Created in 2009, Le Scope is both a hotel guide and a price comparison website.

Combining these two elements, the main aim of our site is to help the most demanding of travellers to choose and reserve the best hotels at the best price.

As a hotel guide, Le Scope has carefully selected 3500 hotels across the world through comprehensively consulting the best hotel guides, travel magazines and websites designed to advise travellers. Furthermore, in order to make searching easier for users, a large amount of information has also been compiled.

As a price comparison site, Le Scope consults the prices and availabilities of hotel stays via the main hotel reservation websites, therefore allowing users to decide which of our partners is best suited to their reservation needs.

Our economic model

Le Scope’s income comes solely from its activities as a price comparison site. It therefore uses the classic economic model used by an internet price comparison site.

No reservations can be made directly through our website. However, through our recommendations users can gain access to our partner’s websites, where they can then carry out their reservations directly. Our income comes from this reservation, once you have stayed at the hotel in question.

Therefore, the quality of our recommendations is the sole element involved in ensuring that we maintain a steady flow of income.

The Urban Partner Experience

If selecting the best hotels is an art, then visiting, rating and commenting on them are the elements that support this art.

Created in 2007 and today specialised in seven major European cities, Urban Partner is a hotel guide found only online, and its originality lies mainly in the pertinence of its hotel descriptions and ratings.

Taking into account the large scale demand as regards new destinations and new places to stay, it seemed to us an opportune moment for creating a new concept. This new concept would still be based on the same philosophy of quality and advice that Urban Partner offered, but rather than focusing on systematically visiting every hotel in question, this would be a faster and more complete service, carefully analysing all of the reviews of visits that have already been made.

This is how the idea of Le Scope was born.

Making all travel information accessible

With such a plenitude of travel guides, websites for travellers, magazines (women’s magazines, design magazines, magazines on travel, cuisine and art etc) where tips on good places to go are in abundance, it therefore seemed natural to us to bring all of this information together in one single website.

In the same way as the best prepared travellers do, we therefore focused on various sources of information, finally scaling it down to thirty such sources, ranging from the Michelin Guide to Louis Vuitton Cityguides via Wall Paper, Lonely Planet, Tripadvisor, Travel + Leisure, Relais & Châteaux, Kiwi Collection… not letting any good tips, however original, slip through the net.

Although we never cite which guide selected which hotel, the advice found in these guides and magazines is grouped together within the Le Scope website according to three elements: hotel selection, hotel ratings and, finally, highlighting the specific characteristics of certain hotels (views, trendy bars, gourmet restaurants etc).

Why the name Le Scope?

“Scope” comes from the Greek verb “skopeïn”, meaning “to see” or “to observe”.

In English, the verb “to scope” translates the idea of carrying out extensive, precise and synthetic research. When used as a noun, “the scope” refers to the amplitude and the depth of a field of study.

In Italian, it is worth noting that the expression “le scope” refers to “a scrub brush”, which, obviously, doesn’t have much to do with what we offer!!

Finally, in French, -scope is often used as a suffix when referring to any type of apparatus used for visualising or for measuring something ( eg periscope, chromoscope, héliscope, stethoscope…) 

Given its utility, due to everything that it allows us to see, we felt that it was time to pay tribute to this suffix and to give it the its rightful place, thus allowing it to get a taste of the world of travel!

The team behind Le Scope

Bernard Coulombel – the architect

Founder, shareholder and head of Studio BCK, a web design agency specialising in fields such as fashion, online editing and travel amongst other things, Bernard, with his legendary expertise as his strength, created the Urban Partner and Le Scope websites. He is currently an associate to the business.

Maurin Defrance – the travel writer

A former banker turned hotel guide, Maurin created both Urban Partner and Le Scope. Originally from the Ardèche region of France but always curious when it comes to the new things of this world, his mission is to revive the old concept of hospitality in a world of modernity that may sometimes seem a little crazy to us.

At the same time, he is also co-writer of the comic strip “L’Or et le Sang” (which translates as “Gold and Blood” in English). The first volume of this project, with its adventurous storyline, has been hailed by critics – including those at the Anglouême International Comics Festival – as one of the best comic book albums of 2009.

Working together since 2006, Bernard and Maurin share a common passion for information - one that they wish to bring to life in a clear and complete fashion.

Our vision of travel: independence, freedom and character

When it comes to luxury, charm and travelling, we prefer to opt for an open definition in accordance with each person’s individual tastes, dreams and needs. Our sole aim is that all of this possesses elements that are both extraordinary and charismatic.

Whether it be a family trip to the other side of the world and a stay in a hotel that is as comfortable, classic and inexpensive as possible, a highly important business trip and a hotel stay offering the finest cuisine, or a breakaway trip on your own to a design/spa hotel overlooking stunning landscapes, our sole intention is to create a website where everyone can find their path to happiness in a totally independent way, wherever they are travelling to!