Just an hour and one half drive into the Mexican border, Valle de Guadalupe, Mexico's Napa Valley, awaits you. Brendan Berkson, or Hotels Above Par, shares his insights into the region using his 1, 2, 3 signature format. Watch this on YouTube: https://youtu.be/lIRcQ62jz0k
Format:
M: Would you please take a minute to introduce yourself and Hotels Above Par?
B: My name is Brandon Berkson. I am a travel and hotel enthusiast, who splits his time between New York and San Diego. Additionally, I'm the Founder of Hotels Above Par: an expert-curated guide with under-two-minute articles for the hip traveler who is short on time.
Hotels Above Pay is known for our around-300-word articles, which are, in their entirety, posted on our Instagram, website, and newsletter. We’ve had a range of great travel journalists write for us — including Katherine Parker-Magyar and Katy Spratte Joyce. I know they both appeared on this podcast!
M: What is your backstory? Hotels Above Par is a very new but very successful venture. How did you get from your previous work into Hotels Above Par full time?
B: Since I was a kid, I always knew I wanted to work in travel and hotels
My first hotel job was a front desk associate and bellboy at a boutique property in San Francisco. Eventually, I landed travel and hospitality PR positions in Paris, London, and New York City.
Most recently, I was working at a Travel PR firm in New York; however, this was upended in April 2020 as I was furloughed like so many in the industry. I was devastated, but knew I wanted to support hotels during a time they needed love most. I wanted them to feel relevant and talked about during this dark period.
I created Hotels Above Par’s (HAP) around-300-word format, designed to capture one’s interest in this world we live in; as everyone knows, there is an overabundance of content competing for our attention every day. One year later (we just had our first birthday), I’m grateful to share we have over 65,000 IG followers, 17,000+ newsletter subscribers, and 23,000+ monthly unique visitors on our website.