Shopping + Blogging = Shogging

Let’s play a little game. Look at the photo. Know what that is? That, my dear reader, is a Hi-Gear Camping Rotary Washing Line. Fully portable and lightweight. What do you think of it? I think is is absolutely cool! I’d love to have one for our camping trips! And now, guess how much it costs? Only about $23. Not bad, right? If you had bought one of these, wouldn’t you love to blog a review, give your two cents? And if you were looking for one of these, wouldn’t you love to read someone’s input about it, be able to compare prices? Sure you would! I know I would! I’m always hunting down reviews when I am shopping for a new item.

Ah, but herein lies the little problem– lots of stores have products, but very few have reviews. And usually reviews are very limited (so many words allowed, you have to register your name and email and etc, the interface is messy, etc). How about a store that offers the product, product information, AND the opportunity to blog about it? It’s Shogging! LOL. I just LOVE that name. I think this is going to be my new favorite store. It’s easy to blog about the products. No signing in, the site doesn’t ask for your name and phone number and make you take a retinal scan, lol! This looks like a ton of fun, and it’s easy. Plus, they have some great products, like that rotary washing line. I love that. I’d use it in the house during the winter, too. I wonder what others are saying about it? I’ll have to go to Shogging.com and see!

How Do You Find Your Hotel?

I read an interesting post today over at Aaron Dalrymple’s blog. It was about how the “average” traveler books hotels. I have a fondness for demographics and other such studies, so I read on:

I’m not sure how earth shattering this is, but this post from HotelMarketing.com refers to a study showing that most people searching for a hotel are using a search engine to find hotels rather than going directly to a hotel’s corporate site. No big surprise that the internet is helping to commoditize hotel rooms just as it assisted in pushing airline tickets that same direction.

For most people, I believe, hotel rooms are booked primarily — in this order — for their location (city & state), price, proximity to desired landmarks, amenities, and then brand loyalty. No real scientific data there, just my gut instinct on how the average person goes about finding a hotel room for a family vacation, weekend getaway, business trip, etc.

Hmm. I consider myself an “average” person, below-average sometimes, and above-average on rare occasions. How do I search for hotels? I don’t go running out to stay at hotels when we travel (we’ve only done it six or seven times in 15 years). I don’t like hotels very much. There’s something distasteful about sleeping in a bed that countless strangers have slept in. But for what it’s worth, I left a comment.

I use the Internet to search for hotels, but I always search through a hotel-finder search engine. I am an average traveler and for me I break down the importance like this:

Location
Price
Brand name
Online reviews and website of hotel
Amenities
Proximity to landmark (we drive)

Online reviews, like those from TripAdvisor, are very important. I give them great weight and might even try to contact the reviewer if possible. I know some are rigged, but not all.

Finally, I ALWAYS call the hotel directly. This is to test their customer service and to reassure myself that the phone number, location, and price are accurate. Phone numbers leading to real humans are very important. If I get a recording or no human, I move on. I always make reservations directly through the phone contact, too. And I tell them I am a travel blogger, to keep them on thier toes.

So how about you? I’d like to hear more from the “average” traveler. How do you search for a hotel? And what’s important to you?