Strike a Boutique Hotel Deal with Stayful.com

There are plenty of sites like Priceline, Expedia, Hotels.com, Luxury Link and Hotel Tonight to score the ultimate hotel deal. Well, we have a new (yet unique) hotel booking site for you to add to your list—Stayful.com.

Just launched this month, Stayful.com is a new booking site for independent boutique hotels, eliminating hotel chain brands that you might see on other sites.

“The mission is simple,” Nikki Ekstein of Travel and Leisure wrote. “Help trendy boutique hotels move unsold inventory by putting rooms up for bidding.” With its unique Bid or Book It Now feature, you can search hotel rooms and (1) bid a lower price than what is listed or (2) book the room and get the best available rate. Not sure what to bid? According to Hotel Chatter, Stayful provides users “recommended bids,” which are rates that the site’s algorithm believes the hotel is most likely to accept. Guests will find out within 24 hours if the hotel has accepted or not.

“Should you want to suggest a bid to a hotel that’s not already on Stayful’s list, the site allows you to do so inviting the hotel of your choice to participate with them if they’re ready and willing,” Ekstein said. Hotel Chatter noted that you can only enter one bid per hotel every 24 hours.

According to Stayful, the boutique hotel industry loses $13.9 billion in revenue due to unsold hotel rooms. Co-founder and CEO of Stayful, Cheryl Rosen, said, “There are thousands of independent boutique hotels around the world and they’ve struggled to find new customers for their unsold inventory. On the other side, travelers often don’t realize that they aren’t getting the best prices through existing sites. With Stayful, they’ll choose their own unique hotel experience and choose exactly the price they want to pay.”

Looking to book your trendy, boutique getaway through Stayful? Currently, the site is only offering hotels in San Francisco and New York, so you may have to sit tight. And while the site is still in beta, Stayful is invite-only basis (for now).

We are a group of travelers who want to share our passion for independent, boutique hotels. Independent, boutique hotel experiences are unique; they can transform an ordinary trip into an amazing story of discovery. Imagine a place where you discover all the best independent, boutique hotels, get a great price and have fun doing it. –Stayful.com

St. Regis Aspen Combines Luxury and Hunting

Figuring out the best way to relax is a matter of personal preference. A lot of people enjoy lying out at the beach reading a book, others find peace through yoga or meditation and some unwind by enjoying the great outdoors.

The St. Regis Hotel Aspen caters to this last group of individuals by offering their Pursuit of Adventure  packages. The unique concept combines a hunting and fishing retreat with all the luxury and amenities of a 5 star St. Regis resort.

Pursuit of Adventure encompasses three packages ranging from three to four nights in the resort, and includes two-and-a-half to three days of hunting or fly-fishing depending on the guests’ preference.

Obviously the package isn’t for everyone, but we have to imagine that spending all day trekking through the woods and coming back to a spa, fine cuisine and excellent service has to make the boutique hotel experience that much more satisfying.

Pursuit of Adventure epitomizes the spirit of the boutique hotel. By catering to a more niche market, St. Regis Aspen is able to provide a unique and ultimately memorable experience for their guests. It will be interesting to see if other hotels try to work this interesting combination.

Have you seen any unique hotel offerings lately? Let us know in our comments section below!

Content Marketing—a Common Marketing Tool in 2013

Original Source: The Wishpond Blog

Content is fire, social media is gasoline. –Jay Baer

Interesting fact: Companies that blog have 55% more traffic to their websites. According to The Wishpond Blog, “Content marketing is fast becoming a regular marketing tool (marketers now spend 25% of their marketing budget on content marketing.”

Take a look at Wishpond’s Infographic—you’ll quickly realize that content marketing has a huge impact on how consumers view and interact with the companies they follow. Other findings include: brands that blog generate 67% more leads per month; 68% of consumers spend time reading content from a brand they are interested in; 90% of consumers find custom content useful.

Check out the full State of Content Marketing 2013 Infographic here:

 

Do the brands you follow have good content marketing? How do they use it? Let us know!