The site suggests “unbiased hotel video reviews from real travelers” and I’ve browsed the site, and some are easily traveller generated, with honest commentary, but others are professionally done, including credits. One person I found was a videographer-for-hire, which may or may not have been compensated for the review, I simply don’t know. But I encourage the unbiased review aspect of the site.
This site may be pushing the limits of the user-generated-content envelope. The videos appear to be pulled from tripr.tv, which is the real source of the reviews, and Tripr.tv compensates filmmakers with a commission when the video results in a booking of a hotel. While writing this, I noticed that TechCrunch commented nearly a year ago, but it just made its way to KillerStartups as HotelVideoReviews.com, and my attention.
User-generated content is great, but a video review requires both audio and video to be consumed, so it much more active than just reading and skimming a comment. Not to mention it is a bandwidth hog. The YouTube generation is well versed in creating videos, but I’m not sure if a site with low resolution/quality social commentary is going to do better than a simple text review site. It gives additional context and perhaps proof-positive that the hotel is either 1-star or 5-star rated. I wish them luck, this economy is taking a beating and starting up a travel site right now has to be difficult.
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