FAQ
General
Please select an appropriate username and password with a minimum of four characters. After registering you will receive an email with an activation link.
Problems registering? Please write to us by filling out the contact form.
Here you can control all tools available on HolidayCheck.
The user profile is public!
You can limit or block access to your profile under the Privacy settings (Profile > Privacy). Search engines will only be able to find your username in relation to your forum posts. Your profile will not appear in search engines.
The stars indicate the level of travel experience of HolidayCheck users. In this way, it is easy to see how active users are, how many reviews they have submitted, pictures they have uploaded and so on.
Users are awarded with stars when they share their travel knowledge with others and in doing so gain points:
- 1 hotel review: 10 points
- 1 holiday picture: 1 point
- 1 travel video: 5 points
- 1 things to do review: 5 points
- 1 cruise ship review: 10 points
5 stars are awarded at 1000 points, 4 stars at 400 points,
3 stars at 200 points, 2 stars at 100 points and 1 star at 15 points.
Please bear in mind, it is important to be active in all three categories (hotel reviews, holiday pictures, travel videos). In the case that a user has, for example, uploaded hotel reviews, holiday pictures but no travel videos, one third of their points will be deducted. For example:
- 20 points for two hotel reviews
- 10 points for two holiday pictures
- 0 points for zero travel videos
- This would be equal to 30 points minus one third of the total points earned, due to the lack of a third category - thus 20 points.
Should a user only be active in one category, they should expect 2/3 of their points to be deducted. For example:
- 20 points for two hotel reviews
- 0 points for zero holiday pictures
- 0 points for zero travel videos
- This would be equal to 20 points minus two thirds of the total points earned, due to the lack of the second and third categories - thus 6.66 points.
myHolidayCheck tools
Here you can see your personal details and change them if you wish. You may also change your Privacy settings.
Here you will get an overview of all the contributions you submitted until now (reviews, pictures, etc.) and enter new ones directly and very easily:
- Hotel reviews: Your details will be taken from your user profile. In this way, the activation process from your email will no longer be necessary.
- Pictures/Videos: In the myHolidayCheck section you can assign pictures to your hotel reviews or to your travel tips without signing in again.
Here you will find the travel destinations you are currently monitoring (regions/cities/hotels), cruise ships and travel tips. You will receive an email about your monitored destinations as soon as new contributions are submitted.
Meet fellow travellers and get valuable information on the HolidayCheck forum.
(More info about the travel forum)
Forgot your account details?
Private messages
The user must have activated the 'allow contact' button. Only then the message icon will appear next to the username.
Either the other user hasn't allowed contact or you haven't. You can change the contact setting in the 'Privacy' section (Profile > Privacy).
Set the 'email notification' option in your profile. Go to 'Profile' and then to the 'Privacy' section. Click on 'Email in case of new messages'. You will receive a short email with a link to the message.
Buddy list
General
The hotel reviews at HolidayCheck reflect the genuine opinions and impressions of other travellers. In this way, those planning their holidays can gain a comprehensive picture of the advantages and
disadvantages of the hotels they're interested in.
The suns show you how well or badly a hotel was rated.
(6 suns= excellent... 1 sun= very poor)
Search for hotel reviews
Use our "search engine" to find a specific hotel.
Click through, beginning with the country, regions and cities up to the hotels of interest. We recommend these if you don't have a specific destination or just feel like browsing.
Submit a hotel review
Describe in your own words your experiences and opinions!
Attempt to formulate these as subjectively as possible ("I thought that…", "I didn't find the food particularly good" etc.). The more detail you include, such as what you liked or did not like,
the more useful your review will be for other users.
Do however bear in mind that your assertions cannot be objectively checked and thus must reflect the truth without exaggeration or embellishment.
It is strictly forbidden to use information from other users or websites in your review. In addition, we will not publish any illegal or criminal content. Should this be proved to be the case, HolidayCheck is bound by law to delete such content and notify the author.
Add a new hotel!
