At Oyster, we’re constantly trying to innovate with our customers in mind. We want to make sure we’re always delivering the best experience and best product possible to you, because without you, there’d be no us. So we’re constantly examining how people are using our site and considering things we can do to make the experience that much better for you.
During the last 18 months we’ve noticed one very important trend: People’s monitors are getting bigger. Much bigger! So when we thought about what we could do to give you a better experience, one obvious thing popped into our minds – give you even bigger photos!
We know that you love our photos. So what we do now is simple: We detect the resolution of your monitor, and then we deliver a photo that’s as big as possible. When looking at our maps, the same technology applies: The bigger your monitor, the more map you’ll see. Over the coming weeks and months we plan to extend this to other parts of the site as well.
The image above gives you some idea of the change, but just go ahead and trust us: It’s bigger, better, and badder (in a good way)!
Chow down: One of America's favorite soups, very popular in our upcoming destination.
We’ll be launching hotel reviews from our latest destination in just a few days. And while we could come right out and tell you which U.S. city that is, what’s the fun in that? Instead, you’ll have to guess.
Your first hint is above: a classic American soup full of chunky seafood and hearty goodness (commonly served with our favorite carbohydrate: oyster crackers).
San Francisco. Cable cars, the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz, Haight-Ashbury, Coit Tower, Twin Peaks, the Palace of Fine Arts, the Ferry Building, Lombard Street, AT&T Park, Ghirardelli Square, Fisherman’s Wharf, Full House, and…hotels! Lots of them! Reviewed on Oyster! Right here!
A team of Oyster reporters visited and photographed almost 50 of the city’s most notable hotels. We slept in the beds, we ate in the restaurants; we tested the service and scoped out the neighborhoods. As always, we’ve organized the hotels both by their location — Fisherman’s Wharf, Nob Hill, SoMa/Financial District, Union Square — and by their standout qualities (best for romance and most luxurious, for example).
As we not-so-subtly hinted last week, we sent a team of reporters to review more than 50 of the top hotels in the Los Angeles area (including Beverly Hills, Hollywood, and Santa Monica). The properties we covered ranged from the ultra-luxe, like the Beverly Wilshire, to the quirky hidden gems like The Magic Castle and the trendy high-design hotels like the funky new SLS.
You can now enjoy the fruits of our labor — including plenty of Oyster recommendations, like our picks for the most kid-friendly hotels and the best spots to take in a bit of Hollywood history — in the brand new the LA portion of our site.
You may notice from our newly-tweaked navigation bar that we’ve also launched reviews of hotels in the US Virgin Islands and the Bahamas, too. Pop over to the homepage and get to flippin’ through the thousands of new photos and our freshest hotel reviews and travel guides to help you start planning your next trip.
Our reporters are almost always on the road reviewing hotels in new cities — sleeping in the beds, eating at the restaurants, checking out the pool scenes, and snapping thousands of photos of it all — and we’ll be launching plenty of new destinations on Oyster.com in the coming months.
So what’s in the pipeline? The photos below might help you guess which US city some of our reporters are mailing their postcards from.
Though we’re certain you don’t need to be reminded, photography is a major part of what we do at Oyster. Each of our reporters has gone through extensive photography training; they’ve taken each and every photo (100K+) you’ve seen on the site.
As the photo editor here at Oyster, my team and I have taught the reporters everything they know — and we’ve sifted through hundreds of thousands of photos to get to the ones you see on the site. Our new Travel Photography Tips series will share some of what we’ve learned along the way.
In the video above, I kick things off by explaining how to clean your Nikon D700 to ensure that your post-trip buzz isn’t killed by photos with unsightly lens smudges or dirt. (Note: these tips apply to almost any digital SLR – not just Nikons!)
In case you didn’t catch it, Oyster’s Senior Editor, Will Begeny, was on TV again. This time, he chatted with Better TV about the most popular hotels for celebrities in New York City.
Privacy, discreet service, and fancypants amenities are the major factors that the rich and famous consider when selecting a hotel — and we dish the dirt on the fanciest under-the-radar Big Apple properties that have seen the most famous faces.
Check out the video above, and be sure to take a peek at our lists of Celebrity Hotspot Hotels in New York, Las Vegas, and Miami.
This collection of all-inclusive resort bracelets belongs to one Oyster reporter. Seriously. Just one of us. The colorful display of classy plastic in this photo is what Briana R. calls her “Caribbean collection,” a dazzling and fashionable array of wrist accessories accumulated from the all-inclusive resorts she’s reviewed in the last few months.
Fly, fabulous, and free jewelry: just another perk of the Oyster reporting gig.
Insights and stories on travel from the company that brings you expert hotel reviews. Got a question, a hot tip or a cool idea? Email us. Also, visit our Founders' Blog or the new Tech Blog.
