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 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.

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Their directory has moved beyond London and Paris, now including Germany, Italy, and Spain. Erik Blashford (CEO of Terrapass, Former CEO of Expedia), Thierry Antinory (VP Marketing & Sales of Lufthansa) have joined the advisory board.

Trivop is also pursuing a multimedia directory for hotels.

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Tvtrip’s listings include maps, ratings, pricing and videos touring the hotel’s different classes of rooms, amenities, and exterior compiled by their teams of videographers. They have a library of 1500 videos, including 25 European destinations. You can see an example here. Over the next couple of months Tvtrip will be adding several more elements to enhance the user experience, including nearby geocoded Flickr photos and integration with Eventful and Plazes. I’m sure they’ll be adding more imaging features as mapping services like Google incorporate them, such as streetside view.

Tvtrip does have some drawbacks, however. In depth information about hotels is great news for price insensitive consumers, but you still have to hop to one of their affiliates for the best deal (Expedia, Venere, Booking.com). Competitor Trivop, instead, relies on TripAdvisor for their deals. Video guides also take a great deal of time to put together. Tvtrip is also only available in London, Brussles, Paris, and Berlin because of the large overhead involved in compiling the in depth information. Trivop is currently only available in London and Paris.

Tvtrip.com was founded by 4 former managers of Expedia Europe: Marc Ruff (former Vice President Europe), Fabien Bourdier (former managing director France), Marc Pfohl (former marketing director France) and Anja Keckeisen (former managing director Germany). They are currently angel financed, but expected to close another round of financing next week.

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