local.ch blog

I’m always discovering restaurants that I would like to try, but I tend to forget them when I’m making dinner plans. So with certain friends, I often wind up going back to the same restaurants. With Thomas, for example, it’s down by the river, and with Monika it’s generally Thai.

About two years ago, I began to collect restaurant ideas in a list. Unfortunately, I also forget to put interesting restaurants on the list. So my badly maintained list is a poor source of great new ideas when I’m looking for a restaurant…

My latest trick: I just open the local.ch app, select “Near me” from the menu, go to “Restaurants” and then simply click on “Reservable restaurants”. Et voila: new ideas, just like that. Looking for a restaurant somewhere other than your current location? That’s no problem if you have an iPhone. Click here to find out how to change your location.

By the way, the reservation form has recently been completely reworked based on evaluations of customer interviews and reservation dates.  Now it’s even easier and quicker to reserve a table in a restaurant via mobile phone or the local.ch website. Once you’ve made the reservation, a reservation confirmation including calendar entry is sent to you by email.

Have fun giving it a try and enjoy your meal!

PS: We’d appreciate any feedback about our reservation form.

Even in 2013, it’s not always easy to find employers who encourage part-time work. They don’t necessarily consider the pursuit of other opportunities as positive, and they certainly don’t see the advantages that this could bring to the company.

All the more reason to celebrate local.ch as a very flexible employer, one who supports my musical activities and allows me the freedom I need. And I’m by far not the only part-time employee at local.ch. Many of my colleagues are studying on the side, or managing a family with three children… you get the picture.

I’ve been working at local.ch since the beginning of 2011 and am currently a support analyst working just under 30 hours a week. My team supports our customer service in solving technical problems concerning our online products. We analyse cases and, when necessary, forward them to our developers. I’m also responsible for hardware purchasing and in charge of the technical support for the laptops within our department.

On the days when I am not in the office, I devote my time to my biggest passion, music, which I’ve been pursuing since my teenage years. I’ve been singing and playing in the indie rock band FARLOW for a few years now. It all started when I had the unstoppable urge to record my own compositions. So I asked friends – a drummer and a bassist – to rehearse the songs with me before I took them to the recording studio: this was the beginning of FARLOW. Our music with melancholic undertones lies somewhere between folk and contemporary rock, leaning on bands like The National, Placebo and Radiohead.

People often believe that good song ideas just fall onto your lap, or come to mind like a flash of inspiration, but that’s rarely the case. It usually takes a lot of time, patience and definitely a certain amount of freedom to let an idea form and mature fully to the point where it can be recorded professionally. The basic structure of our songs – all originals – mostly come from me, then the band get together for the fine-tuning. The thoughtful lyrics are mainly penned by Jonas Gloor.

At the moment, we’re working on our new studio album, planned for release in autumn 2013. The next opportunity to see FARLOW live is on 13 June at Stall 6 in Zurich.

Not Enough (acoustic) from Josua Haemmerle on Vimeo.

Band members

Josh Hämmerle (vocals, guitar), Jonas Gloor (guitar, vocals), Reto Karli (bass, keyboard), Jonas Vögeli (drums)

Discography

2009 – THE MOMENT NEVER COMES
2011 – MAKE ME SHINE (EP)
2013 – TAKING SHAPE

Links

farlowband.ch
facebook.com/farlowband
Concert on 13 June at Stall 6

I admit it: for the sake of convenience and familiarity, I’ve always just checked with the “usual suspects” like ebookers.com or hotels.ch for hotel reservations. I usually book through these sites, too. It’s what I’ve stuck to for my holidays abroad, but in the future, I will remember to try my employer, local.ch.

What convinced me check local.ch for hotels? Right now, I need accommodation at two different competitions in Switzerland: one for the first two days of the Gigathlon in Chur and one for the Thurathlon this weekend in Weinfelden.

No hotels?

