Travel Industry Veteran Launches New Social Media Platform for Luxury Hotels Worldwide

Online, February 1, 2012 (Newswire.com) - Across the next 12 months, Simmons intends to launch over 50 city specific blogs featuring articles submitted by participating "member" hotels. Blogs will be titled with easily searched for terms such as www.BestHotelsofWashingtonDC.com and www.TopHotelsofLondon.com, both of which have already been launched in beta form.

Simmons explains the idea by saying, "The breakthrough concept for me was to allow the hotels to tell their own story directly to the public, rather than having it filtered through the existing normal channels of online travel agencies. Several years ago, hoteliers were happy to rely on the agencies to service consumers looking for recommendations ... but today, they have invested significant money in developing their own web sites and accordingly they are now looking for ways to drive traffic to those sites."

To accommodate the demand for PR assistance in the social media universe, Simmons has developed what he calls a "family" of blogs promoting the best hotels around the world. SimmonsHotelGuides.com, the parent site, provides an index of upcoming cities that will be covered - as well as republishing the most popular articles from city sites around the world.

Kendall Gartlan, Managing Editor of the collection, says "We intend to drive significant traffic to our blogs by providing the "best" answer for consumers searching for terms like "Best hotels in whatever city." Search engines recognize that a query like this deserves a site which offers a collection of properties, not just one hotel. The engines also reward frequently updated material and we intend to post original articles daily. We see this as truly a win/win scenario. The consumer receives articles describing many of the best hotels in a city, rather than just one - and the hoteliers are provided with an audience looking for recommendations. They are given a platform to talk about their own hotel in their own words."

"Nothing like this exists today" says Doug Camp, Director of Sales for The Madison Hotel in Washington, DC. "I've known Cal for several years and he has always produced amazing results. He understands the luxury hotel market like very few others. When he offered us the chance to write our own blog posts - which he would then promote to prospective new clients - it was an easy decision for me to join his program."

Simmons will be inviting only the top hotels in major cities around the world to be part of his collection of the world's best. Editors for each city or region-specific blog will add their own articles covering multiple properties with posts such as "Most Romantic Properties for a Weekend Getaway" or "Finest Dining in our Local Hotels." But the heart of the program is original articles provided by the hotels themselves.

For more information or to receive a list of upcoming city specific blog launches, contact the firm at 703 837-0870 or visit one of their websites.