A big kudos to JDiver, JDiver's fellow moderators, and the Community Moderator, for this. When I originally posted my offer, there was some discussion about whether or not it was appropriate. I'm very happy that it has found to be so.
I am in the affected area - office shut with no electricity but my home is lucky enough to be in an area that has maintained power. It's quite humbling to see all of the damage and it makes one want to find a way to help.
What I am doing with HotelMagician.com is quite simple.
Fully half of ALL net profits earned from now through the end of this year (2 full months) will be donated to the Red Cross for Sandy relief. That is not just money earned through this effort, but any revenue from any source.
Details are at
http://hotelmagician.com/sandy/
The goal is simply to give a way to donate just by doing what you were doing anyway - like booking a hotel or applying for a travel related credit card - but do it in a way that money can go to the Red Cross. I have not seen any of the major online travel agencies do anything like this - yet most of the time our rates at hotelmagician.com and vacation magician.com are exactly the same. We are not soliciting any direct donations of any kind - if you want to give cash, please donate directly to the Red Cross.
Again, anything you might *already* be doing qualifies:
- Flyertalkers use our Interactive Hotel Maps (
http://hotelmagician.com/interactive_hotel_maps) all the time and yet almost never actually book through us. Consider during this period actually completing the booking instead of going to another website to book.
- Hotel-only and vacation reservations on VacationMagician.com (sister site, different booking engine, still counts!) are identical to Priceline/Booking.com
- If you are already applying for a travel related credit card, see if we have the same offer you already found. Each card will mean a significant amount donated.
If anyone has *any* questions, please PM me.