SeatGuru for hotel rooms

Mapping the best and worst seats in hundreds of airplanes, SeatGuru is one of our favourite examples of transparency tyranny—the power of detailed information to help consumers find the best of the best and leave the rest behind. So we were pleased to hear about TripKick, a similar venture that’s tackling another aspect of travel: hotel rooms. While TripAdvisor (which acquired SeatGuru in 2007) gives travellers access to detailed hotel reviews by other travellers, who occasionally include info on which rooms to book, there’s definitely an opportunity in getting specific about individual rooms. TripKick—”your hotel sidekick”—launched with about 250 hotels in 10 US cities, with more to follow. Coverage of each hotel includes detailed information on which rooms to request: which rooms are oversized (rooms ending in 03 and 04, for example), which have great bathrooms or are quieter than others. TripKick, which spent a year gathering all of this information, also points out which floors are better, and which to avoid. Guests are encouraged to add their own reviews and upload photos of rooms they’ve stayed in. Given they chose a name that isn’t specifically tied to hotels, we wouldn’t be surprised to see TripKick branch out to other areas of travel, too. If you’re in the hotel business, there’s more reason than ever to ensure that each of your rooms has something special to offer. Run a restaurant? Time to make your best tables stand out and rule out any such thing as a bad table. For more tips on how to turn transparency tyranny into transparency triumph, check out the opportunities section of trendwatching.com’s briefing on the subject. Spotted by: Grace Hodder