Wikitravel talk:Welcome, business owners/New
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We welcome people involved in travel related businesses to join our community. Everyone is invited to participate in our guide's development and decision making. Everyone is invited to use and share the information in our guide.
[edit] Contribute to our guide
Have a quick look at our style guide, and some of our star articles. This should give you a quick idea of the format of our guide, and the information we collect. Please feel free to plunge forward, and add information on getting in, things to see and do, spots to eat and drink, and places to stay.
We would love any inside tips you have to offer, or special insights to add to the traveller's experience. The traveller always comes first at Wikitravel.
There are many other people working in the travel industry here making valuable contributions to our guide.
[edit] Share our guide
You are welcome to take a copy of our guide, and distribute it to others. You may place a copy on your website, or print out our maps or guides and leave them on a table in the foyer - provided you follow a couple of legal requirements. Make sure you read our copyleft information first.
[edit] Adding a listing
In order to be fair there are a few guidelines that you should follow if you are adding a listing for a business you are involved with (as an owner, employee or agent).
Firstly, check that your business is one of the types of business we list on Wikitravel. If you a listing a tour, carefully read our policy on tours. If you are listing a travel agent, or accommodation booking agent, carefully read our policy on external links, and accommodation listings. If you are listing another guide, carefully read our policy on linking to other guides.
If the business is okay to list, remember to please stick to the facts. Don't attempt to write your own review. Other travellers will come along and add their opinions in due course. Don't use promotional language, or write a listing that sounds like an advert. List the name, price, and what facilities exist. There is no need to list the city or town if it is the same as the name of the guide. Make sure you use the standard formatting for a listing.
Please create an account, and let people know the business you are involved in on your user page.
If you don't follow these guidelines, your addition may be reverted. This isn't necessarily because we don't value your information, but unfortunately our guide receives a large quantity of business listings, and our recent changes patrollers don't always have time to rewrite each one.
Remember that there are many wikitravellers working to make our free guide the best one out there. This means that we only want a few good places listed to recommend to travellers, and not to make a complete list. There is no entitlement to have a business listing on wikitravel, and just because a there are other similar businesses or competitors listed doesn't always mean that your listing will stay.
Remember any information you add can and will be edited by others. Although every individual's contribution is of value, the guide is made up of many thousands of such contributions, and you will only have a small influence over how your listing eventually ends up.
[edit] Dealing with competitors
Please take care when dealing with competitors information. Even if it is inaccurate or against policy, please just make a note on the article talk page for someone else to update it. Never remove or change information for a competitor.
[edit] Building relationships
You are welcome to create an account, and describe your business on your user page. Contributing quality and useful travel information to our guide will hopefully reflect positively on your business. The community may decide that a cooperative business that works well on wiki, would be a good business to patronise when travelling.
On the other hand touting, engaging in edit wars, or changing competitor information may also reflect negatively on a business. When the Wikitravel community are looking for good businesses to place in our guides, they may assume that the attitude taken on Wikitravel may represent the real world attitude of the business. The community may decide that businesses that engage in anti-social behaviour are not appropriate to list in our guides.
