping with Izumi's old MO, on Craigslist) with the owner name given as "Mariko Okada", contact phone 1-<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;">347-856-8817 and creative email addresses such as "</span><b>hotdog2389@gmail.com", "hotdog2389@lycos.com"</b> Those familiar with the Japanese film industry (or Google users) will know that Mariko Okada is a well known Japanese actress. On request, Mariko will share a list of bogus-sounding references from people (see it <a href="http://positivelymichael.com/forums/showpost.php?p=123065&postcount=1411">reproduced</a> on Positively Michael forum and if you need further proof, Google the phone number listed as a reference). If you've had positive or negative experience dealing with the Mariko Okada or NYCNoFeeRentals.com, do share in the comments!<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;"></span><br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcrMxxEeafHnXBiW7gSwR-gTrChSS8LcC28LkS6n4lVkPzIvjf9gk5fKOjuyQmbUosd6xK3tZ3RRtiJfrIzEajm0gP7A_5OvVOJGLki24JsOJuE74fC9gx9s-lCry9l3Qtfzn6dKycS4M2/s1600-h/apartmentsnyc911.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="Screenshot of ApartmentNYC911.com taken on September 15, 2009 showing ApartmentNYCity.com as part of page title" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5381602315375453314" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcrMxxEeafHnXBiW7gSwR-gTrChSS8LcC28LkS6n4lVkPzIvjf9gk5fKOjuyQmbUosd6xK3tZ3RRtiJfrIzEajm0gP7A_5OvVOJGLki24JsOJuE74fC9gx9s-lCry9l3Qtfzn6dKycS4M2/s400/apartmentsnyc911.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 351px; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; width: 288px;" /></a><br />
In October 2008 <a href="http://asalko.blogspot.com/2008/10/renting-apartment-from-izumi-von.html">Izumi von Hardenberg nearly ruined our New York vacation</a>. Since then, literally hundreds of people have found my blog post on the experience. I have no doubt this has hurt Izumi's business that has reportedly caused <a href="http://www.ripoffreport.com/Search/Body/Izumi%20Von%20Hardenberg.aspx">trouble for many unsuspecting New York visitors</a>.<br />
<br />
I was therefore amused but not too surprised to find out Izumi and her pals have abandoned the ApartmentsNYCity domain name, one of the websites they used to operate from (the site was not working as of today and the domain registration has lapsed in July 2009). Instead they are now trying to attract customers on a new site <span style="font-weight: bold;">ApartmentsNYC911.com</span>.<br />
<br />
How do I know it is the same people? Well, for the start they have simply taken the template from apartmentsnycity.com and forgot to change the page title (see screenshot). In addition, the email adresses are the same (cheapartmentsnyc@gmail.com) and the voice on the voicemail of the contact number listed at apartments nyc 911 website is the same as the Izumi I communicated with last year.<br />
<br />
<span style="text-decoration: underline;">T</span><a href="http://www.ripoffreport.com/Lodging/Izumi-Von-Hardenberg/izumi-von-hardenberg-bait-and-e4b82.htm">his post</a>, dated to literally a few days before my 2008 trip, actually describes the modus operandi I had experienced: <br />
<blockquote>She baits you by telling you the apartment is available then switches the apartment and wants more money and wants to put you in a different location.</blockquote>The author also says she's already changed company names three times. I wouldn't be a least bit surprised if she even stopped using her personal name in business correspondence since anyone who Google's her comes across many negative reviews and warnings. The possible reincarnations include luxsuites.biz (with the new contact number <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">(917) 575-0623)</span></span>, luxurysuites911.com, TheCheapApartmentsNYC and the seemingly legit HHRDEVELOPMENT Corporation (on hhrdevelopmentcorp.com).<br />
<br />
<div class="zemanta-img zemanta-action-dragged" style="display: block; float: right; margin: 1em; width: 178px;"><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/27/View_of_Woolworth_Building_fixed.jpg/300px-View_of_Woolworth_Building_fixed.jpg"><img alt="View of Woolworth Building and surrounding bui..." height="214" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/27/View_of_Woolworth_Building_fixed.jpg/300px-View_of_Woolworth_Building_fixed.jpg" style="border: medium none; display: block;" width="168" /></a></div>Here is my advice: DO NOT USE APARTMENTSNYC911.COM unless you are aware of the risks. Based on my experience a service associated with Izumi von Hardenberg could be very unreliable.<br />
