The Daily Herald is Suburban Chicago's Information Source, and only independant newspaper, with a circulation of 150,000.

Published on the Daily Herald on Sunday, September 1 2002

Web site gives accurate accommodations details
BY JUDY BABCOCK WYLIE
Daily Herald Correspondent

Booking vacation accommodations online can be a tricky business, as you are never sure the rooms are as fresh as they look in the Web photos, or whether the part of town where the hotel is located is truly charming or plainly unsafe. It's especially hard when you're booking a room in another country.
Stefano Galastri, CEO and founder of WorldBy.Com, offers help, with nine regional Web sites with exhaustive content on its selection of castles, villas, hotels and farmhouses (30-40 photos of each property, for example, covering 1,200 selected European properties).
He came up with the idea when he booked a New York hotel online through a popular online discount travel provider. Says Stefano, "It seemed perfectly acceptable on their Web site, but when I got to New York it was very, very dirty, sub-standard and bore no relation at all to what I had seen online."
At WorldBy.Com the focus is on quality, and he and his staff visit every property to be sure each is up to their standards. The site puts customers directly in contact with the reservations manager at the property they inquire about. "This ensures that our customers get the best price the property can offer and a high level of customer care direct from the property."
Go directly to the Web site of your favorite region: www.AmsterdamBy.Com , www.ItalyBy.Com , www.RivieraBy.Com, www.ParisBy.Com , www.VeniceBy.Com, www.RomeBy.Com , www.Tuscany.Net, www.LondonBy.Com and www.FlorenceBy.Com