Unique app to explore Danish sites
A new app provides an opportunity to explore three Danish Unesco World Heritage sites: the Kronborg Castle at Elsinore, immortalised in William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, Roskilde Cathedral, the first Gothic cathedral to be built of brick, and the 10th century Jelling Monuments located at the Danish town of Jelling. Among the many stories available with the app is that of Christian VII of Denmark. When you hold your iPad over the site where he is buried, he appears on the screen and talks about the dramatic break with his friend and physician Struense, who – it turned out – was having an affair with his wife, Queen Caroline Mathilde. At Jelling, King Harald Bluetooth rises up in full armour and tells about Denmark’s first Christian churches and the German Emperor Otto, who did not care for feasts in Valhalla. At Kronborg Castle, Queen Sofie tells how she was married as a 14-year-old to King Frederik II, even though he was really in love with Anne Hardenberg, the orphaned daughter of a nobleman.Marriott to offer free wi-fi Marriott International will provide free wi-fi to all 47 million members of Marriott Rewards, the company’s loyalty programme, who book directly on Marriott.com, Marriott’s mobile app, 1-800-MARRIOTT, or through a Marriott hotel. Beginning January 15, 2015, this benefit will make free standard wi-fi available across more than 3,800 hotels in the company’s extensive lodging portfolio worldwide. Marriott Rewards Platinum and Gold Elite members will continue to enjoy an exclusive benefit – free enhanced wi-fi, where available. This premium-tier service allows for downloading large files faster and streaming media such as movies. Other members may upgrade to enhanced wi-fi for a fee. Marriott Rewards is free to join.
Busy Rooms goes exclusive with TripvillasBusy Rooms announced an exclusive agreement with vacation rental website Tripvillas, where Busy Rooms will be connecting Tripvillas 60,000 vacation rental properties to selected online sales channels. This will enable Tripvillas customers to list their properties on a variety of websites hassle-free and without extra work. At the same time online sales channels will be given easy access to niche and hard to access hospitality product. Tripvillas is the leading vacation rental marketplace in Asia.
Finnish travel app catching up CreateTrips is a mobile travel start-up, which has evoked the interest of the pioneers in the Nordic travel industry. Tuomo Meretniemi, the former CEO of Suntours Group and Pasi Näkki, the executive vice-president of Tallink Silja have now joined forces as advisors with the premier start-up. At its core, CreateTrips is a mobile travel app, which helps you plan trips by yourself or together with friends. The app was launched in the summer of 2014 and it already counted among the top 10 travel apps in more than 75 countries. The Finnish start-up has partnerships with hotel giants such as Hilton, Holiday Inn, Hyatt, Dusit, Fairmont and Shangri-La.
Aruba installs at Ezdan Hotels Aruba Networks has successfully completed one of the Middle East’s largest wireless local area network projects in hospitality at the 3,000-room Ezdan Hotels West Bay in Qatar. In addition to enabling complimentary wi-fi services across the facility, the Aruba wireless overlay design cuts network cabling costs.“Today wi-fi is an imperative technology to satisfy travellers who expect to stay connected at all times,” says Samer Habbouch, territory manager, Qatar at Aruba Networks. “While most guests expect wi-fi to be a free service, they are also quick to vocalise their dissatisfaction if the wireless quality is not up to mark. Aruba’s enterprise-class mobility solution has enabled Ezdan to provide its guests with hassle-free, secure and reliable internet access.”