This site was brought to my attention today by a friend. The reviews are by a staff of reporters. It is apparently backed by Bain Capital to the tune of $16mm.
Though a disagree with it in parts (why all the comps to the Waldorf?), it seems to be a thorough review. And the pictires section is a big plus. There is also room for comments. This may be a good resource going fwd...certainly > T.A.
This site was brought to my attention today by a friend. The reviews are by a staff of reporters. It is apparently backed by Bain Capital to the tune of $16mm.
Though a disagree with it in parts (why all the comps to the Waldorf?), it seems to be a thorough review. And the pictires section is a big plus. There is also room for comments. This may be a good resource going fwd...certainly > T.A.
It is obviously aimed mainly at North America as a search for luxury hotels such as FS George Cinq or The Dorchester London or many other worlwide hotels comes up with no results. I presume its fairly new as my first two searches in the U.S. (Twin Farms and Amangani) also proved fruitless.
One thing I definitely dont like about it is the highlighting of particular words in their review and when you open the link to 'Service' (for example at The Shore Club, Miami) you get a picture of the reception area rather than an expanded view on service which is what I thought I would get.
It is obviously aimed mainly at North America as a search for luxury hotels such as FS George Cinq or The Dorchester London or many other worlwide hotels comes up with no results.
Right, it seems they are going city by city; might take a while to really build up!
I checked it out and it could be interesting if it broadens out considerably.
On one of their "about us" pages their "reporters" are profiled and list their favorite hotels, amazingly all of them picked properties in New York, Miami, Jamaica and the Dominican Republic, what an adventurous lot!
considering how many here use / rely on TA, im sure it will be very welcome.
also >
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kagehitokiri
seem to recall this blog's main site coming up somewhere here. http://blog.tripkick.com/
but the blog actually has lots of pictures, of different rooms/suites etc at various hotels. recent posts include some PH, st regis, FS. great stuff unfortunately it doesnt seem to have really frequent updates.
It is obviously aimed mainly at North America as a search for luxury hotels such as FS George Cinq or The Dorchester London or many other worlwide hotels comes up with no results.
Not to mention the fact that you have to have a US passport to apply for a job with them!
__________________
Signature temporarily removed- apparently somebody hasn't seen me trying to speak Chinese.
I found this site by chance a couple of weeks ago when looking at potential options in Miami for a group trip - I was quite impressed, to be honest. It's a step above tripadvisor because the writers do at least seem to have some vague idea of what makes a good hotel!
I checked out this site last week and thought it was typical 'travel journalist' in style, but with a psuedo investigative edge (the double bed versus the twins pushed together could be two separate room categories!).
Overly 'hip' in writing style and not too smart when it comes to spelling (Yes, you can laugh, but the accouterments supplied here are no joke).
I wonder if any of them will be allowed to venture further afield. I do hope not.
I checked out this site last week and thought it was typical 'travel journalist' in style, but with a psuedo investigative edge (the double bed versus the twins pushed together could be two separate room categories!).
Overly 'hip' in writing style and not too smart when it comes to spelling (Yes, you can laugh, but the accouterments supplied here are no joke).
I wonder if any of them will be allowed to venture further afield. I do hope not.
Programs: Intercontinental Royal Ambassador, KrisFlyer, Delta, SPG Gold, Hertz #1 Gold, United 1K
Posts: 564
Interesting site, but if anyone remembers Biztravel.com's CEO Ed Carter's hotel site with photos (beautiful pics of hotels btw) -- the question remains how do sites like that make money?
Interesting site, but if anyone remembers Biztravel.com's CEO Ed Carter's hotel site with photos (beautiful pics of hotels btw) -- the question remains how do sites like that make money?
I asked around. Views ---> Ads ---> $. That's a tough model to make work and not one I invest into unless the capitalization and marketing plan are very strong. The first piece seems to be in place, perhaps the second piece is too.
However, how many successful sites built on this model have limited interaction/contribution from their viewers? Not many. The web segment that does not foster interaction is full of news sites that update constantly...thus people click on it many times per day (i.e. Drudge or CNN). One click a week may be the top of a static hotel review site unless the comment feature is more dynamic than I can imagine.
Programs: Intercontinental Royal Ambassador, KrisFlyer, Delta, SPG Gold, Hertz #1 Gold, United 1K
Posts: 564
I agree with DrivingRain's assessment of the income potential; I do have many .com investments, and this one seems odd. Although they did raise a lot of money 16mm to do this. Seems very oldworld business to have a lot of "journalists" running arround reviewing properties. I find this forum to be invaluable, and quite accurate compared to so called expert or review sites in general.
Programs: AC*E, SPG*P, Hyatt Diamond,HH*G, IC Plat AMB
Posts: 5,337
I think this site can become interesting once the selection improves both horizontally and vertically. I would like to see more cities added but also a larger spread of different types of accommodations in each hotel. To be fair, some properties have this vertical representation -- FS Miami -- seems to fare better. However, in terms of the reporting, tell us something a lot of us already don't know....
__________________ I am a poor man, I have nothing, therefore, I give from the heart
I think this site can become interesting once the selection improves both horizontally and vertically. I would like to see more cities added but also a larger spread of different types of accommodations in each hotel. To be fair, some properties have this vertical representation -- FS Miami -- seems to fare better. However, in terms of the reporting, tell us something a lot of us already don't know....
But the problem will always be that this site's hotels are assessed by journalists and most journalists have no real experience of choosing and paying for high end hotels, or have the same expectations as real guests.
Most travel journalists seem to be either ex war correspondents or very young things who get excited by the inclusion of a mini-bar or something 'hot', 'hip' or 'whatever'. Very few journalists specialise in hotels - most cannot afford to - which means that they are writing about sport one week and hotels the next. How reliable can this be?
We may be amused by some of the Oyster 'reviews' but would we stake our choice on them?
unfortunately it doesnt seem to have really frequent updates.
