How to Find Your Holidays in 2012?

It seems the way we choose and book holidays and accommodation has changed.

A couple of years ago most of us book a holiday via a travel agent.  A year ago we’d look on TripAdvisor for recommendations and reviews on destinations and accommodation… but have you used it lately?

We have and it seems that more and more travellers are posting bad reviews about hotels and restaurants or, is it just that an increasing number of people are aware that they can write up a complaint that will have an everlasting online effect on that establishment?

Stats released by TripAdvisor tell us that they have over 45 million reviews covering destinations, hotels, attractions and restaurants.  Great news if every guest loves you. Not great if you’re a small boutique hotel or bed and breakfast.

However, this also doesn’t give us the whole story and Wikipedia tells us that:

TripAdvisor has been criticized for allowing unsubstantiated anonymous reviews to be posted about any hotel, B&B, Inn or restaurant. In September 2011, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) launched a formal investigation into TripAdvisor after receiving a complaint on behalf of thousands of hotels that its claims to provide trustworthy and honest reviews from travellers are false.

Jane van Velsen, one of leading hospitality social media marketers in the UK, says that social media and online marketing should be drawing us closer together and yet it feels like a pervading sense of desperation in the use of these most basic of marketing tools. People are sold to, not engaged with.

We want to change that here at the UK Beach Guide we want to provide you with information about what else is around the establishment you are interested in –  written by locals (!). There is less hype and sell and more caring. We want you to be a loyal follower who is rewarded for that loyalty with relevant content and recognition.

How do you decide where to go for your holiday theses? We’d like you to share your opinions.