At a Couch Surfing party in Medellin Colombia last week I started chatting with another Australian Expat by the name of Gerard Cole.

He mentioned that he had just opened a new guest house in the heart of Medellin, and asked me to check it out. So I did, and I have to say it is one of the best places I have stayed in South America.

So I thought I would ask Gerard to share The Art House story with the Maloney on Marketing family. Enjoy!

You have probably heard by now that Tourism Australia has managed to lure Oprah Winfrey to Australian shores as part of it’s “There’s nothing like Australia” campaign. But how does the Oprah visit stack up against the Tourism Queensland’s “Best Job in the World” campaign, that pretty much scooped every award ceremony in the world last year?

Today I had to book a hostel for a few nights in Ecuador, so as always I fired up Hostel World, the “World’s #1 Hostel Booking Website” to check out what was on offer.

While doing this a friend mentioned that I should also check out Hostel Bookers and when I did I noticed a marketing attack on the home page directed straight at Hostel World customers like me