The Verified text dilemma
In the last months I have come to learn how it feels to be a censor.
The Managers go out in the wild to visit the houses and apartments and come back home with some pictures and impressions.
Then they write the Verification text to publish it for the world to see.
We do this because we think that:
- The Owner’s description is not objective. It tells you the nice aspects and hides the bad ones. It’s, understandably, “brochure text” and it normally sounds like: “this beautiful and recently renovated apartment will be your home away from home”. There is never any reference to the broken door or smelly bathroom. So, the informative value is usually quite low and it’s no wonder that they are not read by most guests. It’s often just bla bla bla: noise in the page.
- The Guests’ Reviews are very subjective.
The same house can be “clean” or “filthy” for different persons.
The reviews need to be interpreted by the users and this can be very time consuming and frustrating.
I want to reserve an apartment for 3 nights, not analyze texts written by people I don’t know.
Plus they can be fake.
P.S.: We don’t have them yet but planned them for this year.
So, there’s a gap and we try to fill it with the Manager’s Verifications.
But we need to learn how to really write them.
Here’s where my censorship powers come into play. Read the rest of this entry »
The Italian network effect
In the above picture you can see the areas taken by Managers in Italy right now. This picture is interesting because it shows how important the networking effect has been so far.
I am originally from a town close to Venice, Padua and Treviso.
The first Managers, those who are in Adormo right now, mostly got to know me through my travel blog and the latter Managers started hearing from Adormo as a business.
None of the above have much to do with the area around Venice, they are both outward looking and globalized efforts.
What’s funny is that the covered areas seems to have developed around where I’m from.
You see that red circle? That’s where I’m from.
The rest of the interesting parts of North-Eastern Italy is taken (Treviso is “reserved” and we are discussing Padua right now). Read the rest of this entry »
Local Blindness
I’m now preparing some marketing material for the upcoming tourism fairs in Milan and Berlin.
We’ll target potential Managers amongst the established online reservations companies around the world.
This requires a completely different approach as we’ll be talking to people who know their trade.
What do we have to offer to them?
Or, better: what’s the problem we can solve for them?
Back to the marketing material.
What is it for? Are we really going to get customers (Managers on this case) by delivering them shiny brochures in expensive looking folders?
I’ve been in exhibitions all over the world and I remember people carrying kilograms of brochures in 4-wheeled trolleys.
They probably burn them around a campfire when they get home.
I’ve been sitting in boots talking all day to agents from all over the world.
It’s interesting and tiring. But your brain can’t cope with all that information in one day.
Trade shows are there so that you can look your partner in the eyes, shake hands and get a feeling of the other person.
All the real work is done before and after that. Read the rest of this entry »