Thanks for visiting the Great Hotel Write-Off homepage. Here you will find all the details on participation, scoring, prizes, dates, participants, etc.
We wanted to find a way to increase the coverage of hotels in the epinions database. The idea was to challenge the members to write as many reviews as possible over the summer vacation season, plus a bit of the "shoulder season." To drum up enthusiastic participation, we're also making this a competition and offering prizes and egoboo galore. Some prizes will go to the members who accumulate the highest scores by contributing the most urgently needed reviews. Other prizes will go to members selected at random from all the participants.
Dates
This will be a lengthy write-off to allow maximum participation. Hotel reviews posted between April 1st and October 15th, 2003 can qualify as submissions for the write off. If you travel during the summer months, be sure to write a review for any hotel, resort, B&B or guesthouse you stay in. If necessary, you may contact one of the travel leads to request an addition to the epinions database. Please note that the dates of the write-off will be observed according to Pacific Standard Time or GMT-9.
Qualifying Reviews
Hotel reviews submitted for the first time during the write-off, with an overall rating of Very Helpful will earn you points toward a cumulative total - and the chance to win a prize! Updated reviews do not count. Reviews with an overall rating of less than Very Helpful do not count. We want high quality reviews!
Scoring
Qualifying reviews must be submitted before midnight, PST on October 15, 2003. Points will be awarded for qualifying reviews in the following manner:
4 points - for the first review on any hotel
3 points - for the second or third review on any hotel
2 points - for any other review of a hotel
Bonus points will be awarded as follows:
1 point if you write the first review for a hotel already in the database
1 point if your review is for a hotel in a city with fewer than three hotels with visible reviews.
For example: the city of Naples in Italy has only two visible hotel reviews. The first person to submit a qualifying review on any other hotel in Naples would earn 1 bonus point. If that hotel was already in the database, then 1 additional bonus point would be awarded since it would also be the first review on a hotel already in the database. Thus the review would earn the contributing member 6 points. Reviews will count as "first" reviews for a hotel so long as there are no other visible reviews (i.e. all previous reviews have an overall rating of SH or lower).
The Prize(s)
We're working on arranging a few nice prizes for this write-off. We don't want to say what they are until they're in the bag, so to speak. We hope to be able to offer at least three different prizes. Be patient and check back frequently. As details are confirmed, we'll post them here.
Winning
The participant with the highest cumulative score (including bonus points) from reviews submitted will win First Prize in the write-off, and glory for all eternity, right here on this page. We hope to offer at least two other prizes, one going to the participant with the second highest score and another prize for a participant selected at random. In the event of a tie for First Prize or Second Prize, we'll select the winner at random from among the tied participants. We reserve the right to be the sole and final arbiter of this competition.
How To Participate
Important - please read: To join the write-off, please include the words "Great Hotel Write-Off" in the title of your review. No other notation is necessary, but if you'd like to include the url to this page so that others can learn about the write-off, that would be most appreciated. Send me an email when your qualifying hotel review has a well established overall rating of VH. Please include your epinions member id, the url for your posted review, the name of the hotel you reviewed, and the number of points your review earned you. I'll add your name, a link for each review and your score to the list of participants on this page. If we get the kind of participation we're hoping for, I won't be able to double check each and every member's score, so to a certain extent you'll be on your honor with your reporting.
Participants
Write-off co-hosts:
lyagushka
tombarnes
and:
quasar
diverpam
ed_grover
andymcf
jnbmoore
james23
travelshark
cr01
jdhauer
popsrocks
grey002
arathi
moppysl
twunschl
scmrak
gaelkm
ifif1938
hollynz
drdevience
ruby950
Susie-34668
joubert
HJS33
BryrRose
2buzy
pilotpat
sundogg99
proxam
sweetsue_98
sblaydes
whalewatcher
jo.com
chelledun
sarolabelle
vodkaboy
adriennefoster
Raf_K
gard
ra64
hkwrites
patricknjacob
maluse
jetbluefan1
Candice923
mechellem
mattygroves
Dionne25
Mom2TyZick
Susie-34668
artemis8
remnjava
yournamehere
Thanks for visiting the Great Hotel Write-Off homepage. Here you will find all the details on participation, scoring, prizes, dates, participants, etc.