Upcoming trip...

My wife and I have a Disney World trip coming up -- we'll be staying at the Wyndham Bonnet Creek Resort.

This resort looks amazing, and it's unique in that it's a non-Disney resort, but the only access to it is via Disney property.

It sits on a plot of land surrounded on 3 sides by Disney property & Interstate 4 on the other side. The only entrance & exit is via Disney roads.

Regardless, the Bonnet Creek Resort looks amazing - check out these photos!

According to the TripAdvisor reviews for the Wyndham Bonnet Creek, this place is amazing. We'll have a full trip report once we return.

Resideo one of the first to feature TripAdvisor reviews under new agreement

Hello again!

I know it's been awhile since my last post, but we've been busy here at Resideo. In fact, one of the new features has just been released -- we're now featuring TripAdvisor reviews for all of the hotels in our system. Under a new agreement with Expedia & Hotels.com, affiliates (like us) can now display and link to TripAdvisor reviews.

Everyone already knows that TripAdvisor is *the* place for hotel reviews -- they're the biggest and most respected, for good reason.

So, we're proud to be one of the first to take advantage of this unique arrangement, and we're sure you'll agree.

To see what we're talking about, head over to resideo.com and search for a hotel. Or, for a quick peak, check out the reviews for Gaylord Palms down in Orlando.

We've got lots of other great new features coming soon, so keep checking back!

Google gadget mania!

Howdy, folks!

I know I've only had some "From around the web" posts lately, but we have been busy here at Resideo, so I'm sure you'll forgive me!

One thing I have been working on is creating some unique and useful Google Gadgets. Now, Google Gadgets are pretty nifty, and allow designers to include all sorts of interesting things that can be included on your Google customized home page and any other site you maintain.

So far, I've created 3 fairly simple gadgets:

Hotel/Destination/Activity Search
Allows you to search for a hotel name, city and/or activity ("Snow Ski Vail", "London hotels", etc.). We return the most relevant results right there in the gadget box.

Random Hotel
Admittedly, not very useful, but pretty darn cool if you ask me. This gadget displays a different property each time it's loaded -- randomly from over 30,000 hotels and resorts from all over the world.

Recent Hotel Q&A
My very first Google Gadget, this widget displays the most recent questions that have been posted by site visitors.

Anywho, feel free to take a look, add them to your site and/or Google homepage, and let me know what you think!

Until next time...

Property of the month: Madonna Inn, San Luis Obispo, California

Hello, everyone, and welcome back!

This month, our spotlight shines on Madonna Inn, located in San Luis Obispo, California (about halfway between San Francisco and Los Angeles).

So, what's unique about Madonna Inn, you ask? Well, I'll tell you. Madonna Inn has been around for over 50 years, and each room is uniquely themed and decorated.

There's the Hearts and Flowers room, Romance and many many more (109 total).

You can check out the official site, or read more about Madonna Inn at Wikipedia.

See you next time!

Property of the day: The Sainte Claire, San Jose California

While attending the Search Engine Strategies conference in San Jose, California, I stayed at the Sainte Claire, a historic hotel operated by Larkspur Hotels & Restaurants.

The Sainte Claire is indeed a very nice hotel, located right in the heart of downtown San Jose. Rooms are bit small, but they make up for it with lots of little touches -- robes, a big-screen TV with DVD player (DVDs & CDs are available at no charge) and much more.

It's next to the San Jose McEnery Convention center, and only a few blocks away from many area restaurants and businesses.

You can view some pictures of the Sainte Claire that I took during my stay, or visit the official website.

Worst of the Worst

I'm shining a spotlight on 2 hotels this issue, the Sands Ocean Club Resort & the Sand Dunes Resort Hotel, both in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

I have no doubt that these two hotels are fine, upstanding places. In fact, Sands Ocean Club is currently ranked #77 out of 212 area hotels over at tripadvisor, and Sand Dunes Resort is ranked #114 -- not bad, but not great, either.

We've currently received several bad reviews for both, so I thought I'd let you read for yourself!

Sands Ocean Club Resort reviews

Sand Dunes Resort Hotel reviews


I'll be out of town all next week -- many of my coworkers and I will be attending the Search Engine Strategies conference out in San Jose, California. We're looking forward to it!

See you next time...

