We notice that a lot of our lodge partners are listed on TripAdvisor (which actually pulls all “vacation rental” properties from FlipKey—which they own). While we have no problem with lodges advertising with TripAdvisor, we have some opinions about why fishlodges.com is superior for people researching fishing lodges for a fishing vacation. We’re not against TripAdvisor per se, but just want to make the point that for certain niche industries, other sites like fishlodges.com can be far more efficient to use.
The List
1. We have only fishing lodges!
If you’re looking for a fishing lodge, you’ll start your search on fishlodges.com with only fishing lodges. On TripAdvisor, no matter how many ways you search their vast database of properties, you’ll always be sorting through hotels, motels, B&B’s, resorts, and other very non-fishing accommodation. Even Google makes it easy to find and sift through several pages of only fishing vacation properties (and the first 30 pages of search results usually are). So it’s not really much more efficient than just using Google.
2. fishlodges.com has a much higher fishing lodge density
Look, TripAdvisor dwarfs us, no contest. But because the vast majority of properties on it are not fishing lodges, you’ll find the number of fishing lodges quite low. For instance, on TripAdvisor you’ll find no fishing lodges in Kodiak Island, Kyuquot, Barkley Sound or Prince of Wales Island—just a few great hotspots for salmon or halibut fishing (by contrast, we currently have 15, with more being added all the time).
3. Fishing vacations are different!
A fishing vacation is a rather unique experience, and as such has features that are quite different than typical accommodation. Most importantly, a fishing vacation is mainly about the fishing, not the rooms! Type of fishing, size of boats, targeted species, how to get there…none of these apply to a hotel and therefore are not shown on a site like TripAdvisor…you’ll only find them on fishlodges.com.
4. Can’t filter lodges by fishing-specific attributes
Because a lodge found on TripAdvisor does not detail these fishing-specific attributes, you can’t search for lodges that offer the attributes you’re looking for. You filter out all those that don’t. So not only do you have to look through every hotel and motel in the location you’re interested in just to find fishing lodges…you can’t show just fishing lodges. No searching for places that offer guided and unguided fly fishing for rainbow trout at a price of less than $500 per person per day of fishing.
With TripAdvisor, you also need to know a specific location to target when doing a search (all searching is done by location). Sometimes you’re not set on any particular location, but you do know you want to fish for Steelhead. You want a fly-in, all-inclusive lodge that only accommodates small groups at a time. You can only do that kind of searching with fishlodges.com.
5. No package prices.
Many lodges that are found on TripAdvisor do not even have prices. When prices are available, they are estimates only, and priced per night. Of course these prices are completely useless (this is why they call it an “estimate”). All-inclusive fishing lodges like to provide packages that include accommodation as well as boats, guiding, meals, etc. The only way to find the real price for a multi-day fishing vacation is to call the lodge (which we think kind of defeats the purpose of internet research). By contrast, our approach is to provide you all the information across a wide range of options and make it easy to build your “short list” of lodges that are worth considering to book.
6. Can’t search visually by location
When designing fishlodges.com, we knew that location was an important consideration for choosing your perfect fishing adventure. Not just what municipality or town a fishing lodge belongs to, but the exact location where the lodge is situated—which bodies of water it’s close to and how close, the shape and proximity of ocean channels, the competition from other lodges and commercial fishermen, etc. That’s why we made searching by location via a map-based interface central to the search experience.
7. The noise!!
Finally, fishlodges.com’s only goal is to help you find your ideal fishing vacation, so not only do we focus on only all-inclusive fishing adventures, but we’ve designed the website to help you find the information you’re after efficiently and quickly. When you view the details of a fishing lodge, you will see a clean, minimalistic design that groups information into areas that help you quickly decide if the lodge is right for you—key facts, targeted species, package prices, what’s included, location details, etc.
When we look at a details page for one of our fishing lodge partners who is also listed on TripAdvisor, we see a minimum of information about the fishing (see #3 above) but lots of information of questionable utility (I’d call them “distractions”). Hours of operation (really?), recommended length of visit, which hotels are on sale, similar hotels, popular hotels, hotels you might also like, top-rated nearby attractions, which rooms travellers prefer, and what hotels other travellers also viewed.
In summary, I want to re-affirm we’re not against TripAdvisor. They do a lot of things really well, and we use them ourselves. We’re just saying that fishlodges.com makes it a lot easier to find your ideal fishing vacation.