Click on "Enter hotel" and set the country, the region, and where possible, also the city. Simply enter the Hotel name in the corresponding field and click on "Enter hotel". The hotel will be added to our database.
Every review passes through a checking procedure before it is published. The release may therefore take up to three weeks during the high season.
Your review will normally remain permanently public and will be "archived" 25 months after the trip date. It will no longer be considered in the average rating, but it will remain online.
Add Pictures/Videos to your hotel review
Simply go to your submitted review and on the picture upload form. Here you can upload as many pictures as you want and assign them to the corresponding hotel. After matching you personal information, your pictures will be released and will be displayed next to your hotel review.
If you need any help with the picture uploads, read our FAQs in the holiday pictures section.
Simply go directly to your submitted review and on the video upload form.
Here you can upload as many videos as you want and assign them to the corresponding hotel.
After matching you personal information, your videos will be released and
will be displayed next to your hotel review.
If you need any help with the video uploads, read our FAQs in the travel videos section.
Edit, delete or report hotel reviews after they have been submitted
To edit your hotel review later, tell us about the changes you wish to make using our Contact form. Please remember to enter your review ID.
To delete your hotel review, simply send us a message using our Contact form. Please remember to enter your review ID.
Did you find a review that infringes the User Terms and Conditions? Please inform us through the Contact form. Please remember to enter the review ID.
General
We HolidayCheck users all want to contribute in giving a better picture of our holiday destinations with all the information they need for their next trip, just as our motto says:
From travellers for travellers.
No! This is not necessary. But you may register immediately and for free as a myHolidayCheck member (Information about registration).
After registering you can log in with your chosen username and password at any time and upload pictures or submit contributions. With this account you will benefit from the many advantages HolidayCheck offers (e.g. access to travel forum, use of monitoring agents, a faster release of your hotel reviews and the possibility to establish direct contact with other users and much more)
Search for holiday pictures
Use our "quick search" bar to find a picture for a specific subject.
Click through, beginning with the country, regions and cities up to the holiday pictures of interest. We recommend these if you don't have a specific destination or just feel like browsing.
Upload holiday pictures
Please upload only your own pictures and bear in mind that these will be used by others to gain information and insight.
Here we remind you once more that you agreed in our Terms of Use that you hold the rights of publication to any pictures you upload. In the case of pictures containing people, please make sure that they have agreed to the upload beforehand.
Our system supports all JPEG, GIF and PNG formats. The size of files should not exceed 15 MB. The image width should not be lower than 150 pixels.
You can upload pictures on HolidayCheck by
- clicking on the corresponding upload link.
- Click on "Browse computer."
- and choose your picture source (in your computer).
- To select multiple pictures hold the STRG (Shift) button.
- Click on "Open" and then on
- "upload picture".
- Assign a category to your pictures.
- Enter your personal details, because the picture upload needs to be finalised by clicking on a link in your email before it is released. (This is done for security purposes, to ensure that you are the owner or the author of the picture).
To be able to assign pictures to a correct category, we require some specific information:
- Where was the picture taken? Assign this picture to a ship, hotel etc...
- Give your picture a title and be as descriptive as possible, in order to provide viewers with the information they need.
- Assign your picture to one of the given themes, so that we can place it in the right category and subcategory and so that it is easy for others to find it.
Add a new hotel!
Click on "Enter hotel" and set the country, the region, and where possible, also the city. Simply enter the Hotel name in the corresponding field and click on "Enter hotel". The hotel will be added to our database.
Add a new cruise ship!
If your cruise ship is not on the list, click on "Enter cruise ship".
Set the ship type, enter the name and select the number of stars of the cruise ship.
Finally click on "Enter cruise ship" and it will be added to our cruise database.
Every picture passes through a checking procedure before it is published. The release may therefore take up to three weeks during the high season.
Your pictures will normally remain permanently public.
