Travel guidebooks: Crap, or what?

Picture from lloydi on Flickr.

There was an interesting article in the Times recently calling into question the quality of travel guidebooks: Travel guidebooks slammed. The message there is that guidebook publishers are cutting costs, paying peanuts, and printing monkey dribble. Some travel authors, apparently, write about places without even visiting them. There's also an allegation that authors write glowing reviews of crappy hotels in return for free accommodation or other... erm... services.

To me, this is just a reminder that the In Your Pocket formula is a good balance. We are supported by advertising, but maintain editorial independence. We use advertising revenue to employ good writers, and they write honest, independent reviews. What you get is a guide that is well written, cheap, up-to-date, informative and sprinkled with ads.

We value editorial independence highly. We don't write nice things about advertisers just because they are advertisers. Indeed, in the case of Vilnius In Your Pocket, we have lost advertisers because we have written honest reviews about them. We also have one advertiser who has a restaurant that is described as "utterly disgusting" - although I'm not going to tell you which one. Balancing advertising and editorial interests can be tricky, but I believe it's something we do well.

Reading such an article that questions guidebook quality made me think about what we're doing here, and I think we've got a good formula and offer an outstanding product. And I've got a great job.