Useful takeaways from a timeshare presentation.

Many of us have received at least one sales call inviting us to a presentation on vacation ownership (timeshare). The invitation does sound interesting and attractive because of what’s in store for you – lunch, snacks, a gift, and maybe a free weekend at a resort nearby.

But freebies apart, attending a timeshare presentation can be useful in terms of understanding timeshare as a product and learning about member benefits that come to you over the years. So it’s useful to look at the presentation as a learning opportunity – to know more about the project, the company behind it, and how you can benefit from a membership plan.

Timeshare presentations often include group presentations or discussions, providing potential customers with the opportunity to share experiences, worries, and concerns with other individuals who are also considering an investment in a timeshare plan.

Importantly, a presentation can provide potential customers with the opportunity to evaluate the timeshare plan being showcased against your own need list when it comes to resort locations, term plans, and long-term benefits.

There’s more on this story at this link > World of Airda / August 2023

Read Full Post »

Travel as a family, go on vacations as a family.

One of the biggest advantages of taking an annual vacation with your family is the opportunity to spend time together – so hard to do these days with calendars that don’t match. Vacations can also provide a great opportunity for parents and children to take a break from the stress and pressures of everyday life.

Taking an annual family vacation is a great way to spend quality time together, and get away from everyday routines and responsibilities. And there’s so much you can do – board games, indoor games, outdoor games, and other activities organized by your resort. There are so many ways of spending family time together.

One of the most lasting impressions of a family vacation are the memories associated with it. Memories that can take you back to fun times shared together – and something to look back on in years to come. From camping trips to beach trips, the memories created on a family vacation will remain in everyone’s hearts for years to come.

There’s more on this story at this link > World of Travel / August 2023

Read Full Post »

About careers in the hospitality industry

This feature presents our conversations with Vijay Parmar about job and career opportunities in the hospitality industry. He discusses work areas, skill sets, and what makes hospitality jobs interesting.

A senior hospitality professional with experience in facilities management services, Vijay brings in a wide range of professional inputs including operations management, team motivation, team building, team leadership, and broad areas of engineering support. He previously worked as a Facilities Manager with Sodexo Facilities & OCS (UK), and the Taj Group of Hotels (IHCL) in a senior technical support role.

Vijay Parmar is currently General Manager at Neonz Resort. The resort property spans 15 sprawling acres of land in Charotar, Gujarat. Neonz is an exclusive 5-star lifestyle resort and club that brings together exciting and contemporary concepts in luxury and hospitality.

There’s more on this story at this link > World of Travel / June 2023

(Image credits are included in the main story at this link.)

Read Full Post »

Conversations with Vidushi Gupta, from the City of the Taj

Talk to us about the romance and magic often associated with the Taj – what makes it so special?
You need a little eloquence here to answer that question, and I quote William Shakespeare – “A wonder of wonders in the world, the Taj Mahal is a living edifice of human passion, which neither History dares to bury in its grave nor does Time dare to forget.”

When you’re right there, standing in front of it, the Taj is like a painting with a warm glow of passion, love and romance – intricately woven into the architectural highlights. I am also fascinated with the thought of how a monument of love can turn into one of the Wonders of the World.

The Taj Mahal is perhaps the biggest and most magnificent symbol of love – and the visual appeal here is just as romantic as the stories associated with it. Both the Taj and the Mehtaab Bagh nearby, are popular locations for wedding and advertising related photo-shoots – sometimes the backdrop can make all the difference to the story.

More on our interview with Vidushi Gupta at this link >
Q&A Interviews / June 2020

Read Full Post »

Conversations with Priyanka Rastogi – author of “Early Sunrise, Early Sunset”

Priyanka Rastogi

Priyanka Rastogi is an author and travel entrepreneur with over 15 years of experience in Tourism & Hospitality. She has just published her first book Early Sunrise, Early Sunset : Tales of a Solo Woman Traveler Across North East and East India. The book is an outcome of more than 100 trips done in the region over last 6 years.

Priyanka is an IATA qualified travel and tourism professional with industry experience across contracting, sales, operations, customer care and product development in the domestic travel sector. She has held senior level positions in India Hotel Review, Goibibo and Stayzilla. As a senior marketing manager at Goibibo, she was in charge of operations in the east and north east region – directly responsible for 1200 properties.

Priyanka is currently involved in the incubation of kiomoi.com –a technology-enabled experiential holiday planning & booking platform. Through this innovative business model, she plans to help the under-served markets of north east India.