Worst of the Worst

Hello, and welcome to another exciting installment of "Worst of the Worst". In today's episode, we hear from "Samantha", who had a bad experience with the timeshare sales folks over at Westgate Lakes Resort and Spa near Universal Orlando.

Absolutely UNACCEPTABLE Behavior!!!!
I DID NOT ACTUALLY STAY @ THE RESORT, HOWEVER, AFTER THERE UNACCEPTABLE TIMESHARE PRESENTATION I WILL NEVER, EVER, GO THERE AGAIN. THEY HAD ME DROP MY KIDS OFF(3, AGES 5,6,9) FOR "APROX. AN HOUR" WHICH TURNED INTO 3.5 HRS!!!AS SOON AS MY FRIEND AND I BEGAN SPEAKING W/ ALI(THE REP) WE ASSURED HIM WE WERE ONLY THERE FOR THE UNIVERSAL TICKETS AND NOT INTERESTED IN BUYING A TIMSHARE. HE SAID HE UNDERSTOOD BUT HE HAD TO GO THROUGH THE MOTIONS OR HE WOULD GET INTO TROUBLE. AFTER SHOWING US THE PICTURES AND EXPLAINING THE PROCESS WE GET ON A GOLF CART AND TRAVELED APROX. 1/4 MILE AWAY FROM WHERE WE BEGAN, HE SHOWED US THE CONDO, WE SAID IT WAS NICE...WE GO TO A DIFFERANT BUILDING AND WE BEGIN TO RUSH HIM BECAUSE IT HAS BEEN SO LONG THAT MY CHILDREN HAVE BEEN AT THEIR DAYCARE-WHICH HE IGNORED!! HE BRINGS OUT A MGR. WHO CALLED US LIARS ABOUT VACATIONING AND ASKED IF WE SAID WE WERE INTERESTED IN PURCHASRING TO MAKE ALI FEEL GOOD, WHICH WE NEVER DID!!!WE STATED FROM THE BEGINING WE WERE NOT INTERESTED!!!SO AFTER BEING HORRIBLY RUDE, HE LEAVES AND ALI GETS KRISTIN TO HELP US, WHO WAS EVEN WORSE THAN THE OTHER TWO-SHE ACTUALLY THREW HER FOLDER AT ME AND SAID "YOU PEOPLE ARE MESSED UP!" WHY? YES, BECAUSE WE WERE NOT INTERESTED IN BUYING A TIMESHARE, IT DID NOT MATTER THAT THEY HAD KEPT ME AWAY FROM MY KIDS FOR OVER 3 HOURS OR THAT WE SAID NO VERY NICELY-REPEATEDLY, FROM THE VERY START, THEN THEY GET UP FROM THE TABLE AND LEAVE US THERE. WE HAD NO IDEA WHERE WE WERE, HOW TO GET BACK TO MY KIDS, OR EVEN WHERE THE PARKING LOT WAS!!! IT WAS HORRIBLE AND BY THE TIME WE FINALLY LEFT THERE THE TICKETS THAT WE STILL PAID 194.00 FOR WE HAD 3.5 HOURS LEFT TO SPEND AT UNIVERSAL STUDIOS!! WE HAVE CONTACTED THE ATTORNEY GENERAL AND THIS PLACE IS UNDER INVESTIGATION NOT ONLY FOR MY COMPLAINT BUT FOR THE MANY SIMILIAR COMPLAINTS!! TAKE MY ADVICE, YOU DO NOT WANT TO DO BUSINESS WITH A COMPANY THAT TREATS YOU AND ESPECIALLY YOUR CHILDREN THE WAY THESE PEOPLE TREATED US-WE LEFT IN TEARS! TO MAKE UP FOR OUR MISTREATMENT WE RECEIVED A PHONE CALL FROM THE COMPANY TO SAY THE EMPLOYEES HAD BEEN REPRIMANDED AND TO ME THAT'S NOT EVEN GOOD ENOUGH-THEY SHOULD BE FINED AND HAVE THEIR LICENSE WITHDRAWN!!

Yes, she wrote it all out in caps -- crazy, huh? Well, as someone said in reply, it just goes to show that there's no such thing as a free lunch!

