LONDON, January 27 /PRNewswire/ -- Pat Reeves and Rohan Blacker, founders and directors of Sofa.com, have launched their new online venture, Ooh.com (27 January 2010).

Ooh.com is an online notice board and listings site where anyone in the world who offers trips, courses, classes and events can list their activities for free, and take direct bookings and payments through the site and directly from buyers. The site already has over 1000 activities listed.

People browsing the site looking for something to do this weekend in their local area might find a local supper club, a sustainable living course, a lecture, a street art tour, a dance class or an independent film screening. But the site is also designed for people travelling away from home.

Founder Pat Reeves says, If you can find and do great, local stuff at home, why not do great local stuff that's run by local people when you're away too? If people want to avoid the run-of-the-mill tourist attractions and activities, by searching their destination on Ooh.com they might find those supper clubs or independent film screenings that they found in their home area, as well as cookery classes, neighbourhood tours being run by knowledgeable local residents, nature walks with local experts or even accommodation.

For example, 'Wildman' Steve Brill is described by the New York Times as a 'forager extraordinaire'. The naturalist has listed his walking and foraging tour around Central Park, teaching participants about edible and medicinal wild plants, mushrooms, nature and ecology. Steve says, My foraging tours are really popular with New Yorkers, but they're also great for visitors to the city who want to avoid the everyday, mainstream tourist activities. And by listing my tours on Ooh.com (http://www.ooh.com/), I can upload all the details for free, and market them to overseas visitors-an even wider audience than I reach through my own website.

Reeves says, We believe it's the many passionate individuals, small businesses and enterprises being run from home who are offering some of the best activities out there - so these are the people we're particularly encouraging to list on the site.

Activities that individuals and businesses have listed on the site include a jam and chutney making course in Hampshire, paragliding with hawks in Nepal, a holiday cottage in Dorset, medieval jousting lessons in California, film screenings in London, financial crisis tours in New York with a former bond trader, ski lessons in Japan, lindy hop lessons in Belfast, hip hop tours in Harlem and bushcraft days in Missouri. People uploading details of their courses and classes can include photos, Youtube videos, Flickr streams, dates, times, prices and links to their Paypal or Google Checkout accounts so they can be paid directly and immediately.

Rohan Blacker says of the new venture, The idea for Ooh.com came at one of those key business moments: lunch in the pub near our Sofa.com office. In between talking about sofas, Pat mentioned that a friend was looking for a guide as he wanted to do some skating across the Swedish archipelago. We both thought it sounded like a great idea, but didn't know where to find a guide. We realized there was an opportunity for a website where people teaching and doing really interesting things could list and promote their activities, and offer online booking and payment for people who wanted to do them.

Pat Reeves and Rohan Blacker are founders of Sofa.com (http://www.sofa.com), an online retailer of high quality sofas. The business currently turns over GBP10m per annum. Prior to founding Sofa.com, Pat and Rohan started London's first upmarket fast food delivery business, Deliverance. The business was sold in 2004 to Active Private Equity for GBP5.5m.

Ooh.com currently has over 1000 activities listed in North America, Europe, Africa, Australia and New Zealand. It is free to list on the site.

Notes to editors:

For media enquiries, interviews and images, please contact Emma Drew at Ooh.com.

Office: +44(0)207-349-6810 Mobile: +44(0)7949-105-656 Toll free (USA): 00-1-888-601-6566 Email: emma@ooh.com

SOURCE: www.ooh.com

CONTACT: For media enquiries, interviews and images, please contact EmmaDrew atOoh.com. Office: +44(0)207-349-6810, Mobile: +44(0)7949-105-656, Toll free(USA): 00-1-888-601-6566, Email: emma@ooh.com