<br />
(I have updated this article to be more neutral in tone and present a more balanced view). <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="zemanta-pixie" style="height: 15px; margin-top: 10px;"><img alt="" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/pixy.gif?x-id=5df938c7-347f-4233-a441-acad2bf54894" style="border: medium none; float: right;" /><script defer="defer" src="http://static.zemanta.com/readside/loader.js" type="text/javascript">
</script></div>Andrejhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11489063296757203876noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7039588979765661790.post-20705913282348268072009-09-05T13:47:00.005+01:002010-06-19T10:59:32.478+01:00The shortest, 3-letter URL shorteners - The Definitive ListWelcome <a href="http://j.mp/">j.mp</a>, a new 3-letter shortener "powered by bit.ly" and the 8th addition to this list, as well as <a href="http://re.p.ly/">re.p.ly</a> (promising near real-time tracking of comments in social sites regarding the shortened URL) and now also the russian <a href="http://0.mk/">0.mk</a>:<br />
<br />
1. 3.ly<br />
2. z.pe<br />
3. u.nu<br />
4. a.gd<br />
5. a.nf<br />
6. r.im<br />
7. l.pr<br />
8. j.mp<br />
9. p.ly<br />
10. 0.mk <br />
<br />
See my <a href="http://asalko.blogspot.com/2009/05/three-shortest-url-shortners-in-world.html">earlier post on URL shorteners</a> for criteria on choosing the one to use.Andrejhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11489063296757203876noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7039588979765661790.post-89234291445963573002009-07-20T14:47:00.008+01:002009-09-05T14:03:15.458+01:00Hotel Therma Dunajska Streda - the Good and the Bad (There is No Ugly)<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdQmIHtMcsALahcw90VZnWF944uQ85kPEKBLU1h-NMATUBMO3eq72S_UIQSDhTsBwMU-srvqZpL_fdFHYOcSxG6Dphx8ZT2Y7E93W1fOz5IXoisj1niDSS_CNsuyzPYswxpKEJBxCVliLP/s1600-h/therma-out.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 212px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdQmIHtMcsALahcw90VZnWF944uQ85kPEKBLU1h-NMATUBMO3eq72S_UIQSDhTsBwMU-srvqZpL_fdFHYOcSxG6Dphx8ZT2Y7E93W1fOz5IXoisj1niDSS_CNsuyzPYswxpKEJBxCVliLP/s320/therma-out.JPG" border="0" alt="Hotel Therma Dunajska Streda Front, from www.therma.sk"id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5360634017266981106" /></a> We spent a long weekend at the Hotel Therma in Dunajska Streda, a small wellness hotel. I've been working with hotels for six years now and I have become a very picky critic so after visiting the Therma, I really felt like doing a short write up to benefit other picky potential guests.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">How We Chose</span><br />We decided more or less on a whim to spend a long weekend outside of Bratislava. We did not want to travel far and wanted a nice hotel, reasonably priced, with a swimming pool.<br /><br />I've had my eyes on the Therma ever since they were reviewed in Horeca, a trade magazine we subscribe to. I don't remember the details of the review but what stuck with me was the management response. I remember distinctly the manager was very welcoming of all criticism and saw it as an opportunity for improvement. That's not always the attitude, of course. More often than not managers get defensive when they are criticised and look for excuses.<br /><br />The Therma webpage is beyong complicated - at one point I almost gave up on making the reservation because I couldn't load portions of the page in Firefox. I called their info line, where the (Hungarian-accented) lady was very friendly but ended up reserving online anyway since I could tell from her voice she dreaded the idea of taking all my personal details over the phone.<br /><br />I liked the extra night free deal - in effect we spent three nights with breakfast for two adults and a baby for EUR 238, including some treatments (a Thai wrap, solarium, which we never used). All in all I think this is a good deal.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Location</span><br />Dunajska Streda is a mainly ethnic Hungarian town little less than an hour from Bratislava (unless there is rush hour traffic). The Hotel is very well signposted around Dunajska Streda, although there was a bit of confusion and signs lacking at a few points near the main road. But we found the hotel easily enough.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBfRjzKYjDn5v5u75NiY6VuWGHk0uhyR8YVnKoaPZ61XvHmAsLTdhQ4Akagsfu8ij-g0gBRzngblmMIr97WrMNu8NtFCCNPDT-6fSaRafe1ZBKv0TzhCIJnq3pm8LY8zXFJDaOj5G60wyA/s1600-h/therma-view.