Let Villy be your guide

Traveling to a big city can be overwhelming. Here’s a website that helps you find — and book lodging in — the neighborhood that’s right for you.

» On the net: www.villy.co

» What it does: Recommends neighborhoods and hotels best suited to you based on what you want to do on your trip. Destinations include Bangkok; Barcelona, Spain; Berlin; London; Miami; New York; Paris; Rome; San Francisco; and Seoul, with Amsterdam and Tokyo coming soon.

» What’s hot: First, pick your city, then click on your interests from a short list that includes restaurants, nightclubs, museums and shopping. Then, note who will be traveling and your per-night hotel budget, hit explore and be prepared to be impressed as a map of neighborhoods appears. The left half of the page lists why the neighborhood has been selected, with a drop-down list of other neighborhoods. Hotel price, Villy score (based on its own algorithm), Trip­Advisor rating and distance to subway stops are also at the ready. The site is simple to use, and travelers can quickly fine-tune their results in the "update preferences" section. Note: Mobile friendly, too.

» What’s not: The one thing that could improve a user’s experience would be additional destination content. Recommendations were spot on, but for the traveler new to the city, I wanted more travel descriptions about neighborhoods, not just suggestions based on expert tips from an algorithm.

Jen Leo, Los Angeles Times