Spring is in the air and with that comes change. It was either due to the seasons turning or the sudden increase in traffic, and occasional death threat, that means I’m clearly getting through and that provided the motivation to keep going, or my sudden impending suffocating self-reflection brought on by Angela Duckworth’s Grit that talks of the need to define your purpose. Probably the death threats.
Anyone that has come this far with me knows how hard I find it to write. That sentence alone took a week to put together. But I’m suddenly looking at that difficulty as a challenge, rather than an obstacle, and as I suffer the struggles of finding trustworthy reviews for my own trips, I feel more inspired than ever to turn this blog into one of the best resources for luxury hotel reviews. Most importantly: from an unbiased perspective of a paying customer. Most most importantly: focusing on the truly top-end, such as the exclusive use properties I have the opportunity to visit. I love getting emails from readers expressing their joy of going somewhere I recommended, or avoiding places I took a massive dump on.
That is this blog purpose: to help readers discover the best hotel for them.
Why bother?
I’d love to tell you this was months in the making, but I started this last week with two aims in mind: make it easier to find new content and make the connection between this blog and the travel agency I co-own.
I’ve always been really torn on how to present that relationship. On one hand I love the independence of this site, but on the other I want to continue being able to fund all this travel without my children needing to work in a coalmine at the age of six. Fact is, they’re both already so closely linked and most people in the travel industry know the connection, so I figured I may as well be more blatant about it. Rather than go down some advertising/guest writers/influencer route where I try and sell you a coffee enema, I will change nothing about the content. It will continue to be free, it will be valuable and I won’t hold back. It will be one of the few, unbiased websites to offer advice on the truly top hotels and resorts in the world, and if anyone fancies then booking them with us they can, and if not then I’ll be busy making voodoo dolls no worries.
The redesign
So what’s new? Everything, but most importantly I finally got a new logo so that means we’re now totally legit and I call myself CEO and Vice President of Geniusness. The home page has been simplified and improved for mobile devices; and all newsletter emails no longer look like they were put together by your IT Manager in 1997. The emails are now sent out at 5pm UK time and give a better idea of what you’re about to read, so save yourself a click if you want to avoid the ramblings of a madman. Things are also prepped for some videos, as I think that will prove useful for some of the exclusive-use lodges that I visit, where it’s harder to picture everything.
If you’ve spotted anything that doesn’t work please drop a comment here.
Conclusion
End of twaddle. Reviews are coming, don’t you worry – I’m back in the air later this week.
Still waiting to see that stay list…
New design looks good!