One of the quirkier new travel sites to appear on the web in recent months – Hotel Haiku, where visitors get hotel property descriptions in, well, Haiku.
For example, La Classe hotel in the Belgian town of Dinant has this text:
Less Holiday rental
More a design museum
An old school charm
The site is the brainchild of Garri Rayne, blogger and publisher of the Holidaypad and Go Glamping travel sites, using the Cargo platform for running content and pictures.
It is actually very simple. Each section has a picture, Haiku and link to the hotel’s website. The idea is to create the “most original and concise hotel website ever”, Rayner says.
“There are no ads and no affiliate marketing. There’s no user generated content. No mash-ups. No Google maps (do we really need maps for these places? No!) It’s not adorned with any social media fluff. And, more importantly, it’s not just another WordPress cookie-cutter ‘premium’ theme.”
Perhaps the oddest feature about the site is that it turned off at the end of each day. Yes, Hotel Haiku is open from 7.30am to 9.30pm GMT on most days, except Sunday.
“It’s an attempt to annoy and scupper the content scrapers, copyists and AirBNB,” Rayner says cheekily.
Straight talking, clearly.
The site probably has ambitions to be a huge money-spinner, then? No at all.
“In the current climate there’s too much temptation to monetize the f**k out of everything that moves, but Hotel Haiku doesn’t want to get hampered with a business model at this stage and, besides, it would kill all the fun! The business model, whatever it will be, needs to evolve.”
So that’s that, then.
In
the current climate there’s too much temptation to monetize the f..k out of everything that moves,
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Wonderful. What better way to debate form vs function but to create an artistically inspired hotel website!
Looks like someone is jealous of Airbnb’s success.
@john – You’re overthinking it. I suspect someone is just having a poke at AirBNB’s apparent do-no-wrong, trendy profile.
What this guy needs is a haiku version of adsense
Awesome concept though. I love that it’s not always open. So err weird.
I absolutely love this site! (I adore Holiday Pad too.) What a way to capture imaginations and put the fun back into travel, which you’d think is a very serious thing by the look and feel of most sites/blogs. Garri is a creative genius. I love the style of the thing – very Zen, as intended I’m sure – and the haikus are so intriguing that readers couldn’t resist clicking through.
From the perspective of a creative, whether artist/designer/filmmaker/whatever, the majority of travel sites/blogs are so hideous – too much clutter, ugly typefaces, mismatched colours, and no sense of style – that using/reading them is not a very pleasant experience. This will probably be the first site/blog (which is it?) to appeal to people with a well-formed sense of aesthetics – I would definitely use it. (Not a fan of AIrBNB either.) What I don’t understand is why Garri is not forming affiliate partnerships…?
The only thing I hate are the opening hours. I’m constantly on the move, on the other side of the planet at the moment, and have visited several times to find it ‘closed’. It’s a major frustration for me in the real world, so I don’t need it in my virtual one too.
Took me a couple of days to click on it….basically only because all of a sudden I saw them following me on twitter. Blown away by the idea. Besides: Before coining Haagsche Suites with its present name, I had thought of Not A Hotel as name. Notel! Brilliant! Whish I would have thought of that! Thanks for sharing Kev.
First of all, I am not a blogger and although I have used blogging technologies in the past and present, and will do so in the future, I have never considered myself as a blogger.
I have resisted going into any length of detail on what Hotel Haiku is as it’s clearly obvious what it is. Even if you’ve never heard of the word haiku, we’ve put up some definitions to help.
But also the definitions act as a way of claiming the word ‘notel’ in this context. More about its definition, origin and usage can be see here:
http://birdboxmedia.com/notels/
What Hotel Haiku isn’t is actually more important than what it is.
It makes quite a statement on many levels, intentionally. But aside from all that, it was just a cool little idea that existed in my head, and on scraps of paper, for a year before being fully brought to life online.
