The Queen of Tapas is featured in this month’s Virgin Australia Voyeur inflight magazine.
(pages 52 – 56)
The Flavour of Seville
words by Shaney Hudson
photos by Helen Cathcart
[more on the azahar Sevilla blog]
02 Monday Jul 2012
Posted in internet, media, tapas, tapas tours, work
The Queen of Tapas is featured in this month’s Virgin Australia Voyeur inflight magazine.
(pages 52 – 56)
words by Shaney Hudson
photos by Helen Cathcart
[more on the azahar Sevilla blog]
25 Monday Jun 2012
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So the other day I came across a site where you could “hire a local friend” while travelling in various cities, who would show you around and make your experience less touristy, blah blah… and then I thought this would be perfect for Peter. Happily he thought so too, and so for the past couple of days I’ve been working on getting a new blog and social media stuff set up for him. Peter’s been busy writing content (not published yet) and we’ve both been talking about the various ways he could take this new venture. I mean, there are lots of different specialised outings in Seville he could offer, as well as day trips by train or bus. This is very exciting! So go on and follow his blog, twitter and facebook accounts!
Seville Concierge Blog
Seville Concierge on Twitter
Seville Concierge on Facebook
04 Monday Jun 2012
Posted in culture, fiestas, food & drink, social media, spain, travel, trips, twitter, work
Tags
granada, Holiday Apartments, sevilla, travel, trips, veoapartment
So tomorrow I’m going to Granada and this is where I’ll be staying!
As with my recent day trip to Córdoba this trip to Granada will be part of my 20th anniversary celebrations but will include doing some research for my own websites and also for my friends at veoapartment.com. Markus very generously offered to split the cost with me by providing the accommodation, and well, just look at it! Small and perfect and in a dead-centre-of-town and easy-to-get-to-everywhere location. I couldn’t be happier.
At first the plan was to just stay overnight but it turns out that not only is it Feria in Granada this week, but also Corpus Christi, which is apparently a huge deal over there. Seriously, even more than here where they spend weeks erecting a couple of elaborate arches for a 3-hour procession…
Anyhow, I now have two nights in Granada! So I’ll be leaving at the crack of dawn tomorrow (it’s a three-hour train ride) and will spend the day meeting old Twitter buddies John (aka @benzo8) and his wife Gale. I’ll also be meeting a new Twitter friend and travel writer Molly (aka @piccavey) and possibly also with fab photographer Fred Shively during my stay. Peter is also coming but will be taking a later train tomorrow because he has an English class in the morning. He’ll also be leaving earlier, on Wednesday evening, because Azar really can’t be left on his own for more than one night. Still, it will be a nice break for Peter, and he can also help me with some of the research stuff. Win-win!
If you want to feel reallly envious check out the veoapartment “apartment tour” video of my fabulous get-away place here…
14 Monday May 2012
Posted in sevilla, social media, tapas, tapas tours, work
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Remember my first bad review? Well, it was actually Peter’s bad review, but of course it also reflected badly on me and my tours. I know some of you thought I had overreacted to this negative feedback, but for me the worst of it was ending up with people inquiring about tours specifically asking not to go out with Peter, which I felt was unfair.
Anyhow, as most of you predicted, there are now some very nice new reviews that have been posted since then, including a positive one about Peter, which has really lifted his spirits. And this week he is back on the job as I had a flurry of last-minute booking requests that I couldn’t do because I was already booked. I mean, I still do most of the tapas tours myself but it’s good to have back up as I obviously can’t be in two places at once.
One positive thing that has come out of this is that I’ve set up a feedback email that I will send to clients after their tours, asking them to rate various aspects from 1 – 5, and then give any additional comments if they want to. It’s not criticism I’m against, as there is always room for improvement, but unfair (and untrue) negative comments like in that bad review don’t help anybody. So this will help me get a better feel for what people like and are looking for. Peter has also been given a bit of a “refresher course” so that he makes sure to cover all the important information. But you know, so much of the conversation during the tours depends on the clients and what they are interested in. As I’ve said before, the best times are when everyone shows an interest and participates, rather than just sitting there waiting to be “informed and entertained”. I know that you can’t please everyone, but I can sure as hell try. Onwards!
11 Friday May 2012
Posted in social media, tapas, tapas tours, work
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Aren’t these the cutest? My first sample of free Moo business cards that were offered to me by Klout, so I only had to pay the postage (about 2.50€) for fifty cards. I could’ve opted to pay about 12€ extra and not have the Klout logo on the front of the cards, but first I wanted to see if I liked them. And I do! Though next time I’ll change some of the photos as they came out way over-saturated on the cards. May also rethink the text on the back. Not bad for a trial run though.