10 accommodation agencies that host bloggers

Photo: Roomorama, Holly’s Haven apartment, Paris

By Steve Keenan

Travel bloggers have to travel, by definition. So they need somewhere to stay, preferably for free.

And in the past year, I’ve noticed several travel companies looking to cater for them, new internet-based companies not historically used to working with newspapers but eager to work with their digital counterparts.

I’m not thinking about Online Travel Agencies (OTA’s) such as laterooms.com, hotels.com or lowcostbeds.com.

While they are keen to work with bloggers, these are successful hotel room wholesalers who largely preceded bloggers. I’m talking about the wave of self-catering companies, flexible in adding rooms in houses, small flats and occasional accommodation to their databases. Which suits bloggers.

Freelance and staff journalists accepting a free hotel room always did it, adding credits in the fact boxes at the end of copy. Bloggers do the same, adding credits on a post - but also overtly using social media.

One of the biggest blogger suppliers is Wimdu. One blogger, EuroTopTrips, tweeted yesterday: “Just checked into my @wimdu flat - the area isn’t super, but the flat is stylish, modern & clean!”

At last year’s Social Travel Market, one speaker - Rich Whitaker - tweeted of another supplier: “Just arrived at the Brick Lane apartment… Very cool! A big thank you to @roomorama.”

It’s a pretty basic pay-off. But the wave of new suppliers is clearly meeting increased demand. This year, we’ve put two speakers in touch with other non-hotel suppliers - 9Flats.com and Housetrip.com, both of whom expressed interest in helping bloggers visiting London - the latter promoted by writer Gordon Lethbridge: “For an alternative to hotels when visiting #Vienna’s Christmas markets try an apartment from @HouseTrip.”

It’s up to the blogger and supplier to decide the level of coverage in return for a room. But the trade-off is established, and as more rooms come online, then the companies need more exposure.

So, in the spirit of helping both sides meet each other, here are six more online accommodation providers who could be approached by bloggers for help…

1. Trustedhousesitters.com - Specialises in finding people to house sit the property and its pets - wildly recommended by by Hecktic Travel in a blog post a year ago.

2. ViveUnique.com - home rentals in 19 cities plus Bali and Barbados, as enthused by blogger @Nancydbrown “Headed to Seville in spring. Might need to make Barcelona our home base via @ViveUnique.”

3. OneFineStay has made a lot of noise in 2012 with the simple premise of being stay in someone’s (usually upmarket) home in New York or London while they’re away. Not sure if @NevEndingVoyage has been or wants to - “Love the look of @onefinestay - you stay in people’s homes while they are away. Gorgeous places in London and New York.”

4. More prosaic, Loving Apartments offers, ahem, apartments in 13 cities across Europe and pitches for families. They even made a Role Play account on Twitter yesterday: “*Shrieks,* Honey, look at the terrace.

5. Another fast-emerging apartment firm is WaytoStay, with places in 17 European cities. Blogger Kash Bhattacharya is a fan: “Just downloaded your app @PartywithaLocal Now to find some party people in Rome for this weekend .”

6. New York Habitat also has apartments in Paris, south of France and London. Not sure if they’ve worked with bloggers yet. But a well-constructed pitch and…

Who am I missing? Which self-catering place have you been a guest of?

Shaping social media – what’s on the horizon for the travel industry?

Guest post by Ed Maule, Siren Communications

(Siren is a partner of the 2012 WTM Social Travel Market conference)

It would be difficult for anyone to argue against the impact of social media on our society as a whole. If nothing else, Twitter & Facebook certainly seem to make this world feel a little smaller.

But with all this social media noise that surrounds us every movement of every day, just how do we fashion something useful out of the fast-paced juggernaut that is online communications?

How can we carve out a portion of social media and make it work for us in the travel industry? What does this look like now and, vitally, what will this look like in 12 months’ time?

Let’s start with a key observation about travel; whether it’s buying a holiday, travelling for business, taking a round the world trip or enjoying a long weekend, travel sparks emotions. For this reason alone, the travel industry should harness the impassioned connection between people and travel to increase brand engagement and loyalty.

Just to be clear, I’m not breaking new ground here – those who travel already engage with social media across a variety of platforms in a number of different ways. A nifty infographic by Funsherpa brings to light a number of ‘sit up and take note’ facts about the social traveller. It’s well worth taking a look; but for those of you in a rush, here’s a few of their highlights:

• 45% of travellers sourced an initial trip idea online
• 24% read travel related blogs
• 70% update Facebook whilst on holiday
• 50% of travel companies surveyed agreed that social media generates bookings
• 76% will post photos to social networks whilst on holiday
• 55% ‘Liked’ Facebook pages specific to their holiday
• 46% post hotel reviews

Vital points to note here – research, real-time, review – social media finds itself permeating all elements of travel. The fact is, those who travel are using social media and they’re using it a lot.

