No one can argue that today, information on travel and destinations abounds. Sites like Frommers (http://www.frommers.com/) and Fodors (http://www.fodors.com/) have created travel guides that give us a very detailed round-up of popular destinations. Try searching for New-York City or Paris and you have a very good start for everything from where to stay, where to eat and what to see and do. Welcome to travel guides. If you want more, of course, you can order a detailed printed book, which incidentally is not a bad idea.
Another leading on-line destination that I found quite interesting (and so did a lot of you) was Virtual Tourist (http://www.virtualtourist.com/). Started in 1999, VT has managed to climb to one of the top web destinations in terms of traffic. It did this because it was able to give people an easy way to get what they want. There is a lot of functionality on VT, but here is my simplified take on what works.
Atomic Information: The Travel TIP
You can blog on VT, but that's if tips don't do it for you. The travel tip is the most atomic piece of information people share on VT. You can write about your hotel in Rome, that nice bistro in Nice or Pier 39 in San Francisco. It is clear, concise and easily manipulable (more on that below). Clarity is important. People hate to dig and have to read a lot to get to the information they want. It is also easier to share. Blogging is not for everyone and is time-consuming. Writing a travel tip may actually be quite simple. You can write as many or as little of them as you wish. All in all, VT has found a formula that gathers as much information as possible from everyone. It seems simple, but it is quite a feat. TripAdvisor calls it a review, which implies a rating. A review is also atomic, but less flexible I find. VT has harnessed the tip in a powerful way, which bring me to the other thing they do well.
Travel Guides by the Community
VT uses the tips and manipulates them to create travel guides. A visit really tells a lot. VT also uses popularity to further enhance the guide (if people write most often about the Colosseum in Rome, it must mean something - and it does!). So you get Fodors or Frommers-style guides, but written by people like you and me. And you can even create you OWN travel guide by picking and choosing specific tips, and print it. Go and play with it and you will see the power and why this site is popular.
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Saturday, November 17, 2007
The top-ranked travel site: a lesson learned
If it's really complicated, you're likely looking at it the wrong way. In other words, I am a firm believer in simplicity. If you understand what people do or want to do, and really get it, the solution should be simple.
Along that line of thought, we first looked at rankings of various travel sites to see where people are going on-line. Very simply. Alexa provides rankings by country and by subject, making this an easy task (http://www.alexa.com/browse?&CategoryID=238). Not surprisingly, booking engines crowd the top 10. But here is the most interesting thing about the list: the top site is TripAdvisor (www.tripadvisor.com). TripAdvisor collects hotel reviews from its users and gives the information back to visitors looking to make more informed decisions about the hotels they will stay at. Because it is the top travel site on the web in terms of traffic, it is a good case to look at to get a better understanding of what people do, what they look for and what is good execution by a web 2.0 destination focused on travel. Here are some of my takes on why TripAdvisor is doing well:
Note: TripAdvisor has a lot more features than this, but arguably, their popularity has been built largely on hotel reviews and likely the leading reason why people visit them. We know they are building on top of this. It will be interesting to see where they go next.
Along that line of thought, we first looked at rankings of various travel sites to see where people are going on-line. Very simply. Alexa provides rankings by country and by subject, making this an easy task (http://www.alexa.com/browse?&CategoryID=238). Not surprisingly, booking engines crowd the top 10. But here is the most interesting thing about the list: the top site is TripAdvisor (www.tripadvisor.com). TripAdvisor collects hotel reviews from its users and gives the information back to visitors looking to make more informed decisions about the hotels they will stay at. Because it is the top travel site on the web in terms of traffic, it is a good case to look at to get a better understanding of what people do, what they look for and what is good execution by a web 2.0 destination focused on travel. Here are some of my takes on why TripAdvisor is doing well:
Note: TripAdvisor has a lot more features than this, but arguably, their popularity has been built largely on hotel reviews and likely the leading reason why people visit them. We know they are building on top of this. It will be interesting to see where they go next.
- People want to spend their money wisely. Travel spending is no exception. They feel that if they research a bit and do their homework, they increase their chance of not making a mistake.
- While sites like Condé Nast Traveler (http://www.concierge.com/cntraveler) create world's-best lists, people also put a lot of importance on what other people like them have to say. This is because they look for value, and people who chose a hotel based on a set of expectations will be best able to relay whether these expectations were met compared to the price paid. If Condé Nast wants to do that, they have to ask people. TripAdvisor makes this direct.
- There is a near real-time aspect to reviews on TripAdvisor. Things change over time for many reasons, and wear and tear of hotel properties are no different. The recency of reviews is a factor. The popularity of the site brings this additional benefit.
- Where you sleep is deeply personal. Each night while you are away, you will need to sleep, wash up and leave your personal belongings there. People look for indications of cleanliness, service, safety and proximity to attractions. Making the wrong choice on a hotel can have a profound effect on your travel experience or at best, waste time and money to rectify. Because of this, the service that TripAdvisor provides resonates even more with visitors.
- While there is quite a bit of advertising, it is not intrusive and does not not detract from being able to write or find reviews. The site is attractive and well-organized.
At ScotchHopper, we retain the following guidelines from our look at TripAdvisor:
- In web 2.0 or social networks, it's all about the community. Know the community you are trying to serve well and be focused and personal. Do not try to be all things to all people.
- Understand what is valuable to your community, what they think is really important in their travel plans. Then enable them to explore this and find what they need.
- People's opinions are a great way to assess value. be creative and make this as useful as possible.
- Do not let commercial interests get in the way of serving your community.
Next post: a pioneer in online travel communities
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
The very first post
Well I had to start somewhere, so here is our first post.