Simply go to your submitted review and on the picture upload form. Here you can upload as many pictures as you want and assign them to the corresponding hotel/cruise/travel tip. After matching you personal information, your pictures will be released and will be displayed automatically next to your review. A maximum of 5 pictures may be directly displayed next to your reviews. Any additional picture will be assigned to the hotel/cruise/travel tip.
Edit or delete pictures after they have been submitted
To edit your travel picture later, tell us about the changes you wish to make using the Contact form. Please remember to enter the picture ID.
To delete your travel picture, simply send us a message using the Contact form. Please remember to enter the picture ID.
Rate, comment or report pictures
As a registered user of myHolidayCheck, you can rate all holiday pictures on HolidayCheck on a range from 1-6. To do so, click on view the enlarged picture and then on "rate picture". Your rating will be then factored into an average with all the other ratings. It is not possible to rate a picture more than once.
As a registered user you can comment on all pictures on HolidayCheck. Click on the enlarged picture and then on "comment picture".
If you find any pictures containing errors, illegal content, or pictures that have been uploaded twice, please report this picture by clicking on the button "Report picture" or contact us directly
using the Contact form. Please remember to enter the picture ID, so that the Content team
can check and delete the reported picture.
General
We HolidayCheck users all want to contribute in giving a better picture on our holiday destinations with our travel videos. Travellers can upload their digital holiday memories for free on HolidayCheck, and put them at users' disposal. You will help fellow travellers get all the information they need for their next trip, just as our motto says: From travellers for travellers.
No! This is not necessary. But you may register immediately and for free as a myHolidayCheck member (Information on registration).
After registering you can log in with your chosen username and password at any time and upload videos or submit contributions. With this account you will benefit from the many advantages HolidayCheck offers (e.g. access to travel forum, use of monitoring agents and faster release of
your hotel reviews, establish direct contact with other users and much more)
Search for travel videos
Use our "quick search" bar to find a travel video for a specific subject.
Click through the country, region and city sites right up to those of travel videos that could be of interest to you. This is recommended when you have no particular destination in mind or just feel like browsing.
Upload travel videos
Please only upload only your own videos and bear in mind that these will be used by others to gain information and insight.
Here we remind you once more that you agreed in our Terms of Use that you hold the rights of publication to any videos you upload. In the case of videos containing people, please make sure that they have agreed to the upload beforehand.
Our system supports all the most common video formats (AVI, .mpg, .3gp 'AMR' and 'MP4' audio, .Mp4, .VOD (for DVDs), .MOV (also MP4 audio files), .WMV (also AC2 audio files), .RM (real Media) not larger than 100 MB. The video should not be longer than 10 min.
You can upload videos on HolidayCheck by
- clicking on the corresponding upload link.
- Click on "Browse computer"
- and choose your video source (in your computer).
- To select multiple videos hold the STRG (Shift) button.
- Click on "Open" and then on
- "upload video".
- Assign a category to your videos.
- Enter your personal details, because the video upload needs to be finalised by clicking on a link in your email before it is released. (This is done for security purposes, to ensure that you are the owner or the author of the video).
To be able to assign your videos to a correct category, we require some specific information:
- Where was the video filmed? Assign this video to a ship, hotel etc...
- Give your video a title and be as descriptive as possible, in order to provide viewers with the information they need.
- Assign your video to one of the given themes, so that we can place it in the right category and subcategory and so that it is easy for others to find it.
Add a new hotel!
Click on "Enter hotel" and set the country, the region, and where possible, also the city. Simply enter the Hotel name in the corresponding field and click on "Enter hotel". The hotel will be added to our hotel database.
Add a new cruise ship!
If your cruise ship is not on the list, click on "Enter cruise ship". Set the ship type, enter the name and select the "number of stars of the cruise ship". Finally click on "Enter cruise ship" and it will be added to our cruise database.
Every video passes through a checking procedure before it is published. The release may therefore take up to three weeks during the high season.
Your videos will normally remain permanently public.
