HotelReviewScotland.com bought for £250,000

Independent hotel review website HotelReviewScotland.com (HRS) has been bought by hotel and web service operator Calinet in a deal worth £250,000.

HRS, which has more than 300 members, charges no commission for bookings and claims editorial independence for reviews of more than 300 "three-star and above" properties in Scotland.

It also operates the Scottish Hotels of the Year Awards, in which more than 20,000 people voted last year.

Calinet, which also owns tourist website DestinationScotland.com and has a turnover of around £2.3m a year, aims to grow the site "significantly" over the next year.

It said it planned to increase HRS's membership by at least 17% in 2007 and double user traffic to the site within the next 12 months. HotelReviewScotland.com was visited by 70,000 individuals during August of this year.

Robert Gilmour, managing director of Calinet confirmed HRS's editorial independence would be maintained.

"We want to help build the Scottish tourism market to be world class," he said.

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By Kerstin Kühn

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