SFO*MEDIA

CondéNet Acquires SFO*MEDIA

admin — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 20:32:04 +0000

CondéNet has acquired HotelChatter, Jaunted, and the rest of SFO*MEDIA. The deal was announced today and we are thrilled.

Extremely exciting times for us…

HotelChatter Featured on the Today Show

admin — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 21:25:40 +0000

HotelChatter was featured on the Today Show’s cheapskate travel segment on March 18th. Travel & Leisure features editor, Nilou Motamed, expertly walked Matt Lauer through some of the web’s best stops for planning vacations.

Read all about the Today Show segment here, or check out the video here.

HotelChatter at LA Times Travel and Adventure Show

admin — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 14:20:24 +0000

This was the first travel panel I ever participated in and I was extremely nervous. Luckily, I had the best moderator (Jen Leo of the LA Times and awesome travel guru) along with Johnny Jet (aka John DiScala) and George Hobica of AirFare Watchdog, two men who have the airfare booking and general travel booking business down pat. I learned so much from all of them. I hope I was able to part some wisdom on the attendees myself. If nothing, then I did make them laugh with a few of my stories and when I spilled ice all over my lap. Clumsiness is always a crowd pleaser. The only bummer was that the internet was not working in our room. So people were spouting out websites left and right and we couldn't even show them on the big projector slide for the attendees. Then again, I think maybe that helped moved the seminar along quicker. We only had an hour so it was very much rapid-fire with the tips and tricks. If we had the internet, we might have gotten stuck surfing the web. Anyways, here are some snaps. The whole convention was pretty cool as far as conventions go. I mean, it could have been a Library Convention which I have actually once attended. There were reps from cities, countries, airlines, and hotels. And of course, people hawking travel gear. I almost lingered at the Qantas table, but it would have broke my heart as I am dying to go back to Australia. And I got to hear Phil Keoghan, host of Amazing Race, speak for a little bit. He needs to amp up that Kiwi accent, it makes him a little more adventurous sounding.

Record Traffic In November

admin — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 19:27:09 +0000

SFO*MEDIA publications registered our biggest traffic month ever in November.

Jaunted and HotelChatter logged over 800,000 unique visitors for the month, according to Quantcast, the open Internet ratings service.

While SFO*MEDIA is the largest independent travel blog publisher, what is more impressive to us is to track how we are doing against some entrenched formidable travel media titans. For instance, SFO*MEDIA’s web traffic is larger than that of American Express’s Travel & Leisure.

Go ahead and triangulate the data using your favorite Internet ratings site:

·Quantcast

·Alexa

View From The Office

admin — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 20:47:23 +0000

SFO*MEDIA had an incredibly busy summer. Recent news includes HotelChatter getting well deserved recognition from the Guardian for our pioneering work into hotel web video.

Meanwhile Jaunted was busy braving a freak tornado at JFK and publishing the first Virgin America flight review. USA Today asked us what our favorite part of Virgin America was, our response? The cup holders.

Finally, the last week of August we held the first ever SFO*SESSIONS at the new office in Charlestown, MA. Our organization is geographically mixed in every way, which made having a day long session in a physical location incredibly beneficial. A view from the new office is above. Bonus points if you can identify the tourist attraction in the background.

We are set for a busy fall as well, so stay tuned.

Summer Slammed

admin — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 00:46:50 +0000

Sorry to go so long between updates, but we are having a busy summer.

So where are our travel publications showing up these days? Well, it was recently revealed to us that none other than Stephen Hawking is a Jaunted reader. How cool is that? Ditto goes for Dave Barry.

As for HotelChatter, she made an appearance on Good Day New York on Wednesday July 18th.

Other projects? SFO*MEDIA wrapped up consulting work on Starwood’s SPG blog in June, thelobby.com. We helped them start the blog back in April 2006 by providing guidance, advice, and team building. Back then blog consulting was new, these days it is nearly ubiquitous.

SFO*MEDIA On Newsstands In May

admin — Tue, 15 May 2007 20:59:25 +0000

Passing along a couple of recent SFO*MEDIA publication press mentions:

· Jaunted in TIME Magazine.

· HotelChatter in today’s NY Times talking about “Hotel as Lifestyle”.

· LA Times calls HotelChatter “A terrific resource for travelers”.

SFO*MEDIA Teams With Slate

admin — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 00:00:35 +0000

SFO*MEDIA was asked by Slate to participate in TravelBox, a month long special advertising section, much like you see in the monthly travel glossies. The site went live Monday April 9th.

Juliana Shallcross of HotelChatter and Davie Kaufmann of Jaunted will be penning their expert travel tips and advice in the Slate TravelBox section for the next month, so drop by and check it out if you get a chance. The coolest part? Juliana and Davie got to get “cartooned” by Slate artists.

SFO*MEDIA On Newsstands Now

admin — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 21:47:07 +0000

Our publications received a couple of mentions in the April monthlies.

In an effort to be timely, seasonal, and because the mentions are not readily available online just yet, we will send you on an egg hunt, of sorts.

Go to your local newsstand and see if you can find us in:

·The Sunday Times Travel Magazine, April 2007
·Real Simple Travel, Special Issue (April + May)

Buenos Aires Hotel Guide & Amazing Race

admin — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 22:16:34 +0000

HotelChatter recently concluded an incredible two week series breaking down the Buenos Aires hotel scene. Check it out if you get a chance.

Meanwhile, Jaunted is once again mapping and recapping the Amazing Race course.