Potential Content Creator Collaboration

Short Timeline Leading to the Start of Localhotels

One day in Autumn 1991, while still a graduate student and research assistant working towards a master's degree in Mechanical Engineering in Florida Atlantic University in the US, I suggested my lab colleague Saravanan, an Indian PhD student, and Kevin, an American PhD student in Ocean Engineering, who were interested in trading penny stocks, to stop investing in stocks and together start selling airline tickets on the internet and become trillionaires. They laughed a lot. There was no web (www) yet!

There was no one to finance me for my entrepreneurship idea, and I could not find a job due to the recession of 1992 to support myself upon graduation. I returned to Istanbul in 1992 and started my own company with the intention of doing internet commerce, one of the firsts in the world. Still, there was no web.

I started my first travel site in 1995 for Turkey, twarp.com, and a few years later Localhotels, probably the oldest global hotel directory in the world continuously online since 1998!

I founded this website as an alternative to global companies such as Microsoft's Expedia, Travelocity, etc., by linking local reservation companies and hotel websites around the world in a directory. I also added affiliate links from some smaller global reservation companies for revenue and also for giving travelers the opportunity to compare and shop while still on Localhotels because the site did not have many local reservation company or hotel links. In 1999, bookings.nl (later bookings.com with Wall Street funding) had requested a link exchange with Localhotels when they were only a local company in the Netherlands which I had provided (the page back then at archive.org).

Localhotels did not work out because of globalization fueled by unlimited money printing handed out to big travel companies thereby creating monopolies like in other Big Tech fields. However, even now, 26 years later, I still think it was a good idea. With Russia leading the multipolar world with China and BRICS expanding, I think Localhotels is still a good idea for both local travel companies, hotels, villa, and apartment rental companies.

Potential Content Creator Collaboration

There are many Content Creators who create travel/destination content and many already showcase accommodations in their videos. Localhotels could be at least useful, and maybe also income-generating for a potential Content Creator collaboration around the world.

How can Content Creators potentially make money?

• The regular way is they receive an advertisement fee or an affiliate link.
• There might also be cooperation among Content Creators around Localhotels sharing the revenue of Localhotels.
• The actual work of mentioning Localhotels is quite easy: Mention Localhotels in the video and link it in the description. Takes a minute!

Your video will be linked from the country/city page of Localhotels, and you get part of the revenue of Localhotels. Wherever they go, if your viewers use Localhotels, you could get a share of the revenue of Localhotels. How this revenue will be shared is a difficult task, but Content Creators can come up with an agreement such as shared ownership of Localhotels, for example. Not necessary for Content Creators to invest any money, but a fair collaboration standard must be established before starting.

Advantages for Travelers

• New world, new destinations, new travel ideas.
• Find hotel and travel agency websites otherwise buried in search results full of global companies.
• Save hours of travel research, find out what you may have been missing.
• Check and compare hotel rates quickly and easily.
• And don't miss out on local deals!
• No additional cost to travelers and potentially getting better deals as the hotels and agencies will greatly save on marketing.
• Plus easy structured access to many videos, including that of hotels and travel by Content Creators.
• Plus less-known accommodation suggestions with direct hotel website links or phones for accommodations not found in global reservation sites.