What’s ahead in 2012 for the Washington DC area’s premier transportation company? Reston Limousine CEO and President Kristina Bouweiri shares the news:

“Our plans for the new year are to roll out some new technology that we bought called eFleet. It’s really amazing, it has double GPS, it has a security feature. It will also help us go paperless so that our chauffeurs will not have to hand in paperwork and our accountants won’t have to handle that as well so we hope it saves us on some labor costs and it’ll make us more efficient so we’re really excited about that.

“We’re also really excited about the fact that it’s an election year which means there’s a lot of activity in Washington DC, a lot of people coming to town, a lot of meetings, a lot of events which will drive a lot of business to transportation, tourism, the hotel business so that’’s exciting because as we all know the economy’s a little flat.

“And we’re also going to be launching all sorts of amazing new packages: limo and dinner packages, day trips to great, fantastic places. We tried a New Year’s Eve day trip to New York City that was sold out and very popular. So stay tuned to our website at www.restonlimo.com to see all the new offerings we’re going to offer this year.”

You can also get updates directly from Reston Limousine by signing up for our online newsletter at http://www.restonlimo.com/about/newsletter-sign-up/!

One of the biggest traditional holidays in the Chinese culture is the New Year celebration, and 2012 is particularly auspicious as it is the Year of the Dragon in the Chinese Zodiac.

Here in DC, the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association is planning a bigger and better show for the annual Chinese New Year Parade, scheduled to take start at 2 p.m. on Jan. 29 at Sixth and I streets NW.

For a map of the parade route, visit the official parade website at
www.chineseparadedc.com

Don’t want to deal with driving and finding a parking spot? Let us drive you in our comfy vehicles, from limos to buses — we can accommodate parties of any size! Visit our online reservations page at www.restonlimo.com/customer-log-in.

DC HOLIDAY LIGHTS & MONUMENTS TOUR
Monday, December 26
Wednesday, December 28
Friday, December 30
$35 Adult | $25 Child (11 and under)

Washington DC is one of the most exciting cities in the world and includes many of the most recognizable tourist attractions and scenery to be found anywhere! Join Reston Limousine for an evening of holiday cheer! Jump on our bus and travel into Washington DC to tour the monuments at night and stop at The National Tree and stroll down the Christmas Pathway of Peace. Purchase a boxed dinner or feel free to bring your own snacks or hot cocoa to enjoy during the ride.

Itinerary for the evening:
5:30 PM: Depart Dulles Town Center
6:15 PM: Depart East Falls Church Metro Station
6:45 PM: Tour monuments and stop at The National Tree – depart the bus
8:45 PM: Depart DC
9:15 PM: Return to East Falls Church Metro
10:00 PM: Return to Dulles Town Center
*Passenger minimum of 10 must be met for trip to run. Vehicle type subject to change without notice.

Reston Limousine party buses were the vehicles of choice for DC Metromix and DC Lottery’s recent Gold Ticket Treasure Hunt, where contestants completed tasks at three DC bars to win a grand prize of $1,000.

The winner, Danielle Pennington, took home the prize and other lucky guests won terrific prizes and gifts!

To view more photos of the evening, visit DC Metromix’s website: http://dc.metromix.com/bars-and-clubs/essay_photo_gallery/dc-lottery-gold-ticket/2695879/content

In addition to our public wine tours available each Saturday and Sunday in DC’s Wine Country, our vehicles also are available for your private wine tours!

Here’s what Debijo Wheatley, owner of Designs by Debijo Interior Redesign and Home Staging, had to say about a recent experience:

“Reston Limo private wine tour for my mom’s birthday with the family! What a treat! It started out with our driver, Peggy, who is charming and an incredible help in securing tastings. We had originally planned on one winery and she suggested Veramar, after we had gone to Hillsborough. It was an excellent selection, the property was just beautiful. We ended at Quattro Goomba then on home. It was a great day for us all, in the comfort of a limo with no driving … we were able to thoroughly enjoy the wineries!”

Book your private wine tour for any special occasion by visiting our online Reservations page at: http://www.restonlimo.com/customer-log-in/.

For more information about the Loudoun Wine Trail, visit http://www.visitloudoun.org/Experience-Loudoun/Wine-Country.

Join Reston Limousine’s  party bus that will be ferrying passengers to three DC bars as part of Metromix/DC Lottery’s Gold Ticket Treasure Hunt on June 24!

25 lucky winners and a companion will hop aboard our party bus at The Exchange Saloon in northwest DC, where the fun begins. Competitors will complete tasks, answer trivia questions and engage in “other fun, secret stuff” to earn points at bars including The Exchange, The Greene Turtle and Redline.

Besides the grand prize of $1,000 to the team with the most points, participants also can register to win other great prizes from the DC Lottery and Metromix.

Click here to enter to win one of 25 pairs of tickets to join the hunt!

For more info, visit Metromix’s Gold Ticket Treasure Hunt 2011 page at http://dc.metromix.com/events/bar_club_event/dc-lottery-and-metromixs-northwest/2638275/content

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

In celebration of one of DC’s annual springtime traditions, Reston Limousine offered lunchtime excursions to enjoy the colorful scene of cherry trees in bloom along the tidal basin.

We partnered with Groupon to offer a special deal for the excursions, enabling many residents to experience the cherry blossoms for the first time.

