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 also Europeans but a bit outdated....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!
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!
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!
