ReleaseWire

Finally a Site for Families to have a VOICE! FamilyVacationCritics.com

Posted: Monday, February 27, 2006 at 12:00 PM CST

No Cribs at the Hotel! Not for http://www.familyvacationcritics.com Users!

River Vale, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 02/27/2006 -- Imagine this-you’re on your way to the two week vacation you have away from work to sunny Florida with your family (kids in tow ages 3 and 8) and the flight is 2 hours delayed, with nothing to do in the terminal. When you finally arrive, the room has a king sized bed, when you asked for two queens and a crib. And they’re out of cribs! As you finally get the kids situated for bed, you hear these loud banging noises and you find out that your room is located diagonal from an all night disco. Sound familiar? Why didn’t I look at familyvacationcritics.com before I booked this trip?!

You’ll be relieved to know that Family Vacation Critics announces that its website- www.familyvacationcritics.com has launched the public beta version.

According to eMarketer, “travel is a highly information-intensive category and the Internet is well suited for researching fares, schedules, tour packages, hotel accommodations and destinations.” The familyvacationcritics.com website will serve the family vacation niche of the Internet travel market. It is the only website devoted exclusively to family travelers-“critics”-providing grid based ratings of their travel experiences.

Chief Critic, CEO and Co-founder Monica Levine-Sauberman notes, ”that there are many Internet travel sites that provide general travel information and competitive prices. But our website is devoted to family travelers helping other family travelers by sharing their experiences.” The ratings by the critics are based on ten family specific criteria tailored specifically for hotels, airlines, cruiselines and adventure travel companies. The website will be the only place on the Internet to access this information. In addition, the site has a unique “Critics Choice” page in which users can re-rank based on criteria that is most important to them. For example, if your going to Honolulu, with the click of a button, you can re-rank the hotels in Honolulu to find the best one for pools and water fun, babysitting, kid’s camp, etc. This same function can be performed for airlines, cruise lines and adventure travel companies. “Whatever is important to the family traveler becomes the focus of their search reducing the time spent looking for a great vacation and increasing the changes of family vacation success,” adds Levine-Sauberman.

“The online travel market is crowded, yet rapidly growing,” says Chief Financial Officer and Co-founder, Jolienne Rutter. “We have an opportunity to tap into an expanding component of the ravel industry - families. With the increase in hours people are at their job and households in which both parents work, the desire to maximize the family travel experience is paramount,” she continues. Familyvacationcritics.com is based on a different model than the global distribution-type-aggregator-search engine systems that dominate many of the travel websites. This website focuses on attracting users by providing information in the form of easy to understand, accessible and relevant family critic ratings and comments of hotels, airlines, cruise lines and adventure travel companies. In addition, family specific travel deals, specials and tips are offered.

While in beta, family travelers are encouraged to visit the site and become critics. “We are really interested in getting feedback from families-our critics,” according to Andrea Levine, Chief Operations Officer and Co-founder. “This site is all about helping one another. We’re looking for maximum involvement by family travelers,” she added.

About Family Vacation Critics, Inc.

Family Vacation Critics, Inc. (FVC) is a privately held company that has launched the first website on the Internet to provide family specific ratings of hotels, airlines, cruise lines and adventure travel companies. Founded in 2004 by avid family travelers Monica Levine-Sauberman, Andrea Levine and Jolienne Rutter, FVC provides in-depth content on the family travel experience based on the reviews and comments of a community of family travelers-our critics.” FVC is headquartered in New York. For a press kit online visit us at http://www.familyvacationcritics.com, or call FVC at 201-391-1180