halaltrip out to be “the” islamic travel guide

We have worked really hard over the last 6 months on http://www.halaltrip.com but finally launched to public a couple days ago. Users can now easily rate hotels around the world helping to create the most transparent travel source for Muslims. Each hotel profile includes information about serving alcohol and Halal Food, the availability of ladies-only facilities like pools or prayer facilities. Some personal thoughts…

Summer 2009 – The idea of halaltrip came to my mind. Islamic Finance was still on everybody’s mind even during the world financial crisis. Muslims were setting up all over the globe so called Web 2.0 projects and internet penetration was growing dramatically in Muslim majority countries.

As I am a passionate traveler, I am using services like TripAdvisor or Booking.com to check reviews of hotels. So I thought where is all the information for Muslim-friendly hotels all over the globe. More than 1.5 billion people aren’t a niche to ignore, aren’t they?

Many nights later, after researching and drinking more than one cup of hot tea, I discovered that there are only just a few websites, which mainly target Muslim travelers.

A couple of weeks and thoughts later, I created some design proposals, purchased the domain and started to research for Muslim-friendly hotels worldwide. Right now I am just happy with launching the project to the public hoping to be a big success insha’Allah. Besides offering Muslims a transparent travel guide for their next stay, halaltrip also aims to make hotel owners and management staff aware of halal tourism and its potential.

If you still have any questions or just want to give some feedback don’t hesitate to drop a comment below!

Karim Saad, Founder of halaltrip