TVTrip a video hotel search and booking website from Europe

TVTrip is a unique search engine for hotels. It is not the only website that is using video to showcase a hotel but it is the only one I've ever seen where video is at the centre of the business model. A few years ago this idea would not have worked (or worked very well) because of low speed Internet connections. But in today's YouTube era, video is the fastest digital tool/service (web and mobile). People want Video (from the Latin "I see" from the verb videre "to see."). We are a visual species and when it comes to travel planning the more we can see (provided we believe that what we see is authentic) the better. This is the TVtrip's unique selling proposition . With the cooperation of the hotels, they show you everything they can from the properties on their website (mostly European Hotels plus New York - while they do list hotels in Canada they have no video for these hotels yet).
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TVtrip was created in 2007 by travel and Internet experts with backgrounds in companies such as Expedia, Air France, Lufthansa, Microsoft and Lycos and is based in Paris, Munich and Brussels. I interviewed Marc Ruff, CEO and Co-Founder and Steve Stollerman VP North America. They indicated to me that the company is very interested in expanding their filmed hotels by adding Canadian cities' properties to the site. This should be of interest to Canadian hotels interested in European travelers because TVtrip has a broad user base in Canada's traditional inbound markets like the UK, France and Germany. In addition to the well produced and detailed videos, another aspect I liked about TVtrip is its multilingual capabilities. I hope they can go to Toronto in January to attend Canada-e-Connect. One possible problem with the model though is the videos' shelf life, e.g. what happens if a hotel remodels and redecorates its rooms or common areas. How long can the videos last before they become dated. A question I did not think to ask Marc and Steve, but I will via email and report back on this blog. See TVtrip here.

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Jaime