Today sees the launch of Simonseeks, a service aiming to provide all the information anyone would need, via travel guides, to make that booking.
It has grown out of Simon Nixon's (Moneysupermarket founder) frustration at not being able to get to reliable, relevant information fast.
In a year's time we'll look back to see if it has fulfilled its ambitions - a million unique visitors a month and within the top 10 travel companies.
Bullish - yes, achievable, who knows?
It has things going for it, the founder has deep pockets and a track record in start-ups. Search engine marketing expertise has been brought in from McCann Erickson and there are already 1,000 destination guides on the site.
The revenue share model is interesting - a 50:50 split with writers based on consumers booking a hotel, car-hire, holiday...
It's a crowded although messy space and the onus is completely on the writers to make the guides inspirational and leave the consumer with no reason to go anywhere else.
It could be a vicious circle - to keep the content fresh and interesting the writer will want to see the regular paycheck but to see the money they will have to keep their reviews at the top.
Is it cynical to think that after the initial hype many will get bored, leaving a few to cash in?
But, then if you believe Tripadvisor's stats (20 new reviews added every minute) people's desire to share their experience knows no bounds.
Will be interesting to watch Simon Seeks develop and if it will start popping up in search results. The team behind it certainly has experience and expertise. Not sure if a 50 / 50 split is enough though ?. After all, the contributors are also adding to the cash value of the site should simonseeks sell / list at some point.
If someone is an expert on a destination they might be better off putting the articles on their own site. With a relevant domain name and links from relevant sites it could beat simonseeks in the rankings, the writer gets 100% of revenue and retains the option to sell their site down the line.
At first I sighed when I read another travel review/guide site and then I read that Simon's Nixon was behind venture and thought, he must think that there's money to be made here.
It does sound promising for writers but I'd like to see how much they do actually earn from simonsays. During quick scan of T&C I spotted "All revenue which is shared will be net of all: tax charges; withholding taxes; value added taxes or equivalent; insurance costs; service fees; marketing; administration costs; any charges in relation to the payment system and any other standard deductions".
Personally speaking I might read hotel reviews on such a site but would probably go to a metasearch such as Travelsupermarket, or my own favourite HotelsCombined, to find best price from multiple suppliers.
There's always room for good reviews, that have authority. That will be the challenge of the SimonSeeks editors, as they are all that stand between two competing forces - the commercial SEO imperative of lots of words about popular destinations (regardless of quality), and the high-value-to-user insider stuff that may not earn the writer so much but will make or break the site.
I read about both this and nextstop.com over on http://jeremyhead.typepad.com/. Both seem to have pretty good teams behind them, but I thought the difference in model (nextstop is much more wikipedia like, with a bunch of people contributing for the good of the world) vs a rev share model was interesting. Have to say I find the content on nextstop to be more actionable, with the ability to compare notes from other travelers rather than paragraph after paragraph from one person I'm not sure I can trust.
There's some pretty heated debate about simonseeks on my blog - mainly from the travel writing community:
http://www.travelblather.com/2009/06/travelsupermarket-simonseeks-travel-guides-travel-writers.html
And now... we have vtravelled too...