Comments on: How to set up an online accommodation network

By: Going Local Travel » Online accommodation networks will not be the death of B&Bs

Sat, 22 May 2010 02:18:44 +0000

[...] my post on the setting up an online accommodation network, I got a great link sent to me by one of my interviewees, Peter of MyFriendsHotel.com. It was a [...]

By: Gemma

Gemma — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 09:49:59 +0000

‘Jim’ it is clear you work for iStopOver. People wised up to this kind of SPAM a loooong time ago.

By: Peter

Peter — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 15:19:51 +0000

Actually – one thing that’s missing from the above is the question of funding. A fundamental issue for any start-up.

AirBnB – received $20k in Seed funding. (1/1/09)
CrashPadder – has a number of different ‘sleeping partners’ (excuse the pun!).
iStopOver – is part of Brightspark 3.0 Inc, Canada’s leading startup experts.
MyFriendsHotel – is self-funded.

Funding is clearly a big issue to consider when starting an online accommodation network. I’m not sure what real difference ‘ownership’ has on the end consumer but I think in any online community, where trust is a central tenet, transparency of ownership is important.

By: Stephen

Stephen — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 14:54:07 +0000

Great article, thanks for including us. It’s great to hear from other sites in this space. As I said above, I really don’t think we are competing with one another – the real competition are the soulless, carbon-copy hotels. The fact that so many other great companies are offering this service (and doing so successfully) indicative of the sea-change of public opinion which I hope we are able to affect.

Yesterday a friend of mine used a great analogy to describe what crashpadder.com offers. Choosing us over a budget hotel is like choosing to cook from scratch rather than buy a microwave meal. Sure, it requires a little more time and thought. But the results are better, you save money and the experience is always unique!

By: Jim

Jim — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 14:44:26 +0000

These accommodation networking sites are just great! Its really helped me meet many people and make some money. I’ve had my house up on iStopOver since June and it has been a wonderful experience.

I cannot begin to tell you how many fun and interesting people I’ve met and stayed in touch with!

It also paid for my new flat screen TV

By: Peter

Peter — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 14:28:19 +0000

Thanks Vicky for the chance to contribute to an interesting discussion. It’s interesting to hear directly form the ‘competition’ and surprising how similar our thought are. Well done to everyone for getting a site up and running – I know how hard it can be!