Dear xxxxxxxxx,
We at the Avenida Palace would like to wish you a Happy Birthday.
We will always be at your disposal, and we hope to have the pleasure of welcome you again soon.
Yours sincerely,
Pedro Miguel Costa
Join us
----------------------
HOTEL AVENIDA PALACE
Rua 1° de Dezembro, 123
1200-359 LISBOA, Portugal
Tel: 00 351 213 210 100
Fax: 00-351-213-422-884
http://www.hotelavenidapalace.pt

I just got one from a wonderful hotel we've stayed at on Lake Garda, Hotel Bellerive in Salo. And on my husband's birthday in Switzerland, the formal acting clerk at the check-out desk must have pushed a button as the Happy Birthday song was played loud and clear in the lobby.Quite a nice surprise. They must save the info from our passports.

I am gobsmacked! The Hotel Avenida Palace is one of my favourites of all time...so atmospheric, such history! I am envious of your lovely birthday greetings...clearly current management are smart cookies.

DH and I should return ourselves to that grand wood-panelled bar so we can feel like spies from the 1940's one more time.

Dear Sal9000
We really hope you had a great day on your birthday and look forward to welcoming you again in a near future.
Sincerely Yours

Sal - would you recommend the Avenida Palace - Lisbon is on my bucket list!

They save your personal date and use it for marketing purposes....nice....

Ann,

I cannot speak highly enough of the hotel. Everything about it was perfect. The staff went out of their way to be helpful. Fantastic breakfast buffet.

I don't have a problem with them saving personal data and using it the way they have; at least they don't sell it to others. The hotel Canada where we stay in Rome saves the info to send us a christmas card every year.

looks like a nice place, Sal.

Annhig, if you are a history buff this hotel offers more than a room.

The Hotel Avenida Palace, in addition to being rather splendid today, has a grand and mysterious history. It is adjacent to a train station, much in use during WWII. As Portugal was 'neutral' (a little like Switzerland) during the conflict, the country was a hotbed of intrigue and spies.

Because of its location, and, one suspects, the sympathies of its' then-owner, it served as a home to many hurried secret conferences. The room we stayed in actually had a closet that once had access to the corridor.You could still see the escape-routes to the train station when we stayed there.

The atmosphere, the staircase (used in a couple of European films), the mahoghany-lined elevator, all combined to make DH and me feel like actors in film noir.

And the food was good!

looks like advertising to me

Bilboburgler: are you referring to me? I think you will find that I have been posting long enough that I should not have to defend an honest burst of enthusiasm for a place I have previously stayed and enjoyed...but allow me to reassure you. My opinions do not constitute advertising.

L J - i am not an expert on Portuguese history, indeed I have never been there. We were supposed to go there on a school trip in approx 1974 but they inconsiderately decided to have a revolution and the trip was cancelled.

The Avenida Palace sounds well worth a visit, if only for a drink!

LJ when a hotel sends you an email reminding you that you had stayed there, it is advertising. I get them all the time. I have a boutique hotel in the Algarve who sends me their Christmas menu every year. The hotel is merely "mining" its data base of former clients and trying to triger repeat business. When I worked in sales/marketing we knew we could get at least a 4% success rate and we tended to use interns to do the work.

bilbo - surely all LJ has done is to say what a great place to stay [in his/her opinion] the Avenida Palace is. what's wrong with that?

Annhig nothing, I'm not saying LJ is advertising. The question was about the occurence of receiving emails like the one LJ posted. I said it is advertising. LJ then asked if I was accusing her of advertising. My answer was (I thought and is no, if not let me be clear "no" ) but I did point out the hotel was sending their email as advertising.

Nothing negative about LJ, just explaining the process. That advertising can be and appears to be friendly does not mean it is or is not friendly. But, it is still advertising from the business and is part of the whole social relationship marketing that is carried out by sophisticated companies.

No question it's advertising. The email came for "1sales...".

My point, which I guess I failed to make, was that this costs a business nothing a creates a lot of good will. When the business is exceptional on its own, it's even better.

Bilboburlgar: no offence, but PLEASE re-read this thread and you will see why I was taken aback and why others have reacted on my behalf.

"The question was about the occurence of receiving emails like the one LJ posted."

I am NOT the original poster. However, I would happily endorse this email reminder as a marketing technique, as it undoubtedly is...it strikes me as remarkably inoffensive given the ones I do routinely receive.

Who I am is an innocent by-stander who happened to post saying I wouldn't mind staying AGAIN at a hotel that my husband and I enjoyed so much in the past.

LJ - I get monthly newsletters from the Hotel Austria in Vienna where we spent 4 very enjoyable nights a few years ago. Of course this is a marketing ploy and i recognise it as such, but it's a good one and i have no problems with receiving it, and mentioning the hotel when appropriate.

I really see no difference with what you did [or indeed what the OP did] in stating how much you enjoyed your stay at the Avenida Palace than what many posters do when they mention the nice places at which they have stayed whilst writing a TR or responding to a request for hotel or restaurant recommendations.

and I see no signs that the OP [or you] did not recognise the message for what it was.

LJ you are right

I have some concerns about the ploy. For a start I think it would be illegal under Uk law (Data protection act and retention of individual's data) and given the basic use of date-of-birth as part of all good internet security systems, I would be concerned it was being banded about so easily.

Still not unpleasant and I hope it works for them.

BB: Its all good (as my kids say)...and, candidly, there are places I have stayed that I would NOT appreciate hearing from again, with the implication they had recorded info from my passport/registration--no matter how jolly the pretext.