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Hotel Maps USA maps US hotels, and now Canada!
Nice set of homemade “Highway Star” programs makes 17,000 hotel maps, far surpassing 500 goal for the year.
Raleigh, North Carolina and Wake Forest NC
November 15, 2006
Hotel Maps USA now has maps for cities and attractions all across the USA and Canada.
Blood sweat and tears effort - A year ago, the “Mad Map Maker” of Hotel Maps USA, began looking up geographic codes, longitude and latitude, and plotting hotel locations to create North Carolina maps for visitors. The goal was to complete 500 maps for major cities across the USA by the end of 2006.
“Each of the maps was taking me almost an entire day to create. At the end of the first month, I had worked day and night to create 50 maps. Even then, I felt that I was making good progress.
When I started, I had I had to look up all the geographic coordinates and type in information about the hotels into a template I made. About six weeks into it, I decided I had to think about automating the redundant, detailed work”. I dived into teaching myself a new set of technical skills, and experimented with writing some programs. The programs all tie into a hotel reservation system, so as soon as a visitor finds the best hotel location, he or she can check availability.
Hotel Maps USA now includes cities all over the USA and Canada. Over 17,000 maps have been created. Each of the maps show the locations of hotels, motels, inns, places of interest, and attractions. Approximately 7,000 of those are maps of cities, while the rest of them are for places such as airports, hospitals, colleges, museums, zoos, restaurants, famous landmarks, and some businesses. Altogether, including pages for hotel details and reservations, there are more than 80,000 documents published on the Hotel Maps USA site.
Hootel Maps USA considers itself a “green” company. When people travel to another city on business, they want to stay in a hotel that is close to where they want to do business. With Hotel Maps USA, business travelers don’t end up commuting in traffic from the wrong side of the city. When people go to the beach, they don’t want to end up ten blocks away. They want to walk outside their door and be there.
Flexible to the marketing and operational needs of business - The wonderful thing about the programs I created, is that in addition to adding a business or place to a map of the city, it also generates a new map specifically for that particular business. The map shows all the closest hotels, even if they are in several nearby cities. This makes it really nice for businesses who want a map that features their business, and has their name at the top.
Biker-Friendly: One type of business that appears on the maps is motorcycle shops. So far, there are over 700 locations plotted, and more are being added daily. When a barrel of oil jumps in price, motorcyclists, with better gas milage, are still able to travel. The motorcycle shops are on the maps, because Hotel Maps USA already has a good connection with bikers.
“I’ve been riding a motorcycle all my life. As soon as I could develop a web site, I created Bikers USA as a resource for motorcyclists. It is very supportive of charitable events, posting them for free. It is almost always ranked #1 on all the search engines”.
Competetion to Market: Different is sometimes more of the same. The hotels and travel business is a lot more competetive, but the operating principle is the same. Treat people right, with respect, and help them find what they are looking for. If there is a discount or better deal, or better service you can provide, give it to them, and they will return. If you find a competing business, like the message they deliver, and they operate honestly, chances are they are someone you will get along with. A few allies can help significantly.
Goals for 2007: Take a week off to travel, of course. I will stay at hotels instead of campgrounds (most of the time) this year. Build alliances with internet travel sites and travel bloggers across the country.
Hotel Maps USA is found on the web at www.hotelmapsusa.com
Permission to publish/republish by Hotel Maps USA: Please repost in entirety. Please include the link if posting online. “Active” link is appreciated, but link does not need to be active. Thank you.
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