Hotel reputation management

Its incredibly important that hotels understand reputation management, more often that not many sites like tripadvisor can be heavily tilted towards the negative feedback from customers rather than the positive ones. We have even come across instances where competitors have actually written negative comment pretending to be a customer.

Hotel reputation management can be a bit tricky just because of how competitive the market is, but with the right preparation and planned strategy can really limit the damage caused by negative comments or bad press. www.reputationmanagementfor.com can help advise hotels on how to manager their reputation.

Cobra Group

The Cobra Group is now making itself more visible through different web channels:

Twitter: Cobra Group | Blog: Cobra Group | Facebook: Cobra Group

Cobra is taking a proactive approach on-line to become more visible, please follow their channels to see all the updates and news.

New software to block porn sites in Scotland

Scotland, Oct 3: Internet has gained popularity all over the world, particularly among youngsters. It is stuffed with information including both good and bad one. With the inclusion of videos and animation in the websites makes its more vulnerable to be misused and thereby mislead the school and college students.

So as to restrict this kind of malpractices, computer experts in Scotland have developed a new software to scan internet pages, which enables to stop pornography and offensive sites being loaded on to school and company computers. Bloxx, a Livingston based company developed this software that analyse the language and pictures to restrict the harmful content or visuals included in the websites.

The new software also allows restriction on the social networking sites to particular time limits of the day so they can be used during breaks. This added feature of this software enables the companies to cut down the online time wasting. A recent study conducted on the time lost through social networking sites, estimated this unnecessary expense costing UK companies about £130m a day. This study bring out the gravity of the situation.

In recent months "internet skiving" has emerged as a huge threat for the employers. Several government, corporate and school computers are being used to make illegal or offensive edits on the content of the popular web sites like Wikipedia. Rather than simply blocking pages the new software scans the pictures and languages for the signs of offensive material, including certain keywords like 'sex', it scans all the words in the text to analyse the context and decide which site should be blocked.

While commenting on the functionality of the new software, the company spokesman said: "There are certain ways to analyse pages, which allow you to analyse what a page is really about. For example, a race-hate page often features the word 'they' a lot, and you can use that fact to help devise intelligent ways to screen out damaging material, even if no-one has ever seen the page before. Similarly, a pornographic picture can have certain characteristics which can be analysed by a computer, the tones of the picture for example, and these factors can be used to block them from loading into the computer."

Earlier attempts to scan the internet pages involves having specialists known as “porn monkeys” who manually scans the websites and tries to find out the extend of ban to be implemented on a particular site or sites. Another tactic involved banning pages with single key words from coming through filters. The problem involved in this method is that internet is growing all the time and people are adding blogs all the time making it difficult to keep track of them in the traditional way.

Last week the new software was implemented by the shipping company Graypen, which employs hundreds of staff around the UK. In addition to wasting company time, the personal internet use consumes time, as connecting to websites will make the machine work slow. All together this new software will become a boon to the employer and bane to the employee.

Hit & run accuse bows to father's emotion

The case of hit and run which we were tracking since last week in which ten-year-old Jack Anderson lost his life took a U-turn when the culprit Purcell handed over himself to the St Leonard’s police station in Edinburgh. It was told that the accused Isaac Purcell 26, wrote to Jacks parents, declaring that he was the driver of the car which hit jack and feel sorry for the incident. In reply Jacks father wrote back him and enclosed a photograph of his son and his grave.

Purcell still denies murdering Jack and agrees of driving the green Peugeot 406 which hit Jack. The video of the police interview with Purcell who himself is a father of five was played before the jury. Purcell said "I'm so sorry. I've handed myself into the police. I'm doing this for the parents. It's the only way I can give something back to Jack."

The exchange of letters between Purcell and Jacks father Mr Anderson made Purcell to hand over himself to the police. In the letter which was read to the court tells, Jacks father opened his heart saying "The only thing we have now are memories. The house is quiet now. Jack was the life and soul of our family”. He at last concluded the letter by appealing Purcell to surrender in the police station.

This incident was shocking, and police were hunting for the suspect who hit Jack, but were clue less. Jack in his statement said I knew we hit something but never knew it was a little boy, later that night when I saw the news I got to know about the victim. He himself is the father of five and says I can imagine how I would feel in such a situation.

In his letter to Mr Anderson Purcell also claims that though he was chased by police but he didn’t stopped because he was wanted on a charge in Liverpool so he fearfully drove off. The case is still on and now the court will decide the fate of Purcell after hearing all allegations.

SNP chief oppose the new pub laws

Edinburgh, Oct 2: Strict laws are being implemented against the pubs in Edinburgh. The restrictions include the opening hours and the number of people allowed to stand up in the bar. Mixed remarks for and against this pub laws are coming out since then. The council put forth this law as an attempt to restrict the anti social behaviour.

The council's plans to impose the pub laws were announced last month by the Liberal Democrat coalition Councillor Marjorie Thomas, chairwoman of the city's licensing board.

The deputy council leader Steve Cardownie raised doubts regarding the outcome of this implementation. The SNP leader made an outspoken attack and he termed this attempt as a backward step. He further described the idea of sending "bean counters" to count the number of people standing up in individual bars as "nonsensical".

While commenting on the need of the pub laws Cardownie said: "I think it is a good thing that people can go out a bit later now if they want to. Changing the rules would be a backward step when we are trying to compete with other major cities around Europe".