Simply go directly to your submitted review and on the video upload form. Here you can upload as many videos as you want and assign them to the corresponding hotel/cruise/travel tip.
After matching you personal information, your videos will be released and will be displayed automatically next to your review. A maximum of 5 videos will be directly displayed next to your reviews. Any additional video will be assigned to the hotel/cruise/travel tip.
Edit or delete videos after they have been submitted
To edit your travel video later, tell us about the changes you wish to make using the contact form under the information on the video ID.
To delete your travel video, simply send us a message using the contact form. Please remember to enter the video ID.
Rate, comment report videos
As a registered user of myHolidayCheck, you can rate all travel videos on a range from 1-6. To do so, click on the video overview and then on the "rate video" button. Your rating will be then factored into an average with all the other ratings. It is not possible to rate a picture more than once.
As a registered user you can comment all travel videos on HolidayCheck. Click on the detailed view of the video and on "comment video".
If you find any videos containing errors, illegal content, or videos that have been uploaded twice, please report this video by clicking on the button "report video" or contact us directly using the contact form. Please tell us the video ID, so that the Content team can check and delete the
reported video.
History
There is a personal experience behind the idea of HolidayCheck. Markus Schott, the company's founder, planned a holiday in the Caribbean in 1999. He found an offer in a last-minute office of his town, but wanted more information on the hotel. Markus then seached for this information on the net and landed on a Canadian's website who had collected information on hotels in the Dominican Republic. "Great site!" he thought, "what a pity that it's not written in German". This is how he decided to create a service with offers for as many hotels and locations as possible. HolidayCheck was born.
HolidayCheck is a leading, independent online portal for hotel reviews including an online travel agency, and offers a highly-specialised internet site for hotels and travel information worldwide. Every user can the chance to discover facts about their destination and chosen hotel that they would not otherwise have found in a catalogue.
Since 2006, HolidayCheck has been affiliated with TOMORROW FOCUS AG, one of the leading providers of digital media content in Germany. The main shareholder is the Hubert Burda Media publishing house.
The company is located in Bottighofen, on the Swiss border on the banks of Lake Constance. The team currently consists of more than 100 employees.
Rating system
Suns show you, how well or badly a hotel was rated.
(6 suns = excellent ... 1 sun = very poor)
The anchors show you, how well or badly a cruise ship was rated.
(6 anchors = excellent ... 1 anchor = very poor)
The stars show the travel experience of the HolidayCheck user. This way you can quickly see how active the user is in reviewing hotels, uploading pictures and videos. (Learn how to earn stars here.)
Security and Privacy
The transmission of personal data will be encrypted via the SSL (128-bit Secure Socket Layer). In this way, third-parties will not be able to see your data while they are transmitted. In addition to this, to ensure secure data transmission, the access to our server is also protected by security mechanisms.
The protection of your privacy is very important to us! Your details (first name, last name, address, phone number and email address) you submit when booking will be transmitted immediately to the tour operator or to the service provider. They will be responsible for your trip. Other people or companies will not receive your information. (More about privacy)
Additional answers
In our travel Community you you can learn all about your holiday plans in advance, get in touch with other travellers as well as share your experiences. Register now for free!
HolidayCheck runs the largest German speaking travel forum with a lively, international community.
HolidayCheck is not responsible for the accuracy of hotel positions on the map.
Did you find a review, a picture, a video, etc. that infringes the User Terms and Conditions? Please inform us through the Contact form. Please remember to enter the Content ID.
For Card Partners
HolidayCheck is the leading German travel and holiday portal. Travellers submit information and which are useful for other travellers.
Our key tools are reviews and pictures taken in hotels, and the possibility to get directly in touch with other users.
Additional services are travel tips, with which travellers may rate and describe excursions and other attractions they experienced on holiday.
Thanks to the travel tips, the descriptions and the experience of fellow travellers, users can start planning their favourite period of the year directly from home.
The HolidayCheck Card was created both for HolidayCheck clients, who have booked a package holidays in one of our online travel agencies, and for active HolidayCheck members.
