FOTO.COM 50 free prints for Irish Customers

Digital cameras and inbuilt phone cameras are fantastic, but I still find myself needing to travel to the local chemist shop / supermarket whenever I need prints. I really like the www.foto.com website. There you can upload your photos online and click a button. Hey presto, four days later your prints arrive by post.

For Irish users they currently have a promotion advertising, 50 free prints with every print order. For large orders they are promoting a price of 1c per print for prints 501 - 1,000 on 6 X 4" prints ( a saving of €40 apparently).

Need some photos printed in Ireland, why not take advantage of their offer.

Don't forget that Hotel Express saves individuals small and medium sized businesses money every day. If you travel on business and use hotels and are interested in saving money why not contact us.

Maxroam Further Improves - now you can "roam for free"

Remember that company Maxroam, we mentioned them previously. Their Sim card

reduces your roaming charges hugely

allows your callers only pay landline charges when calling you

allows you to have fixed landline numbers (from 52 countries)directed to your mobile, creating a virtual presence in all those countries

Ronan O'Brien highlighted in a comment to our earlier post that they have further improved their service and now they allow free call forwarding.

What does this really mean for Maxroam Sim Card Users?

arrive at your destination

if you have a Hotel direct telephone number in your room, or office or other landline number you can forward all your Maxroam numbers to that number FOR FREE

Your clients dial your Maxroam local number which goes straight to your Hotel Room (or other landline number

You pay no call forwarding charges, no roaming charges, your caller pays a local call charge.

The bottom line is that you are now roaming for free and your clients are just paying a landline call to call you - a win / win all round.

You can just change your call forwarding number as you move from hotel to hotel and your callers just call the same maxroam local landline number to call you.

Lally Logic also gives a very positive reveiw of the Cubic telecom phone and Maxroam.

I know that a number of our Hotel Express clients are now using the Maxroam Sim and feedback is very good. So if you travel on business and want to reduce your roaming charges. Or if you are a small business and want to create a virtual global presence with lots of (normally priced-not premium priced) landline numbers forwarded to your phone then you should have a look at Maxroam.

P.s On a totally seperate unrelated issue Ronan O'Brien runs an excellent online fancydress costume business in Ireland www.irelandcostumes.com . So the next time you are invited to a fancy dress party (yes I hate them too), you can order your fancy dress costume on line at the click of a button. The party might be painful but at least ordering the costume isn't!





Remember that these blog tips to help you further reduce your business related travel costs are just the tip of the iceberg. Hotel Express clients saved over £50 million worldwide on their Hotel expenses last year. If you want to reduce your hotel costs and the time you waste booking them just e-mail us.

Need a Wifi Hotspot?

I came across a collabrative (you can add to it) map of Irish WiFi hotspots yesterday. It highlights over 100 Wifi hotspots in Ireland (some free / some not) but at least you know where they are. So if you're travelling and need to check those e mails have a look. It is promoted by the Eirpreneur Blog and you can see the map here.

There are other Wifi hotspot locators as well:

Hotspot Locations provides location listings worldwide and gives a particualrly extensive listing for the UK.

Wefi a US company provides software which apparently identifies the best Wifi connections in the USA (over 280,000 mapped)and they are currently running a "Wardriving" contest. What?

Well I had no idea what Wardriving is either (something to do with tank commanders perhaps!) but Wardriving is the act of searching for Wi-Fi wireless networks by a person in a moving vehicle using a Wi-Fi-equipped computer such as a laptop or a PDA. So if you are located in the USA and drive extensively you upload their software and as you drive you map Wifi hotspots which their software asseses. Whoever maps the most wis the prize! Bottom line you spend €20,000 on petrol and car depreciation to win a Wii or an ipod worth $500. But I guess if you driving anyway it's worth a look and the competition is here

Hotel Express clients save in excess of €50,0000,0000 every year on their Hotel Costs. If you travel on business and are interested in saving time and money, why not contact us.

