Okay, the name induces a slight eye roll – I’m not broke and I’m certainly no hipster, I just love a bargain – but the premise behind one of Chicago’s best new websites is pretty awesome. BrokeHipster collects all the top upcoming deals, from happy-hour specials and dining discounts to promotional parties and boutique sales, and puts them all in one place.
On any given day some of the freebies and cheapies might include: a promo party with an hour of free cocktails, a free tequila tasting, free museum admission, $2 beers or $1 burgers. The deals are all around in Chicago, and especially in this slumping economy, every bar, restaurant and store is looking for more ways to pull in customers with enticing offers.
If you find a stellar deal, just remember that BrokeHipster doesn’t create the deals, it just eliminates the legwork for budget travelers and frugal locals by putting the information together. It’s always wise to check directly with the establishment to verify that the deal is offered. There’s no cure for the heartache caused by the $1 burger that wasn’t.
It was just about four months ago that Gadling reported the launch of a great new travel resource and bookstore, GuideGecko.com. Now, GuideGecko, the innovative publishing platform for travel, lifestyle and entertainment guides, has just announced its first travel writing contest in conjunction with the world’s largest book fair in Frankfurt, Germany.
From now to September 24, authors from all over the world can submit their own travel, lifestyle or entertainment guides, and the winning titles will be showcased at the fair. The top prize is a personal trip to the fair in October 2009. The contest is open to everybody, from casual writers to bloggers and established authors. Topics can span from anything and everything under the sun, as long as they are travel, lifestyle or entertainment related. With no page limit, the authors have the freedom and flexibility to write their guides the way they want. Submissions can be new titles as well as existing titles previously published on GuideGecko or elsewhere.
Upon submission, the guides will be published instantly and listed on GuideGecko’s front page, where they will receive maximum visibility. Customers and viewers can choose to vote for and even order these guides immediately. Participation in the contest is free and the authors will receive full royalties and retain the copyrights of their guides published on www.guidegecko.com.
The winners of the ‘GuideGecko Writing Contest’ will be decided through online voting, which starts immediately. The first prize is a personal trip to the Frankfurt Book Fair for the winning author. In addition, the top 3 titles will be showcased on the fair. Other prizes include a selection of Lonely Planet travel guides and subscriptions to travel magazines.
Closing date is 24 September 2009 and prize winners will be announced on 25 September 2009. For more information and to enter the contest, visit www.guidegecko.com/writing-contest.
It happens. Sometimes you’re searching for a hotel in some random area of the US or Canada (two words: wedding season) and you just can’t find what you’re looking for. The price is wrong, or you want to be able to cook for yourself … if only you had some insider information about other places you could stay!
Good news: Rentalo.com has it. Their search results include hotels, bed & breakfasts, and even vacation rentals like condos and cabins. Their results are impressively comprehensive — particularly the number of photos of each location. I recently booked a hotel in Stillwater, MN on Priceline.com, but didn’t find nearly this level of information about the one I chose. Turns out I chose well. Whew!
Currently, Rentalo is advertising a three bedroom house in the Poconos for $75 per night and a ski condo in Colorado for $99 per night. In addition to their alternative vacation rental results in the US and Canada, they have hotel results all over the world.
So, before you give up and stay at a bad hotel, check Rentalo for other options! Don’t end up at Hotel Carter.
Our friends over at AOL Travel would really like you to start following them on Twitter – their feed is a great read, so it’s certainly worth doing. But if you need a little more incentive, how about a chance at winning $500 in Travelocity travel credits? All you need to do is follow them to be eligible!
came across your blog recently and I wanted to introduce you to our web site www.NonRevCheckin.com just in case you were not aware of it already. Our web site is really the first of its kind allowing Non Rev travelers to see flight schedules and more importantly, flight loads on over 130 airlines around the world. We obtain data from Sabre® global distribution system; interpret that date thru our complex formulas to put seat availability in to 1 of 5 easy to understand categories. Members who use our web site can search flights all over the world to plan their Non Rev travels or commutes. Once a member chooses the flight(s) they wish to Non Rev on, they can set up mobile and email alerts to keep them apprised of the latest loads. Since flight loads are quite dynamic and can change often before departure, it is important to keep informed of the latest loads. With our service, our members can easily choose to set up alerts from 24 hours up to 1 hour before departure thus keeping them updated while they go about their normal activities.
Sincerely,
Brad
Dear Brad,
I haven’t had a chance to log in and check it out, but why use your site opposed to the one I normally use?
Heather
PS – Where were you last month? That’s actually me in the video (below) using my laptop to check passengers loads from Chicago to New York.
Dear Heather,
I am not sure what site you normally use, so I will have to give some general answers.
1. Most airline employee web sites only allow you to look up flight loads on your airline. For example, if you work for US Airways, you can look up your loads but you don’t have access to any other airline.
2. Following number one, who flies the same city pair you trying fly on? Our site allows you to see over 170 airlines around the world that fly that route. With that information at your finger tips you can choose the best option for you to non rev on. It might fit a better departure/arrival time for you or it might be a better load. Wouldn’t you rather fly on an empty airplane flown by another airline than be stuck in last row middle seat for a 5 or more hour flight? One of the most important rules to non reving is having back up plans.
3. Once again, I don’t know what source you use, but many airline employees and retirees do not have access to a “quality” web site for a source. Even their company’s web site may be antiquated and or very slow. Most airlines do not spend money, time or other resources on providing the top notch employee non rev web sites.
4. With our system you can sign up for alerts to your cell phone and email. Let me give an example of how this is beneficial. You and your family are going to be flying from LAX to HNL in two days. The loads look OK right now but we know that could change in the next 48 hours. Now you can check your company web site or call your company reservations every so often to learn the latest loads or sign up for alerts on our web site and you will automatically get sent a text message at times you want before departure. This allows you to now not to have to be in front of a computer or call a reservations line to get the latest loads. We do all the work for you. Go about your normal activities such as shopping, golfing or just hanging at the beach on your way back from HNL. Maybe an earlier flight now looks better or maybe the loads got really bad and there is no since in even trying to non rev until the next day so you might as well stay on the beach. Commuters love the web site. When they are doing their last leg inbound for work, they turn on their phone when they can, and the alerts pop saying which flight looks the best to get home. There might be two flights that leave about the same time on different airlines and they can make a quick informed decision before running to the right gate. Even if they are jump seating, most prefer or need a seat in the back of the plane.
5. Why other sites are inferior to ours:
Have not been redesigned in ages so what does that say for the quality?
Only 3 categories (smiley faces) while we have 5 easy to understand categories.
Can not sign up for alerts. The only way to get updated info is to get back on the web site.
No customer service.
No listing phone numbers. We list Non Rev phone numbers next to every flight so if you need to call to list, you have easy access.
6. Non user friendly log in. You have to find/remember you companies log in. With our system you create your own profile.
One stop source for weather, hotels, rental cars, cruises, destination information and other information.
Zed calculator.
Hope this helps explain a little more of what we do.
Brad
Dear Brad,
Awesome web site! Nonrevs around the world are going to love it. Thanks for sharing. But…even though I am able to check loads on several different airlines, I’m unable to check on all airlines. What’s the deal?
Heather
Dear Heather,
There are a few airlines that do not participate with Sabre supplying enough data for us to determine loads. For those airlines we only show schedules. We do however provide passenger seat availability for over 130 airlines around the world. If you have any more questions, feel free to ask