Gadlinks for Thursday, 1.28.2010

by Katie Hammel on

The weekend is almost here! Are you headed anywhere fun? I’m off to sunny Puerto Rico to escape Chicago’s latest cold snap. Here are a few bonus travel stories to keep you dreaming of warmer days.

  • Winter in the northern hemisphere means summer in Buenos Aires. If you’re headed down south, here are a few places to gorge yourself silly, courtesy of Matador writer Tom Gates. [via Matador Nights]
  • Nothing says summer like the sight of tan surfers catching some waves. How does a pro surfer globe-trot? Find out with BootsnAll’s How I Travel profile of surfer Holly Beck. [via BootsnAll]

More Gadlinks HERE.

Jaunted founders launch Vegaschatter.com

by Grant Martin on

Our friends over at Jaunted and Hotelchatter are up to no good again, this morning kicking off Vegaschatter.com, a sister blog that will cover all things Vegas.

Why Las Vegas? According to one Mr. Mark Johnson, the founder of SFO Media, “Las Vegas has always been one of the world’s most popular travel destinations, and for years the city was in dire need of a daily travel web publication that would cover Vegas the same way HotelChatter covers hotels and Jaunted covers travel — from a visitors perspective.”

This means you can expect the same witty delivery, quality content and high volume of posts as you get from the other sites, particularly since Juliana Shallcross , managing editor of [editor of?] Jaunted and Hotelchatter will be in charge.

And what of starting a Las Vegas blog in the midst of a deep recession that seems to be hitting the City of Sin the hardest? Will the investment now grow as the city rebuilds? Is Vegaschatter as doomed as the flailing Nevada economy? Tune into Vegaschatter.com for the details.

Juliana, Mark: best of luck.

Three travel sites have gained more power

by Jamie Rhein on

What do Jaunted.com and HotelChatter.com now have in common? Both of these blogs have been snapped up by CondéNet, the publisher of Concierge.com. SFO*Media, the previous publisher of these two travel blogs is now under the CondéNet umbrella.

Does this mean that Jaunted.com or HotelChatter.com will look different? Will they be different? Not necessarily. Both will continue in their blogging world ways with Jaunted honing in on popular culture travel and HotelChatter continuing to provide the latest news bits and tips about hotels and lodging around the world. Add Concierge’s focus on upscale, trendy travel to the other two, and that’s a powerful travel trio.

What does this mean for me, you might wonder? CondéNet now has more reach when it comes to marketing and attracting big money advertising. There will be more coordination between the three sites, so you might notice crossover information. It also says that the media world is recognizing that the people who are reached by travel blogs are mighty in numbers, are passionate about travel, and they have some money to spend. These are forces to tap into.

HotelChatter’s Best WiFi Hotels for 2007

by Justin Glow on

HotelChatter has released the 2007 findings in their annual search for the best wifi hotels. They boldly claim that the “hotel WiFi landscape has reached an impasse.” No longer is the list made up of hotels that simply offer free wireless, but instead hotel chains like Omni make the cut because they have fewer restrictions. “For instance, you can get free WiFi in the lobby, but in-rooms it’s ethernet and it starts at $9.95. Or you can get free WiFi in your rooms but you need to belong to a hotel’s loyalty program or be assigned a code with a special password.”

Topping the list is Marriot, whose Residence Inns, SpringHill Suites, and Courtyard “all have strong, free, fast, working wireless in the rooms and the lobbies.” The only thing keeping them from a perfect score is a lack of property-wide access — some Marriots are good, some are bad.

For the full report, head over to HotelChatter.

[via boingboing]