Because all of the senior account managers at Balcony come from the world of journalism, we’re able to produce stories about clients that look more like travel writing than PR. When we collaborate on a story about clients for a magazine, we often deploy a nom de plume, usually Bart Conley or Belle Conley. We’re...
Category: Opinion
Eight Balcony Hotels & Resorts Land on Condé Nast Traveler’s “Best in Asia” List
HUE, Vietnam (Oct. 15, 2020) — Eight hotels and resorts represented by the Balcony Media Group have won coveted spots in the Condé Nast Traveler 2020 Readers’ Choice Awards. Announced in New York on Oct. 6, and in the November print issues of both the US and UK editions, the awards were determined by 715,000...
COVID-19 Warning: “We Cannot Go Back to Acting Like We Did Before”
Commentary from Herbert Laubichler-Pichler, the general manager of the new Alma Resort at Cam Ranh: We are very happy and impressed with the Vietnamese authorities’ initial management and handling of the COVID-19 crisis. Vietnam’s COVID-19 response has been hailed a huge success worldwide, based on quick and thorough action that kept the number of COVID-19...
Balcony Hotels Win the Day
Not all hotel industry awards are cut from the same bolt of silk. Some are pay-for-play propositions that mean little, at the end of the day, since you pay for what you get. Others are the distillation of a meaningful effort. Among those are DestinAsian’s Readers’ Choice Awards. The 2020 Awards were announced Feb. 2,...
It’s TIME for Azerai Hue
Say what you will about winning a coveted spot on a list of the world’s best hotels. And then check out what happened for Azerai La Residence, Hue late this summer of 2019. The hotel won a spot on a list of Time magazine’s 100 Greatest Places. We repeat: Places. In essence, one of the...
Rolling On The River In Oman
It is approaching high summer in western Oman – one of the driest times of the year on the Arabian Peninsula. But all I can hear on this May morning is the sound of thunder as a deluge of water rains down on me. It is not a freak squall that is causing the cacophony...
Scoring Multiple Magazines
All across North America, magazine groups target affluent readers with print magazines that cater to very specific geographies. What’s great about connecting with them is this: That they often publish multiple editions. Landing a story in one means landing a story in as many as…. well, in this case 15 publications. In December, we connected...
Genesis of a Press Trip
In the world of hotel and resort PR, press trips are happening all the time. They’re often organized around the grand opening of a hotel. Or when an airline launches a new route into a destination. Or sometimes when a hotel simply wants more exposure in a given media market, and have a strong story...
Hyatt GM Jumps into a Bangkok Grand Opening
It’s not every general manager of a hotel who jumps from the heights of a skyscraper to welcome guests when he opens a new rooftop bar. But Sammy Carolus did just that in Bangkok last week at Spectrum, a new rooftop bar that’s set to emerge as the most sparkling gem in the crown of Bangkok’s rooftop...
Protected: How to Value a Hotel’s PR Exposure
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