1000

I was watching this one for quite a while and wasn't sure if I would ever reach this milestone figure. 

This post is the 1000th on Hotel Blogs, more than 3 years after I have started this blog back in December 2005.

Hotel Blogs was first started as an experiment because I was hearing a lot about blogging in my home country (France in case you haven't figured out by now!). I saw a niche topic to blog about and thought why don't I try myself to blog about my passion that is Hotels. The big surprise was that very quickly I gained more and more readers, more and more comments and more and more other bloggers linked to my website. I found this very exciting and very rewarding. At this stage, I wasn't sure how long I would survive in the "blogosphere": 1 month, 6 months, 1 year...who knows.

In the last 3 years, I had my ups and downs while writing these columns and a few times I thought about giving up Hotel Blogs. Any reasons: less time to manage the blog, find new exciting stories, be on my own (until Christina joined in from Ireland), competition (and yes there is existing competition).

But because I am so passionate about what I do, I have learned very quickly that Hotel Blogs was something I wanted to continue in the long run. Mainly because of the support I had from friends from the industry or outside and also because my fellow other bloggers friends (Kevin, Darren, Alex, Guido, Bernard, Dimitrios, Tim, Chris. Karin, Jim, Albert and many more to mention) were pushing me to keep blogging while I was reading their articles.

Time has proved that blogging is here to stay. Period. Many new ventures get some attention because they created a blog where consumers can follow through the development of the company and keep up to date about new functionalities, new content and so on (exVibeAgent Hotelicopter, TripShake or UpTake are ones of many examples). Very serious studies shown on PhocusWright, TravelClick or eMarketer or Forrester shows that people relate better to personal recommendation when they make their choice for their travel plans hence the importance of social networking websites like blogs, hotel review sites, general social sites. And yes this is just the beginning. Blogging seems to be from the last century when you see the explosion in terms of usage and new users on Facebook, Twitter and other similar companies. But today nobody laughs at you when you talk about blogging. In fact, they want to know more how they could create their own blog and ask me in conferences or by emails some tips. Blogging has almost become mainstream and most of the traditional media (printed) has their journalists not only writing articles on their newspapers but also manage daily columns on a dedicated "Blogs" section (have a look at USA Today for instance). I cannot count how many times I hear on the television the word "blogs" or "check out our blog on www...

So after 1000 posts, 930 RSS readers, 973 followers on Twitter, 67 videos, 38 video hotel reviews, 31 restaurant reviews, 10 Friday ideas, I am looking forward to keep bringing you more news to your eyes and hears and hopefully get as much excitement as I got back in 2005.

Thank you all for your loyal readership, your support and my sponsors. And also big thank you for the inspiration that Loic Le Meur, Techcrunch, Scoble, Seth Godin and others gave me when I was discovering their blogs in 2005. You guys rock.

Cheers,

Guillaume

Comments

[ShawnVang31]

I propose not to hold off until you get enough money to buy all you need! You can just take the mortgage loans or just collateral loan and feel comfortable

[prasetio]

Nice information, I agree with you. We have many idea in our travel blog. hotel information include travel blog. for travel tips, pleas e visit:
http://travelling-solutions.blogspot.com

[Happy Hotelier]

And you married in between:-) Congrats my friend! and @syl: Back to your Blog pls:-)

[Darren Cronian]

Well, you got there to the big 1,000 before me Guillaume, and Ive been blogging since April 2005! I think time is the biggest problem for a lot of bloggers, especially when you have a full-time job. You've done a great job covering hotels, and long may it continue.

Congrats and it was nice to meet you again last month.

Darren

[Guillaume]

Thanks Sylvain & Euan for your kind words.

[Euan Mitchell]

Guillaume

Well done!
You have built up a good reputation in the hospitality industry and the fact that you have reached this milestone is testament to your determination and the growth of this medium of communication.

Best wishes

Euan

[Blog on travel]

Congratulations Guillaume!

Cheers,

Syl