Notes
Plain-English notes on travel, prices, and how we build this site. Signed, dated, no fluff.
20 September 2026 · engineering
ChatGPT sends me more visitors than Google
Three months ago Google sent 94% of the visitors who came to my site from either Google or ChatGPT. Last month ChatGPT sent 82%. What flipped, why Google was never really looking, and the three cheap instruments that let you see AI traffic at all — because no search console will.
18 September 2026 · travel
What a big event really does to hotel prices nearby
local-hotel.comI priced the same hotels twice — on the event night and on a matched quiet night — at eleven UK venues. Some grounds add 200%. London does not move at all.
15 September 2026 · industry
Wales cuts hospitality rates by 30% — and the hotels pay for it
The Welsh Bar, High Street, Merthyr Tydfil — photo by Jaggery, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia CommonsWales doubles its hospitality rates relief from April 2027 — replacing an existing 15% cut, capped at a £51,000 rateable value, and funded by larger hotels.
11 September 2026 · engineering
The crawlers that replaced the crawlers
Ten days after I fenced off the SEO crawlers my database still never slept. Meta's AI trainer and Amazonbot had taken their place — neither sends anyone back.
10 September 2026 · travel
England's uncapped visitor levy, and who really pays it
English mayors are to get an uncapped tourist tax, charged on the room whoever is in it. What that means for anyone selling rooms — and for guests who are not.
9 September 2026 · engineering
When the sky went quiet: the NATS outage, seen from a rooftop
What one home receiver logged during the 8 September 2026 air traffic control failure, and why a hotel site watches the sky.