Free Ink Cartridge or Free Photo Paper Offer

Whilst looking through some marketing material I received over the past few days. I came across and offer from www.InkCLub.com. They are currently giving away free ink cartridges for Epson and Cannon printers and free photo paper (20 pages) when you order HP and Lexmark cartridges. They do charge a delivery charge (Ireland €4.95, UK £2.99),but even with the delivery charge that's good value for a print cartridge or alternately with a cartridge the 20 free sheets of photo paper are a good deal.

Of course there's no such thing as a free lunch and their expectation is:

You will probably order more than either the 1 free cartridge or the 1 cartridge and free photo paper.

You will use them again for your next order and you can only use the free offer once

I had a quick look through their prices and they seem competitive and a free cartridge is a free cartridge, free photo paper is free photo paper. So if your printer is running out of ink and your print is fading away you could do worse than have a look at www.InkCLub.com.

6 Different Things To Do In Dublin

6 different and unusual things to do the next time you visit Dublin

• Visit St. Michan’s Church: Rebuilt in 1686 but originally dating from the 11th century, St. Michan’s church hides an unusual secret – it’s vaults contain preserved bodies (guaranteed to keep the children awake at night!). Within the church are magnificent carvings and an organ which is said to have been played by Handel. From the 1st November to 16th March open Monday to Friday 12:30pm to3:30pm. From the 17th March to 31st October open Monday to Friday 10:00am to 12:45pm and 2:00pm to 4:30pm. Open Saturday all year from 10:00am to 12:45pm. There is a charge for the guided tour of our vaults. Admission charges:- Adults €3.50. Students €3.00. Child €2.50. Senior Citizen€3.00.

• Go Horse Racing in Leopardstown: just a 15 minute taxi ride from the centre of the city Leopardstown racecourse has year round racing and is a great day or evening out. The evening racing during the Summer particularly good as a family evening out.

• Visit the Francis Bacon Studio at the Hugh Lane Gallery: Francis Bacon's heir, John Edwards, donated the contents of the 20th-century figurative painter's London studio to the Hugh Lane Gallery in 1998. The studio, at 7 Reece Mews, South Kensington, was mapped and removed piece by piece and meticulously reconstructed in the Hugh Lane Gallery. The reconstructed studio features the original door, walls, floors, ceiling and shelves. Over 7,000 items appear here, including 570 books, 1,500 photographs, 100 slashed canvases, 2,000 artist's materials and 70 drawings. Bacon said of his cluttered studio: "I feel at home here in this chaos, because chaos suggests images to me''. Tel 01-8741903 or visit http://www.hughlane.ie/

• Climb the sugar loaf – OK this is not quite Dublin as it is technically North Wicklow but if you fancy fantastic bracing walk with magnificent views. The sugar loaf is about 30 minutes from the centre of Dublin.

• Have an old-fashioned hot towel shave: White-coated barbers at the Waldorf barber shop on Westmoreland Street in Dublin 2 have been trimming and preening men at the premises since 1929. The barber shop also boasts one of the few female barbers in Dublin – Linda Finnegan. Telephone 01-6778608.

• Have a drink in the “highest pub in Ireland”: Johnny Fox's in the Dublin mountains claims to be “undoubtedly'' the highest pub in the country. There are a number of other pubs around Ireland with the same claim - the Ponderosa pub on the Glenshane Pass in Derry (where you can join the mysterious 1,000 feet high club) and Creedon’s pub on the top of Coom in KIlgarvan, Co. Kerry. But Johnny Fox's serves great food and great Craic year round. Telephone: Johnny Fox's 01-2955647

Similar posts can be seen at

Planning a trip to see FC Barcelona

Doolin, Co. Clare, Ireland - perfect for a family getaway

And of course whilst you are in Dublin and elsewhere worldwide Hotel Express saves you money on your Hotel Reservations.

