How to Hack Secret Hotels

Here’s a revelation – I like staying in 5 star hotels! But, unfortunately, I don’t like paying for them. Not with cash or bodily organs, something which many of them seem to charge (an arm here, a leg there).

So, what a cool thing it is to have most hotel booking sites offering discounted stays at 5 star hotels. The only drawback being...... you don’t find out the name of the hotel or it’s location until after you have parted with your hard earned.

It’s a pretty sweet deal but many people still baulk at the unknown aspect of it – what if it is far away from where I want to be? What if I’m somehow being ripped off? Well, I reckon there are 4 easy to spot clues that can help you narrow down the guesswork so you can be relatively sure you know which hotel you’re getting before you pay.

NOTE: I’m not saying this is foolproof. It may be a bit like Sex Panther (works 60% of the time, every time for those of you who appreciate the Anchorman reference) but for I reckon I get it pretty spot on.

So the way I do it is firstly I have a look at the description page for the relevant Secret Hotel. I’m going to go over the page and find any characteristics that may make this unidentified hotel stand out from the crowd.

Clue 1: It’s self rated – So my line of thinking says that I can eliminate any hotel that is not 5 star self rated. Easy!

Clue 2: ‘Centre of the Shops and more’– ok so it’s in the middle of the shopping area of the city from which I ever so smartly deduce that it not on the outskirts. Its closest attraction is the shopping district which rules out plenty of others.

Clue 3: Check Out times - In by 2pm, out by 11am. Easy. We can use this to eliminate hotels with different check in / out times.

Clue 4: Hotel Facilities – I try to find the aspect that is most unusual. For the example shown it is an outdoor heated pool. Not too many hotels have these so searching specifically for hotels with this feature really narrows possibilities down.

After collecting all these clues the task becomes easy. We use the search function and enter in all our clues. From this we take the number of possibilities down from 165 (all rated hotels in Sydney) to 35 (5 star rated) to 8 (swimming pool, sauna, day spa, 24 hour reception). From these only 5 are self rated not including the Secret Hotel. But!! Only 1 of the 5 self rated hotels have an outdoor heated swimming pool. Voila!!

This means our secret hotel advertised as ‘5 Star CBD Sydney, centre of the shops and more’ for $245 a night on the 22nd of March 2012 is, in my opinion, is the Swissotel Sydney, located in Market St above the Pitt St mall. Now their regular price

The Clique - Press Release

Sydney, Australia, 25 January, 2011.

Former Australian sports star Todd Byrne creates iphone app to solve the problem of lack of trust in online travel reviews.

‘The Clique’ lets users provide their exclusive social network with trusted, reliable and immediate travel advice via posts and integration with Facebook. This puts to an end to the annoyance of relying on travel reviews written anonymously or by strangers when searching for trustworthy online travel information.

"I had the idea coming home from playing in England. My girlfriend and I were looking for a hotel in Bangkok and we ended up in a dump after following advice from various travel websites. Upon returning home, I discovered a mate had been traveling Bangkok two months before. I thought, 'usually my friends are the first people I ask when I travel local or overseas... Imagine if I could immediately access their recommendations?’

The application offers an easy-to-use and immediately accessible platform, taking design inspiration from the former creator of NexGen Gaming, one of the USA's biggest gaming companies, Dave Lewis.

"I'd had this same idea floating around my head. I hate having to rely on reviews by people that are just so off the mark or clearly rubbish. This way I know exactly what people I trust think, and even more importantly, it gives me perspective: if I know one of my friends doesn't like action movies and I do, I'll probably take his review with a pinch of salt. So when I spoke with Todd, I was keen to help him create this specifically for our social circle."

Australian Internet Guru Ed Dale says a shift to sharing between only those in your social circle is emerging. "Today people are bombarded by information. Online, tv, radio, print, it just keeps coming and we just can't keep up with it all. We're so time poor that we have to be choosey about what we consume. This is leading to consumers who don't want or need to know what everyone on the planet thinks or does. We are moving away from that big busy, global market and going back to the village community where you rely on only those that you know."

The Clique is free in the app store. For further information visit: http://www.thecliqueapp.com.

The Clique features:

*Integration with Facebook and Google Places
*Ability to review in hindsight
*Elegant User Interface
*Slider to easily move from friend to friend

"The Clique" App Video Guide

Making Mistakes

This post is a little bit of a deviation from the app development process but it has impacted me enough (and is also important in itself) to warrant a full post. It details some of the mistakes I've made in developing an iphone app and what I've learnt along the way.

The 8 essentials of application user interfaces

This post takes you to the next level with your app ideas. Once you have the function and icon organised, it's time to think about your user interface, or in other words how users travel through and interact with your app.

Naming Your App & Icon Tips

This weeks post is all about picking the right name for your app. Something that really encapsulates your app ideas . I've also given a bit of space to some clever icon tips and how you can use them to double the strength of your app in the app store. CLick the above link and enjoy!!

Finding Your Al Pacino & The baby Steps of Market Leadership

This post in my free app creation blog series shows you why it is important to have someone play Devil's Advocate with your idea: You want it to be bulletproof! Also, I go over using social media in taking your first steps towards market leadership. http://www.thecliqueapp.com/iphone-apps/finding-your-al-pacino-the-baby-steps-of-market-leadership