NEW WEBSITE PROMISES HOLIDAY INFO FROM REAL PEOPLE FOR REAL PEOPLE
Added: (Sat Jun 30 2001)
Pressbox (Press Release) -
Attn. Travel, Consumer and Technology Corrs.
A new independent website where real people report back on real holidays is launched this week.
RealHolidayReports.com has been developed by a group of friends in their leisure time who believe that the 17 million UK holidaymakers* who take package holidays abroad each year, want more independent and truthful information before they book rather than just relying on a paragraph in a travel sales brochure.
Ian Marsden, managing director, said ``The idea came as we were planning our own summer holidays last year when we all kept asking `Do you know anyone who has actually been there?’ We agreed it would be brilliant if there was a totally independent website where people could read other people’s holiday reports whether they were good or bad.
``Other than buying a house or car the annual holiday is many people’s largest expense of the year. The average cost, including spending money, for a family holiday abroad is close to £2500 based on people we interviewed. And most are booking this on the strength of a small description in a travel brochure.’’
The database behind the site has 456 countries and resorts worldwide, although not all resorts currently have reports. The resort with the most feed-back to date is Benidorm with 20 reports. Approximately 80% of the reports input so far are for European destinations, but there are reports from all over the world including Dubai, Canada, China, USA, and South America.
Over 2000 RealHolidayReports.com questionnaires were distributed with a £500 prize offered in a free prize draw as an incentive. More than 600 completed forms were returned providing enough information to 'go-live'. In the future it is expected that most new reports will be submitted on-line (with ongoing prize draws).
Future additions will include a one stop holiday shop, newsletter, chat room, questions/comments to an e-group and other features.
Information on the reports includes details on Country/Resort/Date of visit/Tour Operator/specific questions on location and accommodation plus a report in the individuals’ own words. The reports can vary from one word to a number of paragraphs. As well as being informative many of the reports are quite humorous.
The information is collated and `sun’ award ratings made ranging from 1 sun equals poor score to 4 suns equal excellent scores. There are also search facilities on the site,
enabling users to quickly locate a particular resort or accommodation and a function that allows users to drilldown to an individual report to view the scores. This is particularly useful if somebody wants to check on the scores for cleanliness, or nightlife, restaurants etc. Users can also re-sort the information, within a resort, so that say the accommodation with highest marks for children’s facilities, or location etc is shown first.
Ian Marsden added: ``The feedback we have had so far has been very encouraging. The person who input the reports actually booked their holiday for 2001 based on one of the reports.’’
Note to Editors:
· ABTA figures
RealHolidayReports.com is an internet web production of RealHolidayReports.com Limited which is a Private Limited company registered in England.
Contact: Ian Marsden, marsdeni@blueyonder.co.uk or telephone on 07930 228945.