Here’s a quick note from one of them:

Reston Limousine offered a great deal through Groupon where transportation and lunch would be provided to see the cherry blossoms at the tidal basin in DC. Having never seen the cherry blossoms, my husband and I were excited about the opportunity. The experience with Reston Limo was wonderful! The driver was safe, courteous, and hilarious! Because of our great experience, we’re considering more trips offered by Reston Limo in the future.

Michelle Reeve
Independent Longaberger Home Consultant
www.longaberger.com/michellereeve

Reston Limousine employees braved the rain on a recent team-building event that had them splitting into three teams in early March and checking off a list of activities that included getting pictures taken in front of popular Washington landmarks.

Following their limousine Scavenger Hunt, the teams enjoyed dinner at Maggiano’s in Tysons Corner to review photos and add up the points. The red team, consisting of General Manager Tony Simon, Assistant Controller Melissa Beard, Safety & Training Manager Keith Johnson, Sales Manager Darcelle Jazaeri, Fleet Manager Mike Clayton and veteran RLS chauffer Bill Davis (who specializes in weddings and winery tours) won a prize of a comp day.

Dispatcher Caitlin Conroy , a member of the blue team, shared some of the highlights of the event:

• Jumping the carousel gate for the pony picture
• Rose (MD/DC Operations Manager Rosetta Crutch) saying over and over “What a hot mess this is…”
• Mday (Dispatch Manager Margaret Day) and I climbing a wall in front of the Capitol for a pic
• Me and Rose walking to the front of the huge line at Gtown Cupcake asking if we can cut in line for one cupcake.
• Losing Ronnie (MD/DC Weekend Supervisor Ronnie Wellsl) at the memorials because we were jogging in the rain!

Joining Caitlin, Rosetta, Margaret and Ronnie on the 2nd place blue team were Contract Manager Jimmy Grey and Virginia Contracts Manager Lawrence warr.

In 3rd place was the purple team, consisting of Reston Limousine President and CEO Kristina Bouweiri, Community Outreach Director Lana Heaslip, Senior Sales Rep Daniel Oh, Sales Rep Christina Diederich, Marketing Coordinator Alyssa Travers and Assistant Nicole Halbach.

Kristina started the company event a decade ago as a way to motivate the staff who helped build a business that today posts revenues of more than $16 million.

In a 2008 interview in the Truly Amazing Women blog, Kristina says the success of the first scavenger hunt all those years ago “made me realize that having fun was truly the key to success. …. I learned that if you invest in making your employees happy, it comes back 100 times.”

If you’d like to try a unique team-building exercise, or just want to offer your staff a day of fun, our staff can help you create a scavenger hunt. We have ready-made lists or can build one for Washington DC, Northern Virginia, Loudoun County and beyond. Call 703.478.0500 Option 1 for more information today!

According to the festival website:

Each year, the National Cherry Blossom Festival commemorates the 1912 gift of 3,000 cherry trees from Mayor Yukio Ozaki of Tokyo to the city of Washington, DC. The gift and annual celebration honor the lasting friendship between the United States and Japan and the continued close relationship between the two countries. … Today, more than a million people visit Washington, DC each year to admire the blossoming cherry trees and attend events that herald the beginning of spring in the nation’s capital. … The Festival was expanded to two weeks in 1994 to accommodate a diverse activity schedule during the blooming period.

This year, the predicted peak blooming period of the cherry blossoms is March 29-April 3, and Reston Limousine is offering special lunchtime excursions from March 31-April 5.

For every purchase of a seat on a Cherry Blossoms lunchtime excursion trip, we will give 10% to the American Red Cross to help with the Japanese disaster relief.

For more information or to book your seat, please our online Reservations page at www.restonlimo.com.

Here is a video by The Associated Press about last year’s National Cherry Blossom Festival:

Intrigued, we followed up with Frances to hear more of the story, and she agreed to share the experience:

Dear Kristina,

… I wanted to let you know how much I appreciated the service that Reston Limo has always provided me. I originally wanted a limo to take my husband Michael and I to his 40th birthday celebration at Citronelle. He was visiting here from Seattle and I had everything planned for a few weeks, then the weather decided to throw a curve ball.

Since I live on a hill, I called and specifically asked to have a 4WD vehicle instead of a limo. I wanted to make sure we were going to be able to make it to the restaurant. The dispatcher said he didn’t have a 4WD vehicle available for the evening due to the weather but he was going to check and see what he could do for me. Within less than 20 minutes, he called back and we had our vehicle for the night.

Our driver was 30 minutes behind schedule but your staff kept us informed of his whereabouts and new time of arrival. When he got to the house to pick us up, he first apologized for the delay and explained the traffic conditions. He safely maneuvered downhill and drove very carefully through our neighborhood roads and GW Parkway on his way to Georgetown. I didn’t realize how bad the roads were until we got close to Washington DC. He maneuvered the traffic wonderfully and got us to Citronelle safe. Since we were behind schedule, he arranged our new pickup time with your dispatcher so we didn’t have to worry about it.

Our return driver as nice as the first one. He was there at the appointed time, although after chatting with him he mentioned that it had taken him hours to get to our location due to the weather conditions. Again, he was very courteous and maneuvered the roads very carefully, especially going up the hill to our home. There was not a moment that I felt afraid on the road in the horrible weather conditions.

Although my husband wanted to drive, we were both happy I made the decision to have Reston Limousine take care of our transportation needs. Reston Limousine made his birthday celebration even more special!

Thanks for the outstanding and safe service your drivers provided us.

Regards,
Frances Crespo