Do you know a website accessible only for subscribers and how they promote it ??

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Alex Bainbridge on March 13, 2008 at 3:31pm

Hi Bernard
Thank you for asking your question here. That is an intersting site you have there.

Another website that aims to sell the expertise of the travel consultant is http://www.tourguidemike.com/ - they tend to focus on selling tools powered by information. Maybe you could get some ideas from Mike?

I know you probably explain this - but what do you mean by "access to your address book"?

The reason why I am confused by your "address book" approach is that, as a result of the web, people have infinite information. For cash rish, time poor, the challenge isn't finding the information - but filtering the information. This is why I am always confused by hotel websites that say they have 80,000 hotels - while a consumer just cares about whether they have the 1 hotel (at the right price) that they are looking for.

Do you have any testimonials? (For example saying - "I could never have known to do this if I hadn't asked Bernard").

Also - is it worth focussing on a region of the world - as this may help with your marketing focus?

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Permalink Reply by Bernard Fromageau on March 14, 2008 at 8:39am

Many thanks for your reply and suggestions.
You think I should reduce the number of Hotels . We have 4.500 locations including 1.500 called Diamonds. This category is really "my" own selection of very unique hotels. Most of them are unknown by most travel agents. they are "Word of mouth;
Di you want me to send you a login/password ??,
i will add few testimonials
Many thanks Bernard

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Permalink Reply by Alex Bainbridge on March 14, 2008 at 8:59am

Hi Bernard
No - the point about hotels was not aimed at your website - but big online travel agents mainly.

I was really making a point that your key service isn't supplying the knowledge of what hotels there are but which are the good ones (i.e. you are a filter - not an encyclopaedia).

If I am looking for a carpenter to make something in wood - they don't advertise saying they have 30 different kind of tools - they tell me what they can make. The fact that they understand how each of their 30 tools is different is useful (to them) and maybe interesting to other carpenters - but it isn't what the customer is interested in. The customer wants the outcome - not the process.

Although you say that the hotels you list are mainly unknown by agents - this may not be sustainable in the long run (because information will be on the web - eventually). Keep the hotels - but perhaps make other aspects of your service more remarkable on your website.

Only ideas. Alex

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Permalink Reply by Dee Edwards on March 14, 2008 at 3:58pm

The one that immediately springs to mind is Nota Bene. http://www.nbreview.com/nbmembers_club.php
Although I do not think it is a clear pay for membership of an online service, but linked to subscribing to the paper guides. It's always easier to implement that sort of model. Also VAT benefits which helps your pricing. If you sell someone something paper based, but it just happens to include ''complimentary web access to something for subscribers only, it's zero rated. Whilst if you sell a subscription to a web based service only, it's 17.5%.

Sorry, I digressed.

How about Mr and Mrs Smith? http://www.mrandmrssmith.com/
Stylebible? http://www.stylebible.com/ (though only a bit of this is travel as the others)

I could come up with some more if you'd like some more, just would need to think about it a bit, but perhaps not from the travel industry.

In terms of promotion, the the ones I've mentioned I think are mainly promoted through PR.

I only scanned your website but I do think you need to focus more on benefits rather than product.

Also have you approached the top tier concierge clubs? Travel is becoming increasingly important to them and they are always buying in expertise to service their members needs.

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Permalink Reply by Bernard Fromageau on March 14, 2008 at 6:53pm

Thank you Dee
My idea when I started to work on this project was mainly for our own travel agency use.
Most of our clients never ask for destinations, they ask for products.
They say, “we would like to stay in a small hotel with a spa and an indoor pool” (this was last week...) they really don't bother where it is; they need “the” product.
Having such requests, if you are selling the whole world, and even if you travelled extensively, you need a computerised system in order to find the place offering all services requested. This is how we started.
Now we have a collection of 4.500 different hotels and 160 criteria available.
I really think this is a very useful tool. We use it everyday and every hour. But most agencies are selling destinations they ask first "Where do you want to go..." They don't try to select the best product according what you want to experience.
I really think that we are not presenting our website the right way. When we have a live presentation reactions are really unexpected and quite enthusiastic.

We now think that the best way is to market the access directly to the consumers.
Probably as you said through PR and a more efficient presentation.

I went to your website… a very nice one.
Are you selling only Thailand ???

Thanks again
Bernard

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Permalink Reply by Lutz on March 16, 2008 at 4:17pm

Hello Bernard,

your webpage and the secret about it (keys) might be your problem.

The promotion of the webpage is certainly one way out with really professional web-marketing guys.
I like the page very much but I don't believe in that you can sell subscriptions this way. I would rather think about having a community build up, getting special events promoted and managed with the hotels and resorts you are contracted to.

You are selling your huge experience, your style, your advise to a very limited number of people who should also be prepared to buy this advise via the web, this is the challenge. Get the page promoted, get the hotels working for you and promoting your name and expertise...

I have only one webpage in mind which targets for similar group of travellers www.xoprivate.com
I am not sure how they make money or getting subscriptions managed, at least the page is impressive and also gives some idea about being a special customer.

I like your page, I think it can turn into a hidden champion of luxury travel, by your personal definition.