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBfRjzKYjDn5v5u75NiY6VuWGHk0uhyR8YVnKoaPZ61XvHmAsLTdhQ4Akagsfu8ij-g0gBRzngblmMIr97WrMNu8NtFCCNPDT-6fSaRafe1ZBKv0TzhCIJnq3pm8LY8zXFJDaOj5G60wyA/s320/therma-view.JPG" border="0" alt="Hotel Therma Dunajska Streda View" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5360634283046150818" /></a>The first surprise was the hotel was located in an industrial zone surrounded by warehouses and assembly halls. This meant that the neighbourhood was not very well suited for walks - a big minus for us. The view from our window (pictured here) was of trucks followed by a green horizon. <br /><br />The hotel itself is a compound consisting of the residential building, which looks like a rebuilt worker hostel, a new lobby and restaurant, wellness and the garden. <br /><br />There was ample parking right in front of the hotel with a few out of town cars (Bratislava and Czech) and several cars of locals, apparently visiting the wellness. <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Look and Feel</span><br />Upon entry, there was an odd, but not unpleasant faux-Asian ambience with a little wooden bridge, fountain, large fish tank. <br /><br />The hotel itself was done up in colourful pastels with a lot of orange, yellow, blue. The furniture oscillates between traditional, tacky asian, colonial. It looked a little cheap but inoffensively so. All in all I see why the photo gallery in the hotel website does not really show very much (there are lots of photos but many of them show details of food and such).<br /><br />The hotel's true highlight were the staff. Every encounter we had from the first receptionist who welcomed us, through restaurant and bar staff was pleasant. We genuinely felt welcome throughout our stay and there was never bitter taste of feeling that someone was trying to cheat or short-change us. When we came for breakfast or dinner buffet a waiter ushered us in and showed us around the buffet. On several occasions we were offered service that went beyond what we could reasonably expect (e.g. a head waiter offered to bring our unfinished bottle of sect to our room, at self-service dinner a waitress said I shouldn't wait for the grilled fish and brought it when it was done).<br /><br />Every breakfast there was a fresh issue of the "Morning Post", the hotel newsletter. I loved the little touch (I haven't seen this done anywhere else before). The alliteratively named Hotel Therma General Manager Tihamer Tamas Toth welcomed arriving guests by name in the newsletter (I though some people may object on privacy grounds), there was weather info, info on temperature of water in the pools, special offers, lunch and dinner menu, a joke (not sure about copyright on these but they were genuinely funny: A frog with a paper bag on her head comes to a pharmacy. "Oh, my god. What's wrong?" the pharmacist asks. "Damn. Can't you tell this is a robbery?" the frog replies), local tips, wine suggestions...<br /><br />In the lobby there is a large table with sofas and lots of newspapers and magazines, as well as a free computer with internet access.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">The Room</span><br />The room we were assigned was a large corner room - nothing the designer should brag about but definitely solid and with quality furnishings. American-style high beds with box spring the hotel brags about had quality bed linens including an oversized pillow and another nice small pillow. There was a large desk, large closet, a few chairs.<br /><br />The room was not air-conditioned (unlike a family-suite, which we asked to see and declined at EUR 20 extra per night, which had an air conditioned bed-room section but too small to fit the baby cot). Instead there was a very effective ceiling fan. The room was extremely warm most of our stay so the fan was a necessity and it was sufficient to make the room livable (we had to move the baby cot under the fan as well though, since away from the fan the room really was too warm). <br /><br />The bathroom was also generous with a huge bath tub, two sinks, toilet, nice clean tiling. The fixtures were of good quality, which is definitely not the standard in other Slovak hotels, including other four-star hotels.<br /><br />The minibar was very well stocked and extremely reasonably priced - soft drinks were less than EUR 1.50, which actually surprised me as cheap. <br /><br />I never saw the housekeeping staff but I though they did a good job (though I did notice they left the drinking glasses unwashed).<br /><br />As an avid reader of everyhting I liked there were ample little instruction materials on things like how to use the bathroom fixtures, minibar, safety, etc.