Thinktank Media's Ben & Sam with Ali (and some serious long Island Iced Tea's)

This Blog for Caroline Serviced Apartments first went live in mid-2009 when the awesome team at Thinktank Media assisted our plunge into the Social Media world. Originally, we aimed to provide content on our apartments, activities in the local area, and other topics that our staff believe may be of interest to our guests (like Alex’s yummy recipes). We also hoped to provide a welcoming ‘face’ to our company branding, and letting our personalities shine through in our posts. We believe our apartments speak for themselves on our website, and even more so when you actually visit them in person. So this blog is another way for us to add value, or help our guests feel comfortable with our team even before they’ve met us in person!

When I first began brainstorming ideas for blog posts, I realised I have quite a repertoire of stories of life behind the scenes in the accommodation industry. Every day we welcome new guests into our properties, who share with us their own stories (and occasional drama). While stories of guest antics would probably make a fairly decent read, it could also scare travelers away from us. So it’s a fine line walked between providing privacy to guests, and offering enough intrigue to appeal to readers. If I wrote a post about those crazy antics of guests, you probably won’t believe me when you read it anyway!

Anna & Ali on a cold night out

A blog provides us with a medium in which we can engage with our guests. Sometimes I am convinced that no one is reading our posts, as comments are rarely made (or if they are it is often just spam from other accommodation providers in Bangalore). What if anyone who finds our blog just thinks we’re all weirdo’s? Are we really adding any value to our guest experiences? Travelers tend to be more active on social websites such as Facebook, Twitter, TripAdvisor or other online communities.

Writing a blog post takes time. I often write my posts in the comfort of my home in the evenings after a busy working day (with a nice glass of wine in hand). I find it very difficult to allocate a solid couple of hours during business hours to write a post. What with the phone ringing, the guests arriving, the housekeepers fluttering about, and the staff always wanting to ‘run something by me’ – it’s hard to escape the constant busy-ness of this business! However, I’m passionate about this blog, and hope that it offers some value to our readers.

Imogene has recently joined the team

If nothing else, I hope this blog shows off the amazing team that we have here at Caroline Apartments. I’ve named this post ‘Are We There Yet?’ because we have just gone through a massive staffing restructure and we’re very excited to have 2 new team members joining us! We’ll let them get a bit more settled in their role before they start developing blog posts though… The whole team seem to eat up the opportunity to put their stamp of individuality on our business via the blog – even though I often hear that they have trouble starting out on a new post. I’m confident that once they find the writing style that they’re comfortable with, they’ll be able to provide some great content.

So why do we keep this blog going? The blog has become part of our culture, bringing people to our site who may not have found us otherwise, and giving our guests a taste of what to expect before they check-in. We hope to continue bringing fresh ideas and content to our blog, and welcome any suggestions or feedback that you may have.

Alex & Agg on a staff night out

We may be a small company, but we aim for BIG impact and LOVE making new connections!

After reading this great blog post (from Jade Craven & ThinkTank Media) on Twitter Lists, we put together all of our new found knowledge to try to make some sense of this new feature of Twitter…

How do we use Twitter Lists?

Twitter lists have made it so much easier for us to categorise the people or companies that we follow on Twitter. We have created lists based on industry, geography, clients, connectors and activities in our area.

Industry

This has helped us group together all of our peers (accommodation providers) around the world. We can easily keep up with trends in our industry.  We use this to see how other hotels are utilizing their Twitter accounts, and also to find some really useful links on marketing or industry trends. It actually has reinforced to us that we are leaders amongst our competitors, as we have created a Twitter community that we engage with on a daily basis.

Geography

Our business is located in 2 areas of Melbourne. So we have created one list for South Yarra businesses and another for the Brighton area. We’re hoping to increase these lists as more local businesses get on board with the power of Twitter, but so far it is fairly limited, and not as useful as it could be. If we had more businesses to add to these lists it would be a fantastic opportunity to cross-promote other businesses and create close relationships that help bring more people to our local areas.

Clients

At Caroline Serviced Apartments we have a number of large corporations that send their employees to stay with us whilst working on projects in Melbourne. This Twitter list has only a few of our clients on it, at this early stage and we hope to find more of them utilizing Twitter in the near future.  We hope to be able to follow and provide support for the company progressions.

Connectors

There are a number of Travel Bloggers and Twitter networking events that we can bounce off to improve our profile within Social Media platforms. Travel Bloggers may even be able to use our accommodation for a review on their blog, or offer our accommodation as a prize in their own competitions. Twitter networkers such as @tweetupmellers is an invaluable source of people that we’ve met face-to-face. Although it’s great to chat to people online, there really is something to be said for meeting people in the flesh! Now we’ve met lots of the people at TweetUpMellers, they also now have a connection in the accommodation industry in Melbourne, so that they can recommend us to their clients or friends. Connecting is all about sharing!

Activities

I made a separate list for Melbourne Activities after discovering several individuals or companies who have some outstanding content on things to do in Melbourne.  At our Brighton Property we provide  ‘daily news’ for our guests with suggestions of activities and restaurants , so this list is a great source of ideas! It provides a ‘locals’ perspective on some cool things to get involved in around Melbourne.

It’s a good start…

Although some of our lists are more useful than others at the moment, we see the  potential that some lists can bring. Now all we need is more businesses and good connectors to become involved in Twitter!!! It’s not as scary as they may think!

What's for breakkie?

We’re getting so excited about all the new projects that we’re working on to add value for all of our guests when they come and stay with us. Today, I’m heading around the corner to Church Street in Brighton to chat to Tim, the friendly manager of Rembroza Restaurant. We’re going to set up a deal for our guests to enjoy an all inclusive accommodation package with a yummy breakfast at Rembroza. Mei-Li & I also met with the lovely owners of the Fawkner Bistro last week and are setting up a similar arrangement for the guests at South Yarra.

Anna & I (at Brighton) are putting together special surprise packs for families who come to stay with us. We brainstormed the question “why do people come to stay in Brighton?”, and aside from the obvious answers of ‘our lovely service’, ‘great location’, ‘excellent housekeeping’ etc, we came up with more of a broader answer – ‘lifestyle’. We decided that the beach is a key ingredient of this lifestyle offered in Brighton. So we’re giving every family a beach kit to help them explore the gorgeous sandy shore-line. Over the next few weeks we will also be adding a few more little extras in for guests to enjoy as the weather warms up – so watch this space!

Lifestyle PLUS at gorgeous Brighton and Dendy Beaches

And it’s not just our guests that are benefitting from our networking and social media efforts. We are also working on a new e-book which will include ‘hits and misses’ that we’ve experienced within our social media marketing campaigns. We’re hoping to help other small to medium businesses get on board with social media platforms to help their business grow. It’s not as scary as it may seem, and we’d love to connect with more local businesses, or accommodation industry professionals.