Good luck, lets keep in touch

Lutz

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Permalink Reply by Bernard Fromageau on March 16, 2008 at 4:38pm

Thanks Lutz for your message.
In order to complete the info... most of the hotels and locations featured in our website are really small corner of paradise, at all prices some 80 Euros a night some 200.000 Euros a night !!!.
I marketed the website a very exclusive and personal guidebook.
Per example... you are preparing a long weekend in Prague...
If you are convinced that you will get the nicest addresses in Prague and the advice of an expert travel agent are ready to pay 15 Euros for that (our first offer)
If you are planning a 15 days tour to South America does the Silver key (80 euros) is an acceptable proposal.
I think we have to work on the credibility of our offer: testimonials, newsletter…
All our few subscribers including those who paid 1.000 Euros for a year are happy and renew their subscriptions, but numbers are too small.
Any way thank you very much. If you are interested I can send you a temporary login/password.
Best
Bernard

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Permalink Reply by Lutz on March 16, 2008 at 5:32pm

Hello Bernard,

thank you,
again I really like it and you are right just start to keep the community small but have your own 'fanclub' with it.
I am excited to visit your pages and would also think you need representatives promoting it 'word by mouth',
Testimonials of people is the best proof of satisfaction for the services,

best regards Lutz

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Permalink Reply by Dee Edwards on March 16, 2008 at 6:54pm

Bernard

I have just looked at your site again. I think if the actual product does what I am getting the impression from how you express it in this thread, then you should give a little demo of it on your site in a way that doesn't dilute the possibility of potential customers subscribing to the actual service.

I clicked through from the 15 Euro offer (by the way I think the 'call to action' should be more prominent) and the only criteria I saw for filtering at that stage was fairly standard like type of accommodation, location or an activity list which is fairly generic so if you ticked anything except safari, it would generate too many results. This is what frustrates me whenever I am looking for somewhere for my personal travel and looking on websites. The last time I was in this position, whilst it was more location specific than most of my usual personal travel needs (as I needed it to be in the UK, not more than 4 hours drive from London, be by the sea but not in Brighton as well as all my other desires!) - it took me hours to filter through information on the web, the only website that was vaguely useful was the Mr and Mrs Smith one as they have a little bit of nice filtering. Though in the end, I just told a friend my requirements and he came up with a hotel within the 2 min conversation and it was perfect.

In terms of your options, I can't see myself buying any of them right now. I would buy an option at say £49 (so that's closest to your 80 Euros, but I like buying in pounds) - but not time specific. Say an annual subscription where I can have as many searches as I like. But it can be limited in terms of the hotels that I get the final details of. So for example, I filter in boutique accommodation, Italy, cooking, swimming pool, by the sea, frette linen (!:-) I could get results like ****, Puglia, **** Sicily, *** Amalfi Coast (or a cleverer way of coding up the results than I just thought of from the top of my head!) which would be enough for me to know how likely it would be that I would want the details of that holiday.

Actually, I think I'd pay more than the amount I said, but the time specific thing wouldn't work for me and I wouldn't spend a 1000 euros a year! If I were going on a big trip to South America for two weeks and wanted to do organise myself, then I would want to research a lot both online and books etc. However, this sort of service would be useful for shorter trips throughout the year when you don't have time or want to research. I remember recently places warmer than the UK but not too far to fly for a long weekend, came up and we were just chatting about different places and the very next day the other 3 people emailed me asking me about the hotels I'd mentioned. This was in a personal capacity as everyone knows my business is very different from that, but it just shows the demand for this sort of product. I think your business as the moment caters for the very High Net Worth Individuals but not the Mass Affluent.

So in conclusion, my opinion is you should get more people to know about the service through PR and work on the user experience of the website to show a clear value proposition that people will want to buy.

And in my customer market research sample of 1, I think perhaps you should develop/redevelop the product categories.

Regards
Dee

P.S. Re my business, we specialise in Authentic Holidays where customers can get insider experiences, meet local people on a equal footing etc but do it in a soft adventure way and on a private tour and not cost a fortune. To launch a country with the detailed operations we need to do to deliver our proposition takes a while. Thailand was our first country when we launched 2-3 years ago. In the last year, we started doing Sri Lanka but isn't on the website yet. We also do 'standard' add-ons to our Thailand holidays in Laos and Cambodia. When I say standard, I mean it's just a few days doing what people want to do in say Angkor Wat, which we do with a local operator and it's not that different to what you could buy from other operators. We do in as nice a way as we can but we don't consider it a genuine 'Tell Tale' experience.
We have our next destination country in sight but we have not found the right senior staff in the destination country yet.

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Permalink Reply by Bernard Fromageau on March 16, 2008 at 9:27pm

Dee,
Thank you so much for your comments. Very interesting and useful.
I would like to give you a free access for two weeks (The Golden Key)

Could you go to our website, go to subscribe, fill the formula, then confirm and leave the web site.
We will then activate your access and you will receive an email for confirmation.
Being a professional your comments as a user are very important for us
Very best and thanks again
Bernard

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Permalink Reply by Lutz on March 17, 2008 at 5:08am

Thank you Bernard,
I am going to test it and shall give you feedback in the next weeks,

Have a nice day


Lutz

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Permalink Reply by Bernard Fromageau on March 17, 2008 at 8:33am

Lutz,
Your access is activated
Best
Bernard

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