The name: ScotchHopper
In case you were wondering, I was sitting with my brother-in-law on a Saturday night last September, and we were trying to come up with a catchy name. Catchy maybe is the wrong word - memorable perhaps. The definition of "hopscotch" is to journey quickly and directly from one usually far place to another. That is definitely a travel-related concept. And then we also wanted to remind ourselves that we are here FOR someone, namely the traveler who is seeking unique experiences in travel. One quick play on the term and ScotchHopper was born.
The previous paragraph already captures what we are about, and I think it makes sense to reiterate it:
1. We are about travel
2. We are about enabling unique experiences
3. We are about you and the community
Why we came about
I read a really good book back in February 2007, Wikinomics by Don Tapscott and Anthony Williams (http://www.wikinomics.com/). What they talked about resonated with me. Also, my wife has a business providing travel services that are customized and personalized (http://www.adventures-travels.com/). It just clicked. While there are many websites that try and gather tips and reviews and organize them and make them searchable, I kept thinking that they were missing the "mass collaboration" that Don and Anthony were talking about.
The concept is that by letting people come together and exchanging about a possible product (in our case, unique experiences in travel), they could come up with a better product than any corporation would. The corporation should focus on enabling the creative process and then supply the product. Leave the conception to the masses: they will self-organize and make it a reality. Google believes it too: they are awarding $10M to generate ideas for cool apps that surprise and delight mobile users (http://code.google.com/android/adc.html). If we could let people create trips and select experiences in this way, combining, composing, collaborating, we could really change travel for the better. Imagine that trip of a lifetime, but every time you travel. Now that is a challenge we are ready for.
An example is always good to clearly illustrate. Think of reviews of a restaurant. Some say it's good, some say it's bad, there's an average and then some text. But I have no appreciation of that average with respect to who gave the ratings. Is this average rating pertinent to me personally? I know who I am, and if I could filter the rating based on similar individuals (assuming I have a large enough sample of course), the rating could mean an order of magnitude more to me. Some people travel to see museums, others do it to sweat. Their concept of a perfect trip will be really different, and yet they could give the exact same rating for the restaurant. Would it mean the same thing to you? I'll tell you what I think - it won't to me!
This is but a tiny example of some of the problems we want to solve for you. If there is one commitment we can say today: we will be different. We are excited to embark on this process, and hopefully you will give us comments and feedback. I can not stress how much importance we will give to your thoughts and opinions - please share. We are a community so let us know what you think.
In my next few posts, I will try to give you some ideas of what we found out there when we did our market survey. I might even blog about specific sites. I am not a critic for a newspaper, and I am not a negative guy by nature so don't expect me to trash anything here. As a matter of fact, it will be quite the contrary: I have been so impressed with the originality and the focus, or the success, of some of these travel-related sites. As I said we will be different. In time, I will share more with you about our "secret sauces", but for a little while, I will focus on what we will be different from. As I said at the beginning, it should be fun and entertaining. And if it's not, tell me :)
The name: ScotchHopper
In case you were wondering, I was sitting with my brother-in-law on a Saturday night last September, and we were trying to come up with a catchy name. Catchy maybe is the wrong word - memorable perhaps. The definition of "hopscotch" is to journey quickly and directly from one usually far place to another. That is definitely a travel-related concept. And then we also wanted to remind ourselves that we are here FOR someone, namely the traveler who is seeking unique experiences in travel. One quick play on the term and ScotchHopper was born.
The previous paragraph already captures what we are about, and I think it makes sense to reiterate it:
1. We are about travel
2. We are about enabling unique experiences
3. We are about you and the community
Why we came about
I read a really good book back in February 2007, Wikinomics by Don Tapscott and Anthony Williams (http://www.wikinomics.com/). What they talked about resonated with me. Also, my wife has a business providing travel services that are customized and personalized (http://www.adventures-travels.com/). It just clicked. While there are many websites that try and gather tips and reviews and organize them and make them searchable, I kept thinking that they were missing the "mass collaboration" that Don and Anthony were talking about.
The concept is that by letting people come together and exchanging about a possible product (in our case, unique experiences in travel), they could come up with a better product than any corporation would. The corporation should focus on enabling the creative process and then supply the product. Leave the conception to the masses: they will self-organize and make it a reality. Google believes it too: they are awarding $10M to generate ideas for cool apps that surprise and delight mobile users (http://code.google.com/android/adc.html). If we could let people create trips and select experiences in this way, combining, composing, collaborating, we could really change travel for the better. Imagine that trip of a lifetime, but every time you travel. Now that is a challenge we are ready for.
An example is always good to clearly illustrate. Think of reviews of a restaurant. Some say it's good, some say it's bad, there's an average and then some text. But I have no appreciation of that average with respect to who gave the ratings. Is this average rating pertinent to me personally? I know who I am, and if I could filter the rating based on similar individuals (assuming I have a large enough sample of course), the rating could mean an order of magnitude more to me. Some people travel to see museums, others do it to sweat. Their concept of a perfect trip will be really different, and yet they could give the exact same rating for the restaurant. Would it mean the same thing to you? I'll tell you what I think - it won't to me!
This is but a tiny example of some of the problems we want to solve for you. If there is one commitment we can say today: we will be different. We are excited to embark on this process, and hopefully you will give us comments and feedback. I can not stress how much importance we will give to your thoughts and opinions - please share. We are a community so let us know what you think.
In my next few posts, I will try to give you some ideas of what we found out there when we did our market survey. I might even blog about specific sites. I am not a critic for a newspaper, and I am not a negative guy by nature so don't expect me to trash anything here. As a matter of fact, it will be quite the contrary: I have been so impressed with the originality and the focus, or the success, of some of these travel-related sites. As I said we will be different. In time, I will share more with you about our "secret sauces", but for a little while, I will focus on what we will be different from. As I said at the beginning, it should be fun and entertaining. And if it's not, tell me :)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)