A lot of that time was wasted by me overcomplicating the idea and working out how monetise it. I spoke with hotel consolidators who loved the idea and I messed around with their white label services and APIs and what quickly became clear was how the site started to look like everything else. So, don’t think I hadn’t thought of ways to partner and monetise because I had but, and this is the key, it starts to become dull and stops being fun.
Besides, there are other, more interesting and creative, ways of monetising the site which I will explore, or possibly react to, as it settles down.
The decision not to use WordPress, and instead turn to Cargo Collective for help with the project, is also a statement. They provide the infrastructure, design, technology and support and although the site makes no money, it is hugely profitable in terms of what I have learnt during the creative process. I plan to take this knowledge and use it for some commercial projects going forward.
As for the opening times, I’m sure it will annoy ‘innocent’ people as Lara illustrates, but in war ‘friendly fire’ and ‘collateral damage’ is nearly always unavoidable, sadly.
It is so refreshing to read about people having some fun with the creative process and not being driven by how to make money as their number one priority. Garri Rayner’s ethos is also reflected in the properties he has chosen for the site. I’d say the owners were not obsessing endlessly over their financial budgets and instead wanted to create unique notels which would result in a memorable experience for their guests. It is great to see a site like this where discerning people can maximise their opportunities of finding something truly special, in a homogenised world of nothingness. Thanks Hotel Haiku for including the LuxLoft, Latvia!
Great idea behind
refreshing creative site
will give it a shot
I think the design, concept and lack of social media fits perfectly with the kind of accommodation on offer here. Its all about aspiration and inspiration, I don’t need to facebook like it, because I want to keep it as my exclusive secret.
Nice work G!
Simple: Hotel Haiku is the future. Bloggers are drowning not only in their own noise but the noise of the entire bloggershere. This site, HH, is not a blog, it’s an internet installation, a piece of art and no one, not the owner especially, will know it’s worth till it’s been bought/sold but it’s influence will be felt – and those who cannot feel it’s influence …. well let’s hope they go do something else.
loved the site, truly inspiring …
D
(i’m a journo)
Is the haiku above actually a haiku? There are six syllables in line one and four in line three. And arguably eight in line two. Do I win a tenner?
Might be worth looking at the haiku as it is on the website. But hurry ‘cos we close at 8:00pm GMT tonight, though we re-open at 7:30 in the morning.
I see that the site makes no money but how do properties get a listing? Nomination or payment or by just being of interest to Garri?
I adore this. I adore the thought, the performance art, the execution, the punk DIY eff you attitude…. I am happy that awful world glamping made us friends, Mr Haiku. =) I kid… but I will say I am on board this. Fantastic, well done, huzzah!
gazzler , first time ive been on the site and its closed.
nice vibes.
you should have a crass track playing when its closed.
‘do they owe us a living’
of course they effing do.
Sorry… I guess it’s likely not punk to not swear.
Just thought I would update you all on the latest news for Hotel Haiku…
After only 2 months in existence, Hotel Haiku was named by The Independent as one of the 50 Best Travel Websites: http://glamp.in/lrDdHU
It caps an interesting week in which I was invited to speak about the site with Lauren Laverne on 6 Music!
Not bad for a travel site that cost £0 to produce
Shame I can’t see the site since it’s never available in my time zone.
well placed zing. it’s a new tech, a new idea. nuances and subtleties will flatten out. Just like reality TV… it will become local and more meaningful in time.
Mmm, I can’t see how an international site can become local over time and I certainly hope it never becomes like reality TV – low budget and nothing of interest. Nevertheless we are in a global village and perhaps with all the added interest Hotel Haiku may stay on line 24/7
I rent out holiday apartments and I stay on call all the time and there is no harm in submitting an enquiry at a time convenient to the user. So, please, please HH stay open so people can book the LuxLoft!
Judith, Hotel Haiku isn’t about bookings but your point about the opening hours is under consideration. We may announce Sunday opening soon – watch this space