In order to provide more services to their clients, they have been expanding their range of services. One of these services is address/mail receipt/conference room use. In order to accomodate, they partnered with executive suites all over the world. They charge $120 monthly for this service, most of which (80%+) goes to the executive suite, not to Davinci.

Their virtual assistant and virtual receptionist business would not have nearly the legs if they weren’t able to provide these comprehensive services. Perhaps it’s like Kayak offering flight information, but not hotel information. People who are looking for a virtual assistant often don’t want to go to another provider for other virtual services; they want a one stop shop.

Is it the ideal scenario? Maybe not. Is it web 2.0? I really don’t know. Does it provide a good service to businesses? It clearly does.

@Peter – maybe we should figure out a better model than Davinci to capitalize on filling this need. I’m all ears… my number is 859 492 1346… feel free to call anytime to discuss.

So far as the Web 2.0 aspect. That’s a loose term. What I meant by that is a move away from static webpages to dynamic content. It’s interactive.

Thanks for calling a spade a spade, Peter. Like I said, it’s an interesting aspect of the industry most people who rent office space or meeting rooms don’t see clearly.

@maggie, in order to show up on Davinci’s site, a company that physically operates the meeting space needs to sign an affiliate or partner contract with Davinci. After they sign that they will be put onto the site. If you rent a meeting from the Davinci site then Davinci gets a share of the revenue.

@melanie, the whole world is going Web 2.0, but I’m guessing that most executive office space providers find it too difficult to do their own SEO that they look at Davinci as being an easy option.

Davinci will never dominate a local area on the Internet like how a local company can do it for themselves. Davinci might rank highly for certain generic keyword terms but once you add on a specific location “virtual office ” they won’t be able to compete.

I guess they don’t care since they are just trying to get small percentage of everyone else’s business. At the end of the day that ends up to be a lot of money.

I think this model of being “the directory” is broken. Davinci still thinks that they need to be a portal. In what way is Davinci being Web 2.0?

If you can’t get a meeting room in the capital of Alabama, that’s telling. Well, at least you can’t find a Davinci Virtual meeting room there. I wonder if it’s because there’s no demand or because Davinci hasn’t spread its wings that far yet.

I tried a search five miles within Ozark, Alabama and got nothing. Ozark is a very small town so I wasn’t surprised. I stretched the mile marker to 10 miles, 15 miles and then 25 miles. Still nothing. Now I am getting disappointed that I might not find a meeting room.

I stretched it out to 50 miles. Still nothing. Now I am worried. Surely, there’s a meeting room within 100 miles of Ozark, Alabama. There are big cities within 100 miles…but alas, nothing.

Either it’s a flaw in the search or there’s not much demand in Lower Alabama for meeting rooms. Or Davinci isn’t covering itself.

I did another quick search for meeting rooms within 100 miles of Montgomery, which is the capital, and found two in Birmingham.

I can’t imagine trying to find an book a meeting room online without this type of system. You’d have to call various places, compare prices and amenities. What a nightmare. Finding meeting room space is easy thanks to the Web and thanks to vendors like Davinci Virtual that embrace it.