Work

Over the last week or so i’ve given hotelsrevealed.com a makeover. I’ve added more content too and generally tried to spruce it up a bit and make it more visually appealing… The site itself is a niche site, it’s something i think i can do well from…

Booking hotels might seem easy, and it is if you’re happy to stick with hotels.com and pay whatever you deem to be an acceptable price for an acceptable hotel. But most people want bargains… they want to pay less and get more. Myself included. Who doesn’t?!

So booking hotels can actually be a very long and complicated process depending on your criteria and budget, especially if you’re not used to doing it. First of all, it’s important to learn from mistakes… be they other people’s mistakes or our own… booking a hotel with a credit card might seem stupid to some people, but it offers great protection in the event of the hotel or the company you booked with goes bust. Look at the 1800hotels situation. We should all learn from it. Remember that next time you book a hotel. Booking on credit is a form of ‘insurance’ should you not get what your paid for.

Anyway, the likes of lastminute.com and priceline.com both have ‘mystery hotels’. Hotels which are unknown until you pay for them. The advantage of buying those hotels is that they’re normally great value. Up to 50% off the normal rates. The disadvantage of buying those hotels is of course you don’t know what hotel it is you’re buying.

But with hotelsrevealed.com, it helps to ‘unmask’ these hidden hotels by piecing together clues and getting tips from people who’ve previously booked hotels. At the minute, i’m focusing on London only. I still don’t have it covered. I’m getting there slowly

Over the last few days, since i’ve made some big structural changes to the site and it’s now pulling in about 80 visits per day. 90% from google. That’s around 2,500 visits per month. London hotels only… and i probably only have half of the city covered.

So you can see the potential the site has… it’s just bursting with it. What if i had ALL the major cities covered? What if i had a forum on there for people to chat? What if i had some sort of user generated reviews or tips? What if, what if….

It’s easy to get excited and forecast potential traffic, estimated growth etc… but the reality is without constant work, the site will die. It’s the same with all sites. This one has potential though and the stats show it. It’s just a pity my hands can’t keep up with my brain and implement everything instantly. Still, simply knowing that a site has potential and that it’s growing daily acts as great motivation.