Now, the last 4 reviews we've received for the Westgate have all been negative. In fact, the hotel is currently ranked #162 out of 289 properties in Orlando over at TripAdvisor. You've been warned.

See you next time!

Diversions: Yahoo! Answers

I've been an active participant in Yahoo! Answers for a couple of months now, and figured I'd talk a little bit about it here.

In short, Y!A is a place where you can ask a question about, well, anything and everything. You can also post answers to questions that other folks have asked, and you can contribute by voting for the "best answer".

Most of my time on the site is spent in the "Travel" section. Plenty of folks asking about hotels & wanting recommendations, etc., so I'm more than happy to do a bit of research over at Resideo.

We've actually gotten at least one booking thru the site (possibly more), so that's a pretty good feeling.

Anywho, if you have the chance, head on over and start participating!

Site feature spotlight: Store & Share!

Howdy folks! Sorry I haven't posted in awhile, we've been staying busy, as always.

It's time for another "feature spotlight" -- this time around, we'll focus on the new "store & share" features available on the site.

Each set of text, whether it's property overview text, a review or a discussion board post, can be stored and/or shared. Click the "Add This" image found below every article and you'll see a popup window which will allow you to store the text on your favorite bookmark site, or share with your friends on your favorite social networking site.

So, if you want to save a review to look at later, click the link & choose del.icio.us or one of the others. If you want to share a particular entry with the world, choose digg or one of the many other social networking sites.

Have fun, and spread the word!

Site feature spotlight: New and improved search!

One of the new site features unveiled during the site re-launch was our new and improved hotel/destination search. Not enough can be said about this amazing new search.

It's simple: Just start typing whatever it is you're looking for. As soon as you start typing, the system will begin searching our database and returning results in 3 categories: Cities, Hotels & Airports.

The default category view is Hotels -- so you'll begin to see those results first. Over 30,000 hotels are in our database, so you're likely to find what you're searching for. If not, well, that's ok, too. Click "Cities" or "Airports" and we'll show you all the locations that match your search term.

Next to each result are your "view" and "book" options. You can read more about the hotel (or view hotels in the city and/or airport) you've selected, or you can try a quote.

Give it a try, we're sure you'll be surprised!

Site feature spotlight: Contribute your own property overview text!

Hello, and welcome! Now that our new site features have had time to settle in, here's the first 'how-to' installment I promised. We'll be covering the property "Overview" text editing feature.

That's right -- ordinary folks like yourself (ok, "extraordinary") can now contribute to the text that appears on each of our property pages. We encourage site visitors who have first-hand knowledge of a particular hotel to adjust the text. Has your favorite hotel added a new amenity since your last trip? Did they change names? Well, here's your chance to let the world know.

From the "overview" section, just click the 'edit' link at the bottom of the text block. You'll be asked to sign-in or create a new account -- free!

Once you're in, you'll see an editor window. We show you the existing text at the top, then re-print it in the edit box. Type, type, type away to your hearts content. When you're done, submit the form.

The page will reload, and you'll see your edits live! Now, the changes you just made aren't 'official' until they've been looked over by our staff. But, that process is usually a short one, and the rest of the world is likely to see your masterpiece in 48 hours.

See? Wasn't that easy?! :D

Worst of the Worst

We get a lot of great reviews over at Resideo. Some positive, some negative, but all good in the sense that there's nothing like hearing about some else's first-hand experience with a hotel!

We received the following review of Poindexter Oceanfront Resort in Myrtle Beach, SC today, and I thought that highlighting some of the more noteworthy "This place stinks" reviews might help some folks make a more informed decision about where not to stay.

So, our first installment is from "Janice":

We Wont Be Back
We arrived to a room that obviously had not had the corners swept in a very long time.The best parts of the room were the view and the clean sheets.When we returned from our outing the next day,we had no clean towels, shampoo,soap,or coffe to use in the coffee pot in the morning. When we called the desk,we were told we had to ome downstairs if we wanted these things beause there was no one to bring them to us. Note: our room was on the 9th floor. The next day wasa repeat of this fiasco. The next day, I left a note on the mirror,which had not been cleaned ,requesting the articles that we would need that day. When we returned that evening, they had been left in the room,and the note was still on the mirror. During our 4 day stay our room was not vacuummed,floors were not swept, bathroom and mirrors were not cleaned. The balcony could not be used due to the amount of bird droppings. We looked for a piece of paper in the nightstand to leave a note for the management expressing our dissatisfaction. Instead, we found a piece of moldy pizza!! I guess that says a lot for the housekeeping. I bet that its still there!