When I searched each of the reservation systems, I found either just one or no hotels at all available in Weinfelden. While I do see several hotels, some of them are so far away that I might as well spend the night in my own home. And the distance refers to the linear distance, by the way. Last year in Tirol, for example, I booked a hotel that was 22 kilometres (linear distance) from where I was competing. But even without traffic, it was a good 50 minutes away by car. And of course, the traffic was bad…

The reservation systems do make it possible, however, to “check” both the price and availability (more on this later). At least the rating platform tripadvisor.de shows three different accommodations options. For two of them, I can even check the availability using the integrated reservation platforms. And what about local.ch? Seven options – more than twice as many as on the other sites!

No rooms available?

All platforms presented several accommodations options in Chur. But though the hotels appeared in my search results, they were already booked up for the desired dates. It should be noted, however, that when a reservation platform shows a hotel to be fully booked, this does not always mean the hotel really has no more rooms available. Most hotels do not sell all of their available rooms on these platforms. Rather, they use these platforms as additional sales channels. Calling and inquiring about availability can certainly pay off.

Thanks to the larger selection on local.ch, I’ve found the perfect accommodations for me.

However you choose to make your booking, I hope you have a lovely stay!

We’ve yet to see the sunny side of spring this year. The chances of getting sunburnt or heatstroke have been low, to say the least. All the more reason to hope that the summer will be a good one. And in the meantime, we’ll introduce you to a few locations where you can soak up some sunshine!

Are you longing to see blue skies again? But maybe your budget doesn’t stretch to a flight abroad? And you’ve spent too much time on a tanning bed already? Then how about heading to sunny Saas-Fee?

Or enjoying the views of vineyards and Lake Geneva?

Select “Vineyard of Lavaux ” from the dropdown menu for views of grapevines.

Select “Garden” from the dropdown menu for views of Lake Geneva.

Our clients use these 360° views to present their business’ website on local.ch in an even better way. So you can get a general impression of your new hairdresser or gym even before your first visit.

How do you create a virtual tour? We’ll explain in this short video.

How are you getting through this cold and wet springtime?

With the new local.ch iPhone app, you can now explore places where you don’t happen to be. Version 4.60 also includes many smaller improvements and enhancements.

Mathias Vettiger has been working as Audience Manager in local.ch’s Mobile Team since April 2013. He is therefore responsible for everything that affects the users of local.ch’s mobile services. In this blog, he summarises the new features of Version 4.60 of the iOS app.

The category search is one of the most popular functions in the local.ch app. Whether it’s a restaurant, a hair salon, a tradesman or a perfume shop – the app always has a suggestion. As a new feature, you can now change your location in the category search. This enables you to find a restaurant in Neuenburg while still at Bern train station, for example.

And it couldn’t be easier: in the category search, tap “Change location” at the top, search for the desired town/city or move the map, then tap “Done” to arrive at your destination virtually.

How to change the location in the iPhone app: in the category view, tap “Change location”, move the map or search for the town/city, then tap “Done”.

Other new features:

• You now navigate horizontally between individual entries, rather than from top to bottom. This allows you to navigate between restaurants in a list, for example. Simply swipe to the left or right, or use the arrows at the top of the screen.
• Route planning is now possible with the Google Maps app. Inside an entry, simply tap the arrow at the bottom of the screen and select “Plan route with Google Maps”.  If Google Maps is installed, the app will open automatically; if not, Google Maps will open in the browser.
• You can now display embedded websites in full-screen mode in the iPad app. This allows you to enjoy 360-degree views of businesses in full splendour (like the restaurant Casa Ferlin in Zurich).
• You can now refresh categories and special offers with the “pull to refresh” feature, which is found in many popular apps.
• We have also improved the appearance of offers, icons and pictures.

The latest version of the local.ch app requires iOS version 5 or later.

We hope you like the new features! If you don’t yet have the app, click this link to get the latest version for free: Download