Holiday Watchdog is a UK-based travel website which is part of the TripAdvisor

TripAdvisor

TripAdvisor.com is a travel website that assists customers in gathering travel information, posting reviews and opinions of travel-related content and engaging in interactive travel forums. It is part of the TripAdvisor Media Group, operated by Expedia, Inc. TripAdvisor is a pioneer of...

 Media Group and hosts user-generated

User-generated content

User generated content covers a range of media content available in a range of modern communications technologies. It entered mainstream usage during 2005 having arisen in web publishing and new media content production circles...

 hotel reviews.

The site primarily focuses on Mediterranean and beach holidays with an emphasis on destinations such as Egypt

Egypt

Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

, Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

, Portugal

Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

, Cyprus

Cyprus

Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...

, Greece

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

 and Turkey

Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

 as well as more exotic locations in the Caribbean

Caribbean

The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...

 and Asia Pacific. It is because of this that a majority of the review content on Holiday Watchdog is for hotels offering package deals and catering for either the Club 18-30

Club 18-30

Club 18-30 is a holiday company owned by Thomas Cook that offers cut-price holidays for young men and women who seek a more lively holiday than those offered by many large package holiday providers. It takes around 110,000 guests each year with turnover of around £50m a year...

 or classic family holidays in typically British and European holiday destinations such as Magaluf

Magaluf

Magaluf is a major holiday resort on the Spanish island of Majorca, primarily catering for the British, German and Scandinavian package holiday market. Magaluf is in the municipality of Calvià and is situated within a group of towns, primarily Torrenova and Palma Nova...

, Ibiza

Ibiza

Ibiza or Eivissa is a Spanish island in the Mediterranean Sea 79 km off the coast of the city of Valencia in Spain. It is the third largest of the Balearic Islands, an autonomous community of Spain. With Formentera, it is one of the two Pine Islands or Pityuses. Its largest cities are Ibiza...

, Ayia Napa

Ayia Napa

Ayia Napa is a resort at the far eastern end of the southern coast of Cyprus, famous for its sandy beaches. In recent years, apart from being a family holiday destination, it has become a 'party capital' together with Ibiza, Rimini and Mykonos...

, Benidorm

Benidorm

Benidorm is a coastal town and municipality located in the comarca of Marina Baixa, in the province of Alicante, Valencian community, Spain, by the Western Mediterranean....

 and in more recent years, Sharm El Sheikh.

Users are able to review and rate holiday accommodations out of 10 as well as the having the option to upload personal holiday photographs alongside their reviews. The site also offers a holiday discussion forum where users can share information about travel related experiences.

History

The site was originally set up by Chris Brown and Chris Clarkson who met on a forum for affiliate marketers. Chris Brown came up with the idea for a review website whilst working at lastminute.com

Lastminute.com

lastminute.com is an online travel and leisure retailer. The company was founded by Martha Lane Fox and Brent Hoberman in 1998 and became an icon of the UK internet boom of the late 1990s, floating at the peak of the dot com bubble and trading on the London Stock Exchange under the symbol...

. After launching the site in December 2003 it became an official company in April 2004. In February 2008 the site was bought by TripAdvisor.