In the hot seat:
Juliet Kinsman: Founding Editor of Mr and Mrs Smith and Sustainability Writer
Juliet’s Focus:
- Juliet has been a journalist for 25 years and set up Mr and Mrs Smith due to her passion for celebrating hotels. She is one the industry’s leading and respected travel writers
- Juliet writes mainly on sustainability issues and has recently contributed to The Daily Telegraph and Conde Nast Traveller US
- Juliet created Bouteco, a hotel consultancy, as she wanted to celebrate hotels that she loves and would recommend
Pitching Top Tips:
- Juliet supports all things sustainable and believes hotels and the press releases they deliver should focus on:
- The local community and how they play a role in the hotel and the local infrastructure
- She wants to hear the deeper, human stories behind sustainability
- The human stories within a hotel eg the education of women in rural areas
- The social, environmental and economical sustainability
- The circular economy and supply chain
- Long-term sustainability and social enterprise
- Future trends include hospitality that shows kindness to people (‘filoxenia’), “green washing”, and ‘edutainment’
- Juliet advises when pitching to “tell not sell.” Better to spark a feeling of emotion and to entertain and inform – have distinct and human voice and don’t preach
- Juliet says make sure that what you are saying has hope and optimism
- It is all about the subject header, make it strong and about what you are pitching
- Keep it quick and succinct with a strong subject line and bullet points
- Juliet likes a clear email and no attachments!
- No WeTransfer, only Dropbox when sending photos
- Files every email as looks back
- Juliet loves to meet people, but it has to be about 5 different potential stories otherwise it takes up to much time from her day
