Comments on: Local goes loco — Groupon, AOL find their places

By: SideStep ex-CEO thinks Kayak math adds up | Tnooz

SideStep ex-CEO thinks Kayak math adds up | Tnooz — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 12:42:53 +0000

[...] contacted Solomon about his becoming president of Groupon, beginning tomorrow, and but he didn’t dodge questions about his perspective on the [...]

By: Jonathan Alford

Jonathan Alford — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 03:59:11 +0000

Good article – this area touches what got a ton of buzz at SXSW this year too. I mentioned Whrrl.com in another comment, and foursquare and Gowalla are interesting too.

If anyone likes, check out http://www.whrrl.com/blog and scroll to the CEO’s post – aside from the surface level aspects of local content, deals, and marketing, the psychology of all this is interesting too.

What do folks think of potential implications for hotel distribution, hotel/travel reviews, etc?

By: Dennis Schaal

Dennis Schaal — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 14:38:42 +0000

Bart: I definitely like your slant on travel…getting in touch with the off-the-beaten path experts.

The locals.

Certainly if I’m traveling in Europe, I’m gonna use your service to augment my reality.

By: Bart van Poll

Bart van Poll — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 05:05:12 +0000

Great article about this trend. When we started Spotted by Locals, there wasn’t much around yet. Now there’s more and more “local travel” content around. That’s great!

Together with WHL Group, we started a “local travel movement”. The focus is a bit different from the startups you talk about: we want to promote the local way of travel, because we think it’s a more rewarding way of traveling if you get in touch with the local people, and see places like a local!

Check: http://www.LocalTravelMovement.com, and if you’re in the local travel business yourself: join us!

By: Dennis Schaal

Dennis Schaal — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 20:42:43 +0000

Kevin: And from the looks of it, Groupon has some unique content. And the user experience looks pretty appealing. I like how they give you a running count of how many purchases have been made for each daily deal.

And, I understand that Groupon earns huge margins on these deals.

By: Kevin May

Kevin May — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 20:03:33 +0000

@spencer – the interesting point here is from a content perspective. if sites want quality “local” content they may have to pay more for it rather than source generic content often found on other sites.

By: Spencer Spellman

Spencer Spellman — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 19:59:38 +0000

I believe we’re going to see a lot more interest in local areas. Big travel sites are great, but they often aren’t trusted enough because they don’t offer enough of the local spin. I think travelers and locals want “inside” information and tips they just aren’t getting from large travel sites.