One Year... In The Roo

[John]

When Libby and I moved to Playa del Carmen in November 2005, we quickly realized that Playa was missing a comprehensive, up-to-date, unbiased and searchable guide to restaurants in Playa del Carmen. We made it our mission to create one.

Many weekends were spent walking the streets with a pad of paper and a GPS unit. Many late nights were spent building our website, after our "real" work was finished for the day. Although we were never quite happy with it, we decided it would never launch if we waited until it was perfect. "We can always fix this later!" I tried to convince Libby. Eventually, we couldn't wait any longer and we decided to release our creation to the world on January 11, 2007.

Unfortunately, we don't have a large screenshot of what our site looked like at launch, but we were able to salvage this thumbnail version of our site:

As the months rolled by, we kept adding new functionality to our site, we improved the quality and functionality of the interactive map, and we kept adding more and more restaurant listings.

Then one day, it struck us that this restaurant guide we were building could easily be expanded to provide phone numbers, website information, pictures, user reviews and map locations for all kinds of businesses located in Playa del Carmen. So, we expanded our listings to include information about the various hotels, condos, resorts, shops and services located here as well.

As our traffic started to pick up, we wanted a better way to interact with our visitors. So on December 12, 2007, we added our discussion forums as a place to talk with others about Playa del Carmen and the Riviera Maya, as well as to get feedback and new ideas for improving the usefulness of In The Roo. We've had over 150 members register and over 3,500 posts in our first month. Incredible!

Our list of properties grows every day. More and more businesses are becoming aware of us every day, and they've started to help us provide the most up-to-date information there is about their businesses.

As always, we continually strive to make your time here more enjoyable. Thanks for your continued support!

See Also: In The Roo's One Year Anniversary Contest

[nng88]

and thank you for such a pleasant place to be!

[redhed]

I am really enjoying your website John and Libby.

Thank you for all your hard work. I will for sure pass on your site to others who are interested in the Roo.

Gracias

[Maureena5]

John & Libby,

You have done a fabulous job! The map is incredible! As my husband, Joe always says you two are "so God dammed smart"!!! ....and so nice too!!

All the best, Always!
Maureen

[PlayadelSoul]

[mastequilapf]

Y'all really have done a great job with this site!

Susan and I really enjoyed meeting you two last September!

[John]

Originally Posted by mastequilapf

Y'all really have done a great job with this site!

Susan and I really enjoyed meeting you two last September!

It was great meeting the two of you as well. And now that I know you a bit better, we'll have to sample some tequilas the next time you make it back to Playa.

[Libby]

Originally Posted by mastequilapf

Y'all really have done a great job with this site!

Susan and I really enjoyed meeting you two last September!

Hey Joe, It's really cool to see you here. Bienvenidos! Hope you and Susan have settled into your new home and all is well!

[Jefe]

here's a couple songs to remind you of your early days in playa hanging out. congratulations on your success!

YouTube

YouTube

[MoonDollar]

Thanks for all your hard work. I'm HOPING to make it back down in the next couple of months and can't wait use the information from your site.

Thanks! (I love that little guy )

[PlayaLove]

Congratulations John and Libby a job well done.

[DonIn KC]

This is a great place to hang out...Thanks!! And, Great Job!!

[Laura Mapchick]

Wow, I can sure relate to this!

"Many weekends were spent walking the streets with a pad of paper and a GPS unit. Many late nights were spent building our website, after our "real" work was finished for the day"

[raquelle261]

Originally Posted by Laura Mapchick

Wow, I can sure relate to this!

"Many weekends were spent walking the streets with a pad of paper and a GPS unit. Many late nights were spent building our website, after our "real" work was finished for the day"

Laura..... I have to say out loud, I am absolutely blown away by the quality and detail of your maps. They are unbelievable. My RM and PdC maps arrived here in the UK recently and I was speechless!!!

[130taKen120]

Originally Posted by Laura Mapchick

Wow, I can sure relate to this!

"Many weekends were spent walking the streets with a pad of paper and a GPS unit. Many late nights were spent building our website, after our "real" work was finished for the day"

I want to thank you two for the hard work and quality of your maps - I can't say enough about them and promote only the highest recommendation of them for anyone traveling to the area. The slim cost pales in comparison to the wealth of information found on the maps!

Now, where on your website do you two tell the stoy of how you got into this, how you researched and made them, and what you do in your other lives?

My wife kept saying "How did those guys do this? They must've spent years roaming around down here!"

Thanks!