Written on August 27, 2008 – 11:17 am
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
After six months in beta, the “YouTube for hotels”, Tripr.TV, has officially launched today. The Dutch start-up allows users to post video reviews of the hotels they’ve visited, promising a commission (averaging $10 per booking) when another user books via their video page.
Tripr.tv has recently been funded by Greenhouse Innovation, venture capital firm of Mr. Sander Andreae and Mr. Marc Duijndam. Duijndam is former managing director at Google and now works for eBuddy.
Jan Kooman, Tripr.TV CEO says in the release that his service gives potential guests a better idea of the hotel “Moving images are much more realistic than the, often outdated and glamorized, pictures which hotels themselves show. Our way, potential guests can really trust the hotel. When you’re filming for Tripr.tv, you’re actually walking around your room. Everyone can see the truth.”
I disagreed with Kooman when I first reviewed the site in January, and I still do. Sure, movies give a better idea of how a hotel looks like. But you got to remember that users will shoot mini-commercials, so that more potential guests will book via their video page.
Put those homemade movies in context
That doesn’t mean I consider Tripr.TV to be a failure. Far from that. I think the whole videotaping your hotel room thing is good way to structure user generated content. These hotel rooms movies would otherwise wind up as long forgotten YouTube movies and the creator wouldn’t make a penny from it.
So I say, more initiatives like Tripr.TV please. Put all those homemade movies in context, like YouPorn (Wiki link) did with sex videos and Tripr.TV with hotel videos. But just don’t claim it’s unbiased. There’s no such thing as one definite truth.
I hope you like that post!
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Written on May 19, 2008 – 1:44 pm
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
Update: By sending fax and email log files, Renée De Meo from Venere proved that it was actually the mistake of the Arcadia Hotel Belmondo.
For most web professionals, the Internet is like a religion. We evangelize the almost endless opportunities of the medium and try to convince people to trust new technologies. It almost sucks us up, and creates some sort of tunnel vision. So when a new technology lets us down, it hits us extra hard. It happened to my co-editor Patrick and me.
We traveled to Hamburg, Germany last Thursday to visit the one-day conference Next08. Right before we left, I booked a hotel via Venere.com. Quite last minute, but hey, we’re busy guys. Moreover, that’s where these services are for. I browsed around, looking for an affordable hotel within walking distance of the Next08 venue and ended up at the Arcadia Hotel Belmondo. When I completed the reservation, I was happily surprised with the confirmation message via SMS.
So after a rather tiring six-hour drive with traffic jams and without a navigation system, Patrick and me arrived at the hotel. A bit stressed, as we were late for the Facebook Developer Garage after party. Yet when we arrived at the reception, a nasty surprise was waiting for us. After a lot of shaking no with her head and desperate looks in our direction, the receptionist told us the hotel was fully booked and she couldn’t find our reservation. When I showed her the confirmation page on my MacBook, she told me that it should have been impossible for us to make a reservation on that very day, as she had closed the booking system in the morning.
There we were standing, two angry young men. Utterly disappointed in the so-beloved medium. In our anger, we decided to write a blog post titled: “when the Internet fails”. Apparently, the disappointment got to our head, as it wasn’t the fault of the medium. It was the fault of one of world’s largest booking sites, Venere. The technology didn’t fail, the people behind the technology did.
Our faith in the web was renewed when the receptionist gave us two WLAN access cards. Within five minutes, we found an excellent last minute offer from a design hotel called Arcotel Rubin. Two minutes later we booked the room on Hotels.com and ten minutes later we were checking into a very comfortable hotel.
So all you fellow technology evangelists out there. Next time you try to make people trust the web, use this story to explain that when new technology fails, it’s often the people and not the whole medium. That might sound familiar to them, as it’s often also the case with technologies that exist for decades. Explain to them that they can use a broad range of new super handy tools, with the same or less risk.
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The Next Web Blog is closely associated with The Next Web Conference which is held annually in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. At this event speakers from all over the world come together to talk about, and show of, the future of the Web. (