"The situation is better in Edinburgh than it is down south where you get all the pubs shutting at once and huge queues forming at taxi ranks, when you get arguments and fights breaking out. I also think it's nonsensical to try to impose some kind of limit on the number of people who can stand up in a pub. How on earth would you enforce that?"

Meanwhile the Councillor Thomas said: "I stand by the comments I made earlier this month but it is important to stress that we have simply put these proposals out for consultation at the moment. We have already had a big response, both from publicans and the licensed trade, but also from people in local communities across the city. Some don't like what has been proposed, some are in favour, but we are going to listen to all views. However, we're certainly not talking about turning the lights out on Edinburgh".

Paul Waterson, chief executive of the Licensed Trade Association, Scotland, said: "The draft policy isn't just bad, it's plain daft. Are they going to have people walking into pubs and demanding that half the customers sit down?"

Liberal Democrats Councillor Paul Edie, who is leading the council's efforts to tackle antisocial behaviour, said: "Although this is really a matter for the licensing board, I'm certainly not aware of any demands by the police to cut back the hours of city pubs. There are obviously hot spots in the city, but there has been a lot of money invested in CCTV facilities and the police do seem to have coped well with the liberal licensing hours in Edinburgh".

While commenting on the political version of things the city's Labour leader, Ewan Aitken, said: "This is just another example of the complete chaos the SNP and the Liberal Democrats have got themselves in. They don't seem to be speaking to the other party or even amongst themselves."

Hope all these mixed responses will pave the way for some clear modification in the pub laws considering the public interest.

Scotland booked their berth in quarter final round

Scotland, Oct 1: After a setback in the third league match against New Zealand, Scotland Rugby team regained its name in the Rugby World Cup 2007. With this hard earned victory the Scottish team enters into the quarter final round of the world cup. Frank Hadden's men survived the scare and a good few others to defeat Italy, the score card was horribly close thing, and anxiety prevailed up to the last moment. Some crucial flaws from the Italian side paved the way for the Scottish team's victory.

The game was tight with plenty of kicking from both sides but in the end Scottish team gained the edge amidst heavy rain in St Etienne. In the initial league matches against Portugal and Romania the Scottish team won with a clean margin. But against the New Zealand side they failed to continue their winning streak as they gave way to a crumbling defeat.

With the rain interrupting the smooth conduct of the match, the wet field led to the flaws from both the sides. Most of the rugby on show came from the Italians who scored the only try of the night and were far more willing to risk moving the wet ball. The Scottish Coach won't care about aesthetics and this victory was built on the backs of two kickers. Parks led the team into attacking areas and Chris Paterson just doesn't miss when given the opportunity. He was given six in all and, insatiable, he took every one.

In the match against Italy the Scotland team give away 21 points in the initial stage of the match, but this time they were in no mood to repeat that generosity. Instead they got off to a flying start with two penalties within the opening five minutes, the perfect way to calm the nerves. In the final hour of the match, when the Italian team began to fought back the Scots team took defence as their rescue. Bortolussi kicked two penalties in quick succession; the first after Nathan Hines was shown a yellow card for a dangerous tackle.

With the clock ticking and Scotland leading 18-16, Italy full-back David Bortolussi has the chance to win the game for his team. His long-range effort drifts wide and it favours the Scotland team. This crucial victory will let the Scottish team helped in getting the last minute berth in the quarter final round. They have to improvise their performance so as to overcome the trouble against Argentina or France in the next match to come.

Modern art attracting investors

October, 1

The art of investment has taken an artistic shape, with all contemporary and traditional ways of investments becoming outdated. Nowadays a new addition to this money making market has created quite a sensation with its presence. It's the Modern art which is attracting a lot of people, with a robust growth in cash making industry. The recent figures reveal that the value of the art works of 1970s has jumped up to more than 50 percent in previous year. In the same way the demand for English watercolourists has dropped a lot. These figures were revealed in the annual Hiscox Art Market Research (HAMR) report which was based on auctions all over the world.

Experts suggest that this mammoth rise in art forms have pointed out the positive reception this art has received making the markets to surge. Mr Ian O'Riordan, the manager of the prestigious City Art Centre in Edinburgh said, "I don't think people have ever seen contemporary art as an investment before and, even if they did, then it was only major figures like Damien Hirst. It was possibly one of the last markets not to have exploded in terms of people looking for a large profit." He also pointed out the fact that in recent years many hedge-fund managers have inclined towards buying these art forms as an investment.

This trend has also made people to take more interest in contemporary and modern art which is clearly visible from the recent figures. The value English sporting paintings have grown up by 26 percent, and the European 19th century paintings rose up by 19 percent. It also includes record-breaking sales in the past one year in the booming art world with few areas still to get some pace.

Adding his views Charles Dupplin, an art expert at the specialist insurers Hiscox said, the year was a golden year for modern and contemporary art. In this year several art works have been paid some record-breaking prices. These development and interest of people in art is a remarkable achievement for the art world.

Richard Ingleby owner of Edinburgh's Ingleby Gallery in the Carlton Terrace says these auction houses have transformed themselves, giving more stress to marketing. In recent years the market has seen many new individuals showing interest in these contemporary arts. They are all set to spend on these art forms, even the auction houses are now more inclined towards the retail sector. All these sudden moves have shown yet another door to give a makeover to the investment scenario.