Local tips for parents

Parents who are looking for family-friendly hotels, restaurants, playgrounds and other attractions for their next family vacation may want to point their browsers to Parentography—a new map-based online community that invites ‘Parentographers’ who have been there and done that to weigh in on what spots were most accommodating to their brood. “Parents can share stories, photos, excursion ideas, ratings and reviews on all sorts of family-friendly places and activities. They can search for things to do by location, season, their children’s age and other important factors.” The idea is to create a community where parents can share details that typically aren’t found on the usual travel websites, such as which restaurants have kids’ menus and highchairs available and which hotels offer kiddie pools. Besides reviews, members can also describe excursions, highlighting a string of activities and places. Naturally, Parentography’s content isn’t just relevant to travelers, but also to first-time parents and families relocating to new areas. While content is limited at the moment, Parentography has employed a novel solution to quickly build its library of reviews. To help celebrate the site’s launch, those who submit the 100th, 200th, 300th and so on posts will win USD 100, onward until a grand prize of USD 1,000 is given to the lucky Parentographer who writes the 1,000th post. Not only is this a great incentive for contributors, but Parentography gets 1,000 content items for a rock-bottom price 😉 The start-up’s business model is advertising-based. The potential to expand on this idea to reach other niche (travel) markets is virtually limitless—might there soon be Parentography-like sites for pet owners, golfers or other interest groups? Website: www.parentography.com Editor’s note: unfortunately, Parentography—which was privately funded—is no longer active.