Wikivoyage:Accommodation listings
Contents |
Every traveler needs a place to rest her head. In fact, it is so important that Sleep is one of the few sections that is absolutely required in every one of our travel guides. As such, virtually every destination article will need to make use of accommodation listings. We have a standardized format for such listings, and a template, Template:Sleep, to help you format them.
Formatting listings [edit]
When listing hotels or other Sleep options in a destination, use the following format.
- Name of Hotel (local or alternative name), Address (extra directions if necessary), ☎ +91-22-2222-1234, fax: +91-22-2222-1235, e-mail: fakeemail@example.com. Check-in: Time, check-out: Time. One to five sentences about why this attraction is worth seeing, things to pay special attention to, warnings, notes, historical or other background information. $lowprice-highprice.
Here's the Wiki markup:
* {{sleep
| name=Name of Hotel | alt=local or alternative name | url=http://www.example.com | email=fakeemail@example.com
| address=Address | lat=latitude | long=longitude | directions=extra directions if necessary
| phone=+91-22-2222-1234 | tollfree= | fax=+91-22-2222-1235
| price=$lowprice-highprice
| checkin=Time | checkout=Time
| content=One to five sentences about why this attraction is worth seeing, things to pay
special attention to, warnings, notes, historical or other background information.
}}
The fields used in this template are:
- name
- The name of the accommodation. Don't include the city name unless it's needed for clarity.
- alt
- If the accommodation has a significantly different name in the local language, add it here. Non-Latin scripts like Japanese, Devanagari, Cyrillic etc can be used.
- address
- Street and number of the accommodation, plus district if applicable. No postcode, and don't repeat the city name. If the city is different (for example, in a suburb), add that, too. Abbreviate "Road", "Street", "Avenue", etc.
- directions
- Additional (local) directions for how to find the accommodation (if necessary). Do not include directions to the (article) destination in a <sleep> listing .
- phone
- Direct telephone number of the accommodation. Phone numbers should be in international format (like "+1 514 555-1000" or, for areas with 10 digit dialing: "+1 514 555-1000").
- E-mail address of the accommodation.
- fax
- Fax number of the accommodation.
- checkin
- Earliest allowed check-in time. Days should be abbreviated (M Tu W Th F Sa Su), times should be in one of these formats: 9:30AM-5PM or 09:30-17:00. Do not use both formats within one article. It can be assumed that time is in the local timezone. Don't include checkin and checkout times unless they deviate substantially from the norm (14:00-16:00 checkin, 10:00-13:00 checkout). And please don't include the dates you are checking in and checking out - this information has to be general in order to benefit other travellers.
- checkout
- Latest allowed check-out time.
- price
- The rack rate/standard price of a typical double room in the currency in which payment must be made. If there are substantial differences in room types (e.g. dorms bed and single rooms) list brief room descriptions and their respective costs. Do not give a per person cost when twin share is necessary to obtain that rate, eg: $20 per person, when a double room costs $40. If the currency is given in non-local units (eg: US dollars in a non-US location), be sure to specify the units completely: eg: "US$150" or "USD 150" for US dollars, or "CAD 100" for Canadian dollars.
- url
- Link to the official website for the hotel or accommodation. Include the http://. If there's no official Web site, just leave that part out.
- lat
- Latitude.
- long
- Longitude.
- content
- One to three sentences about the service, atmosphere, view, rooms, what have you.
All fields above are optional except for "name". If you don't know some information, just leave that field empty, then somebody else can add those details later. Please do not delete any unused listing fields, change the name of the fields or add any extra ones. Doing so may create display irregularities and will certainly frustrate future edits and the addition of extra information to the listing.
Email addresses and phone numbers that don't match the sleep listing's website URL-domain name will be viewed with suspicion and may be removed. Include only the official website for the listing where possible to allow verification. If there is an email address associated with the same domain name as the website then use that in the listing in preference to a hotmail, gmail, yahoo or similar address.
