Charity Hotel Booking Website

[isawthesea]

Hi,

First I want to disclose the purpose of my posting here: I want to publicize our new website, but it's a not-for-profit one so I'm hoping people don't mind too much!

We've made a site at iSawtheSea.com, where you can compare prices for and book hotels. The money we earn from these bookings goes to providing breaks for under-privileged and/or disabled children to stay in hotels or have a holiday i.e. going to see the sea.

I'm sure some of the people reading this will book hotels for business, so I hope you'll consider booking through the site. Even the £2 we earn when you book a £30 per night stay in a Travelodge will cover the cost an overnight stay for a disabled child with some of the charities we work with.

We compare prices for all the top sites - Laterooms.com, Hotels.com, Booking.com etc. - so the prices on our site are usually cheaper than you'll be able to find elsewhere, and we'll save you time shopping around. There's no added cost to you, and we only employ 2 people to run the site - after wages for these two are paid, every penny goes to those who need it.

There's no catch and we're a genuine outfit and are the same team who founded Laterooms.com (which was sold to First Choice in 2006).

And if you're not planning a hotel stay, you can still help by telling friends, business colleagues etc. about the site. We don't want to waste money on expensive marketing campaigns, so are relying on word of mouth to get this off the ground.

Please look at the site for full details of the work we are doing and up to 70% of hotel rooms.

If anyone's got any feedback, I'd love to hear it.

Cheers,

Tom

[KidsBeeHappy]

Is this the website launched by the founder of laterooms?

Link www.isawthesea.com (http://www.isawthesea.com)

[KidsBeeHappy]

The only thing that i'd add, is that if you want to get people reguarly using for booking, rather than simply people browsing and booking, that a fuction that let you specifiy the name of the hotel and town would be good. This would mean that people that regularly stay away, and that tend to stick to a particular hotel, can still use the site quickly.

For example, If I want to stay at Cameron House, Loch Lomond/Glasgow, then it would be good to be able to search straight on that instead of having to browse several pages not knowing if it's in there or not.

[isawthesea]

Hi Boxby,

Thanks for your feedback. The site is by the founder of Laterooms - Steve Walsh. We've got some more info on the about us page (it won't let me post a link until I've posted 15 times!)

You're right that we need to make it easier to find particular hotels. This is the first version of the site, so it's a bit rough and ready at the moment, but we're going to introduce all the filtering options you see on other sites over the next few months, as well as expanding our coverage of hotels.

Tom

[KidsBeeHappy]

I used to use laterooms alot!! Very rarely now though as not booking so much accomodation. But I have to say that if I was, I would probably switch over to isawthesea.com

[isawthesea]

Thanks for that. And if you're not booking any hotels, then please recommend it to friends and family if you can!

[ethical PR]

Hello

Interesting concept, a couple of questions:

You mention you are a not for profit organisation. What sort of not for profit model are you operating? It will give you more credibility if you indicate on your website and through your publicity what sort of model you are operating.

You also mention that even £2 can pay for a night for a disabled child - which of the charities that you have indicated that you are/might be working with offers this facility? Even with volunteer support, taking into account travel, food and accommodation, that's an amazing resource.

Coming from a not for profit sector background, I'm always interested in different fundraising models.

[isawthesea]

Hi,

We have actually got a bit of info on this on the about us page (although, I concede, maybe not 100% obvious).

We're not a registered charity, as we aren't providing the service directly to people, we're donating to charities who are allocating the funds in conjunction with us. As it says on the site, our only costs are wages, as the two people who run the site do so from home - and it requires little maintenance. Everything after that is going to charity. Steve has also paid for all the set up costs, and put £50 000 into a fund to start things off.

Suffice to say that the charities we're working with wouldn't be prepared to associate with us and let us use their names / logos etc. if they weren't happy with the arrangement.

You're right in saying that it might be better for us to become a registered charity in future, but we only launched the site a few days ago; we're going to see how the first couple of months go first.

The £2 is the cost of accommodation for a disabled child to stay in a caravan overnight, through one of the charities we're supporting. The guy who runs the charity has paid for the caravans (and the adaptations) out of his own pocket, and kindly runs the charity of his own back. Obviously there are transport, food costs etc. that aren't covered by this. Whilst we will in most cases be paying for this, the idea behind the site is (strictly speaking) that we pay for accommodation costs - as this is what our customers are buying. Hope this makes sense!

Tom

[ethical PR]

Hi Tom

Thanks for the clarification. I wasn't actually suggesting you become a registered charity.

The reason I was asking is that you mentioned in your post that you were operating a not for profit model, so I was interested in what type? There are lots of not for profit models ie social enteprise, CIC, voluntary, co-op, registered charity etc

Might be worth you looking at something like a social enteprise model, which means you have social/environmental aims and that all profit goes towards these.

Or you could be a social business (like we are) which is for profit but which has a committment to social/environmental aims.

Just think in terms of your credibility\reputation building its important that people understand the sort of model you are operating.

If you want any help on these areas please feel free to PM me.

[isawthesea]

Thanks for that, and forgive my lack of knowledge on this area!

Sounds like the social enterprise model is pretty much in line with what were doing. Having said that, I'm not sure the average user of our site will be too familiar with these differences (although my presumption may be clouded by my own ignorance here) and - as long as we spell out clearly where the money goes in practise - should be pretty happy with the arrangements. The credibility factor is important, however (particularly, I would have thought, with businesses) and it is something I'll bring up.

Thanks again for your help - I may well be in touch in future.

[Willself]

While most of my customers ..Holiday Abroad..should i get any enquiry's
i will do the pricing from your site! But Boxby is right, frequent travellers certainly in the UK tend to use a known Hotel , even if its only Travel Lodge..:rolleyes: