Man from Mars and women from Venus

I thought about this book last week when I called Gilles.

We are preparing the competition now for our launch in September for which Gilles is going to test a hotel first. We made the agreement with a hotel before we left but they didn't remember. At another hotel, our contact resigned...

Anyway, as I have the contacts with the hotel I felt so frustrated, I needed to talk about it with someone. Obviously just wanting to TELL someone about it, not expecting anyting else than someone LISTENING to me. The only person I could think of was Gilles, him being involved as well. So I called and talked and talked and told him how frustrating it is etc. And then Gilles came up with his comments and tried to find a solution.

I was listening to his suggestions when I saw how funny this situation was. Not only between husband and wife there is this kind of miscommunication, also between business partners if they are male and female...

Reviews

Talking about vinivi and explaining the concept is one of the things I've been doing a lot. And it is then interesting to hear the comments of people who go visit the site.

On vinivi several countries are referenced and we will continue adding other countries. This is our database which our visitors can use when looking for accomodation.

However, it doesn't seem to be obvious for many of the people I have spoken to, that you can write reviews for ANY HOTEL in ANY COUNTRY in the world.

So for those who are reading this: how would you suggest we change our site to make that clear? That ANY HOTEL, ANYWHERE in the world can be reviewed on vinivi?

Back in Mauritius

8 weeks in Holland. Nothing much to report. I stayed with my parents and while my son played with his cousins, I was sitting behind my laptop (outside because what a great wheather we had), doing some work for vinivi. That's basically what my summer looked like and allthough it sounds boring, I had a great time, just being in Europe, being able to go shopping now and again, a movie, nice dinners, go places... things we never do in Mauritius.

About vinivi:
Initially we wanted to reference the Indian Ocean first and then continue with the Mediterranean. However, I started looking for information on Zanzibar and it wasn't very well documented on the web. I tried Madagascar instead which proved to be even more challenging! It shouldn't be too big of a place; i.e. not too many hotels, it should be possible to do it in one month. Sri Lanka was the next choice but coincidentally I received an email from a former colleague who is working in Sri Lanka at the moment and she told me about the starting riots so it didn't seem a good choice either!

As our first target group is going to be the French population, we decided that people would consult our site more easily if we'd reference one of the countries of the French top 10 for holiday places. That's how we got to Morocco. And that's what I've been busy with. Hopefully we'll get plenty reviews of people who have been to Morocco.

Promoting vinivi

It was a busy week, the week before our departure to Europe.

We were online since 5th June but more or less properly working since 9th June.

One of the important things on our to do list before leaving was meeting the hotels to promote vinivi.

It was like coming home. Since I had my baby in January 2005, I have hardly visited any hotels. Where before his birth this was part of my job and therefore a very regular thing!

Very encouraging were the meetings with the hotels:
Starting by telling them that we don't want any money from them, helped a lot relaxing the atmosphere.
The people we met, welcomed the concept and liked the look of our website.
And most of them were happy to join us in promoting vinivi and with that their hotels or rather vice versa.

By not just asking our visitors to post reviews but by making it interesting to do so, we believe to have found the key to make vinivi work...
Curious? Stay tuned! We'll soon announce!

Hard to believe

It really seemed hard to believe when first we started talking about vinivi. Working from home or from wherever you choose to be...

Now I'm in Holland, visiting my parents. While my mom enjoys herself looking after her grand child, I just plug a network cable into my laptop and can't believe how easily I download my emails.

Gilles, who is in Paris at the moment, calls me via msn messenger! He is having lunch at Mc Donalds where they have a wifi connection! For Europeans this might be all normal but for us... also Europeans but a bit outdated.... this is AMAZING!

online

When last week we were discussing the date for the launch of vinivi, we decided it would be the 5th of June.

Gilles and Jean-Francois thought the 5h of June was great because they still had so much work to do and monday sounded far enough away... still lots of time.

I thought the 5th of June was great because of numerology:
05.06.2006: 5+6+2+6=19 / 1+9=10 / 1+0=1 and 1 is apparently a very good number to start something new.

Gilles and Jean-Francois were still very busy yesterday. The monday which first seemed so far, all of a sudden was there, so the pressure was on.

And although on www.vinivi.com you'd still see the logo saying 'coming soon', Jean-Francois created this 'secret' address where we were surfing happily to get to know our beautiful site. Testing out everything to see if it all worked! And yes it did!

So today, on Gilles birthday... double congratulations to him, I'm giving you, dear reader, the 'secret' link to go and check it out yourself....

http://www.vinivi.com/default_en.aspx

Frustrated about translations

I never really meant to learn many languages, it just happened. At school in Holland you start learning English, French and German at the age of about 12. First this is compulsary and after a few years you can choose wether you want to keep on doing them or not. Obviously I have chosen to continue.

You only realize how different it is doing conversation in the class room when you talk to someone who is speaking that language as a mother tongue.

Working in tourism gave me many opportunities to practice all languages and I even added Italian and Spanish. People sometimes wonder how I don't get mixed up with all those languages but honestly I hardly ever do.

I always brag about speaking six languages; how embarrassing if you see what happens to me now...

Preparing the promotion for vinivi, some translations need to be made. I make them, I check them...

and then I have to ask someone else to read through them again before they are perfect for use on vinivi!!!

Can you imagine how frustrating?

Luckily I've got very kind neighbours... thanks Saba and Rahul!

What is vinivi all about?

In case you have been following Gilles' blog in French http://vinivi.blogspot.com (which is translated in English and therefore a bit easier to follow ;-) you know by now what vinivi is all about.

But just in case you haven't, vinivi is a website where you can:

• find information about hotels (from website to email address to rating and all amenities)
• where you can write and read unbiased reviews about hotels.

We are starting with the islands in the Indian Ocean because that's where we are. But we won't stop here; we will increase the database month after month.

So imagine you are looking for a 5 star hotel in Mauritius on the East Coast with a spa and a golf course. Tour operators will feature one or two hotels that respond to those criteria but on vinivi you will find ALL hotels in that particular region that respond to those criteria.

You will be able to see pictures of the hotels, read reviews of people like you who have been there before and, when back from your holiday, you can write your own experience to share it with others.

Like this vinivi will become a community where travelers share their experiences!

However, once found the hotel, you won't be able to book it trough vinivi. We will build partnerships with agencies who do and we will offer you a link to their page. But this is for the future.

For now we need you to leave us your reviews and to tell your friends about us. Just one more day and then it all starts. Go have a look on www.vinivi.com

End of May

The planning for the launch of vinivi was the end of May. And today it's the 1st of June.

Years of working in tourism has shown me that the indicated date for the re-opening of a hotel, newly built or even after renovation, is hardly ever respected.

And now the same thing is happening to us... Gilles and Jean-Francois working until deep into the night... Thanks for that guys!

We might be a bit later as planned but we will definitely be online very soon now... just wait and see!

French blog in English

In my latest posting, I referred to Gilles' blog where the latest version of the vinivi logos are published.

Go visit his blog on http://vinivi.blogspot.com ... it is also in English now!

vinivi logo - check it out and give us your opinion!

Our webdesigner in France has been busy creating a logo for vinivi.
First he made roughs which we commented upon, new roughs and more comments.
Then coloured logos and the vague idea got clearer and clearer.

Now we'd like to have some more opinions about the last version. Gilles had published these on his blog.
Go and see them on http://vinivi.blogspot.com and tell us what you think!

Offices

I've been living in Mauritius for over 5 years and Gilles almost 3. When we asked the owner of the 'supposed-to-be-our-future-offices' if he had the necessary development permit, he confirmed... 'no problem, by saturday you'll have it!'

'You see Gilles? Nothing to worry about!' Gilles had his doubts! Surprised was I when he told me on satuday 'I told you so!'

So without development permit, no offices; without offices, no license!

So now what?
Gilles comes up with the solution. He had heard about an incubator in Port Louis, created by the Government for IT businesses only.
We are only waiting for the final ok from their side but it seems that we can proceed! In that way we'll be able to obtain our license!

In the meantime the owner of the 'supposed-to-be-our-future-offices', will make sure that the necessary permit will be obtained and then we'll move in!

Second employee

I've been neglecting the blog and therefore missed to announce the first working day on 18th April of our second employee. That is.. the first official working day because Jean Francois has been busy developing vinivi.com since quite a while now.

In order to give me an idea of how complex programming is, Gilles explained me that it is like building a house of cards. Changing the smallest thing in the codes, can make the whole house come down.

Seeing all these codes on Jean Francois' display made me realize what a genius he is!
Good thing we all have our own field of expertise!

International or maybe even multinational

Gilles, the founder of vinivi, is French as mentioned before.
Xavier, who is supposed to join us, is also French.
Me, I'm Dutch.
We are based in Mauritius!

The website is hosted in the United States;
Our graphic designer is in France;
The ergonomy is done here in Mauritius as well as the development which is done by our team and which is checked again by friends of Gilles in France!

If this is not an international setup...

When will the website be online?

Big question, seems that everyone wants to know...
When will the website be online?

Well, plan is for www.vinivi.com to be online by the end of May!

Till then still lots to do.