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1. TripKick Hotel Rooms website
The basic idea is the website tells you the difference in rooms in a hotel by factors such as view, noise, size, corner room, great bathroom.
Great concept and these are the primary features in hotel room detail that I consider when staying some place. These are the main factors, although I also want to know about other variables like:
— refrigerator situation (full or empty, regular fridge with mini bar selection or electronic fridge where moving an object gets a computerized charge to your hotel folio),
— seating (couch, one chair, two chairs, combination),
— TV placement and size,
— internet free or what cost,
— specific bathroom setup in regard to spa tub, shower, or both as separate units,
— window situation (open all the way, part-way, no way).
The hotel industry makes a site like TripKick a difficult proposition to carry out. Websites like SeatGuru have a relatively small variation on the types of aircraft flown around the world, whereas, there are thousands of variations of hotel room layouts and there are generally dozens of room types in each large hotel just based on the simple five variables View, Noise, Size, Corner Room, Great Bathroom.
The database of information necessary to make the project work is mindboggling. The concept is a great idea. The issue I see keeping the website from developing is the limitation of hotel data. I see many websites soliciting hotel reviews, but there are few sites even approaching the database of TripAdvisor. I regularly find hotels where hundreds or even thousands of guests have stayed over the past few months and the most recent review on TripAdvisor is six months to a year old. And what other hotel review site can even approach the number of reviews available on TripAdvisor?
TripKick is a great concept and I wish them the best of luck with the venture. And if it does take off, I am sure Expedia will be there with the incentives to put TripKick in the shade of their travel umbrella.
Call Waiting?
I like Glenn Haussman’s article on hotel bathrooms featured on Hotel Interactive.com. Thinking back on it, I don’t think I have ever picked up a bathroom phone. The phone next to the toilet seems oddly out of place to me too.