Examples [edit]
This listing:
* {{sleep
| name=Hotel Eldorado | alt= | url=http://www.eldoradohotel.fr | email=eldoradohotel@wanadoo.fr
| address=rue des Dames 18 | lat= | long= | directions=17th, metro: Place de Clichy
| phone=+33 1 4522 3521 | tollfree= | fax=+33 1 4387 2597
| price=€23/39 - €49/79 (singles/doubles) | checkin= | checkout=
| content=The Eldorado, a former ''maison de rendez-vous'', was once home to the kept women
of the 19th century bourgeois. Now a very cute ''no'' star hotel, its charm more
than makes up for what it lacks in amenities (who needs a TV in Paris anyway?). The
staff is super friendly, the décor is garage sale chic, and there’s a lovely
courtyard that fills with neighbourhood hipsters on warm evenings. It also has a
very good location & you can easily avoid the noise of Pigalle or Montmartre's high
prices, but they’re within stumble distance if you decide to explore. For
early risers breakfast (€5, until 10:00) is served in the attached restaurant/bar.
Some English spoken, especially for those who pet the cat sprawled across the
reception desk.
}}
...shows up like this:
- Hotel Eldorado, rue des Dames 18 (17th, metro: Place de Clichy), ☎ +33 1 4522 3521, fax: +33 1 4387 2597, e-mail: eldoradohotel@wanadoo.fr. The Eldorado, a former maison de rendez-vous, was once home to the kept women of the 19th century bourgeois. Now a very cute no star hotel, its charm more than makes up for what it lacks in amenities (who needs a TV in Paris anyway?). The staff is super friendly, the décor is garage sale chic, and there’s a lovely courtyard that fills with neighbourhood hipsters on warm evenings. It also has a very good location & you can easily avoid the noise of Pigalle or Montmartre's high prices, but they’re within stumble distance if you decide to explore. For early risers breakfast (€5, until 10:00) is served in the attached restaurant/bar. Some English spoken, especially for those who pet the cat sprawled across the reception desk. €23/39 - €49/79 (singles/doubles).
This listing:
* {{sleep
| name=Yinbo Hotel | alt=金波大酒店 | url= | email=
| address=135 Tiantong Road | lat= | long= | directions=across the bridge on the north side of the Bund
| phone=+86 21 6356 6288 | tollfree= | fax=+86 21 6325 7555
| price=¥338 | checkin= | checkout=
| content=Typical nondescript mid-range hotel.
}}
...shows up like this:
- Yinbo Hotel (金波大酒店), 135 Tiantong Road (across the bridge on the north side of the Bund), ☎ +86 21 6356 6288, fax: +86 21 6325 7555. Typical nondescript mid-range hotel. ¥338.
Rental listings [edit]
Wikivoyage is neither an apartment-finder service nor a real estate listing service, so in general real estate and rental agency listings are not allowed. The only exception to this rule is for locations where rental properties are a common form of travel accommodation and the following requirements are met:
- Consensus must be achieved on the article's talk page that rental listings should be allowed. When trying to build consensus provide some evidence that rental properties are commonly used by travelers to the destination and that their addition will improve the article. Please do not argue the merits of any particular company, but instead focus on the value of such accommodation for travelers to the destination city/region.
- If consensus is achieved, rental agency listings must be placed into a separate sub-section of the article's "Sleep" section.
- Agency listings must include a local address with a phone number that specifies the physical address at the destination for picking up the keys, managing the property and/or resolving rental issues. This address must also be prominently displayed on the agency web site.
- Apartments or cabins must be available for rentals of one week or less - remember, Wikivoyage is a travel guide, not an apartment-finder service.
The general guidelines for accommodation listings apply to these listings as well, that is long lists should be avoided, and information should be concise and relevant to the traveler.
