About me: Maria A.

The last few years, I was working in the responsible position of the hotel manager. They placed me in a small boutique hotel in the center of Athens. (June 2018 until the corona virus closed all the hotels in Greece in November 2020).

Job description

Part of my job was managing the staff and consulting with suppliers. All the suppliers for breakfast, shuttle, clothing washing machine services, decontamination even before Covid-19-disinfection-disinfestation-rodenticide etc.. In addition to that, I was watching hotel’s accounting, attending the internet marketing service and the online booking engines. Moreover, I was monitoring the channels and customer management-development with our hotel asset solution provider. Also, I was attending at customer’s service as well as operating hotel PMS software.

Most importantly, I was managing the operation of travel planning websites, such as Booking, expedia, hotels.com, TripAdvisor, Airbnb etc.. While I was attending seminars* specialized in the areas of work in a hotel. I want to believe that each time I was improving my approach. And my efficiency of course by resolving issues or complaints of customers, if any.

My observation

From my perspective, I found out that there is a gap at the travelling market. I hope you will allow me to cover it and you will let me help you as a local expert. There are two basic categories of customers’ the ones that they are paying lot of money to TAs & TOs (travel agents and tour operators), in order to arrange their trip and the other category which they usually invest a lot of their personal time to regulate all the details by themselves. Most of the times, neither of them succeeds efficient enough according to their preferences.

…and regardless of the category, everyone needed some kind of help from a personal concierge. Just  to arrange their daily schedule to sightseeing, beaches, restaurants, shops, etc. Or to give them in advance a planning list with all the useful information. I will cover all your needs for accommodations, shuttle services and suggestions for activities etc..

Reasons to let me advice you

I consider myself as a local knowledge expert in Athens. This arises from my research about my previous job and during that at the boutique hotel. Meanwhile, wanting to find a way out of my creativity. So, I figure out that I shall help you choose the most professional agencies for your budget. Furthermore, I will significantly eliminate your spending time searching for suitable activities for your family. In addition to that I will take a lot of the anxiety out of your travel hopefully. In that way, you will have ”your own local travel organizer” for Greece.

Moreover, I am like Gulliver. I like to travel, so I can help you also with other cities and islands of Greece. How will I do that? By a personalized customized itinerary that will make your trip memorable. I hooope!

*Below you can see few of the seminars–certifications I attend:

• AHLEI-Certified Front Desk Representative (4units)
• AHLEI-Revenue Management: Maximizing Revenue in Hospitality Operations (6units)
• AHLEI-Certified Guest Service Professional
• Google-Grow Greek Tourism Online. (Principles of Digital Marketing, Creating an Internet Business, Creating a Website, Creating a Digital Marketing Plan, Remote Work Tools)
• Hotelier Academy (channel managers, gastronomy branding, hotel brands, hotel culture, hotel digital marketing, hotel partnerships, hotel digital sales, niche markets, social media content, villa sales marketing, webhotelier masterclass, hotel website, wellbeing design, automation, profitability, covid-19, performance advertising, promotional trends, data & revenue, hotel restaurant menus, F&B, fire safety, hotel strategy, pricing policy, photography
• TripAdvisor
• Booking
• Expedia

 

Customer’s marking

At this point, I would like to refer that during my service the customers’ reviews reached high levels. 9.7/10 on booking.com, 5/5 on TripAdvisor, 4.9/5 on expedia, 9.8/10 for hotels.com. And 4.8/5 on google and 5/5 on Airbnb (Superhost in Airbnb 5 times in a row).

While, together with my team, we received a bronze award for the Best Greek Apartment City Hotel. The Greek Hospitality Awards organization served this to us for 2019. Another one silver award for the same category for 2020. Additionaly, the hotel awarded the Guest Review Awards 2018 from Booking.com. Even from the 5 first months of its operation. And then again it was re-received it in 2020 for 2019 bookings.

Finally, during my service, Athenian Residences was awarded as Traveler’s Choice for 2020 by TripAdvisor, as travelers from all over the world rated it is in October 2020 among the 10% of the best in the world and 2nd best among the 125 B&Bs/Inns of Athens. Then follows the reviews during October 2020: Booking.com 9.4/10, TripAdvisor 5/5, Expedia 4.9/5, Hotels.com 9.8/10, Google 4.8/5, Airbnb 5/5.

 

Check out also my new profile on IG: Travel advice from a Greek and my FB page.

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