We’re all aware of Facebook pages, Twitter feeds and blog posts, and hopefully most companies are utilising these social platforms; already talking with a certain voice, knowing where and how their audience wants to interact, engaging with those who want to connect and integrating social messages within their marketing strategy.

I don’t really want to delve too much into the detail of how to create/run a social media strategy, I expect most of you reading this will know what a social campaign looks like and are no doubt implementing it well.

However, if you do have questions on social media campaigns, how to plan, how to have impact, how to interact with customers, check out the sessions on offer at this year’s WTM Social Travel Market and get yourself registered. Alternatively, send me a message @Ed_Siren

So…let’s shield the social media glare from our eyes and, for a moment, stare thoughtfully into the distance and look ahead to how we can make social work harder for travel in the future.

‘A picture paints a 1000 words’ and a video – well, you do the maths…

At Siren Communications we believe the future of social media and online communications for travel companies lies in creating engaging content that centres around images and video. Image based platforms are out there, they’re available, they’re popular, they’re free to use and we think they aren’t being utilised nearly enough by the travel industry folk.

With the strategic use of visual platforms such as Instagram & Pinterest, consumer engagement with brands can be increased. Travel by its very nature is image led – for this reason the travel industry should be ready to run engaging image-based marketing campaigns. Such social platforms are already in place, but as yet only a handful of companies are really grabbing them by the scruff of the neck and making them work. Travel is a default category/board on Pinterest and the subject of the vast majority of edited Instagram photos.

More significantly, travel enthusiasts across the globe are already using these platforms – it’s a relatively untapped market for your brand, so why not talk to such enthusiasts in their space?

Let’s not forget that social media strategies need to focus on clear objectives; could it be brand engagement, exposure or a sales drive? One thing is certain – social media is about meeting the customer in a place they’re already in, talking to them in a voice they understand and building a stronger brand/consumer relationship. We know the impact of visual communications; we know how images reflect the personal, emotional and evocative nature of travel and, as such, they need to be central to any future social strategy.

Professional photos and videos have their place, but key to the future of social media in the travel industry is harnessing the power of user generated images and moving pictures – the personalisation of travel by those who know it best – the travellers.

A note on video: YouTube is clearly the world’s largest collection of user generated video content and still a highly valuable tool for distribution of personal/corporate video. But what’s the next big thing? We know technology is ever changing. The bright sparks of the development world are racking their brains for the next social media world-changer. Testing. Optimizing. Re-developing.

Insta-video (terrible name, but you get my thinking)… edited video content, shareable throughout an online community…is this the future of social media?

Whatever route image based media takes over the next 12 months, it’s paramount that the travel industry keeps up with the times. The social traveller already uses what’s available to them and you can be pretty sure they’ll be all over the next big thing.
The travel industry needs to follow them; more than that, it should lead and guide them in their consumption of online communications.

Siren Communications is already working with a number of clients on their image-led strategies and social campaigns. What’s more we can do this at an incredibly affordable price…social media doesn’t need to cost the earth!

We like to think of ourselves as a friendly bunch over here… so if you want to find out more tweet us @sirencomms or just give us a shout.

We aren’t ones to turn down an opportunity to grab a coffee!

Google and the end of SEO

By Mark Frary

Heard of Google’s Knowledge Graph? If not, you should probably find out a little more about it.

If you live in an English-speaking country and have made a Google search for a person, place or thing since August, you will have seen the Knowledge Graph in action. The image above shows what I mean. I carried out a search for Paris. Google used its algorithms to make the best guess of what I meant by that. I meant the capital city of France but I could have equally wanted the Texan city, an IT girl with the surname Hilton or the guy from Greek mythology who sparked the Trojan War by eloping with Helen of Troy.

Google uses lots of signals to create its Knowledge Graph, including where you are in the world but also what other people searching for the same thing click on. It made a guess (a correct one) that I wanted to know more about the home of the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower.

What is interesting about Knowledge Graph is how it disrupts our usual response to search results. The information in the panel on the right is generated automatically from a range of different databases, including Wikipedia, the CIA World Factbook and Freebase. Often, the information I am looking for – the population say or a link to something important in the city, the Eiffel Tower perhaps – is already presented to me. It takes my attention away from the listings on the left.

Google’s idea here is to make its search engine appear even more “human”, one of its most often repeated goals.

As a result, travel companies and tourism organisations need to understand Knowledge Graph and how Google generates its results. It means that marketers are going to have to ensure that the organisations they represent are properly identified on Wikipedia and being to use tools like Freebase to identify exactly what Paris or Tahiti or Coral Reef mean.

Knowledge Graph is just one of many changes that Google is making to appear less robotic and one that represents a challenge for those who try to game the search giant through SEO techniques. As time goes on, Google and other engines will become more and more human, meaning that artificial SEO techniques will become increasingly irrelevant.

