How often are you asked by your friends for hotel recommendations? Too often, if you are frequent travellers like Trey Shores and Kei Shibata, which is why the two have teamed up to launch THE LIST, a collection of hand-picked hotels that they believe will suit the tastes of like-minded travellers.
THE LIST, launched this week, is Venture Republic’s first foray outside Japan where the company runs a successful meta-search flight and hotel business, travel.jp, and hotel.jp.
Said Shores, who heads up Asia Pacific development for a US-based lifestyle boutique hotel brand, “I travel extensively for my “day job” in hotel development and I have found that either there is just too much choice in the market or that the recommended hotels on curated sites tend to be only boutique or luxury hotels, which are in many cases not great value.
“So I wanted to take it a step further and just focus on a hand-picked, very distilled offering, with no biases (ie for luxury, or designer or boutique). Singapore is a great example. The city has some quirky and interesting boutique hotels, but these are getting a bit tired and yet still demand high room rates. They no longer offer the value of, say, a new Westin or a well-priced Carlton City.”
Added Shibata, “It’s very much from my personal experience and Trey’s – how often are we asked by friends and family, where should I stay? They know we travel a lot and they know we have some kind of criteria to select the hotel. We always answer their questions but it’s not easy, it’s always manual. So we said, why don’t we make it happen online.”
THE LIST launched with 10 destinations, including popular cities such as New York, London and Paris, as well as key Asian cities such as Singapore, Seoul and Tokyo.
Shibata calls it the “opposite of TripAdvisor”. “They use big data and they give you a lot of choices, and then you choose. We are the ultimate shortlist. We choose and recommend for you – so from TripAdvisor’s super unbiased to super biased, which is us.”
While he acknowledges that there will always be customers who want choice, there are those that are too busy and get frustrated by the many layers they have to go through before they can pick a hotel. “People are increasingly busy, and impatient.”
“We are going after the jetsetter, the globetrotter, who want to set their own style and pace. They want to be different from everyone else.”
Coming up with the ultimate shortlist though is exhausting work. Do they have to stay in the hotels before hand-picking them, I asked?
Said Shores, “For big cities like London, Paris and New York, it would be impossible to physically stay at all the hotels. So I start with a shortlist of “relevant” hotels (in some cases as many as 60) and begin visiting every one of these, taking note of the location, rooms rates, layouts, etc., and talking to general managers, directors of sales and even bellhops (who tend to know the most about the hotel, as it happens).
“I also utilise my networks in target cities to get a sense of what local people recommend to friends, and what is the general consensus among cultural influencers, hotel industry people and the like. In short, I do my best to back up or confirm my selections. I am forever asking people what their favourite hotel is.”
It’s not all work and no fun though. Recounting his personal experiences while on his hotel rounds, Shores said, “When I was doing The List for London, there was a Tube strike and the streets were horribly jammed. My only option was using one of those rental bikes offered throughout the city. It turned out to be the most efficient means of transport and also allowed me to understand London much more deeply than if I had stuck to cabs and subways.
“In Paris, I went a step further and walked to almost every hotel. I got to know the city more in a week than most people do who stay for much longer periods or even live full-time in the city. My time in Bangkok coincided with the recent military coup, when all public transport shut and a curfew was enacted. It made it harder to get around, but it also seemed to bring out the best in the local Thai people, who seemed even more willing to help and offer a kind smile.”
Trey Shores out on the streets of Bangkok, while hunting down hotels.
Can a hotel influence its way into the shortlist? Said Shibata, “They can’t do much – we decide ultimately. It’s really getting into the area of lifestyle – and it’s not just about nice design but experience. For example, at the Ace Hotel in New York, when you arrive at the lobby, there’s an Indie rock band playing, and each room is different with a personal message.”
A shortlist, by nature, is difficult to scale but Shibata said there are plans to add more cities and eventually, resorts. A Japanese version will also be launched shortly.
It will leverage Venture Republic’s existing relationships with OTAs such as Booking.com, Agoda and Expedia. “We send traffic to them and they will pay us based on performance,” said Shibata.
He also sees the content as a perfect match for social media and they intend to embark on active social media marketing. “Our advantage is our edgy content and there’s lots of media out there who want good content.”
