May she RIP.

That board was a major help in getting Hyatt Diamond status on the cheap. It was also helpful to get a lot of very cheap Park Hyatt stays during the early faster free night promos.

However, that forum went from being a goldmine of information — for saving money on travel — to becoming somewhat less valuable than it could have been. The decline in its value for me was a result of the heavy-handed moderation approach and her taking issue with being contradicted or upstaged by other contributors to the site. It was not a welcoming environment in which to post, and the proto-“wiki”-it mentality was part of what made that environment toxic in ways. I would have loved to share all the deals I was landing on PCLN and Hotwire there, but it didn’t feel like something that would be appreciated by her since I rarely clicked on links via the site.

She was a leader in blocking board user suggestions about how other board users could be better off by not using her site’s links. Not that her disappearing of such accurate info did her site any long term good, but others in the travel deal space seem to have upped that game.