Using Your Credit Card Abroad

by Peter Kenny

If you are going abroad, then using a credit card can be the safest and most effective way of carrying currency. But what steps should you take to make sure your card is the best one to use abroad? Here is some advice about how to effectively use your credit cards whilst abroad:

Pick a universal card

If you are travelling overseas, then try and pick a card that you know will work in most countries. Taking store cards or lesser known cards can defeat the point of bringing your card with you. Stick to widely accepted credit types like Visa and MasterCard.

Ask about fees

Before you go away, ask your card issuer what the fees are for using your card abroad. If you have more than one card, then take the one with the best rates for withdrawing money and making transactions. Although you get better exchange rates with your card, this is useless if you are charged high fees for taking out foreign currency by your card issuer.

Carry card issuer numbers

Make sure that you have a number that you can call your card issuer on should anything go wrong. The normal number you call is unlikely to work, so before you go you should get their number for international calls. Ask your card issuer about arrangements should your card be lost or stolen.

Notify your issuer

If you are going somewhere that is out of your regular routine, then it is a good idea to notify your card issuer that you are going away. If your card company sees your card being used in strange places, they might suspend your account. Although you can sort this out quickly, it saves you worries and trouble if you just let them know before you go away that you will be using your card abroad.

Check your dates

Before you go abroad, check the expiration dates and credit limits of your cards. You don't want to be on holiday and not be able to enjoy yourself because your card has expired or you have run out of credit. If you don't think you will have enough credit then you could get your limit extended or take a couple of cards.

Keep all receipts

The most important thing to do when abroad is to keep all your receipts. If you are overcharged for anything then you want to be able to prove this, and if you keep all of your receipts you can track exactly what and how much you have spent.

Credit is safest

Although you might think that taking an ATM card is the best idea, credit cards are much safer as they have added security measures such as purchase protection. Most of the time you can use your credit card in an ATM if you need to, but you should try and charge it as much as possible as this will save you money. If you can be disciplined with your record keeping and plan in advance, then taking your credit card abroad will make your spending safer and hassle free.

Peter Kenny is a writer for creditcards-gb.co.uk.
For additional articles and an extensive resource for everything about credit cards, please visit us at Credit Cards and Credit Cards

Article Source: Patant Consultants' Articles Vault

More Current Airline Offers

BRITISH AIRWAYS

• British Airways are running a "February Ski Sale" in which they are promoting their lowest fares to many top skiing destinations. The promotion runs from the 30th of January through to the 28th of February and Ski's and Snowboards travel free!
• From the 30th of January to the 31st March anyone who flies 2 or more full fare return flights (Domestic,Euro Traveller,Club Europe,First & Club) will receive thousands of extra BA Miles. This offer is open to Executive Club members, registration to the Executive Club is free. You can register on the British Airways website

KLM

• KLM are promoting a flight sale from whcih runs from the 1st February to the 29th of February (USA destination sale runs from the 1st of February to the 20th of February). They are listing the following prices
• Top Deals from London
  Amsterdam From £ 80 Return
  New York From £ 292 Return
  Lagos From £ 456 Return
  Muscat From £ 316 Return
  Panama From £ 640 Return
  Beijing From £ 404 Return
• London Direct Routes (sale runs to 29Feb)
  Detroit From £ 300 Return
  Minneapolis From £ 314 Return
  Seattle From £ 336 Return
• Other sample offers
  Manchester - San Francisco From £ 347 Return
  Birmingham - Atlanta From £ 327 Return
  Glasgow - Lima From £ 716 Return
  Durham Tees Valley - Cairo From £ 336 Return
  Leeds Bradford - Dubai From £ 379 Return
  Edinburgh - Bahrain From £ 384 Return
  Humberside - Shanghai From £ 466 Return
  Bristol - Johannesburg From £ 504 Return
  Cardiff - Hong Kong From £ 439 Return
  Aberdeen - Houston From £ 401 Return
  Newcastle - Tokyo From £ 496 Return
  Norwich - Singapore From £ 505 Return
• All fares listed include taxes and charges