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Dining</span><br />You know food is very high on my list of priorities. Generally, in the south of Slovakia the food is better than in the rest of the country. The Therma met my expectations in this respect.<br /><br />First there was the breakfast buffet. Without exaggeration this was the best breakfast I've seen at a Slovak hotel (some four-star or five-star breakfasts abroad have been better). The selection was incredible. Just off the top of my head I will try to list what was on offer:<br />- a Hubert sect or Vilmos as aperitif (poured by the waiter)<br />- warm selection (sausages, grilled vegetables)<br />- goulash soup<br />- cold meats, cheese<br />- fake caviar, fake salmon<br />- treska<br />- fresh fruit<br />- selection of cereal<br />- warm and cold milk<br />- bryndza (surprisingly, given the region, some of the best I've had in a while)<br />- 4 or 5 kinds of bread<br />- fornetti pastries<br />- pancakes<br />- egg bar with eggs made to order<br />- different salads<br /><br />Other than the stale bread one day the breakfast was perfect.<br /><br />The dinner buffet was served at EUR 9.90 per person. At first we thought this was too much but the food was tasty and again there was great selection every day including two soups, several salads, cold cuts, three main dishes + grill. The dinner buffet moved venues every day, which was a nice change as well.<br /><br />The wait staff were excellent. Genuinely welcoming and friendly, just the way waiters should be. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTWbECd-_nHlvNSxtFaooeswn0cYEZV4Wg2gD-YSQjr_t5btkBeAdIt0Dvt5Rhw0r0Yd3XVEUG8gcQUuuaCLyt3nxucdqf0lDSpKda1rj1syI-F-GzjBuM3U0RMLlsTP-Mjx3wHfr0AZ1_/s1600-h/therma-terrace.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTWbECd-_nHlvNSxtFaooeswn0cYEZV4Wg2gD-YSQjr_t5btkBeAdIt0Dvt5Rhw0r0Yd3XVEUG8gcQUuuaCLyt3nxucdqf0lDSpKda1rj1syI-F-GzjBuM3U0RMLlsTP-Mjx3wHfr0AZ1_/s320/therma-terrace.JPG" border="0" alt="Hotel Therma Dunajska Streda Terrace" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5360634472967684034" /></a>The hotel claimed several dining venues but I thought they all served the same menu. Also, everything closed by 10 pm so you were left with the minibar afterward. The nice bit, if you had effective enough mosquito spray on hand, was that you could take all your meals on the outdoor terrace (pictured here at breakfast with the egg bar).<br /><br />One of the nights we ate fried fish and chips at a place round the corner from the hotel, this was also delicious and great value.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Wellness</span><br />The wellness at the Hotel Therma was fairly small. A warm pool with a small jacuzzi section, three other even warmer sit down pools, a Kneipp foot bath (a warm and cold elongated pools you are meant to walk through, alternating), a small power shower back massage room. There was also a nice but small outdoor thermal pool.<br /><br />The nice part was that the wellness was clean and there were very few people at most times. I did miss a kiddy pool (but liked the funnily named Deckoland with toys on the ground floor).<br /><br />In addition there were saunas but I never discovered these since there were no signs (there was also a bowling alley at the hotel I never discovered).<br /><br />Outdoors there was also a tennis court and the Japanese gardens. I didn't quite understand these, they seemed a little unhygienic and pretty small and there were tons of mosquitoes so I never spent much time wondering around.<br /><br />The highlight for me though was the "Asia Spa" - with Thai massage therapists. With a 60-minute Thai massage for EUR 25 (cheaper than the EUR 40 Bratislava standard or the budget EUR 28 massage at Michalska, with an additional 25% discount available if you register at the hotel webpage). I had a Thai wrap (peeling followed by warm oil and being wrapped in plastic, which is not quite my kind of treatment) and a traditional Thai massage, which was painful but superb. This alone makes the Therma worth going to, in my view.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Verdict</span><br />At the end of our stay we felt that while there was little remarkable about the Therma, we actually enjoyed the stay. I appreciated the scale - the fact that the place wasn't packed, the good food and decent enough wellness facilities (with special mention for the Thai massage). What carried the experience for us, though, were the remarkable Hotel Therma staff - for once, I felt welcome and appreciated as a guest at a hotel in Slovakia.Andrejhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11489063296757203876noreply@blogger.com0