We are looking for web 2.0 customer service reps / travel agents in the New York Metro area.

Check out the details of the openings here.

Alexander Torrenegra

P.S. I know that “web 2.0″ means a lot of things and nothing at the same time, but we thought that using “web 3.0″ was pushing the envelop too much

I’m in the process of learning HDR (High-Dynamic Range) photography, a technique I look forward to applying to the pictures I take on my future travels. This is the first photograph I have taken and processed in HDR style. Those of you familiar with New York landmarks will recognize the Flatiron building and part of Madison Square. Our New York office is in the building with the water tank on top, just to the right of the first red light. As a photograph of our place of business, it is not that great. However, I figured you would rather see a good photograph of a beautiful and historically important building, rather than a photo centered on the rather pedestrian building where we work.

Click to view this pic at Flickr

Alexander Torrenegra

P.S. Here is the HDR tutorial I used.

Hi!

Once again, we have implemented an update thanks to the feedback of our valued lodging partners. This one helps to improve the interface for listing activities that travelers can enjoy at or near lodgings.

Here is how it used to work:

Previously, when lodging staff members were creating or updating a lodging listing, there were several activities that could not be marked as “at the lodging facilities”–they could only list them as “nearby”. Some of these activities included “beach access”, “golf course”, etc. If the lodging had beach access, they had to select “nearby” and then, in walking time, select “0 minutes”.

This is how it works now:

Now, lodging staff members can mark any activity as “at the lodging facilities”. For example, they can now mark “ocean access” and “horseback riding” as “at the lodging facilities”. They will also notice that the option “0 minutes” for walking time is no longer available.

Could you please update your lodging listing?

If you are a lodging staff member, please revisit your lodging listing, and ensure that all available activities are properly identified. That way, we can properly match your lodging with the itineraries of travelers. To update your lodging listing:

1. Visit the “My Lodgings” page.
2. Click on “Update Listing Details”.
3. Scroll down to the activities area and click on each one of the activity subsections to update them.

For a full list of lodging facilities whose parameters have been changed in this way, see below:

• beach access
• ocean access
• lake access
• river access
• kayaking
• canoeing
• sailing
• scuba diving
• snorkeling
• water-skiing
• surfing
• windsurfing
• downhill skiing / snowboarding
• cross country skiing
• tubing
• snow mobiling
• ice climbing
• golf course
• golf driving range
• jogging track
• hiking trail
• mountaineering
• rock climbing
• bike trail
• fishing
• fly fishing
• horseback riding
• skydiving

Thank you!

Alexander Torrenegra

Hi!

We have been overwhelmed by the excellent suggestions that lodging staff members have offered us since we opened LetMeGo’s limited beta. I am pleased today to announce that we have already implemented one of the most popular requests.

Several lodging staff members have noted that their businesses offer housekeeping services for a fee. To help these members fully express their lodgings’ offerings, we have added this new option for them to choose when listing the features of their lodging. In addition to offering “Housekeeping for a fee” as an option in the “Housekeeping” section of the listing page, we have clarified the “Daily housekeeping” option, renaming it “Daily housekeeping (free)“.

If you are the staff member of a lodging that offers “Housekeeping for a fee”, please update your listing as quickly as possible, by following these steps:

1. Visit the My Lodgings page.
2. Click on “Update Listing Details”.
3. Scroll down to the area titled “Housekeeping” and click on it.

If you have questions or other excellent ideas for additional features, please let us know.

Thank you!

Alexander Torrenegra

We have produced a 2-minute video for lodging staff members that explains the process of signing up and getting bookings through LetMeGo. You can watch it here: http://letmego.com/welcome

The video was created using iMovie, flowplayer, and, of course, a voice we found in Voice123. Lucho and Maestro worked pretty hard a it. Thank you guys!

Alexander Torrenegra

The LetMeGo Immersion will take a short weekend break. It will be the last break before the Immersion is over. Salud!

Alexander Torrenegra

P.S. Okay, I’m a cheating. This picture was actually taken several weeks ago, right before another break. Sorry

Today, May 18, 2009, marks the birth of LetMeGo. The gestation of LetMeGo and its Merrcury Engine has taken 18 months and plenty of passionate hard work. LetMeGo sees the day of the light with a limited beta. We call it “limited” because it is only open to lodging staff members wishing to add their lodging to our database. In a couple of months we will open our doors to travelers. Travelers will then be able to submit their itineraries and get bids from lodgings.

You are now free to test LetMeGo any way you want! Your feedback is highly appreciated!

Do you know anybody that works at or owns a lodging (whether it is a hotel, a vacation rental, a hostel, etc.)? If so, please tell them about LetMeGo. Unlike many other online travel agencies and listing services, LetMeGo does not charge a fee to list a lodging. We will only get a small commission after each successful booking.

