April 17, 2003
Hollywood, Florida -- On the heels of its highly successful cold direct mail campaign to update its 30,000-property hotel database, Hollywood-based hospitality and travel website publisher MetroGuide.com, Inc. (MetroGuide) has launched a sister campaign, inviting restaurants nationwide to take or update a free listing in its DiningGuide service.
"Restaurants are a vital part of the overall hospitality package, but they typically have less budget for promotion than hotels and resort properties," said Mark Metz, MetroGuide CEO. "This update of our DiningGuide database gives restaurants an opportunity to reach our nearly 400,000 monthly DiningGuide visitors and diners. There's no cost to participate. It's a total win-win-win situation."
In the original mailing, hotels were provided with a print edition (pe) of MetroGuide's unique Hotel GUI, or Graphical User Interface. A GUI is a web page device that invites and facilitates user interaction. Restaurants are directed to use the online Dining GUI form digital edition (de), located on MetroGuide's DiningGuide website. To list a restaurant, go to http://dininggui.com
"Responses are still arriving from our late fall 2002 Hotel GUI mailing," said Traci Ross, MetroGuide content manager. "We thought 2.6 per cent was pretty impressive last December two weeks after the cold mailing went out, but to date, we've received a 16 per cent response. Now, with our dining.GUI we turn our attention to restaurants, so our visitors will be able to find just what they seek in a dining experience."
MetroGuide, located at http://metroguide.com, is among the largest Internet providers of global travel information and reservations. Incorporated in 1996 and privately held, MetroGuide's network of websites attracts more than two million unique visitors monthly to its quarter-million-plus pages of travel related e-commerce sites.
Having financed its venture entirely through internal sales growth and with no outside capital, MetroGuide generates tens-of-millions of dollars annually in on-line bookings through its proprietary database of more than 31,000 hotels and destination resorts. MetroGuide stands at the forefront of the battle to combat digital copyright piracy, with multiple recent court awards.
For more information contact Scott Rogers (954) 981-5850.