November 2016 - The success of Hillside Beach Club has been recognised through the creation of a case study for marketing students at one of the world’s leading universities, Harvard Business School. Operated by Alarko Holding Tourism Group, the luxury resort is praised for its authentic management methods, motivated staff...
A big thank you to all our guests
So the summer season has now come to an end and it’s been quite a turbulent year for the travel industry with some clear winners and losers. Brexit, terror threats and the weakening pound have all had significant impact on travel in 2016. Our biggest market, Turkey, certainly suffered from...
A letter from our guest
Dear Discerning Collection Having just returned from yet another fabulous holiday with the Discerning Collection I wanted to write and say a heartfelt thank you for another fantastic holiday to Turkey. Many people were cautious when I said I was going to Turkey, perhaps understandably but when you are in...
Little things that mean a lot at the Hillside Beach Club
Last night I stayed at The Hillside Beach Club for the first time. I'd visited it before, of course, but there's nothing like staying in one of our hotels to really see how good (or indeed bad) the property is. I'd heard great things from our guests and wondered what made...
A little trumpet blowing!
We are usually quite humble when it comes to the service we provide to our guests and although this is of utmost importance to us, we try not to brag! However, occasionally we like to share feedback received from our loyal clients, below is a letter received from some of our lovely guests...
The Discerning Collection buys failed operator Elixir Holidays
The Discerning Collection has bought failed Turkey specialist Elixir Holidays from its administrators. The Turkey specialist operator has taken on Elixir's 309 forward bookings, some assets, its database, intellectual property rights, trading and domain names. The deal does not cover the operator's staff, five of which were based in London,...
The Demise of Elixir Holidays
The sad demise of Elixir Holidays shows, once again, how tour operators need to operate with Trust Accounts. It also shows that committed accommodation and flights, where the hotels and flights are guaranteed, must be a thing of the past. If Elixir had operated with a trust account, all the...
Are holiday makers being ripped off in the school holidays?
The simple answer is yes. This week the plight of families who have to take holidays during the school holidays has come to the fore and was highlighted in an interview on Good Morning Britain between Piers Morgan and Sean Tipton, an ABTA spokesman. It wasn’t easy for Mr Tipton!...
The Demise of Exclusive Escapes – Trust Accounts
When I set up our Trust Account last year it was with some trepidation as fundamentally it meant that we could only trade with the money that we invested into the business. It was going to be tough in that we could not use client’s monies to pay for anything...
Greece … How it really is!
With so many of our guests calling for up to date information with regards to the situation in Greece below is a unedited report from Barbara, our host in Crete, who looks after all our arrivals on this lovely island.: ‘Hello from Crete The situation at the moment is as...