Flip Key, TripAdvisor , Techcrunch.com and Mermaid Cottages
What does Mermaid Cottages, Techcrunch.com (one of the premier Tech websites in the world )and Tripadvisor.com ( the number one website for reviews on travel world wide) have in common? The answer is http://www.flipkey.com/ . Many of you will remember that a few months ago we started to invite our guests to review their visit to Mermaid Cottages. We knew that not every review would be a 5 star experience, but we wanted honest feedback on each visit so we could strive to improve our homes on a daily basis. We’ve had a great response from our visitors and these reviews are posted beside each home so potential visitors can see what others have said about their visit. I also have a chance to comment on any reviews to give updates and feedback.
Well last week, www.techcrunch.com featured an article about www.tripadvisor.com becoming a major partner with flipkey.com AND the two sites they refer to in this on line article was doodlebug cottage and mermaidcottages! We had over 38 visitors from all over the world to our website as a result of this shoutout on just the first day alone! And more have logged on each day since to see what mermaidcottages.com is all about!
Read this article and then click on where the examples are “here and here” to see what folks from all over the world saw. And even better- we can start to expect even MORE EXPOSURE from being part of flipkey.com as tripadvisor starts to promote the site even more. Very, very exciting stuff!!! Here’s the article that was on line:
“TripAdvisor is in an expansive mood. In July, it acquired two small startups, VirtualTourist (user-gen travel guides) and OneTime (booking price comparison). And today it announced a majority investment in FlipKey, a guest review site for vacation home rentals. The amount of the investment was not disclosed.
FlipKey launched only last March. It covers 50,000 vacation rental properties in the U.S., which CEO TJ Mahoney says represents a $60 billion market. So it is a pretty big niche. FlipKey aims to become the reputation management system for vacation home rentals. Property owners can take review data in the form of a widget and place it on their sites or property listings. (See examples here and here).
TripAdvisor plans to include FlipKey reviews on its own network of sites, which attract 12 million visitors a month in the U.S., and 28 million worldwide, according to comScore.
Mahoney previously was a co-founder of Compete.com. Brightcove CEO Jeremy Allaire is an advisor to the startup. FlipKey raised $500,000 last December from angel investors, including Allaire, Care.com CEO Sheila Marcelo, and venture capitalist Nick Beim of Matrix Partners. “
FlipKey launched only last March. It covers 50,000 vacation rental properties in the U.S., which CEO TJ Mahoney says represents a $60 billion market. So it is a pretty big niche. FlipKey aims to become the reputation management system for vacation home rentals. Property owners can take review data in the form of a widget and place it on their sites or property listings. (See examples here and here).
TripAdvisor plans to include FlipKey reviews on its own network of sites, which attract 12 million visitors a month in the U.S., and 28 million worldwide, according to comScore.
Mahoney previously was a co-founder of Compete.com. Brightcove CEO Jeremy Allaire is an advisor to the startup. FlipKey raised $500,000 last December from angel investors, including Allaire, Care.com CEO Sheila Marcelo, and venture capitalist Nick Beim of Matrix Partners. “
