Update on the problem of reimbursement
The NYC-Getaway guides are part of a revolution shaking the travel marketplace: increasingly, visitors are finding and selecting their getaways online, at sites such as ours.

Lodgings have their preference for how this revolution plays out. They want to get as many visitors as possible from online sources, yet remain in control of the booking process. The outcome of the revolution, however, may depend not on what lodgings want, but on how online sources of room reservations get reimbursed. Lodgings are unlikely to retain control of the room booking process unless the appropriate reimbursement processes are put in place.

Online sources of bookings get reimbursed in three ways.

       1. They charge an annual fee upfront for promoting lodgings on their site. An example is Escapemaker.com.

       2. They take bookings online and charges lodgings one tenth (or more) of the value of the reservation as commission. Examples are the Expedias and Orbitz's.

       3. They let the visitors link through to the lodging's site, to book direct with the lodging, in return for commission. This leaves the lodging in control of the booking process. It is the system we have found to be most appropriate for the regional marketplace (after trying online booking), and that we are committed to.

Charging lodgings upfront for web promotion has the disadvantage that it's a cost with no guarantee of return, so the cost has to be kept low. As a result it is unlikely to generate enough profit for these directories to drive the rapid development of the online travel marketplace.

Taking bookings online on behalf of lodgings is better because the online directory gets a full 10% of business generated. But it takes control of the booking process away from the lodging.

Letting visitors book directly with the lodging and charging a 10% commission has the benefits of both the previous methods--the online directory gets a full 10% of the reservation value, and the lodging gets to keep control. But this method has the disadvantage of lacking an effective system of reimbursement. With the best will in the world, lodgings cannot reliably track where their reservations come from online.

With the cooperation of over a dozen of our regions' lodgings, we are exploring various systems for tracking reservations originating online. One is our "StayBetter" program. Another is a combination of vouchers-plus-stubs and a binder with credit-card storage sheets grouped by month. A third uses postcards that the lodgings mails us as reservations come in. All three systems depend on premiums offered by the lodging and posted on our sites to motivate the visitor to declare his point of origin online.

A press release will be posted here when we have working systems to announce.

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