Thank you all for your support, so far! We will continue working hard to take LetMeGo to the next step.

Alexander Torrenegra and the LetMeGo Team!

Screenshot of the autocomplete feature of LetMeGo

Several months ago, I blogged about the Arrmstrong Scope when it reached Alpha. Today, I’m blogging about it because it has reached the beta milestone!

The Arrmstrong Scope, part of the Merrcury Engine (the software behind LetMeGo), is in charge of allowing us to manage all destinations and points of interest for travelers. Arrmstrong had many challenges. Some of them were the consequence of depending on external systems, like GeoNames, to import some data. Another challenge was (still is?) the autocomplete. The “autocomplete” feature is used when a person is typing in the name of a destination. We want to suggest options to the visitor before he/she finishes typing the name of the destination. It sounds simple, but in reality there are many more things to keep in mind. Among others: internationalization, latency, typos, average typing speed, AJAX queueing, etc.

Even though there were many difficulties, German, with the help of Henry, did an outstanding job with Arrmstrong. Thank you German!

Alexander Torrenegra

P.S. Here is the current status of all the subsystems and scopes required for our full beta release:

Progress of the Merrcury Engine
Scope	Status
Web Subsystem	Ready for Beta!
Morrison Subsystem	Ready for Beta!
Cockerr Subsystem	Ready for Beta!
Hendrrix Scope	Ready for Beta!
Sinatrra Scope	99% of QA for Beta
Arrmstrong Scope	Ready for Beta!
Rrose Scope	Ready for Beta!
Charrly Scope	Ready for Beta!
Mozarrt Scope	Alpha Ready
Mastrropiero Scope	40% of Coding for Beta
Kubrrick Scope	60% of Coding for Beta
Brrown Scope	35% of Coding for Beta
Marrley Scope	10% of Coding for Beta
Waterrs Scope	25% of Coding for Beta

Screenshot of the Picture Gallery where lodging staff members will be able to add, crop, sort, and delete pictures.

14 months ago, Lucho joined the LetMeGo team. Almost right away, he started to work in the Sinatrra scope of the Merrcury Engine (the software behind LetMeGo) in charge of allowing users to add lodging listings and update them. You can think of it as a content management system (CMS) for lodging listings. This scope was nicknamed Sinatrra. Although we didn’t know it back then, Sinatrra ended up being the most complex and feature-rich subsystem of all. The Sinatrra scope has eleven detailed use cases and over 130 user interfaces.

Well, after 14 months of hard work by Lucho, and with the help of Maestro, Nickman, and Andres, the Sinatrra scope is getting finished.

The Sinatrra scope has many ‘industry-first’s’. Among them:

• First to fully support the addition of ANY lodging type; from hotels, to hostels, to vacation rentals, to pods, to family homes
• First lodging listing management system featuring WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get)
• First to use AJAX as its primary UI technique (thank you jQuery!)
• First to allow free and unlimited upload of HD-resolution pictures
• First to fully integrate Google Street View with angle customization
• First to allow lodging staff members to include their face pictures, and profiles, as part of the lodging listing
• First to support non-Latin-based addresses alongside Latin-based addresses

Most of the features of Sinatrra will be experienced by lodging staff members. As a traveler, though, you will experience Sinatrra whenever you see the details of a lodging listing.

We have worked very hard on Sinatrra expecting it to become the default listing provider for the lodging industry. We may never get there, but shooting that high will help us get somewhere.

Thank you Maestro, Nickman, Andres, and, specially, Lucho.

Beta… here we come!

Alexander Torrenegra

P.S. Here is the current status of all the subsystems and scopes required for our full beta release:

Progress of the Merrcury Engine
Scope	Status
Web Subsystem	Ready for Beta!
Morrison Subsystem	Ready for Beta!
Cockerr Subsystem	Ready for Beta!
Hendrrix Scope	Ready for Beta!
Sinatrra Scope	98% of QA for Beta
Arrmstrong Scope	98% of QA for Beta
Rrose Scope	Ready for Beta!
Charrly Scope	Ready for Beta!
Mozarrt Scope	Alpha Ready
Mastrropiero Scope	40% of Coding for Beta
Kubrrick Scope	60% of Coding for Beta
Brrown Scope	35% of Coding for Beta
Marrley Scope	10% of Coding for Beta
Waterrs Scope	25% of Coding for Beta

We just had another birthday at the LetMeGo Immersion: Lucho’s! Once again, we broke the rules and invited his girlfriend, Caroline, to celebrate.

Feliz cumpleaños great man!

Below is the recording of the live cam of theLetMeGo Immersion right after midnight and just seconds before the surprise. The audio and video are choppy and long; however, there are some “interesting” moments. Can you find them? Beware: there is plenty of Spanglish in here!