Envelope / Develope

As it happens with any traveler, I am using the big four trip booking companies - Booking, Expedia, Trip Advisor, AirBnB or Canadian equivalents. Over the years, I discussed with many hotel/lodging owners and everyone is saying they are not happy with the way they are represented and the cut the brokers are getting for only providing an interface and a common entry point for travelers. The broker companies offer convenience and service aggregation, a unique marketing platform and convenience for the user. It is a warehouse for a service (lodging), but many of the reviews are fake, misrepresenting the  reality. I realized there is competition about reviews, many companies are trying to get more and also veto the ones outside "reality". It is better to read the more recent ones. Companies like Google, Yelp (with many question marks), Trip Advisor are vying for people posting their last impressions or even their vacation photos. The reality is that the algorithms to promote t...

Or read the small print before you buy  I am in the same cohort of adults as you, probably: with limited time for vacations, I am planning almost every day for seeing, sucking up scenery, tasting food or wines or having fun in a memorable way. Rarely there is a moment where playing by the ear is on my schedule. Often times I am forced to improvise as my plans are totally screwed by inevitable mishaps. And here comes one of my reality encounters with what is a map in our days and how different than reality it is.One hand driving, one eye on map and one eye recording the imagery, brain where are you ? In today over-scanned/over-visited/over-blogged/over-you-tubed world to be driven in a dangerous or unknown place by the technology seems like a dystopian event. And still, that happened to me. Garmin has an interesting policy regarding their own GPS devices - the maps are free for LI(F)E. What is not known, but hidden in the bottom of the license agreement, is that the l...