In the future, internet historians will look back and say there was a point at which it could be said that travel companies investing in good content for their websites started to beat the companies using sophisticated SEO techniques to make rubbish content do well. This is likely to be the point.

Plan for the future. But don’t forget your past

By Steve Keenan and Mark Frary

In the headlong rush to improve your company’s SEO, add plug-ins, make video, launch that Pinterest account, supercharge the blog and plan your content and marketing strategy, you could be forgetting something.

Where you’ve come from.

A history lesson is not high on the ever-lengthening social and digital list of ‘must-do’s’ but it’s becoming a critical factor. It’s an annoying phrase, yet curating your past is as important as any of the above.

With a barrage of price-comparison sites dominating Google, travellers are looking for an edge, something more, to help make a decision. Google+ will help, video is another factor and fuzzy/semantic search is (while in its infancy) an interesting development.

But a good story, a sense of history, of having been there-done-that boosts traveller’s comfort and security in making the decision on which travel company to book with.

Which is why we so enjoyed working with ski operator Erna Low in marking its 80th anniversary this year…

THE BOOK

Erna Low was born in Vienna in 1909, the daughter of Jewish parents from what is now the Czech Republic. She loved sport and became skilled in many disciplines: she played handball for Austria’s best team, came second in the javelin at the Women’s Amateur Athletic Association Championships (essentially the world champs at the time) at Stamford Bridge in 1932 and was a super-keen skier.

She came to England to study for her PhD in literature and while here began to think of ways she could fund trips back to see her family in Austria. So it was in November 1932 that Erna placed an ad on the front page of the Morning Post, offering two weeks’ skiing in Austria for £15. Five students came on that first trip but it proved such a success that the company went on to much bigger things, eventually growing by the 1960s to the size where it was taking thousands of people skiing. These included Princess Anne, other famous people and many other “ordinary” skiers.

What a fabulous story and one that was ripe for turning into a book about Erna’s life. That meant interviewing her family, friends and colleagues, searching through newspapers and books at the British Library and the Ski Club of Great Britain.

Erna was also something of a hoarder, keeping all her letters, adverts, press clippings as well as pages and pages of autobiographical notes.

It was a huge project but one that has just come to fruition. The book, Aiming High, is now published and was launched in time for the 80th anniversary of Erna’s first organised ski trip.

Some biographers have a challenge in finding material to fill their books, we had the opposite - what would we have to leave out? Thankfully, you don’t have to stop at the printed page these days.

CINE/RETRO FILM

Erna Low died 10 years ago. Yet for three decades, from 1940, she took cine film of her trips. They span early UK houseparties and summer holidays through to ski, for which the company remains known.

When current MD Joanna Yellowlees-Bound wanted to commemorate the 80th, we uncovered 19 of her films in a cupboard in the office. Half were black & white, the rest in colour and all on 16mm film, the type used by semi professionals. Sadly, all were silent films with no audio.

But what we had was priceless: roughly 10,000ft of film, equivalent to four hours of footage. The quality was generally pretty good. They had been stored in containers in the dark in non humid, dry conditions for decades: it was the first time many had seen the light since.

It took a while to find a machine to view the films on. Short of buying a projector, there are not many around. Eventually, I was guided to the British Film Institute which has two Steenbeck film viewers from the 1970s. And I began to watch films shot by Erna, on average, some 50 years ago.

The first thing I recorded was…. How much I wished Erna had had a tripod. It’s fair to say there was an awful lot of traversing of camera and shaky camera work. But she had a very good eye for filming locals: there are many shots of families and people at work. And a cine camera wasn’t common then, so many did pose for shots.

Only eight of the 19 films concern skiing. In the 50s and 60s, Erna was a prime mover in UK houseparty holidays and there are some fabulous shots of Pimms o’clock and charabanc outings. She was also a big fan of roadtrips, and there are six or seven films recording drives to Tunisia, Majorca, France, Greece and Italy alongside air-based trips to the Canary Islands and Madeira.

But the ski is what interested us most and we weren’t disappointed. The films gave a snapshot of ski fashion, Europe’s first ski lifts, of early learning techniques, curling and apres-ski and chalet holidays in the 1950s. There was even a shot of actor Roger Lloyd Pack aged six or seven, whose mother Uli worked for Erna Low.

By combing through the files, we sorted the best, digitised them, and came up with a 10-minute overview film of the company’s history - plus several shorts by subject. You can see the main Erna Low film here - and a spin-off idea, of taking Olympic skier Graham Bell to the Alps with some pairs of vintage wooden skis.

The company’s past is curated, the film saved and ready for future use. And if I were booking a ski holiday and prices were fairly similar, I know that I would be very heavily persuaded to book with a company that has a sense of deep history and knowledge - and I could see it with my own eyes.