Another Day, Another Delay
So, it seems that we are still waiting for some of the finishing touches on the site... which means I was able to get caught up on Quickbooks and also get outside to enjoy the beautiful weather we are having!
A big thanks to Seth Frank for forwarding this article about the state of unreliable websites (you may have to sign up for a free New York Times membership to view it).In return I have posted a travel photo, because I know he loves to see photos. This one is from my research trip to Salta last year.
Anyways, the article talks about one of the major problems that we are trying to overcome with On The Road. The Online Travel industry is so fragmented and there is so much crap out there, that it has become a major pain to try to find good, reliable information. Every day new sites pop up trying to promote member-generated suggestions. But they all have the same problems: how do you know that the hotel owner or service provider isn't getting on these sites and self-promoting? The article sites a resort that was offering free reflexology treatment to customers who posted positive reviews of the establishment in Citysearch. I would post a bogus review for a free treatment - wouldn't you?
I read an article a while back that talked about an incident that occurred on Amazon's Canadian site. There was some kind of a bug in the system that ended up accidentally displaying the names of the authors of "anonymous" reviews. People were shocked to discover that a large portion of the reviews had been written by the books' authors themselves. I can assure you that the same thing happens on TripAdvisor and some of these other sites. It's a great business model - pay nothing to have other people do the work - but at the end of the day it was bound to be abused.
When I first came up with the concept of On The Road, it was actually to bridge the gap where the guidebooks had failed to advance. Although they provided recommendations, they were unwilling to put this content online - I guess they were afraid of cannibalizing their book sales. I wanted to create a guide that would be useful to people in our demographic. I don't really enjoy hostel-travel anymore - it seems the other travelers staying at hostels are now just getting ready to go out when I come home for bed! On the other end of the spectrum, I would never travel to these culturally abundant destinations and stay holed up at a chain hotel with a bunch of other North Americans. I may as well just stay at home!
Further, the guidebooks were unable to overcome the problem of keeping content up-to-date. Guidebooks are updated every two years at the most. This is relatively useless in developing countries where new businesses come and go faster than you can say Lonely Planet.
Then came the user-generated sites. Great idea - have travelers update the information so that it stays current and expands. Unfortunately these travelers are often less reliable than the kids who write the Lonely Planet who take their paycheck and sit on the beach for the summer, rather than actually doing the research. It didn't take long for the service providers to catch on and start writing up their own places to make sure that they were high on everyone's lists.
With On The Road, we are bridging the gap between both of these issues. By hiring local editors and making all of our content available online, we are able to provide continuously updated information from sources that are 'in-the-know'. We personally visit and test out each of our recommendations so that you can trust our opinions and save yourself the hassle of being mis-lead. We do not accept payment for any of our selections. Our member-base is by invite only so that reviews are consistent and unbiased. 
So, there's my little plug for the site. When we launch, we will be covering Argentina, Brazil and Guatemala, and are planning to expand throughout South and Central America soon. If you have any suggestions or requests for our next location, I'd love to hear about them!
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