When I read about SpottedbyLocals.com, which aims to help readers “experience cities like a local”, I thought what a great idea, as I’m all for seeing beyond the usual tourist destinations when travelling. Bart van Poll, co-founder of Spotted by Locals talks to Europe a la Carte.

Spotted by Locals founders, Bart and Sanne van Poll

1 What is the aim of your blog?

Spotted by Locals is a publisher of 21 cityblogs. On these cityblogs, locals write about their favorite spots (bars, restaurants, art & culture, places to relax, etc.) in the city they love.

With our cityblogs, we aim to make travelers experience cities like a local. Our aim is to make travelers learn about other cultures and habits, by making travelers experience places like a local would. We are convinced that understanding other cultures makes the world a better place. We hope we can make a modest contribution…

Our blogs are not for everybody. It’s usually experienced travelers who are attracted to our cityblogs. They are looking for a different, more authentic experience then just visiting the highlights…

Another mission of ours is to help launch the careers of our talented Spotters. Many of them are aspiring journalists, writers or photographers. We have already been able to publish their names and pictures in other publications like Le Monde (France) Guardian, Bild (Germany), Blick (Switzerland) and La Vanguardia (Spain)

As for our concept; we think a few things makes us different from our “competitors”.

First of all, tips are written by “real” locals (“Spotters”), who speak the local language. Not by travelers or professional writers, like in most travel guides and on user generated travel websites. Visitors can see who’s the person behind the articles, because all Spotters have a personal profile and picture on the cityblogs. Spotters are not motivated by money, but write because they love the city they live in, and want to share their passion for their city! We handpick all Spotters ourselves, after a personal meeting in their city.

All our tips are always up-to-date. Our Spotters only write about places they visit regularly, and update the information in the article whenever necessary. Which is usually very often, because spots tend to change a lot! The problem with a paper guidebook, is that they often cannot keep up with the rapid changes in a city.

Finally, all tips are in English. Most individual city-bloggers write in their native language

2 What prompted you to start your blog?

We are mad about traveling. and experiences other cultures. We visited more than 40 countries together since we met in 1998. We married in 2006.

A perfect life for us would mean lots of traveling together, meeting new people all around the world, while also contributing a bit to a better world. This future dream, together with a belief in the concept (see next paragraph) made us start Spotted by Locals.

Sanne sold her company at the beginning of 2008, the same time I quit my job. Since then, we’ve both been working full-time on Spotted by Locals

3 What has been the hardest aspect of having your own blog?

There are so many enthusiastic people, passionate about their city, who want to become a Spotter! We get e-mails from all over the world, from Accra (Ghana) to Vilnius (Lithuania). As we focus on quality, we want to meet all Spotters before they start. We make a strict selection in the people we meet, as we only want 3 to 6 Spotters per city. It’s often very difficult to disappoint enthusiastic people that want to become a Spotter for the love of their city.

4 What is the funniest thing that has happened to you running your blog?

A few months ago, Pedro Ghinaglia, one of our Barcelona cityblog bloggers (“Spotters”) told us a very funny story. He was sitting in one of his favorite spots, that he obviously wrote about on the Barcelona cityblog. Two German speaking people sat next to him, and started talking about the Spotted by Locals tips they had printed out. Pedro was very excited when he heard this. He approached them, and told them that he was one of the Barcelona Spotters! They had a very nice evening together, and now Pedro has friends in Austria!

5 Is there anything you would do differently with the benefit of hindsight?

It’s a boring answer maybe, but: no. All the phases we have gone though up until now, have been a lot of fun, and quite succesful. The next phase we’re just starting, attracting sponsors and advertisers, will be a new interesting challenge though I think.

My comments

Thanks for talking to Europe a la Carte, Bart. I hope that all goes smoothly with the further development of SpottedbyLocals.com. It is a challenge to attract sponsors and advertisers. It’s all very well to create great content, as you have, but if you are both working full time on the business you need to see a financial return for your time and effort.