TvTrip is offering a multimedia hotel guide with videos professionnally produced helping users choose better the hotels and even the rooms they will be staying at (read our initial review here). This startup hearquartered in Belgium with offices in Paris London and Singapour launched in June and is backed by 2 european VCs, Partech and Balderton. They are now out of beta (check out the absent mention by the logo) and will be launching tomorrow a brand new version of their hotel search engine although the new site can already be accessed.
The new design is rather nice but the key point of attraction is an advanced video player which enables you to access rich information regarding the hotel without having to leave the player itself including in full screen mode. The execution is really good and it is probably best to give it a try to understand. For example you can launch other videos related to the hotel directly from the player, you can read the hotel basic description details and reviews from other users and even launch a comparison check for the best rate.
I regret a few elements that could be easily improved: the videos cannot be embedded (useful for travel blogs), the sound is set by default to zero and the control is not available in the right position. I think they also urgently need to take that cheap stock music off their videos and replace it with either quality music (hint: local hits would be interesting) or even a sexy voice to accompany the images. After a short chat with the team i understand they will be working on it.
The site itself is much richer and has a lot of options for search, filtering and navigation. I like the VideoWall result page (see
here in London). They also have a
map mashup from where you can run directly the videos.The site has already some good traction with a 100k unique visitors a month accross 5 languages. 600 hotels are covered accross 48 cities and this will soon raise up to 1000. Another 2200 hotels can be added at any time according to users’ votes. Asia will soon be covered too. Another startup based in Paris providing the same service by the name of
Trivop, recently launched a new version of their site.Video guides for hotels make total sense from a consumer point of view. The question i still have in mind is whether this is a value proposition strong enough to create a destination site or whether this is a good addition to existing booking sites? Too soon to say
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Great concept! I have found that room pictures on hotel websites are very deceiving. Photographers can make the Bates Motel look like the Ritz with a few touch ups in Photoshop. Unfortunately, I think TvTrip can expect to see these videos popping up on Travelocity, Expedia, etc. within the next few weeks.
Is there an anticipated launch date for the US?
That is true.
hoteles
Business model?
It’d be smart to pair up with travel sites or the hotel themselves, making commission off referred sales. (perhaps they do this already?)
Also, to make professional videos for every hotel requires a crapload of manual labor. How do they intend to do this? Perhaps award travel discounts to users who can make professional videos that the company can manually approve.
Embed feature, I think, is super important. I end up going to so many websites thanks to the fact that their content is embedded on other people’s websites/blogs.
In any event, doesn’t look too shabby!
Very nice site, nice videos btw ! Just wondering how they can shoot all these hotels, must really cost a lot to get such an inventory.
With $4.8 Millions you can shoot several hotels i guess
Totally agree about the music… But the rest is impressive…
Real improvement from beta combining reviews, ratings and videos, great player by the way. When can i upload my own personal videos!?
The design is great (even if i still do not understand why travel websites have to be blue …)
The navigation between the different views, on the map or in the videowall, is something funny.
I just hope there will be video in asia and south America (Brasil power) soon !
sounds like hotels.com + tripadvisor
professionnally = professionally
hearquartered = headquartered
Singapour = Singapore (in English)
spell checker = useful
This is a great concept, videos of hotels is an incredibly useful feature.
The first commenter mentioned that some hotels can take pictures that make the Bates Motel look like the Ritz, but I have also had the opposite experience. When booking a trip to Bermuda earlier this year, I was trying to decide between two different hotels. Once had a great web site and was more expensive and not on the beach, and the other hotel had a terrible web site that made the resort look (for the lack of a better word) cheesy. I found a video of the second resort on YouTube and it was great! So much better than the Web site portrayed. I booked the trip and we ended up loving Bermuda and the hotel - and we only stayed there thanks to the video preview.
Amazing! It’s great to see someone doing something new in the online travel sector - these guys could really be a HUGE market power!
Wow, These guys are taking it to the next level.
Another tool for selecting the right place for the family vacation.
Yes pictures can make a hotel look better… but videos too. (Just take a look a the videos on the site).
I agree with Jessica that scaling may be an issue for TvTrip. Tv will not be able to expand to rural and suburban markets and still retain their video value add. This looks like a great niche play in the premium urban hotel category.
Operational issues aside, this looks like a great tool for finding accomodations in major cities. In order to be a real power here, they will need to more tightly integrate with travel booking services, such that travelers can purchase an airfare-hotel bundle directly on the site or link to a travel site.
In order to monetize, Tv may need to charge hotels for video listings and create an affiliate program. If Tv can prove that it is creating bookings for their customers then adoption by the premium urban hotels should be more rapid.
Wow so many hotel videos on it!! Fabulous idea and great website!! Hope you’ll shoot in Asia soon.
ya i agree #4
I agree with the comment on embedded video version , it will help tvtrip promote more better and so is the picture. we have an old saying a picture is worth a thousand and so is video.
Nat
http://www.workersinc.com
This is great! Now I can really see the room that I will be staying… clips I watched also shows outside of the hotel too. For my next trip, I can at least see what the neighborhood really looks like.
This is different from using google earth.
I might like to visit Paris London, but I’m not sure about Singapour.
I really prefere the new version.
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Here i am as at home.