Avoid listing nearest attractions [edit]
Accommodation owners frequently give detailed list of attractions that their property is "close to". We don't welcome it here at Wikivoyage:
- it is difficult to judge which hotel is more convenient to a particular attraction,
- it overloads listing text with details irrelevant for many travelers,
- "nearby attractions" lists, such as those found on hotel web sites, are pretty much identical for any given hotel in the same area of a city
- properties routinely abuse this by listing every attraction in the city, or even other towns in a region, regardless of proximity
By all means, if the hotel is attached to a particular attraction (or, say, inside the airport), mention that—but keep it to just what makes the hotel unique. Instead of writing a long flowery description of the many attractions near the property, contribute detailed latitude and longitude coordinates for the property (see Wikivoyage:Geocoding)—it will be much more helpful for a traveler choosing a place to stay.
Avoid using images [edit]
Images of accommodation, including hotels and their bedrooms, are generally not used. The only exceptions are if the hotel is a well-known attraction in its own right, or if the type of accommodation is unusual and unique to the region. In the second case, identifying the lodgings where the picture was taken by name is not necessary.
Compilation from external sources [edit]
If the Sleep section of a destination articles is unfilled even after the other sections are complete, you might consider compiling material from external sources.
The name and contact details should be obtained from the official web site.
The description can be derived from an impression of the reviews that you have read, together with some facts from the official page, but you should not copy somebody else's words into Wikivoyage. Avoid listing establishments where the reviews are overly negative.
Here's an idea of what a listing compiled from reviews might look like:
- Hotel del Sol, 44 Ramblas del sol, ☎ 55 555 55 55. This hotel rates well with young couples, who like the heated lagoon pool, and basement bar open late. Water pressure is low in the shared showers. The rooms facing the sea are said to have wonderful views, but avoid #29 which is behind the neighboring building's television aerial. 30-50€.
Note that the origin of the ideas in the listing are clearly from reviews, but that the words are not. The detail about the TV antenna could be a close call, but only if the words are copied. The presence of the antenna, and its marring of the view from a particular room, would be facts which are free from copyright.
Avoid long lists [edit]
| This guide uses the following price ranges for a standard double room: | |
| Budget | Under 50 zorkmids |
| Mid-range | 50-100 zorkmids |
| Splurge | Over 100 zorkmids |
Wikivoyage is a travel guide, not the yellow pages. A long undifferentiated list of hotels is only marginally useful to the traveler. A general rule of thumb is that lists should contain 5-9 items, and when they exceed that length it is time to consider breaking them up or pruning them.
Breaking up lists [edit]
- Use districts: Large cities are broken up into districts and accommodation listings go in district articles or district subsections. Listings in a main article of a huge city should be avoided.
- Use price ranges: Accommodation lists should use the sub-headings "Budget", "Mid-range" and "Splurge", with the rough price brackets indicated with the {{sleeppricerange|Budget range|Mid-range|Splurge range}} template.
- Create other suitable subdivisions: Further subdivisions within district and price categories can be invented as you go along, whatever suits the location:
-
- by neighbo[u]rhood, which can be more fine-grained than districts.
- by location — "around the train station", "on the beach"...
- by season — a few hotels for when it is not busy and a list of fallbacks for peak times.
- by type — reduce the main body of "hotel" listings by splitting lodging to make "youth hostel", "campground", "cabins", "motel", "bed and breakfast" or "resort" into individual subsections.
- by style — Western vs traditional or party animal vs meditation student.
- These are just examples; invent your own as needed.
Pruning accommodation lists [edit]
Once these strategies have been taken, it may be time to start pruning the list.
- Try to ensure there are a range of accommodation styles, prices and locations for the traveller to choose from.
- Consider removing unreliable listings. Ones that contain effusive, meaningless or touting language.
- Consider removing listings that are unhelpful to the traveller; that omit price or location information, have a poor quality description or no description at all.
Listing order [edit]
Alphabetical order should be the norm within each section. If another standard is used, it should be clearly stated so any new listing can be added to the appropriate place. Leading articles, such as "The", or "A", in the accommodation name should be ignored for the purposes of determining the order.