More on our interview with Priyanka Rastogi at this link >
Message of the Month Interview / June 2020

 

 

Read Full Post »

Some interesting angles to shooting videos on a holiday

This is an interview with “mobile” film maker from Mumbai, Shiva Prasad – in our Message of the Month section.

How can lay people on a vacation take better pictures using their mobile phones?

People love to capture their travel and adventure photos and look forward to preserving them as fond memories for the rest of their lives. That’s where the mobile phone comes in to capture beautiful imagery and footage on your vacation.

Many of the recently launched mobile phones have interesting creative presets such as slow motion videos, time-lapse (passage of time) giving you the ability to film in variable frame rates like 30 and 60 frames – and going right up to 970 frames on some phones. The latest Samsung Galaxy S 20 allows you to capture footage in true cinematic 24 frames in 8k resolution – the only mobile phone which offers this feature till date.

More on our interview with Shiva Prasad at this link >
Message of the Month Interview / May 2020

Read Full Post »

In and around Club Mahindra Virajpet

This is an interview with James George from Dubai, in our Q&A section.

How hard does it become to take a break for a vacation?
My brother Joel and I look forward to the great outdoors, together – because I live and work in Dubai and he is based in Bangalore. Oftentimes, life gets in the way and the time we do eventually spend when we meet is with other family members at home. When I came down this time, he had planned this trip so we could spend some quality time together and really unwind. Naturally we wanted the quality of our destination to be enhanced by the locale of our stay.

But, taking a break isn’t easy – you need to align calendars and make concrete plans that you can stay with. I am glad we were able to make this trip in the beginning of February – before more than half of the world’s population went into lockdown due to Covid19. Since the experience is recent, I have fond memories at our resort in Virajpet, of the Club Mahindra experience.

More on our interview with James George at this link >
Q&A Interviews / May 2020

Read Full Post »

Reflecting the brand, when you’re designing hotel interiors

Image Source: Lesley Wong Interiors

How would you translate a company’s brand properties into interior design?

For me, I like to do some homework before I meet the client. I look at the company logo, website and brand. I try to get an understanding of what they would like to convey to their guests.

The next step is to meet at the property to connect, if what they want to convey is really getting across to their guests. For instance, does the brand say “warm and welcoming”? As it pertains to interior design, we can use that as a jumping off point with a color palette. Maybe we look at logo colors and modify from there with complimentary colors in the interior – ones that make you feel warm and welcomed. Think warm rusty oranges, reds, yellows, earthy browns and beige – “warm” colors. Textures that are soft will continue on that path of welcoming.

More on our interview with Lesley Wong at this link >
Message of the Month Interview / April 2020

Read Full Post »

Putting your vacation on hold . . .

In the last months of 2019, people looked at 2020 as the turnaround year for business and enterprise, building up to a year of strong consolidation. The anticipation was short-lived as Covid-19 literally took the world by storm. As we present this story, the world is no longer the same – but we always have tomorrow to look forward to. (We do.)

This month’s Q&A session reflects the thoughts, feelings and emotions of people who actually planned to go on vacation during March / April this year. With bookings made, all they needed to do was pack their bags.

However, these conversations also reflect an understanding of the current situation. People are overcoming their initial disappointment with responsible thinking.

More on this story at this link >
Q&A Interviews / April 2020

Read Full Post »

How to take better pictures on your next vacation

Picture : copyright Shiva Prasad

Shiva Prasad is a Mumbai-based management graduate in international business. He chose filmmaking as his career, and has worked in Indian and British films. He also worked as a creative researcher for the Hindi feature film Irada, which won the Indian National Award in 2018. He has also been rated as a top photographer on Google Maps. As an extension to his passionate interest in anything smartphone, Shiva is an active stock video producer for leading stock agencies across the globe.

Shiva tasted success as a filmmaker in the year 2013, when he was stranded in the Uttarakhand flash floods. He managed to survive that and captured nature’s fury in great detail on his smartphone. (That was all the shooting kit he had with him at that point.)

Shiva has filmed a 20-episode television series on India’s holy river “Krishna”, with his smartphone. And Samsung, too, was inspired to produce a promotional video about Shiva Prasad’s creative journey in movie making.

For our Message for the Month feature we chatted with Shiva on his personal journey, and how people on vacation can take better pictures and videos on their smart phones. (This is the first segment in a two-part series of interviews.)

More on this story at this link >
Message of the Month / March 2020

Read Full Post »