Nomads business and learning Centre

NZbackpack and Co-opetition – Working together can work well

admin — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 00:38:02 +0000

Recently I have attended the NZ backpacker association (nzbackpack.com) meetings. The NZ backpack association has been around for a while but has been lying dormant for a few years until last years NZ backpack conference which had great attendance. One of the main goals of NZbackpack is to act primarily as a lobby group to organizations like TIA and Tourism [...]

Bar manager Checklists

admin — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 22:23:39 +0000

Clearly I have a bit of a thing for checklists but they really make the hospitality world revolve easier. This simple bar checklist makes sure your bar manager is doing all the basics (and makes sure the bar staff are doing their basics) so everything functions okay. The general manager/owner just needs to come through [...]

Bar Operations checklists – Checklists for opening and closing your bar

admin — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 22:59:41 +0000

Just a quick post today with a sample of some of our bar checklists. Although short and simple these checklists are an essential part of every day and when they are not followed we notice things falling apart. If you have anything you think should be added leave a comment below. Other articles you may like: FREE reception [...]

A career in backpacking – that has to be more fun than a hotel

admin — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 02:05:40 +0000

The other day I did a talk to a group of tourism college students on Marketing and communications. This is something we are getting more involved with in Wellington, our Auckland manager Renée has been doing this for a while. The students had been to several hotels and we were thrown in to provide a [...]

Dig deep with fresh eyes and make sure your business is running okay

admin — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 22:37:01 +0000

Image by Ian Hampton via Flickr I have had a very busy last week or two. Aside from my usual daily things one of the bars in our group has hit a bumpy road and has performed quite poorly all of a sudden. Ultimately this has been caused by a drop in standards. Standards in service, in [...]

Is your hostel going to burn to the ground? – Fire safety in your hostel

admin — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 23:08:52 +0000

“Is your hostel going to burn to the ground?”… scary title hey! But a recent fire in an Auckland hostel has brought the topic of fire safety to light. After all who wants to have a Childers in their property? This is just a quick post to get you thinking. Are your fire exits and stairs [...]

Best twitter client for business – Review of twitter clients

admin — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 21:49:02 +0000

So which is the best twitter client for business? When googling around it seem hootsuite always comes out on top in the search results for the best twitter client but there are a few others on the market which have their advantages depending on your business needs. Let’s review my top three. Hootsuite Hootsuite is our preferred twitter client for Nomads [...]

Wordpress SEO plugin – Review Scribe SEO plugin for wordpress

admin — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 01:12:29 +0000

Recently we installed the new wordpress SEO plugin - Scribe SEO and I must say it is one of the best search engine optimization and copy writing tools for wordpress I have come across. When the Scribe SEO plugin is combined with tools like Zemanta you end up with a very powerful and optimized wordpress platform. Some of the features of this new tool include Analysis of keywords in title, description and [...]

Even the boss can engage with customers. Look at Marriott Hotels

shansmith01 — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 01:14:34 +0000

Image via Wikipedia This morning I have been checking out the Marriott Hotel chains new website and I love it. The new site is such a break from the traditional hotel website and has integrated their social media efforts to help further engage their customers (they are tweeting, youtubing, and blogging among other things) It’s actually [...]

Innovate or Die – Jack Collis – Book Review

shansmith01 — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 21:30:33 +0000

Innovate or Die – by Jack Collis is a great read if you need fresh thought. I love reading books on innovation and thinking outside the square. The way I figure it is if i pick up one useful thing out of the book which can give me a leg up over the competition then [...]