Budget hotel group launches the hotel & hospitality industry’s first Cycle Hub

Feb. 13, 2012 - PRLog -- Developed by clean-tech start-up PleaseCycle the new umi cycle hub will help guests find everything they need to know about cycling in London.  The success of the Barclays Cycle Hire scheme (6 million journeys across London in the first year of the scheme) has led to an increased number of hotel guests asking about cycling tours and bike facilities.
PleaseCycle founder Anthony Ganjou said “We noticed 5 of the top 10 London attractions on Tripadvisor.com were cycling tours and yet of the 100 hotel concierges we phoned, less than 2% offered information or advice on cycling.  The hotel cycle hub instantly allows partners to give their guests a free online resource covering everything cycling in London, it will also allow them to get money off tours when they take a Boris Bike and find other cycle friendly activities.”

The mobile and iPad-friendly cycle hub comes completely tailored to umi Hotel’s Bayswater location showing safe cycle routes, local Barclays Cycle Hire Stations and the best apps to help visitors get around London on two wheels.  Later in the year, users will even be able to redeem discounts from retailers when they cycle around the city.

Umi Hotels founder Steve Lowy said of the launch “It made a lot of sense to create a branded digital space where our guests could instantly access everything they need to know about cycling in London.”

The umi cycle hub can be found at umi.pleasecycle.com and allows guests to access routes, tours, weather information and in time, discounts for London, from their smart phone.  The hub will be dynamic with new routes, official information and new cycle hotspots continually being updated online.

Hotels interested in having a cycle hub created for their brand should contact PleaseCycle on +44(0)20 7631 2090.

For further press information please contact Rachael Dines, Marketing & PR Consultant for umi Hotels; press@umihotels.co.uk

Notes:

•   umi hotels currently has properties in Brighton, London and Moscow, offering the best accommodation and service for a value price. To find out more, visit www.umihotels.com

•   The businessman behind the umi brand is the award-winning Steve Lowy, a board member of STAY WYSE and director of the British Education Travel Association (BETA).  Umi reflects Steve’s passion for affordable quality in the tourism and hospitality industry.

•   PleaseCycle (pleasecycle.com) is a London clean-tech cycling company founded by Entrepreneurs Ry Morgan (23) and Anthony Ganjou (30). In the three weeks since launching in beta over 5000 miles were logged using the system with a combined length of cycling round Britain over 20 times. The mission is to build a global currency around cycling and empower organisations to inspire 1,000,000,000 cycle journeys by 2020.