There are already some 150.000 cards in circulation.
HolidayCheck Card members benefit from Extras in their holiday destination.
This means discounts, reductions or extra services in different fields, such as excursions, restaurants, wellness treatments and much more.
Tour operators or agencies usually receive a commission for every registered member.
With the HolidayCheck Card clients will be updated on available offers on HolidayCheck.
Commissions are normally paid by customers.
The Extra will be determined by the Card Partner. This can be either a discount or an extra service, such as, for example, two drinks for the price of one. To be attractive, a discount should be of at least 10%.
This way all parties involved will benefit from the Card:
- HolidayCheck will be able to pamper its customers with extra services.
- HolidayCheck customers will benefit from interesting Extras on their holidays.
- Excursion organizers will get more customers and more attention.
A simple principle and an added value for all.
You can register with the Card Partner account and enter the Extras.
Go on www.holidaycheck.com
- Go to the 'Service' tab on the right border of the page and click on 'For Card Partners'
- This page will take you to a quick overview on the advantages that the HolidayCheck Card offers.
- Cick on the 'Register now for free' button on the right border of the registration form. Please enter your personal details as well as information on your travel tips and confirm by simply clicking on 'Create a free account'.
- Finally, you will receive an email. Click on the link you will find to confirm your email address. We require you to follow
- After that you will be able to log in to your CardPartner account using your user-ID or your email address.
this step in order to check your details.
Under the 'Communication & Marketing – Card Extras' section you can now enter your Extras (discounts, reductions, extra services) as a short text.
Please bear in mind that each Extra you enter will be first checked by our Card Team before it is activated. This process may take up to 48 hours.
Our service is totally free both for customers and for our Card Partners!
Your advantages:
- No costs
- Create customer awareness
- Your Extras will be conveniently presented
- You will receive a direct feedback through reviews
- On-site advantages compared to competitors
- More customers in the long-tern
- Over 2 million hotel reviews
- Over 91.000 travel tips
- 15 million visitors per month
- 91 price comparisons for tour operators
- Website available in 10 languages (.de, .com, .fr, .it, .es, .pl, .ru, .nl, .cn, .cz)
For hoteliers
The HotelManager is totally free of charge. We wish to give everyone the possibility to take advantage of our website while keeping faith with our neutrality.
- Make use of the HotelManager application to best present your hotel and to keep your guests informed about updates and developments.
- Recommend HolidayCheck to your guests to show you appreciate both criticism and praise.
- Add our logo to your hotel's homepage and create a link to HolidayCheck, making it easier for your guests to write and submit reviews.
- Use our printing templates to present HolidayCheck when they check out.
Please don't. We receive information on your hotel from different tour operators. Send these updates to them and we will be immediately informed.
Probably no one uploaded pictures or videos of your hotel yet. Use the picture tool in HotelManager to submit your own pictures or videos and put them online.
Please send an email to hotel@holidaycheck.de and inform us about the changes you want to make.
If you have a contract with one of the tour operators present on our website, your hotel will be automatically bookable on HolidayCheck. Otherwise register your hotel on www.booking.com to be bookable on HolidayCheck.
HolidayCheck sources the star-ratings of all hotels from Traveltainment. Of all information given by the tour operators, the star-rating average is calculated and displayed on our webpage. It may happen that one of your tour operators is not up to date, hence influencing our calculations. Please note: if the tour operators have the correct information on your hotel, we will automatically be updated too.
HolidayCheck sources all tour operator data from GIATA in Berlin, Germany. GIATA compiles, administers and distributes all digital image and textdata of almost all German tour operators.
Prerequisite: Your hotel already holds a GIATA code.You may check that by clicking on http://www.extranethotelguide.de
If you already own a GIATA code please address GIATA for any changes:
GIATA mbH
Schlesische Straße 26
D-10997 Berlin
Phone: +49-30-420 265 0
Fax: +49-30-420 265 19