Who would be Gekko, launching its public beta in the week that Kayak has unveiled its revamped TravelPost site?
TravelPost has a number of advantages over Gekko - not least in that it is backed by the might of Kayak. It has also spent months talking up the relaunch of TravelPost and highlighting the short-fallings of others in the space at the same time.
A canny, if slightly, unconventional strategy.
Let's not forget this is also the week when Tripadviser and CruiseCritic are taking a beating for the RCCL reviews for perks debacle.
Will Gekko's launch get lost in all the noise or, will its matching technology and profiling system make it stand out in what is already a very crowded space?
I hear some PR person now muttering, "Noise is good for the space. Rising tides lift all boats." And so on:)
A shame - I quite like Gekko for it's simplicity. I joined up and went through their profiling and sure enough it came up with my favorite hotels! Granted that was for an easy location such as London - I'll go and try something a bit more difficult to rally put them through their paces but I love the clean design, the presentation of information.
Their availability and booking function is not working yet - will be interesting to see who they do this with and how they do it.
By the way - the 'remember personal info' tick box on your blog still isn't working - a bit annoying cos I have to type in all my details every time I comment!
Simplicity makes better. When there are too much noises, it equals no information at all.