The New Team London

One of the questions I often get is “What actually is Team London?”  “Who are they?”  “What do they do” and “What’s all this stuff about monkeys???”

Well Team London is a group of people who work at lastminute.com.  We’re based in our London offices and are responsible for managing the relationships with all the London hotels which we sell on lastminute.com.  There simplzzzz isn’t it?  As for the monkey’s keep checking our blogs and I’m sure you’ll find out more soon!

I was in the lift this morning and my boss piped up and said, “my my haven’t you grown?”  No dearest reader, I haven’t suddenly broke the six foot barrier (although I wish I had) – he actually meant the team.  We’ve multiplied like gremlins at swim club - there’s loads more of us now.  We’ve grown from a team of three to six and we’re raring to go! 

But who have we got in this wonderful collection of people named Team London?  Hmmmm let me see…well there’s Daniel Evans…he’s been in the team for a whilst now but he’s not going anywhere, we tried to get rid of him but he wouldn’t go….something about monkey’s but I couldn’t quite make it out (I’ll figure it out soon I’m sure).  Then we have Sasssssskia Mantle – she’s just been promoted and is now looking after hotels in The Home Counties and at London Airports – we’re thrilled about her promotion so do congratulate her if you see her out and about.

A new member of the team is Monsieur Alex Large.  Alex will be looking after our central London hotels with Daniel and will be coming to see you soon!  Alex has been with us for a couple of years now and can’t wait to get out into London town.

 Who else?  What else is lurking in the mystical magical land of change at lastminute.com?  Well there’s me.  I’m Shaun and I’m the team manager –  pleased to meet you.

 But wait!  We have more surprises up our sleeves for your delectation.  We have two new faces about to be unveiled but you’ll have to wait a wee whilst yet before you get to meet them…so stay tuned my friends.

So thanks for reading this – I hope it gives you an idea of what’s changed and we’ll be seeing you all very soon.

Ciao for now,

forget the world cup…. lastminute.com v Umi Hotels!

We’re a competitive bunch at the pink palace (the london hotel experts more so) so its quite fitting that when Umi hotels challenged us (ahhaa I mean, the footballers amongst us) there was only answer we could respond with (YOU WILL SUFFFEERRRRRR MMMWWWAHHAHAHAH).

The legendary athletically miracle that is Dan Evans (how does he do it seriously – my theory – there’s loads of Dan Evans’s, it’s the only logical way he could be good at everything), along with Larger than Large (and new London supremo) Alex the Large that is Large (& Large associates – by no way affiliated with Danzibar Confederation & associates), played last thursday against Umi Hotels (you may recall yesterday’s post re Steve Lowy, Umi Hotels founder & all-round great guy).

Here’s a few snaps of the gameplay…. what’s that you say? the score? piffle & codswollop, we don’t concern ourselves with mere details like that sir, enjoy the snaps, and that’s an order…..

oh yeah, so, errr, it was a draw! next time Umi, next time!

Large in London

Alex Large here (no jokes please, otherwise my sister Simone will be paying you a visit), I am the Destination Manager for South England, I also enjoy backgammon, badminton, quantum mechanics, exploring the inner-me, and dressing up in ‘80s gear, c’mon, who doesn’t?

Looking in from the outside at the wonderful world of London Hotels, it is easy to be caught by the bug, no, not by a big spider, or even a small one that allegedly brings good luck (seriously they don’t, trust me on that one). I find myself (and my inner-me) stunned (it could be from the spider bite I once had) sometimes by the vibrancy and energy that oozes from every single one of the hundreds of hotels that appear on the site.

I have been lucky enough to be on the periphery for a few years now and on those occasions when the nod comes to attend one of the events that are run, I jump at the chance (and because of the spiders…… dear landlord, seriously, you’ve been saying you’re going to sort us out an exterminator but so far nada!, come on man).

Through the years I have been privy to the amazing suites at The Montcalm with see through bathroom walls, the beautiful courtyard at the Crowne Plaza London St James where I even managed to sign up to a programme of 10 personal training sessions at the Spa @ 51 after a couple of Red Wines too many, and I am forever reminded of the time I dressed up as Harry Potter at the Sofitel London St James (told you I like the dress-up!).

Fantastic times were had, a few drinks drunk, but what particularly hits home is the passion and the desire from the hoteliers to ensure everyone is happy and enjoying themselves, and this can only be a good thing.  We all know that there are some superb hotels out there, with fantastic rooms, great bars and extravagant receptions, but what really makes the experience special for our guests are the hotel staff. 

Here at lastminute.com we like to make people happy, it makes us happy too! We know that when people go to the hotels we work with, they will have one heck of a time… even if they are on business!

At the end of the day, when you get to your hotel, kick back, throw your favourite PJs on, have a glass of beer, we know that you will be looked after by a group of people that are second to none! Even if they do make unnecessarily hard quiz questions such as the ones we had to endure at the Park Inn Hyde Park – I am sure Martin fixed it!

Thanks for listening.

No spiders were harmed in the writing of this post.