TVtrip is essentially a guide for hotels from around the globe, but centered around video reviews and enhanced with third-party reviews from sites like HotelClub and Venere. Visitors are offered unbiased, professionally produced video reviews for hotels and get to book straight away through affiliate partnerships with booking sites.

So far, the guide covers 157 destinations and 2900 hotels worldwide, and has built up a directory of about 9800 videos.

The service’s main selling point in my opinion is the rich video player, which lets you jump to different rooms from one and the same hotel, offers a direct booking link, lets you view the location on a map inside the interface, switch to a photo gallery, etc.

Ever since TVtrip launched, I’ve been wondering why they didn’t offer a way for people to embed / share videos. I used to think TVtrip simply wanted to position itself as the premier destination site for video reviews for hotels, without the option to share its content on other places, but I was wrong. Co-founder and CMO Marc Pfohl tells me they did actually share embedding functionality on demand, and that they will be opening up more when they launch their next version, due March 10. The reason it took so long, he says, is because they wanted to be able to track where the videos appear with great detail.

TVtrip was founded by 4 ex-managers of Expedia Europe and backed by former Expedia CEO. The startup faces competition from (the equally French) Trivop, Tripr.tv, Travelmedia, Hotelly and Travelistic.

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New comer Tripr.TV is embracing the move towards compensating user contributions with a videoguide for hotels that pays 33% of their commissions for every booking made via a user contributed video. To quote Tripr.TV on how much that might be:

A normal booking averages around 400 Euros. The average commission Tripr.TV receives is between 7 and 10 percent. The filmmaker will receive 33.3 percent. As a calculation example this would mount up to 400 x 7% = €28,- x 33,3% = €9,32 per booking placed through your video. Payment follows 30 days after the end of the month.

It’s not huge money, but it’s certainly better than nothing and if you’re holidaying in the hotel anyway, you can put your video camera to use. There is a few requirements though to qualify: videos must have “Good camera work,” good lighting, video with sound, so original noises are audible, “Don’t just film people or details, rather show a complete and representative view,” and the video clips should be a minimum of 30 and a maximum of 90 seconds long.

It will be interesting to see whether there is enough people out there willing to make and submit videos of hotels they visit, but any program that offers compensation for user contributions is a positive step forward in a broader marketplace which still mostly doesn’t compensate users for their time and contributions.

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The site comes from Paris, France based VideoAgency and made the final five at the European Startup 2.0 conference in May. Although it didn’t win we’ve had a number of people contact TechCrunch telling us that Trivop was a site worth taking a deeper look at.

We all know what it’s like booking a hotel online. Imagery always shows the best side of the hotel but you often find yourself disappointed because the product isn’t exactly like the description or pictures presented at the booking point.

At its core, Trivop.com allows consumers to start their hotel search by watching hotel videos, giving them richer data that can be used in making an educated choice when deciding upon a hotel to stay in.

The layout is pure mashup. Google Maps bis used as a base from which to add hotel or user submitted video, with hotel reviews pulled from TripAdvisor. Users can explore the hotels’ surroundings, public facilities and all bedroom categories.

Trivop has launched covering Paris with plans to expand coverage across Europe later this year.

It’s a clever idea. Mashing video with hotel review data and maps really does provide a useful service that potentially has broad appeal to travellers. I’ve booked hotels online before only to arrive and discover that they’re only marginally better than a hovel so it naturally has personal appeal as well. Definitely a site to watch in the next 12 months as they expand to cover more cities. With such a simple yet clever idea, Trivop.com is a site bound to be copied as well.

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