Tag: 2014

Days in Norway: Yes, it exists!

Many years back I happened to visit the office of a travel agency. One of the posters caught my attention. It was a long shot composed of lush green mountains with a water-filled deep & narrow valley. A ship in the long spanse of still waters that looked tiny from the distance. The picture stayed […]

Uber gets to learn from the market

Question: When did booking a taxi become an exciting affair? Answer: When Uber was launched I and my family & friends are enjoying the plethora of discounts & free rides that Uber has been offering. The technology is disruptive i.e it can break existing economics of the transportation business. Much as been said and written […]

My tryst with Accor hotels

My tryst with Accor hotels began in the early 2009 in Paris with stays in Novotel & then switched to the preferred Suite Novotel. While Novotel is good for short stays of less than a week, Suite Novotel is cosy for long stays. Also, a couple of times in Ibis when I wanted to stay […]

Avoiding early-mover’s curse in hotel bookings – How to catch the last-minute deals

Book early, save more. 90/60/30 day advance booking rates. Most of us are familiar with such offers to sweeten our hotel and resort bookings. Strange are the ways of dynamic pricing + occupancy rate targets + unknown factors, one could be a victim of early-mover’s curse i.e a well-planned booking made in advance turns expensive […]

Getting to & back the Bangalore airport

The Bangalore airport (officially called Kempegowda International Airport, named after the founder of Bangalore) opened in 2005 and located about 40kms from the city centre. It is the only commercial airport of Bangalore. The old city airport is only used for testing & defense purposes (probably also for private planes. When I own one, I […]

From a low in August 2013 to lifetime high in March 2014: What changed in 6 months?

On 28th August 2013, the Sensex closed below 18000 and the Nifty at 5285. Headlines in popular media went something like this: – Sensex recovers after morning crash, ends 28 points higher, The Hindu – Sensex drops over 500 points, Nifty slips below 5,150, The Economic Times As always, when markets are down, most of […]

Days in France: Random train of thoughts

————————————————————- This was written on July 2013!!! ————————————————————- The world was seen in just 2 – India and Foreign! It does seem lame and dumb but this was the belief as a young boy. That was an era of postal letters, telegram, (that died recently in India) and newspapers. No internet, no mobiles, one channel […]