Blog homeEvery week I get at least 5 requests for travel website reviews, links or free travel ecommerce consulting. While I appreciate being respected as someone who may be able to help….. frankly I have to find a better way of answering these emails as I hate not answering email… but I can’t deal with the volume by myself (I also have a business to run - and people don’t want to pay for the advice!)
One solution has been to start The Clinic - a forum on Small Fish Big Ocean - that has - in the last couple of weeks - helped 8 travel companies find answers to questions they have.
- Finding an open source hotel booking engine
- Finding a flight booking engine suitable for a small tour operator
- Whether to bid on your company name in PPC advertising
- TOPP vs TTA (two bonding mechanisms in the UK) - with official answers both from TOPP and TTA
- Reviewing the BeachComber Tours blog
- How to set up a meta-search website in the voluntourism sector - and how to charge tour operators to take part (commission vs listing fees etc)
- Any ideas for promotion of a “subscription” only website selling hotel booking advice at the top end of the market
- Bonding mechanism for small tour operators in France (like TOPP or TTA in the UK)
The great thing about the clinic on SFBO is that other people’s answers are better than mine. That is the power of community.
So that is a start….. but people still want links from this blog or reviews, probably as a result of the number of subscribers - I can’t give everyone a link - this is not Yahoo.
Here is my plan. Please add a comment to this post outlining why you believe your travel website or service should be reviewed or mentioned on this blog.
On the 22nd of March (7 days time) I will pick one (the one with the best reason or that will be of most interest to travel industry subscribers)….. and that website will either be reviewed or mentioned on this blog (depending on what you are asking for)
If this is a success, I will repeat again next month.
Experiment mode on
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Hi Alex. Traveloblog.com is where real life travelers socialize around their personal travel blogs where they store various travel memories, photos, etc. I wonder what you think about the value of such consumer centric website for B2B travel world - for instance - whether tour operators and travel agents can interact with the blog and benefit from advertising opportunities, guest posts, content sharing, etc…
Alex, I’m not sure if a travel blog applies!
I’m making the final changes to the design in the next week, and would love a constructive critism review when it’s finished.
What do you think about www.lastminutetravel.com ?
Hello Alex, good to read your thoughts. Would really appreciate your views on OkTataByebye.com - a travel community website on India. OkTataByebye is a growing community of Indian travellers, who not only share their experiences on the site but can also plan a trip (through Travel Buddies) or join one, organised by a fellow traveller besides doing common stuff. This is where it differes from others. Please have a look and share your thoughts on its drawbacks, strengths and how it can become better.
So here might be a new twist…. a combination of Travel 2.0 social and real travel products targeting the boomer and beyond market.
The site is set up with a great search engine as well as experiential categories to refine or inspire your search. We’re adding the “travel green” category now and over 30% of our companies have gone through the filter of Sustainable Travel International, a partner.
We’re launching with about 2400 actual trips (volunteer, adventure, learning, culinary…you get it…all about the experience) as well as a small portfolio of hard to find accommodations (dude ranches, villas, barges, eco-resorts) offered by 140 of the top small-medium size travel providers in the world.
We’re built on Ruby on Rails 2.0 yet each travel providers have been personally invited and screened based 20 years in the small group travel industry. We’re curating the initial offering based on folks we trust. After that our members will help move it along.
We’ll have reviews (relevant to the 40+ market), ability to bookmark, share, start planning trips of a lifetime. We’re not booking trips so we show a starting price, number of days, months offered, brief as well as detailed itineraries and a lot more like group size, comfort level, exertion level are all behind the curtain right now. Each provider has a full page to talk about who they are, tell their story as well as offer their commitments to Sustainable Travel practices.
Oh, and it is totally transparent. You get to contact the provider via email, link to their website or call them (by SKYPE or 800#). (We really dislike having to open up a separate browser to google the company.)
We’re just getting started….and we are small (3, plus Opus the Dragon) but we have both the travel and technology background and we believe in changing the world through experiential travel.
We’re not for everyone. We’re not targeting a 20 year old backpacker or even a strictly independent traveler. We’re targeting mainly the PrimeTime Travelers, age 50-70, looking for trips of a lifetime and the ability to find, compare, review and share trips as well as connect with like minded travelers before and after their trips. I’ve personally taking over 3000 of these folks on active vacations over the past 20 years and think I know them pretty well.
Open Social and Facebook widgets, Wordpress blogs, API feeds and a great community of travelers.
You’ll need to be invited into the site
Have a look, still lots of work but you’ll get an idea.
Thanks Alex! Kathy Dragon
Hi Alex,
Thanks for the initiative. I’d like to ask you to review my site TripnTale. You mentioned about our site a few months ago regarding “post-travel” sharing site. And so I’d like to hear more feedbacks from you now that we’ve added many more features and improving the site from users feedback.
To give everyone an overview, TripnTale aims to provide travellers a free unlimited storage to save all their travel memories such as photos, journals and videos. We want to make sure that those memories and experiences are well treasured. You will also be able to discover new places around the world or simply connect with other travellers.
Thanks again for your consideration, looking forward to the final decision
Darwin
Thanks all,
I will write a review later today as a full blog post…. in the meantime…
Chris - Traveloblog - interesting but a very tough area to differentiate yourself from other travel blog providers.
Darren - Travel-Rants.com - I won’t be reviewing you (this month) for reasons that will become clearer to you very soon. Don’t worry, its a good reason!
Michael - is the last press release for lastminutetravel.com really August 2004? (4 years ago?). I always read the press section because it gives me a quick snapshot of what a company has been upto.
Mukesh - OkTataByebye.com - I love the wing mirrors!
Kathy - Travel-Dragon.com - do you want to wait until you are ready? Nice though but still a lot of work to be done before you are going live (I presume)
Darwin - TripnTale - I like how your website has evolved in the last few months…….
So all will be revealed later today! If you are unlucky this time…. then there is always next month!
Ha Alex. Yes, I know why now, just picked up this comment, I should subscribe! :S
hi alex can you help me research info on “minigetaways.biz”?