You can view the original review right here.

So, whatcha think...is this a valuable feature for me to continue?

Resideo site enhancements!

Well, as I mentioned previously, we've been busy working behind-the-scenes on some cool new features -- and I'd like to annouce that the first phase of these enhancements are now online!

:D

The first thing you'll notice is our new layout. We hope the changes present a more elegant look-and-feel and better usability.

However, the most intriguing feature is the ability to contribute to the property overview text. Now, users with first-hand knowledge of a hotel can edit the existing text. Once the changes have been approved by our staff, they are published live for the rest of the world to see. This allows the true experts, those folks that have actually stayed at a hotel, to help folks who are trying to choose a place to stay make a more informed decision.

Last, but not least, site visitors can now bookmark and share reviews, discussion posts & more. Just look for the "Tag this" link.

I'll try and go over in more detail some of the new features in future posts. But, for now, we continue working on even more great features.

February's Picks!

Greetings!

I know it's been awhile since my last post, so I figured I'd feature a city & a property in this installment -- kinda like a "2-for-1" deal! :-D

Featured City: Niceville, Florida
Yes, it really is nice in Niceville! The city is nice, the folks are nice...well, you get the picture! We currently only have 1 hotel listed in Niceville, but it's closeby to Destin, where there are plenty of places to choose from!

Featured Property: Heart Of Amsterdam
This hotel, located oddly enough right in the heart of Amsterdam, is close to the Tattoo Museum and the Sex Museum. 'Nuff said.

See you next time!

And now for something completely different...

Howdy!

Hope you all survived the holidays! Things have been quite busy lately, so I haven't had a chance to post lately. But -- keep an eye out for some new features on Resideo...we think you'll like what you see!

Anywho, one of my co-workers sent me the following link, and I definitely got a kick out of it, hope you do too!

TripAdvisor Unpublished Reviews

Enjoy!

Property-of-the-day: The Ice Hotel Quebec

Today's spotlight property is The Ice Hotel in Quebec, Canada. Freeze your tail off in the Great White North, eh!

It is made out of ice and snow every year, and melts away in the spring. There are 32 rooms, which contain a sleeping bag to keep you warm while you sleep. Amenities include hot beverages served each morning.

This is definitely a unique experience! You can visit the official site, or book the Ice Hotel online at Resideo, as always!

City-of-the-day: Panama City Beach

Hello folks! Today we introduce a new section of the site: City-of-the-day, where I highlight a different city.

First up: Panama City Beach, Florida. That's right, our own backyard is full of awesome properties and hotels.

Check often, cause you never know when there will be specials.

Enjoy!

Property-of-the-day: Sheraton Taipei Hotel

Today's property spotlight falls on the Sheraton Taipei Hotel, which is located in what is currently the world's tallest building - Taipei 101.

Talk about a view, eh? The building was completed in 2004, and has held the "World's Tallest Building" title since that time.

So, if you're looking for a room with a view, check out rates and availability. For more information, visit the official site.

Didjaknow? Specials, specials, read all about em...

We all like to save to money, so with that in mind, Resideo maintains a list of properties that are offering discounts, saving you time and effort (and money!).

Cool!

It's easy: from the Resideo home page, click the "Current Specials" link (found at the bottom of each page). That will take you to a page with a list of cities that have properties with discounts. Click on a city, and you'll see a list of properties in that city, with those offering discounts listed first.

Have fun!

Didjaknow? Post your very own hotel review...

Welcome to the first Didjaknow, a look at interesting items & features at Resideo.

This first Didjaknow is all about hotel reviews -- reviews from real folks like you who want the world to know about their stay, good or bad, at a property.

You can post your review at any of the 27,000+ properties that we have in our system. If you've stayed at a hotel, odds are it's in our system, and odds are someone else on the net wants to know about your visit!

So, first things first: Set up a free Resideo profile. Then, head over to our home page -- there's a special search feature that will allow you to go directly to the review input form for the property you choose. It's that easy!

So, why are you still reading this? Go review!!