Tuesday, September 30, 2008

JustLocal Surfers Paradise search engine.

One of the things that is very frustrating about organising a holiday, is to find the accommodation available in an area such as Surfers Paradise. For example, a search of "Accommodation Surfers Paradise" using Google, returns 3.1 million pages, with only one of the organic results on the first page being an actual hotel. There are so many directories and listing services that the actual properties aren't easily found.

The thought occurred to me, what if I could have a search engine with just the accommodation in Surfers Paradise. If I had that, then I could start to search those hotels for things I wanted. For example, I'm on holiday in Surfers right now and we wanted a gymnasium. I wanted a hotel right next to the beach and walking distance to Cavill Avenue, but not too close.

Being in Surfers Paradise the information is easily available. I've always found the irony of holiday destinations is the information is available once I get to the destination. Often it takes a couple of days to find the information about the local highlights, and by then, a short holiday is over. What I need is the information before I get to the destination. 

Now for the benefit of others, I would like to make available a search engine which lists over a hundred accommodation places in Surfers Paradise.

Now you can search for the things you want. Things like:
  • The Esplanade (for accommodation on the beach).
  • Gymnasium
  • Indy
  • Schoolies Week
Many site provide lots of information about local activities and the information can be very handy.

In addition on this page, I've added a link to the Wotif.com service so you can see the last minute accommodation available in Surfers Paradise. I actually wanted to wait to book the accommodation this holiday. Choosing a place like Surfers Paradise where there is a great range of accommodation, made me feel the chance of getting good last minute accommodation may have been easy, even considering it was school holidays. But unfortunately the pressure of not having accommodation booked for the rest of the family was too much and so we booked in advance. Out of interest I decided to check the accommodation for the hotel we are staying at and yes there were rooms available. The decision not to wait cost us about $250-$300 more in accommodation and there were plenty of hotels to choose from. Booking early however does give peace of mind. It is always a trade off.

On the Surfers Paradise search engine page at the bottom left, I've also added a link which you can use to add the Surfers Paradise search engine to Internet Explorer to help you plan your next holiday.

If you find I have missed your favourite Surfers Paradise accommodation (only Surfers, not surrounding areas), an error, or even incorrectly not linked to the main site for the property, please feel free to let me know. 

If you find the Surfers Paradise search engine helps you, please feel free to leave a comment.
Happy holidaying.

- Kelvin Eldridge





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