User:Kevin Gorman/ResortsandLodges.com

Resortsandlodges.com
ResortsandLodges.com is a web portal that lists travel lodging destinations, restaurants, and other service-based vacation destinations. It provides users information and access to over 25,000 leisure properties around the world, and averages approximately 60 million page views per year. It grew into one of the largest travel resources on the internet by 2013. Ryan Bailey is the President of ResortsandLodges.com, and Charles Bailey is the CEO. In 2012, the Web Marketing Association awarded ResortsandLodges.com a WebAward for excellence in site design and development.

History
In 1998, ResortsandLodges.com was developed as the world’s first leisure travel web directory. It was designed to test Cognation, an online content management system designed by Polyphasic and Michigan State University on a $3.2 million grant from NASA. Cognation was capable of generating search engine friendly internet directory websites, and ResortsandLodges.com served as a "test vehicle."

In April 2003, CEO Charles Bailey and President Ryan Bailey acquired the website with the intent of developing it into a market leader in the leisure travel industry, and were spurred on by an increasing demand for convenient, more detailed lodging information.

With the stock market slump in 2008, financing the operation of ResortsandLodges.com became difficult, but in 2011 an updated lead tracking platform significantly improved its success metrics. Instead of just tracking number of visitations, the site’s new design could keep track of more subtle statistics, and measure who was visiting and where they were spending their money. Later in 2012 the website debuted “Been There” and “Wanna Go” buttons for site visitors to use in a fashion similar to Facebook’s “Like” button.

Product
Co-founders Charles and Ryan Bailey call ResortsandLodges.com a “travel market place” that resembes an early eBay, by connecting buyers and sellers worldwide. They state the goal of the website to be growing to the largest and most informative leisure travel website in the world.

The website provides reviews from professionals as well as travelers that have patronized the lodgings, and requires that its listings provide not only accurate and up-to-date information, but also pictures and video from the overseers of the establishment. The site also features an articles page with detailed information on various lodging establishments, and the “success stories” on its YouTube page provide even more feedback. Visitors can supplement listings with pictures and videos of their own.

History
In 1998, ResortsandLodges.com was developed as the world’s first leisure travel web directory. It was designed to test Cognation, an online content management system designed by Polyphasic and Michigan State University on a $3.2 million grant from NASA. Cognation was capable of generating search engine friendly internet directory websites, and ResortsandLodges.com served as a "test vehicle."

In April 2003, CEO Charles Bailey and President Ryan Bailey acquired the website with the intent of developing it into a market leader in the leisure travel industry, and were spurred on by an increasing demand for convenient, more detailed lodging information.

With the stock market slump in 2008, financing the operation of ResortsandLodges.com became difficult, but in 2011 an updated lead tracking platform significantly improved its success metrics. Instead of just tracking number of visitations, the site’s new design could keep track of more subtle statistics, and measure who was visiting and where they were spending their money. Later in 2012 the website debuted “Been There” and “Wanna Go” buttons for site visitors to use in a fashion similar to Facebook’s “Like” button.

Product
Co-founders Charles and Ryan Bailey call ResortsandLodges.com a “travel market place” that resembes an early eBay, by connecting buyers and sellers worldwide. They state the goal of the website to be growing to the largest and most informative leisure travel website in the world.

The website provides reviews from professionals as well as travelers that have patronized the lodgings, and requires that its listings provide not only accurate and up-to-date information, but also pictures and video from the overseers of the establishment. The site also features an articles page with detailed information on various lodging establishments, and the “success stories” on its YouTube page provide even more feedback. Visitors can supplement listings with pictures and videos of their own.